Chapter 52
I watch as she presses her lips together and my breathing hitches wondering if she knew what Josie and Melana did, it was the only explanation as to how those photos got out, yet even banished we no longer cast rogues out they were still allowed to join other packs just had to get off the turf of the pack they were banished from. But I couldn't see my mother or Ryker accepting them into the pack, making me wonder how they got into this territory unnoticed let alone on school grounds. Judging by the look on my mothers face she knew exactly what they did as her eyes softened and turned teary.
She reaches over, gripping my hand that was by my face before kissing it, and holding tight. Her hand is warm as she brushes her thumb over my fingers softly.
“You don't let them win, what happened happened, it is not who you are. You are not the things that happen to you Lucy, so don't keep giving them control” She whispers. A lump forms in my throat as emotion tries to choke me.
“Everyone knows mum, everyone saw it” I tell her. Shame crushing me, everyone knew now, my secret was out and my agony on display for them all to judge and see.
“Let them see, let them see you survived what they couldn't. People break for less Lucy. You learnt to live, you will learn again. You know what I see?” She asks, her eyes holding mine and I swallow, wondering if she saw the same sharp shards of my soul that were jutting through my flesh and slowly killing me. I wondered if she saw me the same way I saw myself, disgustingly weak, and naive. The foolish girl that walked into the den of a monster and let him almost destroy her.
“I see my daughter, I see the little girl who grew up in a glass cage surrounded by people who tried to break her but couldn't. I watched you die but then I watched you live, it was hard but you did it, you rebuilt yourself to become the woman you are. You fought so goddamn hard to put that place behind you and to live a normal life. If they couldn't break you in that place don't let one man do it. You survived hunters as a child, you survived your own death, and you will survive this because I know my daughter and I see you and you will not break so don't give them that satisfaction, a lesser person would break but not my Lucy, my Lucy is a survivor” She says before wiping my tears.
I sniffle and nod trying to force myself to believe her words, this was the woman I missed, even when everything happened, even when I knew we weren't on the best terms all I could think was, I needed my mum. Mum could fix this, she would make it go away. Now I realize she couldn't but she wouldn't let me fall either. She would hold me up when I no longer could because she is my mum, the woman who tossed away a huge part of herself for me. The woman who chose me over her wolf and still forgave me for almost destroying her.
Ryden stirs crying out and I reach over with my other hand rubbing his belly in a circular motion before looking up at my mother.
“Where are my mates?” I ask her.
“Tyson is Downstairs but Ace went with your father, Mitchell went home, I had Jacob drop him home”
“Where did Dad go?”
“He is tearing the city apart with Ace looking for Josie and Melana” I swallow before nodding my head. How could someone who used to be my best friend cause so much destruction to my life. It didn’t make sense. She was a woman too, how could another woman do that to another. Brand their soul with such cruelty, and put them on display like that? I could never do what she did no matter how much I hated her. How much pain she caused me, I could not do that to another woman and live with myself.
“Your father said it will be your choice what becomes of them” My mother tells me but I didn't want that choice, I didn't want to be the monster, I dealt with monsters my entire life I wasn't going to become one.
“I can't,” I whisper to her. I just wanted to understand why she would hurt me this way. We grew up together, lived the same nightmare and were bonded by it and yet she still did this.
“You can't do what Lucy?” My mother asks me.
“Decide their fate” I tell her, I couldn't do it. I hated them and I knew that would taint my judgement and I wouldn't stoop to their level. I didn't need to destroy them the way they did me. I know how that feels and banishment wasn't enough but I couldn't take their lives because that would be on me.l couldn't have their deaths on my hands.
“Then I will do it” She says, making my eyes dart to hers.
“No one messes with my children and gets to keep breathing afterwards” She says and I gulp at her words seeing the determination in her eyes. She meant every word she said I would never doubt that, yet could I let her do this? Would it be the same as me signing their death warrant?
“Mum?” I whisper.
“I know you Lucy, I know you don't want to do it. But they will pay, you don't don't have to live with their deaths on your hands, but I would wear their blood happily on mine. There is no bigger monster than a mothers wrath and I will make them pay with their lives” She says, though I know it was a promise, one she would keep.
They would pay and I feel sorry for anyone that gets in her way, because she would destroy them. She wasn't just the Queen she was my mother and I feared my mother more than her title as Queen because as Queen she ruled fairly but as my mother she would destroy them until there was nothing left but a hollow corpse of despair, one thing my mother did best was switch from diplomatic to war lord and Josie and Melana have no idea who they just signed up to war with and my mother doesn't fight fair.O.