It was amazing how quickly I’d sobered up once back in my room. A couple of coffees had helped, but mainly it was the realisation that I couldn't stay there.
I rang my mum and asked if it was okay if I came to stay, and I reassured her I was okay, but would explain when I got there.
Then I called for a taxi, sent a message to Erica that I was leaving, and I made my way downstairs to the entrance hall. Stacey had taken the ward off that prevented me from leaving. It seemed she'd refused to put it there, but Rex had found another way. I'd put money on it being Donna from The Seven who'd done it. I popped into the kitchen and found Cath. I hugged and thanked her and asked her to say thanks to Miles. She huffed at me, called him on her mobile and asked him to come help me carry my bags to the taxi when it arrived.
Finally, the taxi began making its way up the long driveway. Zak had kept Rex away, pretending he'd come up with part of a track he needed to get down right now, and so Rex was safely away in a soundproofed room.
Tanya walked over to me. "Won't you stay? Let us try to figure things out."
"No. I'm sorry, Tanya, but the thing is before this weekend, I had a house and I had a job and now I have neither. Because of Rex. I need some time to figure out where I go from here and I need to do that on my own. Even if I did accept Rex as a mate in future or that mate-bond kicked in, I don't want someone claiming me unless I can claim them right back."
"Okay. I understand." She said sadly. "Well, I hope we meet again, Freya. I truly do."
Erica hugged me. "Text me to let me know you're at your parents' safely, and then call me tomorrow if your mum gives you a chance to get a word in edgeways."
"I will." I turned to Miles. "I'm ready."
He picked up my cases and I followed him down the steps, where he passed my cases to the taxi driver to put in the boot. After thanking him, I climbed in the rear of the car and closed the door. As it pulled away and began its journey down the long winding driveway, I was glad to be getting away from Rex Colton, even if I could acknowledge that part of me wished things could have worked out differently.
By the time I reached my parents semi, my mother had the door half open. As the cab pulled up, she ran out in her dressing gown.
I opened the rear door. "Mum, get in the house. You're making a show of us."
"I'm making sure you're okay. I mean my daughter rings up at almost midnight telling me she needs to come home. What do you think I've been doing but imagining all the things that might have happened to you since you went to stop with that bloke?"
"Sssh." I thrust a pile of notes at the taxi driver and told him to keep the change. We'd be lucky if he didn't ring a tabloid later saying there'd been a ruckus at Rex Colton's house and he'd had to rescue a damsel in distress.
Mum launched into the sentence I'd heard so many times I might have it put on her gravestone. "When you're a parent, you'll understand."
"If you'll let me get through the door with my bags then I can tell you what's been happening and you can calm down." I said, exasperated.
She picked up one of my bags and carried it inside.
After checking me over with a quick visual once-over and giving me a chance to hang up my coat, eventually she stuck the kettle on and we sat at the kitchen table, a place familiar to me from childhood. A place where I'd always told my mum everything, and the place where I’d once said I'd been followed home from school. It had led to a man's arrest, and my mum had been over-protective of me ever since.
"Okay. I want you to tell me everything." She said. Inside, I smirked because I could just imagine her face if I said I'd been selected as a mate by a wolf. The psychiatrists would have to come to treat my mother's nerves before they got anywhere near me.
"The thing is… Rex wanted me to be, not only his girlfriend, but his partner for life." I started. "And not only have I only just met him. I mean, I've known him just over a week… but he was acting really caveman-ish. You know, all 'you belong to me and I will fight to the death for your honour' kind of crap."
My mum's eyes widened.
"I know. My eyes did that too. I mean, how ridiculous."
"Freya, you mean to tell me you've met a man who wants to keep you loved and safe and your response was to walk out. Are you crazy?"
Hmm. That wasn't quite the response I'd expected.
"Can I chat to you some more about all this in the morning, Mum? It's more complicated than someone ensuring my safety. I mean I could hire a security guard for that. I'm absolutely shattered and I'm just not able to communicate things articulately to you right now." I said, while wanting to smack myself upside the head for actually being articulate for the first time in my twenty-one years on this earth.
But she let me go up to my old room, now redecorated as a guest room, and finally, after my mind got the message it was time to quieten down, I managed to sleep.
Rex
Inspiration had caught Zak after our garden gig and so we'd followed him into the recording studio. To find he only had one sentence of 'inspiration' had been a little frustrating.
"I thought you said you were inspired? Don't you think you could have thought of a little more of the song before bringing us all in here?" I huffed.
"I don't want to lose it. Now work with me. Think of where we can go from here."
It was after a painful hour of trying to get this very average sentence into a song that Zak declared he felt it 'didn't work after all' and we should pack in for the evening. He'd just received a text, so I'd hazard a guess Erica was ready for him to play her.
Turned out he'd been playing me.
Because when I finally returned to the house, I discovered that Freya had gone.
I ran outside, turning into my wolf, and then I took off into the woods. I howled and whined. My family joined me, having also changed into their wolf selves and they stayed nearby. We stayed out all night. I missed my mate. When I finally slept, my family had closed in around me, encircling me to let me know I was safe. I might be safe, but even within the woods I knew, I was lost.
In the morning, we went back to the house. Mum and Cath fussed around me. Stacey had performed a spell that would dull the ache of my mate not being around and prevent me from running after her. She'd told my mum she needed time to figure things out and my mother had pulled me to one side and insisted I make sure she had that time.
"Do you want us to stay around, son, or would you rather we left?" My father asked as we ate breakfast.
"It's been lovely to see you all, but I'm okay. You can go back home." I answered. "My time will be better spent in the recording studio with the guys. It's what will distract me the most while I figure things out."
"Look, Rex. Last night, that song you sang. It was a true song of a wolf. I got it, I really did, and if your mate-match was a female wolf, she'd have adored it. But she's not. Your mate is a human and you've got to handle that accordingly." Dad said.
"How?"
"Damned if I know, son. I married another wolf."