Page 8 of Pack Rage (The Splintered Bond #4)

Chapter 7

Look Away

FLOR

“ T he chickens or the chickenshits, Flor?” Iris repeated her question, and for some reason, it tickled my funny bone harder than anything had in a while.

I let out a hoot of laughter, but lost my step, which caused Iris to trip me. Our legs tangled, and I fell down on my butt in the dirt, coughing on the cloud of dust that rose up. For a split second, I was thrown into a memory. I was a child, being beaten in this very spot, screaming. Luke was there, too, though, throwing himself over me.

Protecting me.

A chorus of growls pulled me from the flashback, and I gazed around in amazement.

Seeing me down, some of the Southerners had moved out of the shadows toward me. I wasn’t sure if they meant to help me up, or take advantage of my fall. But the Tenebris boys were there instantly, their backs to me, guarding me in a circle, snarling at the perceived threat.

My heart burned with gratitude and pride. These boys were starved, still exhausted from months or years of living wild, and from the past few days of battle and rebuilding. They were still willing to face down the more well-trained Southern shifters, for me.

There was no way I would take these boys to Eastern and get them killed.

Iris helped me up, and I thanked her and the boys for having my back. Glen began to follow me into the kitchen, but I waved him off. “Grab a drink for me? I’ll be right out.”

The toilet off the kitchen was full, so I wandered down a hallway and slipped into one I’d never been allowed to use before, since it was inside the Alpha’s private wing. As I came out, I heard something—a floorboard creaking, an indrawn breath?—and went still. No one would have business in this wing, not at this time of the evening. I padded silently down the hall, listening, my steak knife in one hand.

Halfway down the corridor, a strange sensation, like ants swarming over my skin, started up at my feet, and I went still. Cautiously, I took another step, and the feeling intensified. It was deeply unpleasant, my gut churning and my head fuzzy as I kept on, forcing my feet toward the open door at the end of the hall.

I did not want to go down there. The only thing that kept me moving was the knowledge that someone was already inside the room, someone who shouldn’t be. I gritted my teeth and continued, one hand on the wall as dizziness hit me in a wave… then vanished as my fingers touched the doorframe. The feeling of dread vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

I inhaled, and a familiar, unpleasant smell wafted around my face. I knew whose room this was. The Alpha’s.

I peered inside. The moonlight that sifted through the drapes on the wall opposite the door was all that lit the otherwise dark room.

A soft sigh in the darkness had me holding my breath to hear. “He never loved me, you know. Not for an hour. Not for a moment. His wolf, yes. His wolf recognized mine. Wanted her. But Calvin never once looked at me with love.”

“Mama?” I stepped closer. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, a pillow in her hands. She lifted it to her nose, and sniffed. The moonlight showed a flicker of something. Disgust? Longing? It was too dim to tell.

She put down the pillow.“You walked right through my spell.” She hummed in approval. “Good girl. Strong.”

“You… you did a look-away spell in the hall,” I said, putting it together. “Just now?”

“My mama taught me that when I was little. Our pack was already in disarray, males going rogue. We had to use every weapon we could. I never had a lot of magic. But I could do the easy things better than anyone else in my pack. Except Mama.”

I eased to a seat next to her, hoping she was lucid, ready to move away if I set her off. She sounded fine, but I knew how quickly that could change. This close, I could tell she wasn’t fine at all. The stink of silver-tainted blood rose from her abdomen, apparent even over the Alpha’s residual funk.

“That’s how you hid yourself, and the boys—the Tenebris pack—in the woods.”

She nodded. “A simple spell that grew stronger over the years. Mama had only taught me how to hide myself, but I must have worked out how to make it bigger, over time. I don’t recall… much of the years after he threw me out.” Her eyes glinted bright gold as she turned to me, and the moonlight played on her silver hair. “I’m dying, baby. My wolf… I can feel her slipping.”

“No—” I began to protest, but she held up a hand.

“I am. If my wolf was closer to her mate, it might buy me a little time. But now…” She shook her head, an odd smile twisting her lips. “The silver that’s killing me, it keeps my head clear. I don’t know why, but it’s true. I can think , for the first time in so long. My wolf… I’m pretty sure the silver is what’s stopped her howling for him. I can hear something else now. The moon.”

“You can hear the moon?” That sounded like the crazy stuff she used to say.

But her face when she met my gaze was peaceful. “It’s calling me home, baby.”

I fought not to cry, but this was one battle I was doomed to lose. Instead, I hid my tears, hanging my head and allowing them to fall on my lap. It wasn’t fair. The silver in her veins had brought her back just to kill her.

“I don’t want to lose you,” I admitted. “I just found you again.” Her arms wrapped around me, and she tucked my head to her chest like she’d done a few times, long ago. I let go, allowing her to see the weakness I couldn’t show anyone else, while she hummed what might have been a lullaby into my hair, though I’d never heard it before.

“I was never there for you, baby, not like I should have been. I wasn’t able to keep you safe, not from the very start. When they hunted you… It broke me. I wish I could have stopped the Hunt. I tried—” Her voice cracked, and then it was me comforting her, my arms completing the circle.

“I’m done running, Mama,” I whispered after a long moment. “I’m not gonna to be the hunted one anymore.” I let out a long breath. “I’ve got to leave, though. I’m going to Eastern. To my mates.”

“Mates,” she echoed, and we both sat silent for a long moment. I wondered if this was what it would take to send her back into a spiral, into the version of my mother I’d known and almost feared for so long. “They’re… good to you?” she finally asked in a whisper.

“They are,” I replied just as softly. “They love me, and I… I love them, too, Mama. I’m going to Eastern to save them.”

“Of course you are.” She nodded, and her chin jutted out as she added, “And I’m going with you.”

“With me? Mama, you can’t. You’re…” I couldn’t say it. She already knew anyway.

Blue and red flames shone in the backs of her eyes as she straightened, sitting up. “I’m going to see my mate, too.”