My Alpha Mate (Completed)

Chapter 23: The Secret

I've never felt this frozen before.

There is a million of little unformed thoughts running inside my head, but I cannot single out any.

Is she lying? Is she really my mother? And how?!

The woman notices my distress, so she speaks. "I should've guessed Patrick never told you the truth."

"My mother is dead," is all I manage to utter.

She smiles mirthfully. "I guess you are right in a way. I did die. I just didn't stop to exist..."

I swallow hard. She is lying. "So, what are you saying? I know you couldn't turn! Vampire's bite kills werewolves, it doesn't turn them into one!"

She nods. "I wasn't bitten," she says simply. "Lily... if you want to know my story, I have to tell it from the beginning."

I stare at the seemingly unaggressive vampire and shrug. "It's not like I don't have the time to hear it."

The woman takes a seat opposite of me, at a safe distance. "When Patrick and I joined in a ceremony, we were... very much in love." I notice a small smile playing on her lips, but she doesn't let it form fully. "You see, neither he nor I had mates. But we were very fond of each other. And it was enough. More than enough," her eyes meet mine. "For a few years."

I listen intently. I feel like I know what is coming next.

Her eyes wander away and focus at a branch on the ground. "But then she appeared. Valerie. A beautiful girl from the city, who came to our habitat only to spend her summer vacation," she scoffs and focuses on me again. "She wasn't even a werewolf.... But one thing she was. Your father's mate."

My throat stiffens. I suddenly realize the woman, my mother, is telling the truth.

"We...fought so much. I couldn't bear to see him looking at her lustfully, passionately, lovingly even, without never having spoken a word with her. But, he knew. He knew right away," she shifts on her cut tree, "And so did I."

"I remember the fights you had," I whisper uncertainly, memories slowly coming to the surface. "At first... you were the one angry... and then... it was him. Did he want you to leave so he can be with her?"

My mother shuts her eyes and quickly shakes her head. "Your father is not that way," she smiles fondly at his memory, "he would never leave me. He swore. And I knew he meant it."

I try to imagine myself constraining to be away from Darius. It would be close to impossible. "But he couldn't stay away, could he?"

My mother's eyes fill with water. "He tried his best, I know," she says with a strained voice, "but it is I who couldn't stand seeing him so...utterly unhappy by my side. A man whom I'd given everything...who loved me to pieces...suddenly just stopped. For no other reason that the Moon Goddess bestowing him with a mate of his own."

A tear sheds down her cheek now and she continues. "In a meaningless second when Valerie stood before us, everything we had fell apart. And I was so angry, Lily."

I feel like she is trying to justify herself for something that is coming. "I understand," I encourage her to go on. "I know exactly how it goes when these things happen."

She narrows her eyes in curiosity. "Why, that is right," her lips curl. "You have found yourself a mate of your own. None other than Alpha Darius Carter..."

I swallow hard, unwilling to delve into my problems before I've heard her story. "Yes, that's why I will not judge you for whatever it is you did," I nod. "Please finish your story."