Alessia rolled her eyes. “I’d tell you that you’re delusional, but I don’t think you’d believe it,” she said, “I’ve already told you – there’s no way your mate is just ‘losing interest’ or ‘moving on.’
That’s not how this works, but whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Although Alessia didn’t believe me, I couldn’t imagine that Griffin would hold onto someone he didn’t even know forever. He was the king of wolves – he’d move on to someone more worthy of him forever. I And when the heat dies down, maybe I can come back and visit my dad and the rest of the Blacktooth pack.
After I’ve already gotten to experience a little bit of a human life, that is. “Alessia,” I said, “Can you promise me something?” “Hm?”
“I assume now that I’ve told you about my sister,” I said, “You’ll be going to meet her soon, right?”
Alessia raised her eyebrows. “Are you kidding? I’ve got my mate’s name and location – as soon as I get back to my pack and tell them what’s going on, my a*s is on the first flight to Washington.”
“Okay, good,” I said, “You already know I can’t go back to my dad’s side of the family – not for a little while. And on the off-chance that Griffin comes looking for me there, I can’t let them know where I’m goin, ut I don’t want them to worry either. I want them to know I’m safe.”
“Let me guess,” Alessia rolled her eyes, “You want me to relay the message when I go to meet your sister? That you’re safe and not dead and dying in a ditch somewhere.”
“Yes, exactly.” She scoffed. “Fine. But just for the record, you’re on the run from the most dangerous werewolf in the world, Clarke. I wouldn’t exactly classify you as ‘safe.”
“Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions yet our roots remain the same.”
Unknown
As I stood inside the crowded LAX terminal, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so lost.
After Alessia and I had gotten off the plane, our goodbye was brief. She’d promised me that she’d tell my family I was safe and wished me happy hunting – I’d rolled my eyes at that – and then left. Apparently, one of her pack members was already waiting outside the terminal for her, so she had no reason to wait around.
And now I was alone in a state I hadn’t been in for nearly seven years ~ not since I’d lived with my mother.
When Alessia had first told me her pack lived in California, it had felt like fate. It was the state my mom lived in, the state
I’d lived the first eleven years of my life in. However, now that I was actually sitting on a bench inside the LAX airport, the whole thing felt ridiculous.
Thadn’t seen my mom in seven years ~ I hadn’t even spoken on the phone with her since she’d dropped me off at my dad’s house all those years ago. She’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in any contact with me, so why did I think she’d take me in now?
She knows about the existence of werewolves, so maybe she’d be willing to hear me out if I told her I was trying to escape from one. *
There was a small part of me that didn’t even want to contact my mom at all. If she could go so long without even a phone call, did she really deserve to be in my life now?
But whatever pride or ego she had wounded with so many years of no contact would have to wait. I was desperate. I didn’t have a lot of options.
Unfortunately, I also had no current address or phone number for my mom. When I had lived with her as a kid, we spent most of our time on the move – living in shitty apartments, motels, or just crashing on the couch of some “aunt” or
“uncle.” There was no telling where she’d be now. It was even possible that she might not live in California anymore but I doubted it. My mom had lived in California her entire life, and she had never been fonding of leaving those roots behind. .*! I bet Uncle Steve knows where she is.
Given my lack of current contact information for my mom, I knew my best shot at getting in contact with my mom or finding her whereabouts was through Uncle Steve.
Steve – or Uncle Steve as I’d always called him as a kid ~ was a family friend of mom. They had gone to school together and stayed in touch throughout the years. Living with my mom had never felt very stable as a kid, but Steve was one of the few things that didn’t change. No matter what motel we were staying at the week or what new boyfriend she had,
Steve stuck around. I
Sometimes he’d bring us food or babysit me while my mom was strung out on something. There were even a few times when he’d run off some of her unsavory boyfriends.
Most people considered Steve to be the point of contact for my mom too. You could never trust that my mom was living in the same place or that she had even paid her cellphone bill, but you could always trust Steve to know where she was.
When she used to drop me off at friends’ houses so she could go on a bender or splurge with some new boyfriend, I always had Steve’s number in case I needed something. I’d had his phone number memorized by the time I was ten.
I can only hope Uncle Steve and mom are still running in the same circles.
Given that it had been seven years, I couldn’t rule out that things changed ~ maybe they’d had a falling out or just didn’t talk as much anymore.
However, Steve and my mom’s friendship had gone back twenty years before I was even born. He was the only constant in her life then, so I could only hope he’d still be one.
And if he doesn’t know where she is, maybe Uncle Steve would be willing to let me stay for a while. (*
With a final sigh, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. There were a couple of text messages from my family, but none of them were urgent. They didn’t know I’d left the castle yet. Still, Lily and Sebastian had made it back yesterday – which meant my dad and
Grace knew that I was now the mate of the Alpha King. I skimmed through the list of text messages. Is everything going okay? That was from Sebastian.
Told mom and dad about your mate. Pretty sure dad almost had a heart attack but I think he’s proud, Lily had written.
Please call me when you get the chance. We should talk about what this means for the pack. That was from my dad.
I scoffed at that last one. Of course, he wasn’t worried that his human daughter was chained to a werewolf forever – he just wanted to know how he could use this to his pack’s advantage. “= 1 ignored every message and dialed a number ~ the same number
T”d had memorized since the age of ten.
With bated breath, I listened as the phone rang. By the third ring, I was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t pick up or maybe he had a new number when – “Hello?”
It was Uncle Steve. His gruff voice was unmistakable. I almost couldn’t believe it, and I felt my throat go dry. God, what did I say toa man I hadn’t spoken to in seven years?
“Hello? Is someone there?” Steve repeated. “I’m going to hang up n
“Uncle Steve,” I finally said.
Now he was the quiet one. Silence hung over the line but it was louder than ever.
God, he probably doesn’t even know who Iam.
Maybe this was a mistake.
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