Chapter 76


    -Dorothy-


    “Really, I’ll be fine. Angie said she can handle this


    Rita had called me to let me know that she was on her way over. I couldn’t bear the thought of her


    running into Tally members on the way and urged her to stay where she was.


    Angie had said that there had only been a few and they were on the far side of Bielke territory, nowhere


    near where I sat in the cliffside cottage,


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    “If anything happens. I’ll call you immediately, I promised her before hanging up and burying my face in


    the crook of my


    I had been curled up on the sofa in the living room but, after a few minutes of anxious foot-tapping. I


    got up and began. pacing back and forth. The floor was cold to my bare feet but I paid no mind to the


    chill that ran through the house in its entirety. I was restless and on edge, worried about Angie, worried


    about my mate whose mind I had still been unable to reach.


    I groaned out loud in frustration and was about to stomp back up the stairs when a familiar scent


    wafted through the air. A presence that sent sharp pri ckles across my skin.


    -Ignatius-


    I stared in disbelief at the woman who stood before me. She looked exactly the same as she had been


    the day she left me. Her long white hair tumbled down over her shoulders and swished at her knees.


    Hair exactly the same snowy white as my own. Only her eyes were different. When I was a child she


    would look down at me with sad empty eyes Eyes that would only thicker with life when she was in her


    element, tink ering about her small study with potions and magic.


    Now my mother’s eyes shed with fierce determination. There has a burning rage behind her eyelids


    and it both relieved and scared me. My mother was alive. She was standing right in front of me, even


    though I had long ago epted that I would never see her again


    She was, however, on a different side this time. She was an opposing force, so powerful and


    frightening that a part of me wished to go back to the days when we all thought Moirah was dead and


    gone.


    She smiled at me. There was no love in that smile, no affection for the son she had left behind.


    “Hello, Ignatius”


    I was rooted to the spot, torn between the powerful urge to run into her arms and be carried in her arms


    the way she used to do. The other part of me wanted to turn on my heel and run. To forget the Tally and


    their leader. To take my mate and hide away somewhere no one would ever find us, least of all the


    ghostly woman who stood before me now,


    I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think straight. My mind found it too difficult toprehend that the woman


    before me was not an apparition, a spectral memory brought to life by my own imagination.


    It couldn’t be possible, It shouldn’t be. Even Tor was at a loss, quiet and reserved, he rumbled softly in


    my chest. Warning me to be on guard.


    “How is this possible?” my words were quiet at first, but the more I spoke the louder they became,


    “Where have you been?!”


    The flood gates were opened and every emotion I had felt towards my controversial mother poured


    forth as I stared at her. “Why did you leave us? Why did you leave me? You’ve been here this whole


    time? Why didn’t you take me with you?”


    Moirah remained silent, eyeing me from the shadows with the tiniest hint of an amused smile. That


    smile only infuriated me more. She disappeared. For years. And when we finally came face to face


    again she had the audacity to look bemused as if my response was uncalled for.


    Fri, Jan 26


    “Ignatius,” her tone was light as if she wasn’t discussing the first moment in my life that left a scar on


    my heart forever. *Don’t you remember? I tried to take you with me, but things just didn’t work out that


    way.”


    Ibed her fingers through her hair reclined against the rickety table beside her. It was full of jars and


    vials that tinkled together when jostled


    A dark liquid stained the wood and it creaked as she bnced her elbow against the tabletop. “I had


    always meant toe back for you,” she said nonchntly. “I just didn’t.”


    “That’s it?” my voice rose louder than 1 intended for it to. And, no matter how much I tried to still


    myself, my knees felt weak and my hands shook. “That’s all you have to say? What kind of answer is


    that? What kind of mother are you!”


    She looked genuinely puzzled at my response. “I thought you’d get over it pretty easily. You were


    young, after all. And aside from his verbal assault, you were never in any danger around Elliot


    She shrugged before continuing. “You needed a home, and I couldn’t offer you that


    “I needed a mother!” It was a roar. My voice cracked and my hands balled into fists as I lost myself in


    my anguish.


    Moirah frowned, “Don’t shout. That won’t help anything. This is my turf after all and you’re being very


    rude just barging in


    here like this.


    I was genuinely bewildered. I didn’t know what I wanted from her, nor was I prepared for how she


    would react to seeing me at all. But thest thing I had expected was for her to treat me as if we had no


    history at all.


    As if I wasn’t her son and she hadn’t abandoned me. There was no relief for the aching knot in my


    throat, no payoff or moment of rity. Moirah was a stranger, and she seemed intent on keeping it that


    way. “What’s wrong with you?”


    “Don’t be rude, Ignatius. I bristled at her words and she raised her eyebrow with an air of


    condescension. “Now, are you going to tell me why you’re here slinking around my campsite?”


    All of my rage and adrenaline left my b*dy as quickly as it hade. With just a short conversation,


    Moirah had whinled me down to thest child I used to be. I was numb as I stared at her, suddenly


    exhausted on my two weak legs.


    “You don’t even care. Did you ever really care?”


    Something like sorrow shed in her eyes but it was gone so quickly I thought I must have imagined it.


    She shook her head and set herw.


    1


    “Of course I did. But there is no helping what happened. If I had stayed any longer. Elliot your father


    would have killed me. I was ready to leave and you were hiding. I had to make a choice, and I chose


    me. I do not regret my decision.


    My anguish drained from me as she spoke. I steeled my heart towards the cold woman who shared my


    blood. Maybe she had loved me once, but that person that I had known was gone for good. There was


    no point in begging for love from someone who had closed themselves off from that emotion years ago.


    “Why are you attacking my people, Moirah?”


    “Oh that’s right,” she said casually. “You’re the leader of the Bielke now, Johan did mention that. I


    suppose Elliot is dead. then!” She seemed disappointed at that thought, although I doubt it was


    because she held any kind of affection or sentiment for my father.


    “Elliot is alive. He was banished. Is all of this because of him? Are you trying to get to him? Because if


    that’s all you want, will dly deliver him to you myself if it means you’ll leave my jack alone.”


    “You would give up your own father! Elliot must have rubbed off on you after all,” she mused. “But why


    not kill him? It’s Balke tradition.


    We have i


    new traditions”


    59%


    She stroked her chin and looked at me sideways as if investigating the stranger who had once been


    her son for any signs of


    his father.


    “But no, this is not solely about Elliot. Although, I must admit I’m sad to hear that he won’t be there to


    witness the demise of his beloved pack. The Bielke has been a gue to thend for long enough. It’s


    time they pay for their years of tyranny”


    “How can you say that? You were once Bielke yourself. You can’t wipe out an entire people because of


    the actions of a few”


    “Not only actions,” she interrupted me with a slender finger in the air. “But inactions as well. How many


    times did the Bielke stand by and watch their neighboring allies be u ghtered? Because they were


    believed to be “weak: How many stood by and watched what Elliot did to his own mute and said


    nothing”


    She looked at me inocently. “You don’t think just because you’re in charge now I’m going to call off my


    troops, do you?”


    Tor growled in my chest and I felt my skin bristle as he tried to break through and take control. She was


    a threat to our people and she was right in front of us. It would be all too easy to take her out. But I held


    him down, I couldn’t bring myself to harm her. There had to be a way to reason with bee


    “Why Johan? Why would you take in that psychopath? You can’t truly support his mad ns for


    revenge”


    She tapped her wed finger against her lips. “I don’t need to agree with it nor understand him. All I


    know is that there is a pain in his chest and it won’t be relieved until he has righted the wrong that was


    done to him. It was merely a great coincidence that we had our eyes on the sume pack. Your park.


    Johan has been a very useful ally.”


    “You’re a monster, Moirah.”


    And I meant it. Despite my empathy and all of the reasoning I had tried to use to justify her actions,


    Moirah had so severely destroyed the bridge between us that there was no reaching her it all


    “Harsh but fair, I suppose,” she rutted. “The world is not that ck and white. I’m merely doing what I


    have to. I chose this path and I’m not going to betray myself by not walking it to the very end.”


    “With that being said she sighed. “I can’t let you leave here alive?


    B