“Maya, wait,” I say, grabbing her arm. She jerks out of my reach and continues moving around the room, erasing every sign that she’s been here. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going home. Don’t follow me.”
“I can’t let you—”
Maya spins and snarls at me, cutting off my words and silencing my argument. “You don’t get a choice. I’m taking back control of my life. If you try to stop me, I will shift and show youexactlyhow capable I am of making my own decisions.”
Shit, shit, shit.
How did we get here?
Maya storms out of the bedroom, leaving her toiletries behind as she speeds toward the door and slams it so hard the jamb splinters in her wake. My wolf snaps and snarls, urging me to run after her. Trying to get me to pin her down and force her to accept the bond. I can’t do that to her, and if I follow her now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop myself.
If I’ll be able to stop my wolf.
He claws at me, pushing forward without my consent. Pain shoots through my limbs as my wolf overpowers me, forcing a half-shift before I contain him again. My breath comes out in heavy gasps, fur pushes through my skin, and my face contorts between forms over and over again.
A tortured howl builds in my chest before erupting from my throat. If I lose this fight to my wolf, if he shifts fully, I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back from it. If I’ll be able to pull myself back from the feral edge of moon madness.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Maya
My biological mother's name was Lillian Chen. She was twenty-four years old and had been in captivity for a year when she became pregnant with me. She was twenty-seven years old when she died after being tortured and strangled by a human man who paid the Keepers for the privilege of hurting an innocent woman.
He had to pay an additional charge for her death because it meant the Keepers were down an asset. A fucking asset. Not a life. Not someone who mattered.
A way to make money for sadistic monsters.
Bile churns in my stomach as I read through the files Katie sent my way. The reality of how much my mother suffered, of how broken she was when she came back from the failed escape. I wish she had saved herself instead of me. I wish she hadn’t had such a horrific life.
My biological father’s name was James Lo. He was an alpha wolf shifter and a monstrous piece of shit who enjoyed harming others. He raped and sexually assaulted the women trafficked into the organization. And when he used magic to fake a mate bond withone of the women in his clutches, he used it against her instead of realizing how wrong it was.
He had her gagged before he ever entered the same room as her to prevent her from breaking the bond, and they used magic-imbued collars so she couldn’t shift forms. He tortured her and raped her. Over and over again.
He was a monster and I’m glad he’s dead.
They kept meticulous records. Sometimes for research, some apparently used as blackmail and leverage against the politicians and CEOs who used their service.
There was nothing about James Lo’s sons, however. Not among the lists of employees or owners, not amongst the records of those who hurt the women trafficked by the organization. Nothing.
Which means they could be innocent.
They might have never even heard of the Keepers.
Sofia didn’t want to tell me anything about them. She tried to push me to wait for Ryan. But I couldn’t do that. Not even if I had wanted to. He didn’t even answer the phone when I called him after getting home and realizing I had reacted from a place of emotion rather than talking it out. Katie didn’t have answers either about who they were or how I could get in touch. She hadn’t ever met them during the time she spent imprisoned, which was again encouraging that they weren’t involved.
But Caleb did have their details. He didn’t want to give me the number. I could hear the hesitation in his voice when I asked. But I was able to persuade him with promises that I wouldn’t make contact without Ryan or Sofia present.
He’s such a nice guy; I felt terrible lying to him. But this is something I need to do for myself. Something I need to face alone. My tiger whimpers at that thought. She disagrees. She wants Ryan here. And maybe now the intense emotion has drained off, so do I.
But he hasn’t called me back.
I told him to leave me alone, and he did.
Now I’m sitting in my house with Brett Lo’s phone number typed into my phone. My hand shakes as I try to force myself to press the call button. Do they know about me? Probably not. Who tells their family about the woman they raped and impregnated against her will?
I had so many dreams about my family as a kid. Ideas of a happy reunification. Stories of how we were separated by accident and they had been looking for me all along. And then I would feel guilty. Because my family, the parents who adopted me, were amazing. They were always there for me. Always loved and wanted me. Always supported me.
