“Don’t worry, Princess. You never have to see him again,” Ethan soothed, arranging me onto his lap and holding me close as he activated that magnificent rumbling purr of his that always managed to calm my nerves and recenter my focus.
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” I spoke, looping my arms around his neck and snuggling closer. “It’s you, Ethan. You and your brothers. Osyrius said he was going to kill every single one of you if I didn’t go back to Alaska with him!”
Flint snorted. “I’d love to see him try!”
“Flint,” Ethan chastised, rubbing soft circles on my back as he kissed my neck, “now’s not the time for bravado.”
The sound of the flames crackling away in the fireplace dominated the room for several heartbeats. Then, the phone in my pocket rang and snagged all of our attention.
It took me a second to realize it was mine, being it was the burner phone Flint had only just given me. I hadn’t received any calls on it yet and hadn’t ever heard the ring tone before. Even more surprising, somebody who wasn’t in this room had my number.
Reaching into my back pocket, I extracted my cell and stared at a set of unfamiliar numbers. All I knew was that they weren’t from a local area code, which I found even more damning than anything.
Eyes blazing, Ethan said, “Answer it, but put it on speaker phone so we can all hear what’s being said.”
Nodding, I clicked on the call and there was nothing but air until a feminine voice replied, “Can I please speak to Millie?”
“This is she,” I returned, taken off guard because I’d thought for sure it would be Osyrius calling me to remind me about his twenty-four-hour deadline.
“Millie,” the caller hesitantly spoke, “it’s Jenny.” The woman paused and cleared their throat. “Your mother.”
My stomach dropped out and my vision blurred. “Mom?”
CHAPTER 13
Millie
“Yeah, it’s me, baby,” she said, her tone sounding strangled, like she was holding back tears. “You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice. Can we talk?”
Ethan’s steely gaze snapped up to mine. He searched my expression to inform his decision on what to do next. I could understand his confusion, as I was swimming through my own sea of it right now.
So many emotions were swirling around my chest, I didn’t know which one to land on first. They were all so jumbled together in a grappling, heaving pile of pain, anger, frustration and love, that it was hard to separate one from the other.
Collecting my frayed emotions together enough to move forward, I said, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
My mother let out an audible sigh of relief. “I’ve missed you so much, baby girl. It’s been hell being away from you all these years.”
That statement was like a dagger to the heart. If she’d cared about me so much, why had she left? Why had she faked her own death? Why didn’t she reveal the truth about being alive, and who I was, directly after my dad had died?
Taking a deep breath, I relaxed as Ethan stroked my back and continued to softly purr. “I missed you too, mom.”
My mother instantly latched onto my positive response. “That’s good to hear, Millie. I was so afraid you wouldn’t want to talk to me after… all that’s happened.”
That was the perfect segue for me to push for answers. “About that,” I began, “why did you leave?”
No point in pussyfooting around this issue. I had too many questions that needed answering and I’d waited too long already for the truth.
My mother’s phone fritzed, like she was driving in the car and had hit a bad area for cell reception. “You deserve to know all of these answers, and more, baby. That’s why I’m calling you today. I’d like to invite you to Alaska. I want you to see your home here and introduce you to my pack, your true family. It’s time, Millie. I want to talk about all the things we’ve never discussed before. Why I left, why I had to disappear from your life… and your father’s death. There’s just too much to say over the phone. It needs to be done in person.”
In a second, the hope that had been burning in my chest instantly evaporated as though it had been extinguished by abucket of ice-cold water. This wasn’t about my mother and I. This was about the pack. Her pack. This was about Osyrius.
“You want me to come to Alaska?” I repeated, my words just as cold as the place in my heart where my mother used to live. “Why can’t you come to Montana where I am?”
It was clear to me that my mom was trying to keep the irritation out of her tone when she said, “Because your pack isn’t in Montana, Millie. It’s in Alaska, and I want to introduce you to them. Everyone is so excited to meet you. Don’t you want to know where you came from?”
“That’s where you’re wrong,Mom,” I frostily returned. “My packisin Montana. They’re standing all around me as we speak!”
The men in my inner circle instantly began to grin and nod as I relayed this powerful message of unity to my mother. It would seem they felt the same way about me as I did about them. That warmed the cold embers of my heart just a bit.
