My heart sank into my feet. “Tell me what?”
“It’s about your mom, Millie,” Ethan calmly began, his strong hands bracketing my shoulders.
Scrunching up my nose, I physically balked at his words. “What about her?”
Ethan’s gaze sharpened before he confessed, “She’s still alive.”
CHAPTER 6
Millie
“What?” This couldn’t be true. My mother was dead. She’d died from cancer years ago. “What the hell are you talking about, Ethan?”
My mate lowered his hand to my waist, pulling me closer to the edge of the counter. “Your mother is still alive, Millie. She didn’t die of cancer. She went back to her pack in Alaska.”
My face drained of all its color. “Why would she do that?”
My world was spinning out of control at his announcement. If Ethan’s hands weren’t bracing me, I think I would have fallen off the counter onto the floor.
“I told you that your father was killed by your mother’s pack. When he took you to Alaska, Millie, Calvin wasn’t just taking you for a casual walk down memory lane. He sensed youwere about to change, and he wanted to be honest with you about who you were and about what actually happened to your mother. He couldn’t keep her secrets anymore and he wanted you to know the truth. All of it. I think his death traumatized you far more than you realize. I think you were on the precipice of shifting back then, but what you witnessed the night Calvin died caused you to repress your inner wolf.”
I felt like I was going to be sick. My entire life had been a lie. Both my mother and father had perpetuated these lies over and over again for their own interest. The whole thing felt diabolical and cruel in ways I’d never imagined.
Shoving Ethan away, I hopped down from the counter. Sensing I needed some space, he let me go.
“My mother is still alive?” I repeated in absolute shock. “You’re telling me she not only abandoned her family, but she faked her own death and is also responsible for my father’s murder?”
“The truth is, I don’t know how involved your mother was in Calvin’s death. I know her pack attacked him, but I don’t know the details,” Ethan confessed. “It’s complicated.”
“Murdered!” I shouted back. “They didn’t just attack him, Ethan. They killed him in cold blood!”
He nodded. “Yes. That’s why we have to tread carefully now, Millie. The Tupilaqs are a powerful and dangerous pack. They’re also brutal and controlling. If they find out about you, which I’m assuming they haven’t yet or else they would’ve made an attempt to kidnap you, we can’t let them know you exist.”
My heart froze in my chest. “What? Why would they do that?” All this information was drowning me in a sea of questions and confusion.
“Because wares are extremely possessive and territorial, Millie. They won’t see you as an independent woman who has the right to free will and to stand on her own two feet. They’ll kidnap you first and ask questions never. They would want to own you,” Ethan heatedly explained. “Especially since you’re an omega fromtheirpack.”
“They’d kidnap me!” That was insane. “If my mother doesn’t even want me, why would they?”
Ethan flinched at my harsh words. “Jenny wanted you, Millie. She loves you more than you realize. She just never recovered after leaving her pack. For whatever reason, she made a choice. I can’t speak for her, but I know whatever she decided, she did it with you in mind. That’s why she kept you from them all these years.”
“She loves me?” I snorted in indignation. “She sure has a funny way of showing it! Up and leaving in the middle of the night. Pretending she’s dead from some terrible disease so that I’ll never contact her. Killing my father. I may not know everything there is to know about love, Ethan, but I know that’s not it.”
“I understand what you’re going through,” Ethan reminded me then. “I was orphaned at a very young age. It hurts more than words could ever express.”
“You weren’t abandoned, Ethan. You were orphaned. There’s a big difference!” I angrily corrected, childishly needing to lash out at someone to assuage my own pain, even if the person in front of me didn’t deserve it.
Taking a step closer, Ethan held his hands up when he approached to signify he meant no harm. “You’re right. There is.”
Needing the comfort, I let him wrap me in his arms and hold me for several seconds before I asked in a small, broken voice, “Why did she leave me behind? Why didn’t my mother love me enough to stay or take me with her?”
“I don’t know why, Millie. Perhaps one day, when we know it’s safe, you can ask her yourself. What I do know is that she faked her own death to protect you, not to harm you. She didn’t want the pack finding out about you so that your life could remain your own. She gave up her only child, the person she loved most in this world, so that you could make your own decisions in this life. That counts for something.”
Is that what she’d done? Or had her motivations been more selfish than that? I shuddered at the thought of being taken away from everything I’d ever known and decided, good or bad, I’m glad I’d been left behind with my dad. I would have never forgiven my mother if she’d torn me away from him. He was the best father a person could hope for, and I missed him more than words could say in this moment.
“Do you think the Tupilaq pack will do that? Hunt me down and snatch me back to Alaska, even after all these years?” I asked then, my voice quivering a bit at the end.
Ethan’s arms tightened reassuringly around me. “No, Millie. I’ll kill every last one of them if they so much as try.”
