Turning ✔️

Chapter 22. Home

When William had dropped me off, I hesitated walking up the steps of the front porch, feeling apprehensive of what I was going to be walking into. With a deep breath, I opened the front door to my house and snuck in quietly, closing the door behind me silently. When I turned towards the inside of the house, my mother stood at the top of the staircase with her arms crossed over her white cable knit sweatered chest.

Her face wore a heavy glare when she looked at me from above me on the landing. Her dark hair which she normally wore down was in a tight bun at the top of her head. I gulped slightly as we made eye contact and I hesitantly took a few steps into the foyer. My mother began descending down the stairs, her usual high heels clicking as she went.

"I know wha-"

"Do not speak. You need to listen to me, young man." My mother snapped out angrily as she got to the final step. Her hands fell loosely at her sides as she approached me. When she got closer, I saw a kaleidoscope of emotions running across her face. I could see anger mixed with a sense of sadness and relief. She looked me up and down with a sigh before she spoke again.

"First of all, I am glad you are okay. Do you know how worried I was about you? I got a phone call from your school today while I'm at work telling me that you weren't at school. I called you a billion times and I didn't get an answer from you. That is why you have a cell phone, Nathan. I rush back home and I see your car is here but you aren't! I've been worried sick about you!" She scolded me, her emotions getting the better of her towards the end and tears filled her eyes. She quickly dabbed the tears before they fell, and pulled me into her with a soft squeeze.

"You need to explain yourself, Nathan. What happened?" She said finally after letting me go and we had traveled into the living room. I sat on a loveseat while she sat on the couch opposite me. Eleanor and Genevieve were both out with their friends so it was just the two of us. "Does this have to do with you being a-"

She didn't finish her sentence and just merely trailed off, looking down at the coffee table between us. I wasn't even sure where to begin. Do I tell her the truth? I took a deep breath as I thought about the answer, my mother's eyes looked up to mine with a concerned expression.

"A werewolf?" I said finally, finishing her sentence for her. "Yes, it does."

Her eyebrows raised at my almost venomous tone I took before she looked guilty, her eyes falling down to the table once more. The room fell in silence, the only noise was the ticking seconds of the clock on the wall. I counted the ticks in my head as my hands clenched at my side.

"Tell me what happened today please."

She looked back up at me with a different expression, one that conveyed much more anger than the previous guilty one. Even if she may feel guilty for not telling me what she knew, she was still my mother.

"How much do you know about us wolves?" I said, meeting her eyes with a blank face, trying to maintain my cool.

"Enough."

"I met my mate," I stated, looking away from her and pausing for a moment before I continued. "They were teaching me things."

I looked back over to my mother who had tensed slightly and her face turned to a disappointed frown.

"I see."

We were both silent for a moment, one of us too afraid of our secret from spilling out and the other seemingly gathering her thoughts. As a lawyer, my mother had always been the type of person who had to have her thoughts carefully constructed before they spilled from her lips. I suppose it's where I inherited my obsessive planning.

I tried to understand her side, my mother is not really from my world. She is one hundred percent human and happened to fall into this lifestyle. I began to wonder about why she was a human and my father never turned her into a werewolf too. It must be hard for her.

"I understand. However, Nathan, you may be a werewolf, but you are also human. You are my first baby and I want to see you succeed no matter what. You know that I love you, but this is hard for me. I wasn't supposed to be doing this.... your father....this isn't the way things should be..." she had a steady stream of tears falling down her face.

My own eyes were filling with tears that I quickly swiped away after one slipped out, running down my cheek. After my mother had gathered her composure, she continued.

"As your mother, I want you to succeed, and that means that you need to be going to school. You can't afford to make poor decisions. This is the time you need to buckle down and focus on your future outside of werewolves too."

My anger spiked as she spoke to me in an almost belittling tone. My emotions were beginning to rise over to a level I could not contain anymore. My knuckles were white as I continued to squeeze them together and my face began to turn red from my anger. I took slow and deliberate breaths in efforts to calm myself.

"I'm eighteen years old, and now considered an adult. I can make my own decisions, whether they be poor or not." I finally hissed out through my clenched jaw.

"You are my son and you live in my house. I make the rules. If you do not like them, then you can find somewhere else to go because I am not going to tolerate this type of behavior in my house. I do not ask for much from you or your sisters. I work very hard to keep this house over our heads. If you cannot or will not follow my rules, then I'm sorry but you are not welcome."

I could not listen to her anymore. I whipped myself out of the loveseat and out of the house with her screaming after me. I slammed the door behind me and jogged over to my Jeep and getting in. I saw the front door open with my mom in the doorway, waving her hands at me in attempts to stop me.

I glared at her as I put my car in reverse and sped out of the driveway without a second glance. I wasn't even sure where I was going. My heart was racing in my chest as I thought back to what my mother had said to me. I felt the tears spilling from my eyes but with no one to see me crying, I openly let them spill fall.

Where would I even go? I had nowhere. Biting my lip, I thought about the small savings I had in the bank. It wasn't much, but maybe it would be worth checking out what I could do with it. I could cover a few months of rent with what I had, but then what? I would need to find a job to keep it up.

I drove mindlessly down the country roads, the oak and pine trees whirring passed me in blurs as I went. Before I knew it, I was driving down William's road. As I approached his house, I thought about what I was subconsciously doing. I had just left him not too long ago, I can't just go rushing to him like a baby every time my mother and I disagree. I frowned as I made a U-turn in his neighbors' driveway and headed back the way I came.

As I approached the end of the road, I could see a shirtless man jogging down the road towards me. When I took a closer inspection, I realized that it wasn't just any man. It was William. He had clearly just been working out, sweat trickled down his large frame accentuating his muscular physique.

I slowed my car to stop as he approached my window with a confused look on his face. When he saw my tearful expression, his face instantly turned to one of anger.

"Who hurt you?" He growled out in his husky baritone voice.

"Let's go for a ride," I said gently, with a nod of my head towards the passenger seat. He nodded after a moment of carefully examining my eyes, before jogging over to the passenger side and getting into my car. Once he was in the close space, I instantly felt at ease. He made me feel like everything was going to be okay just through him being physically close to me. After he buckled himself in, I tore my gaze away from him and back to the road, continuing on my aimless drive.