Page 54 of My Broken Mate (Healing Bonds #1)

Chapter forty-one

A Trip To The Past

*SEAN*

I step out of my brother’s room, gesturing for a very surprised Joel to follow me. “Evander,” I say. “Please call Sky, and tell him he doesn’t need to track Katalina and Remy anymore,” I pause. “I meant to say, Katalina and Remus.”

“What?” Gabriel blinks.

“He signed his note with Remus ,” I say. “And I think we should respect that maybe he wants to be called by his name.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Gabriel blurts out. “Well, maybe, yes, that felt weird, too. But why do you want to stop Sky’s search?”

“Because I know where they are,” I say, placing the picture in front of them on the table and handing the note to Gabriel.

His eyes go almost comically wide as he reads it. He hands it to Evander next.

“Is this where they are?” Joel asks, picking up the picture again.

“It’s a photograph,” Evander proclaims. “From a place in the mountains?”

“I have no idea where this is,” Gabriel mutters. “It looks generic.”

“I know where it is,” I say. “Let’s pack our bags. We are going to drive there tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Not immediately?” Gabriel pushes.

“Tomorrow. Remus wouldn’t have left it here if he didn’t want to give us the chance to follow him.

But he made it clear he wants to have a head start to do what he needs to do.

We are leaving tomorrow, 10 a.m., not one minute earlier.

Which means we should be with Remus and Katalina by late afternoon. ”

“Alright, I trust your judgement,” Joel says. He has clearly calmed down now, too. “But what’s the meaning of this place?”

“This is where Remus’s mother died,” I explain. “Where she committed suicide, and where she almost killed Remus.”

“No way,” Joel says quietly. He turns to Gabriel. “You don’t know the place?”

He shakes his head. “Sean dealt with everything back then. I was not allowed to take a step away from the pack.”

Gabe was like a prisoner back then. The memory pisses me off all over again, but now’s not the time to act on anger. “What I say next is just assumptions, but I guess your sister joined him to help him, maybe rather spontaneously.”

“That would explain why she didn’t leave a note,” Evander agrees. “Alright, I am up for waiting until tomorrow. Whatever these two are planning, they need to do it together and with just the two of them.”

“Remy…” Joel says. “Remus is good for Kata. I feel like she has become much more confident ever since she met him.”

“I didn’t even notice she lacked confidence,” Gabriel says.

“It’s in the small things,” Joel says, unusually earnest. I guess this is his alpha side, the part of him he shows when things are serious.

“It’s also the first time she’d acted on an impulse that I would consider remotely selfish.

She is selfless by default. But joining Remus?

She did that for both of them, and I want to support that.

For once, she is chasing something she truly wants. ”

“And…” Gabriel looks at me. “And you are sure they are not going to do something stupid? Remy…Remus… if his mom died there…”

I squeeze his shoulder. “I am sure. He has not been at his lowest recently, even after receiving her memorabilia. I believe he is just going down memory lane. I don’t know why exactly, but it’s something he needs to do.

We haven’t shown him a lot of trust the last couple of years, we have put guards around him, and pretty much dominated his whole life, so let’s do better now and allow him to make his own decisions. ”

It would be a lie to say I slept well; I didn’t sleep much at all.

Despite putting my trust in my brother, there is still a part of me that is worried, and that part keeps gnawing at my sanity.

Fortunately, I have my hands full with the preparations.

It’s the first time I am going to leave the pack for more than a couple of hours, and while I don’t plan on being gone for more than two days, I still need to be prepared.

Levi will take over in the meantime.

I hope Joel and Evander have some support and trustworthy help, too.

I also make sure to give Sky a call to thank him once again for his help and to find out what exactly he learned while trailing Remus’ last steps. It pretty much aligns with what I was expecting to hear.

At 10 a.m., I find myself at the parking lot in front of the packhouse, already expected by Joel, Evander and Gabriel. The latter two look anxious, while Joel is back to his usual self, wearing sunglasses and a sun hat that would look ridiculous on anyone but him.

“Ready to leave?”

“Yes!” Gabriel exclaims. “Finally!”

“You hinted that it’s going to be a long drive?” Joel asks while taking his place in the passenger seat, skillfully ignoring Gabriel’s glare, as he wanted to sit there.

“Yes, definitely a couple of hours. Remus and Katalina took the train. Sky told me as much when I called him last night.”

“What type of place is it?” Gabriel asks. “You can finally tell us. No one’s going to run off and head there before the set time.”

“So, that’s why you didn’t tell us?” Joel asks with a grin. “Sly. And good that you didn’t. Eve was so annoying with his constant nagging and worrying.”

“She is our sister,” Evander emphasizes.

“Yeah, and she isn’t a baby. She is an adult,” Joel says. “Hopefully, she will have some adult fun on this trip.”

“Goddess,” Gabriel groans.

I can barely contain my amusement at Gabriel’s shocked and Evander’s annoyed expressions. At least this trip won’t be boring.

“So?” Gabriel urges once we are on the highway. “Would you tell us, Sean?”

“There is not much to tell. I already said it’s a place in the mountains. The place itself is a rehabilitation center for people suffering from depression and burnout.”

“And Remus’ mom was sent there?” Joel asks.

“No, from what I know, she ran there,” I say quietly. “She hid for a couple of weeks with Remus.”

“But Dad found her, right?” Gabriel assumes correctly.

I feel a well-known twinge in my chest. “There was never any escaping him.”

“How did she die?” Joel asks softly.

“She was weakened tremendously already from the strain of being with our father,” I explain. Keeping it in a matter-of-fact tone makes it easier to talk about it. “They later detected wolfsbane in her blood, so I assume she took it before she hung herself.”

“And Remus?” Evander asks.

“There were signs indicating that she smothered him or, rather, tried to.”

Silence shrouds us.

“Fuck!” Gabriel says, rubbing his face. “Fuck. You should have told me!”

“What for? To add more trauma to an already traumatic situation? You knew that she committed suicide. As for our brother… his mother was his everything, and despite what she did in the end, he stuck to this sentiment that he was her everything, too. I didn’t want to tarnish it.”

“Did you ever consider that in her mind, as broken as she might have been, she might have felt she had reasons to kill him?” Joel mutters.

“She sounds like a loving mom from all that you told me, but she must have been broken at the end. Either she had a psychosis, or maybe she thought Remus would be safer when he was dead.”

His words shock me. I haven’t thought about that yet. I always believed she probably had a psychotic break, but didn’t manage to go through with it and kill her son.

“Maybe that’s why Remus is doing this trip,” I say. “It’s a possibility.”

“Kata is with him,” Joel says quietly. “Believe me, she will get him through this.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what I expected,” Joel says, stretching his limbs as he gets out of the car. “But not this! It’s idyllic.”

“It really is,” Gabriel agrees. “You were here in person back then, right, Sean?”

“Dad had me come to help him retrieve the body,” I say bitterly.

Sadness fills me when I remember how distraught my little brother was when we picked him up, and when I saw his mom for the last time.

Dad always kept her away from us, and she even stayed in her own house on pack grounds, so we didn’t mingle much with her, but she was always kind when we did meet her.

I don’t know what my father did to her. He must have controlled her every move.

“This is where they stayed back then,” I say, walking towards the large building, surrounded by a lush garden. It’s as if time stops when I step inside and look at an elderly nurse. My breath hitches at the sight of her. She has aged a bit, but I can still recognize her.

She was there when I arrived to pick up Remus. She was the one who comforted him and made sure he was alright and cared for.

She was that ray of kindness in an otherwise dark and devastating situation.

“Sean…” she exclaims. “You are Sean, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I smile and shake her hand. “You still remember.”

“Who wouldn’t?” she says sadly. “But my, how grown up and handsome you have become. Just like little Remus. I can’t believe he is a man now. He told me you might be coming, so I prepared some rooms for you.”

“Thank you so much. Please don’t go out of your way to accommodate us. I have been here before; I can show the others around.”

“Is Remus around?” Gabriel asks carefully.

“No,” she says. “He and his lovely girlfriend left a couple of hours ago. They just put their bags in their room and then left immediately.”

“Where did they leave for?” I ask.

She points at one of the mountains behind us. “They went up there.”

“They went hiking?” Evander asks in disbelief.

She chuckles, her wise face lighting up in amusement. “Not any hike, lovely. It’s a meditative hike. A lot of our patients take it when they feel enough strength to do so. There is just something about it that makes one relax.”

And probably face their demons, I add in my mind.

“How long do you think it will take for them to return?”

“It depends. They might want to spend the night up in the hut, at the top,” she says. “They will most likely return tomorrow morning.”

“Well then.” I grab my bag. “I will put this in my room, and then would love to check out the spa. Is it still open for regular guests?”

“Of course, dear.”

“You… you want to take a bath?” Gabriel asks, perplexed.

“Well, I am certainly not going up that mountain,” I say. “You just heard where Remus and Katalina are. They are fine. Let them do their hike in peace.”

“Yeah, I am starting to think it’s already embarrassing enough that all four of us made this trip,” Joel mutters. “We might have acted a bit unhinged.”

The nurse laughs. “The sweet, young woman said the same. Remus thought not all of you would come, but she said, ‘They will. They are insane enough.’”

Joel and I exchange a glance and hide our amusement.

“They have a large library here, too,” I say. “And a popular cave you can walk through. A two-hour walk to see the beauty of nature.”

“Okay, I got it,” Evander says with a chuckle. “We are insane. I will take the chance to check out the cave.”

“Library, it is for me,” Gabriel also gives in.

Joel elbows me. “And I will obviously join you in the spa.”

Obviously!