Sitting at the dining table in my mother's kitchen, I feel like I'm in someone else's house.
Coming to Thorika doesn't feel like homecoming anymore. The only reason I keep returning to this village is the woman washing dishes in the sink in front of me.
After a long silence, I finally tell her. "We need to go."
She continues to stack the bowls in the drying rack.
"You and Silas need to come with me."
She moves to washing the plates.
"My Alka is a werewolf."
The sound of clanking dishes stops.
"He is Alpha Hayden Paul."
The tap water continues to flow uninterrupted. I use my powers to turn it off. "Mom."
She puts down the plate in her hand. "I knew something was off. Riva, you can't—"
"Mother!" I say, raising my voice at my mom for the first time. "I'm not leaving Hayden. He's my Alka. I'm his mate. I'm not some..."
My mother turns around. "Some kept woman of his?"
"No matter what anyone said, I'd never thought of you like that. To me, you are my mother, and that's all I care about. We have to go, mom. Hayden won't tell me what he plans to do, and I don't know how far father will go. We can't be here."
"But I can't. I can't leave."
"All these years, I told myself you were suffering because you had no way out, not because you didn't want to leave him, even though I knew, in some corner of my heart, that you didn't leave because you loved him. And I don't mind, mother. It's not my place to judge. I don't care if you love the man that has terrified me all my life. I just want you to love me more than him," I say, breaking into tears.
My mother quickly comes to my side, kneels down and holds my face in her wet, soft hands. "You are my everything, Riva. You are the reason I live. There's nothing in the world I love more than my little angel."
"Then, come with me," I say among hiccups. "I can't leave if you can't. And I'll die if I stay."
My mother hugs. "No. I'll let nothing happen to you. Nothing."
The next day, we pack up the things we deem important enough to keep, and along with a reluctant old Silas, we leave Thorika.
After helping them settle in the safe house Hayden had arranged for in one of the human cities close by, I return to the cottage.
I go to the backyard to feed Trick. Not long ago, Trick had outgrown his room and needed larger ground. So we set up a pen behind the cottage, which is empty now. Hayden must've taken Trick to train. I take out my phone to call him when I hear Trick.
I look at the empty pen, then at the forest around. I hear Trick again, and turn around just in time to see him crash into me, coming down from above.
I laugh. "You can even fly now?"
I see Hayden coming. "He's such a show off."
"Must be his trainer's trait rubbing off on him."
"Oh yeah?" Hayden says lying down beside me. "Did they like the house? If they need anything—"
"They love the place. Mom asked me to give you her thanks."
"It's nothing. Your mom is really brave. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her to leave everything behind."
"She had to be. For my sake."
