“She isn’t controllable. The doc said it is to do with PTSD from being raised in captivity and everything that happened after she escaped,” Jacob said.
“I still don’t get why this is a secret? One kept from me.”
Rayan frowned. “It doesn’t matter, Lucy. Just drop it,” he said, tearing off a piece of his sandwich and eating it. I was always going to be an outsider. The fact they wouldn’t tell me was just another reason I would never be comfortable here. We ate in silence and chatted about classes until the bell rang, and I had to go back to class.
The first day was horrid. No one spoke to me, yet I heard the whispers and snickering about being a mutated freak, but I shrugged the comments off. They were not game enough to say it to my face, so they weren’t worth my time. Jacob picked us both up from school and dropped us home before going to tend to my mother. All day, my mind tried to guess why I wasn’t allowed to know about mom.
I was sitting on the floor in Rayan’s room, helping him do his homework, when my father called out from downstairs. We both looked up before realizing he had to be calling us to dinner.
“Come on. We can eat in the room,” Rayan said as we both hopped up. We walked downstairs to grab our dinner when my stepfather called out from the dining table.
“No! At the table. I am sick of you both hiding in the room,” he said, and we both turned, walking to the table. Dinner was silent, and I could tell my stepfather was in a bad mood.
“How was school?” he asked. I nodded, stuffing pasta in my mouth to find my mother staring at me. I put my head down, focusing on my food, yet I could feel her gaze on me.
“You enrolled back at school?” she asked.
“Yes, I need to finish,” I told her, and I was surprised at how weak I sounded.
“Why?” she asked, and her words shocked me, making me look up at her.
“Because I am nearly finished. I only have three months left before graduation,” I told her. She didn’t say anything, but I could see my father watching her. She also noticed his gaze, and she looked away back down at her food. This was so awkward. I could feel the tension sizzling.
“How was work?” I asked my father, trying to make small talk. I wasn’t good at this shit. I wasn’t good at being forced to sit at a table with my family. I was used to holiday breaks where I could get away with huge family gatherings and go unseen, or just stay with my aunts, or Ace and Tyson.
“Do you actually care?” my mother asked, and I clenched my fork, a lump forming in my throat.Why would she say that?
“Work was fine, Lucy,” my father said, and I heard my mother growl at him, making my eyes dart to her. She had a feral look on her face. Rayan was watching her but looked back at his plate, eating quicker, and I did the same before asking if I could be excused. My father nodded to both Rayan and me, and we escaped back to our room. I grabbed a towel and my pajamas before heading to the bathroom attached to his room to shower.
While in the shower, I felt the mindlink open up.
“How’s home?” Tyson asked before I felt Ace also force the link through.
“It’s fine,” I replied.
“You can always come home to us,” Ace said.
“No, I want to be near Rayan. And mom is due any day now, so I am sure she will need help with Rayan,” I told them, though Rayan was more than capable of looking after himself.
“Why are you avoiding us?” Tyson asked.
“I’m not. I will come and stay on the weekend, if you want,” I told them, knowing it was hard for their wolves to be away from their mate. I don’t have that issue, but I did miss them. I was more comfortable with them than being here, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around being their mate. Plus, I was worried Ace would run back to Melana. I didn’t know how they kept it secret for so long while waiting for me to grow up. It kind of made me feel guilty.
“Please, make sure you do. I miss you, Lucy,” Tyson said, and I nodded before cutting the link off. I finished my shower before brushing my teeth and grabbing a glass of water to swallow my pills. Looking into the bottle, I only had one left. Rayan had a mini-fridge in his room with drinks and snacks. Besides having to go downstairs for the main meals, we could just stay in the room.
Chapter twenty-seven
Tyson
“Do you think this is her way of rejecting us without rejecting us?” Ace asked me after she cut off the mindlink.
I had no idea what was going on with her anymore. She was always so guarded, always putting on a front, and it was hard to get her to drop it. She didn’t need to hide from us, we would love her anyway.
“She said she would come to see us on the weekend,” I told him, and he nodded, sipping his beer. I wanted to give her space, but it was killing me, knowing she now knew what we were to her. Now she knew it made the time away from her a bigger struggle. It was easier when she was oblivious to the bond because I used that as an excuse to remain calm, reminding myself she didn’t know. But now she did, and it was eating away at me and Tyrant that she kept her distance.
***
The next three days went by quickly, and I was becoming fed up. She said she wasn’t avoiding us, yet she always blocked us out or made excuses. I was about to mindlink her when I felt Rayan force the link instead, opening it up to me.