The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 391

“I asked her to invite you to come here,” he said. “I told her the pack needed a healer, which was true. But the assignment was never a coincidence. I wanted to see you for myself before I said anything. And then Dominic reached out, which simplified things.”

I stared at him.

He looked back without blinking.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. My voice was too small for my liking.

“What do you know about your birth family?”

I exhaled. “Not much. I was raised by my mother, mostly. I never knew my father; just my stepfather, who was a …” I trailed off, shaking my head. “My mother died a few months ago.”

His face fell. “I’m so sorry…” He paused, then asked, “Do you have a picture of her?”

My hand was already at the locket. I clicked it open and held it out.

He took it carefully, leaning in. He looked at it for a long time without speaking.

When he set it down his jaw was tight and his eyes were wet.

“That was her,” he said. “She served Fay. She was with the pack for years before the raid.” He cleared his throat. “ I assumed she had died too.” He looked down, brow furrowing. “After the raid, she must have thought that the pack was completely gone… She must have run away, started over, protected you…”

Me.

My heart stopped.

“She would have hidden what you were,” he continued. “Back then, Lycans were still in danger. We still are, although less so now. She must have kept it a secret, even from you, to ensure your survival. To ensure the survival of our lineage.”

I couldn’t breathe. Terence’s voice faded into the background, but I hardly heard it.

I was a Lycan. My father was alive, here, sitting right in front of me.

And my mother had known who he was all this time.

All those years, she had known. She’d known I was special, she’d known I was the child of another woman, and she’d kept it from me because it was safer, and… She’d died before I had the chance to hear it from her.

I lowered my head into my hands once he was gone. My face was wet.

My mother had known the whole time.

Reaching down to my throat, I turned the locket over in my fingers, looking at the little oval of gold, and thought about all the times she had looked at me across a kitchen table or held me when I was crying or brushed my hair back from my face, all while she knew I wasn’t her daughter. She had loved me, protected me, even though wasn’t hers.

She had loved me enough to keep the secret.

She had loved me enough that it had never once occurred to me to wonder if there was one.

Comments

ប

Support