Chapter 58

Chapter 58

My mother had disarmed me so effortlessly, without even making a sound or lifting a finger against me.

"You wouldn't try to run; it won't work out well for you this time." Her words snaked out of her, binding me to the brokenness that threatened to break me.

I was always the one making the bad decisions, and now that I had broken away from my partner, I was here like a puppet, waiting for her to yank me from the safety bubble that I had foolishly gotten myself into. And to think that I wouldn't have been at the cruel whims of a monster who pretended to be my mother if I had simply given in to the mate bond.

I had assumed that I would have more time before she revealed herself to me, but I should have been ready for it because I recalled her impatience.

As she moved forward, I closed my eyes, attempting to direct my attention toward something constructive. However, my magic was inexperienced and had been dormant for too long.

Even though I was never a match for my mother in the first place, things had gotten worse.

I felt hollow, and my wolf was pouting.

"Did you think you could hide from me forever?" As she approached, her palm grabbing my face and her fingers digging into my cheek hollows, her words were taunt.

I refused to acknowledge that she was real, even though she insisted that I look at her.

When I disregarded her, she growled, and her long, clawed nails dug at my flesh. I could feel my blood seeping down my neck and discoloring my cheeks. She had me by the throat and by all the other limbs with her magic, and I couldn't bear the strain any longer.

My eyes sprung awake, and I locked onto the evilness in her gaze. Her detached expression, coupled with her hunger for power, revealed nothing maternal. The agony abruptly ended, and I wondered briefly if her spell would suffocate me or free me from the pledge of our blood.

It was almost as if she wasn't expecting me, as she turned my face in her hand—after all, it had been ten years since she'd last seen me.

"And to think all those years I had been worried about you, my darling daughter, out in the world all by herself, and here she is, a pathetic little slut." She said, and for a brief instant, her words perplexed me. "You used to be able to fight me; look at you now—you can't even fend off the weakest of your brother's magic." The mention of him made my heart stop, and I looked furiously around the room.

My mother wasn't the one using her powers against me, so she didn't even need to reach out to touch me.

Standing in the room's corner and appearing uninterested, Kyle was leaning against a wall. Even though he appeared so different to me, he resembled the day I had been ripped apart from him. With a cold expression on his face, he observed me while holding out his hand. I couldn't detect a trace of the love my dad had for me as a child since he appeared bigger.

"Kyle," My voice was low, but it wonderfully conveyed my sorrow and need. His power wavered briefly before slamming into me with greater intensity.

I had wasted so much time searching in the wrong places for him, believing that he had escaped just as I had, and I would not have allowed myself to think that I had abandoned him. And now here he was, my enemy, standing in for my defender.

"That demon thought she was clever by taking you away from me, but she was stupid to think I would never find you again." All my efforts to remain concealed had been in vain as the mate bond had solidified into place, and now she was floating while I broke down. I had been so consumed with my own misery that I had neglected to warn Derrick of the conflict that had begun the moment he laid eyes on me.

It was just one more fallout from a series of poor decisions.

"It seems we have a lot to catch up on; maybe we should start with the important things." She pretended to think as she hummed. "Your mate, who is he?" The question stuck in my throat because I knew it was something she was looking for. She knew all along that I was a softy at heart, that her best child was stunted with a sharp moral sense, and that my questioning her about my partner was a ploy to keep me in check.

However, I assumed that by now she would have deduced who I was obligated to be.

When I didn't respond, she squinted at me.

"Considering the lack of a pack in this town, I suspect that your mate is a human." She grinned, presumably realizing she had made the proper guess, and my heart missed a beat. "That's unfortunate for you; he will be easy to kill." Her remarks were said casually, and my wolf's emotions were wildly volatile, snapping at her.

With my power vibrating dangerously against her goals, I bared my teeth. The final strands of energy within me sliced through the intensity of my emotions, my abilities solidifying as they freed me from my brother's bonds.

It was one thing to threaten me, but another to threaten my partner.

My hands rushed directly to her throat, my powers fighting for her life, but they stopped working as soon as they started.

As Kyle held me down, my abilities pushed back against his as I sank to the ground.

With a startled laugh, my mother tugged at my hair.

"That's unfortunate, but we can rectify the situation when you return; all you need is a little more maternal affection." I struggled against my unseen bonds as she stroked my head.

"What do you want from me?" Her eyes lit up when I spewed out what I had just said.

"You know what I want; we have unfinished business." She stated it plainly. "We need to finish what we started all those years ago." She didn't even know what she was asking me to do yet, so I shook my head and told her that she would only get greater satisfaction from ruining me.

"No, I won't do it." With a moan of distaste, she stepped in Kyle's direction.

I saw his body tensing as she approached.

"This family reunion is putting me in a forgiving mood, so I'll give you a couple of days to think about it." She made the announcement, but I realized she wasn't being kind to me—rather, there was a hidden agenda that I wasn't yet aware of.

"To think about what?" She looked frustrated, and my mind was racing.

"You have three days to come back to me, or I will find your mate, and he will suffer the consequences of your indecision." It was a threat, not an option. "In the meantime, I think we should do something about that pesky binding spell on your magic; maybe you'll end up saving me the trouble by killing him yourself." My mother's sorcery was enslaving me before I could object.

I felt her magic inside of me, like a razor scraping across my sensitivity as my wolf pushed against my flesh. I screamed as it sliced through the binding the witch had placed on me years ago as it slithered inside of me. I curled up on the floor, my eyes going blurry and my sobs dying against my throat from the intense pain.

I watched the two of them go out of the apartment, unable to move or talk. When Kyle slowed in his stride and looked at me for the last time, my mother didn't turn to face me. I wanted to call out to him and tell him that I had never forgotten about him, that I had never given up on finding him, but that my body was failing me.

As he turned to look at me, I felt drawn into the darkness.