No, it can’t be. It just can’t be my mother.
Chapter Seventeen
My whole world rattled. The Liz that was Audrey’s best friend was my mother.
“Holy shit.” Cole’s voice filled with disbelief. “That looks just like your mom.”
Rage’s hand rested on my back.
“Because it’s her.” My mind flashed back to the wedding picture that hung in their room. They had been true mates too and performed their ceremony immediately. She didn’t look much older than she did in this photo.
“Wait … You said her last name wasn’t Cromwell.” Matthew’s brow creased, and he scratched his chin.
“It’s not.” I couldn’t believe she would’ve done this. No wonder she was upset when she found out that I would be attending Bloodshed.
“I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation.” Audrey tucked the picture behind her.
Like that was going to help anything. “I need to call her.”
“Are you sure?” Rage’s tender voice lessened the hysteria that threatened my mind. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
Not only had my mother ruined our Christmas, but her lies impacted my engagement. “No, I need to call her now.” It probably wasn’t a great idea, but this was something that I had to get off my chest. I’d always tried to protect them from what lay inside me, and if this wasn’t betrayal, I would never know what it was. I headed to the door already, pulling my cell phone from my pocket.
Cole reached over and tapped my shoulder, “You know I’m one for not thinking things through, but …”
“Look, it may not be the best decision.” I could be a big enough person to admit that. “But I feel like I can’t breathe. I have to talk to her.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Rage didn’t press but closed the distance between us. “I’ll be quiet.”
“Honey, please let him.” Audrey must have seen my pending refusal.
“Okay, but I want to go outside.” I didn’t want everyone to hear what was said.
“Alright.” He didn’t bother reaching for my hand but just stayed close behind me as I made my way out the front door.
My hands shook as I dialed their number. It rang twice before mom picked up. “Merry Christmas, Raven.”
I couldn’t even pretend at this point. The cold air whipped around my body and I held my arms close to my body. “You went to Bloodshed.”
“What?” Mom’s voice was an octave higher than normal.
“It wasn’t a question.” I’d never felt so vulnerable in my entire life. “Why did you lie to me?”
There were muffled noises, and I could tell she was beginning to pace. It was one of her ticks. “How did you find out?”
“Are you serious?” That was the first thing out of her mouth. “You lied to me.”
“I never meant to.” She sighed and put me on speaker. “I was just trying to protect you.”
“No, we were,” Dad’s voice interjected. “it was a decision both of us made.”
It was like the breath was knocked out of me. “You too?” Wasn’t it bad enough that one parent had done this? Now I’d learned both of them were involved?
“There’s a lot you don’t know and wouldn’t understand.” Dad cleared his throat.
“Why don’t you try me?” They still thought of me as their little girl. “Maybe you’d be surprised.”
“I had to leave.” Mom’s voice broke.
“Why?” None of this was making sense to me anymore.
There was only silence on the other end.
“Did you enchant the necklace too?” I already knew the answer, but I had to hear them say it.
“We were just trying to protect you.” It was like mom was on repeat.
“How about you tell me what you’re protecting me from?” When I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.
“The Academy isn’t always what it seems,” Dad said cryptically.
“Did you go there too?” I hadn’t even considered that a possibility until now.
“That’s a complicated answer.”
“It’s either yes or no.” At this point, I already knew the answer.
“Yes, I was a year behind your mother.” His voice usually calmed me, but now it felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“So you both lied to me.” It hurt so much, and they weren’t even trying to answer me. Tears filled my eyes as I struggled to breathe. “How could you?”
“This is a long and complicated story.” Mom sobbed lightly and took in a shaky breath. “But it’s important for me to understand how you know about it.”
Rage placed a hand on my shoulder. Knowing he was there made me stronger, somehow. “You were Rage’s mom’s best friend.” I shouldn’t have said it, but it was a moment of weakness.
“Audrey is his mother?” The surprise in her voice was clear. “I didn’t even put the two together.”
“So she would lie to me as well?” I had thought this conversation would provide peace, but with my parents acting so cryptically, it only made things worse.
“That’s not fair, Raven.” Dad, as always, was taking mom’s side. No, wait; their side.
“How is it not?” I’d never felt so angry before. The two people who were supposed to protect me had lied to me from the very beginning. “I need to know the truth.”
“It wasn’t something we wanted to do, but we need to protect you.” Mom’s voice cracked, and then she let out a long sigh. “Why don’t you come up here, and we can talk?”
“So you can lie your way out of it?” At this point, how could I have trusted anything they said. Their true colors had finally shown.
“Now listen here.” Dad’s voice raised. “You can’t talk to us this way. We deserve a little respect, especially your mother. After everything she sacrificed for you.”
They lied to me and then tried to make it out as if they were the victims. Who the hell were these people? My whole childhood shattered with a phone call.
Rage took the phone from my hand and took a few steps away. His voice was low and raspy. “And you can’t talk to her that way either.”
At least I had one person that I could count on to always be in my corner. Even though it was comforting, it didn’t heal the void inside me. He walked far enough away that I couldn’t make out the words on the other end.
“No, she needs time.” Rage’s jaw clenched as he listened to more words. “If you won’t tell her the truth, then there isn’t a need to do that. It’ll only cause her more pain.”
After a few seconds, Rage sighed. “I’m trying to protect her too and trying to be respectful since you’re her parents. At the end of the day, she’s the only thing that matters to me. Give her time.” He lowered the phone and clicked the red button, ending the call.
“I don’t understand.” Those three words summed up everything. They may seem simple, but it was so much more than that. They represented all my hurt. Why would my parents lie to me? How could they withhold the truth? They both attended Bloodshed, and they had never mentioned it. What the hell are they protecting me from? Why would she have given me that necklace and purposely cause me to be out of sync with my wolf? I mean, I was raised believing that a woman could never be an alpha, and clearly she knew otherwise.