Chapter 47

47

R emy kissed me again, his hand tangling in my hair as he groaned and reluctantly pulled back.

His dark lashes blinked, clearing the haze of need and hunger from his eyes as he looked down at me. A finger traced the outline of my lips.

“I love you,” he murmured.

I smiled, sated and happy. “How many meetings do you have today?”

He sat on the edge of the bed having already dressed and showered while I had slept, still exhausted from the events of yesterday. But my heart was lighter today, likely the result of spending the night with Remy, who took the time to remind me (frequently) how much he loved me and that I belonged with him. To him.

His hand grazed my bare arm, unable to stop touching me. “A few this morning, and another this afternoon. Dante and I are working on getting a few more packs to help us reopen Granite Peak.”

A pang of sadness echoed in the cavern of my chest. We would graduate this year and wouldn’t be back. But I knew the importance it held for future pack relations.

“Make sure you eat something,” he reminded me, tapping the tip of my nose.

“You could stay here and I could make a meal out of you ,” I suggested, grinning as I lay back against the pillows.

He groaned softly, his head falling back. “I fucking wish.”

I laughed, feeling his frustration myself. “We should spend a week in bed when we get back. Maybe go back to the cabin in the woods by your house. Lock ourselves in there for a month or five?”

His smile slipped as he grew quiet. His fingers played with my hair, sifting the soft strands between his fingers.

“What?” I pressed, my mood turning serious as I pushed myself up onto my elbows to look at him better.

“How would you feel about moving into the cabin with me when we get back?” he asked quietly.

That caught me by surprise.

“You don’t need to answer now,” he said quickly, flashing me a warm smile meant to alleviate the butterflies that had taken my stomach by storm. “Or we could get a place in town if you want to be near your mom. I just... I don’t know if I can go back to not seeing you next to me every morning.”

We weren’t even out of high school, but I knew what he meant. Since we had bonded, really bonded, the idea of not seeing him or sharing a space and a bed with him, seemed wrong. Abhorrent, even. I hated just the idea of waking up with him on the other side of Blackwater.

My wolf hated it even more.

He leaned over, kissing me softly. “Just think about it. We’re still here for another week. There’s no rush, even when we get home. Take all the time you need.”

Home .

Home wasn’t a place; it wasn’t the apartment with Mom or Granite Peak or even Blackwater. Home was the man next to me.

“Yes,” I said quietly.

His eyes went wide, his eyebrows lifting.

“Yes,” I repeated, my voice firmer. “I love you. The idea of not being with you...” I shuddered.

He grinned at me, the sight breathtaking. “We can figure out where later on when I get back.”

“Deal.” I pushed myself up and kissed him again. “I’m going to hang out here. I need to call Mom.”

He nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll see you later.”

I didn’t get up until after I heard them leave for their meetings. I took a shower, ordered breakfast and grabbed my phone, munching on a piece of bacon while I waited for Mom to answer the video chat.

Her face filled the screen a second later, her emerald green eyes swimming in tears. “You did it, baby.”

Emotion immediately swelled my throat closed, a new wave of tears threatening.

“Gabe called last night,” she added. The phone jostled as she sat down, and I recognized the backdrop of the wall in our living room. “I’m so proud of you, Skye.”

“Did he tell you the Council is going to investigate Linden and Long Mesa? He may lose the pack.” If the Council saw even a fourth of what we had been through, they would have no choice but to strip him of his Alpha title.

Mom nodded, a smile wobbling on her full lips. “I spoke to Mallory yesterday, too. She told me... She told me that you and Remy completed your bond. I’m happy for you.”

I frowned at her words. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me that the bond wasn’t complete until we... You know.”

A sad smile drifted across her face. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured, honey. You have already been through so much... Remy and I—”

“You and Remy talked about this?” My jaw dropped open.

She grimaced, realizing her mistake. “Not in detail . I wanted to make sure he was being patient with you. Skye, after everything you went through, I didn’t want you to feel pressured in any way.”

I groaned, nearly dropping my phone. “I can’t believe you discussed my sex life with my boyfriend.”

Mate , my wolf reminded me, a bit smugly.

Mom sighed again, shaking her head. “Honey—”

“Did you know it was Linden who told me we weren’t bonded in the eyes of Pack Law?” I asked, betrayal a sharp sting in my chest.

She looked down, absently rubbing the scar on her throat the way she always did when she was upset or anxious.

“Skye,” she whispered my name, exhaling hard. “Honey, you have to believe me that I never thought Linden would bring that up. That he would be so manipulative—”

“You are aware who we’re talking about, right?” I cut in sharply. “Your brother ? My uncle? The guy who routinely lent you out to his buddies?”

She winced and sucked in a sharp breath.

Okay, that was a little below the belt. “I’m sorry,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Her hand closed over the scar on her neck, and she leaned her cheek against her forearm. “No, I deserved that.” Her green eyes found mine. “I’ve been so busy trying to protect you that I haven’t let you live your life.”

“I wish you would have told me,” I admitted.

“I should have,” she replied gently. “I’m so sorry I put you in a position that gave Linden any more power over you. A mate bond is sacred. Watching you and Remy together, there’s no denying you’re mates. Consummating it seemed... what’s the word Katy always uses? Archaic?”

My lips pulled into a smirk. “Yeah. That’s definitely a Katy-word.”

Letting out a heavy breath, she rubbed her neck again absently. “A mate bond... It transcends every other law packs are bound to, Skye. I’m happy you and Remy have each other.”

A warm feeling lit me from within, but a second later, I narrowed my eyes, focusing on her hand as it traced the scar. “Mom?”

Another heavy sigh. “Baby, I know you’re upset, and you have every right to be.”

“Mom.”

She looked at me curiously, her hand still pressed to her neck.

My hand drifted up, settling over a nearly identical mark on my own skin.

“The mark on your neck,” I whispered.

Her eyes went wide and she snatched her hand away. “Honey—”

“Is that... “ I swallowed hard, pieces of a long forgotten jigsaw puzzle fitting into place. “Mom, were you bonded?”

I could see the struggle in her eyes. The warring between lies and truths.

Finally, she answered simply, “Yes.”

“Who?” I scrambled to find an answer, sifting through countless memories of all the men in Long Mesa.

I was met with silence.

It couldn’t have been someone in Long Mesa. No way. There was no way anyone would let their mate suffer the way my mother had day after day, year after year.

The only other person...

“My dad?” All the air left me in a rush. “Your mate was my father?”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “Yes.”

It all made sense, and yet, nothing made sense.

“Mom, if he was your mate, why did you stay in Long Mesa?”

Remy would have torn the world down to get to me, and I would have walked through the gates of hell to get to him. No mate would ever let their mate suffer the way my mother had.

Tears gathered in her eyes. “It’s complicated.”

I wanted to scream. I hated that word. I was beyond sick of the damn word.

“Honey, we can talk about it when you’re home. Please. I don’t want to have this conversation with you now. Not like this.”

My gaze hardened, turning accusatory. “No, Mom, you never wanted to have this conversation at all.”

She flinched away, the screen tilting as her hand shook holding it.

“You could have told me,” I seethed, anger flaring brightly again. “You could have told me when I bonded with Remy or anytime since then, and you didn’t. How could you keep this from me?”

She shook her head in fast, jerking motions. “I was going to tell you everything when you came back.”

“I don’t know if I believe you,” I admitted. “All you do is keep secrets from me, Mom, and the secrets you keep aren’t helping me. You’re doing it to protect you , not me.”

She flinched, my words landing like a physical blow. “Skye.”

A knock at the door was all the interruption I needed.

“Mom, I have to go.”

“Skye, don’t hang up on me. We need to talk about this!” The desperate pitch of her tone broke my heart, but I was too angry to stop and listen to her right now.

“Yes, we do,” I agreed. I swallowed around the heavy emotions clogging my throat, cutting off my air. “But I can’t do that right now.”

Another knock, this one more insistent than the first.

“I’ll talk to you later, Mom.”

“Skye!” Her voice was pleading now, but I couldn’t bring myself to keep talking.

Maybe I was a bitch, but I needed to digest the fact that my father was my mother’s mate . That they had bonded. That my mom, the one person I thought always had my back, had lied to me multiple times.

My chest ached from the realization that she had been keeping so much from me for so long.

I ended the call and shoved my phone deep into my pocket as I headed to the front door, wrenching it open.

Daniel’s green eyes narrowed when he saw my face. “Are you okay?”

I blinked, stunned to see him standing there. “What? Yeah. I’m... I got in a fight with my mom.” I shoved down the residual emotions and tried to focus on the man in front of me.

His eyes narrowed, the motion barely perceptible. “Is Remy here?”

I shook my head and backed up to let him in.

“Fuck,” he breathed, jaw clenching as his gaze swept the room. His fist tightened around the file tucked in one hand.

“What’s that?” I motioned to the manilla file as I closed the door.

He ignored my question. “What about Gabe? Is he around?”

“They’re all in meetings,” I replied, worry beginning to unfurl in my gut. “I’m not sure where they are.”

His eyes cut to me, and I could see the indecision warring in his eyes.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded, my tone slightly harsher than I intended. But my nerves were shot from the argument with my mom, and I was more than sick and tired of people being all cloak and dagger and shit.

“What about Dante? Luke?”

I held in a growl. “All in meetings . What the hell is going on, Daniel?”

He raked his free hand through his inky black hair. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Remy’s number. It rang once before Daniel pulled it out of my hand and ended the call.

“No,” he said sharply, dropping my phone on the table. “I don’t know who’s around him, and I can’t have people overhearing what I need to tell him.”

Fear spiked in me. “What’s going on?”

He spun, his gaze piercing as he looked at me and then down at the file in his hands before finally settling on me again. “Do you know where they are? Maybe I can get to them.”

I reached out, my hand closing around his wrist as he went to turn away for the door.

He jerked back, the folder falling to the ground and papers fluttering out. I bent to scoop them up, but froze when I saw the name on the page:

SKYE MARKHAM

There were pictures mixed with the papers.

At least a dozen of them. Some in Blackwater, some in Granite Peak. Several with Remy, and at least one of me in Long Mesa.

My hands shook as I looked up at Daniel. “What the hell is this?”

He dropped to his knees, quickly trying to scoop up the evidence, but it was pointless. I had seen it.

I snatched a photo from his hands. It was Remy and me, taken at GPA, wrapped in each other’s arms, our lips a breath away from connecting as snow swirled around us.

It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t such a creepy, total violation of privacy.

I shot to my feet, backpedaling from Daniel so fast that I nearly tripped over the coffee table. “What the fuck is going on?”

My eyes shot to my phone, but Daniel was between me and the lifeline it offered. He was also blocking the front door. I could make a break for the back door, but odds were he could catch me.

Instead of reaching for me, he stood up slowly and took a step back. He raised his hands innocently. “Skye, I need you to calm down and listen to me.”

“Why the hell do you have a freaking file on me?” I raised the photo. “You have pictures of me! Have you been watching me?”

“No,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “Skye, I need to talk to Remy and Gabe.”

I opened my mouth, but he cut me off.

“And you,” he added. “I know you have questions, but I’m not the bad guy here.”

“You have pictures of me in Long Mesa,” I whispered.

How had I been so wrong about this guy? He had protected me from Preston, befriended all of us... How had I missed this?

He rubbed his jaw, the muscles in his neck straining so hard I worried they would snap. “Skye, I didn’t take these pictures.”

“Does Elias know?” My voice rose shrilly. “Does he know that you’ve been spying on me? On my friends?”

He’s been spying on my friends .

Terror, unlike anything I had ever experienced before, drenched me like a five gallon bucket of ice water. My whole body shook, the cold freezing my bones and blood from the inside out.

“You took the missing shifters.” I could barely make my lips form the words.

His gaze sharpened. “Skye, I need you to trust me right now. We need to go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I fired back, jerking away when he reached for me.

“To find Remy,” he ground out. “We need to find Remy and the others.”

“You expect me to just go with you?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

“Give me one good reason why I should,” I snapped.

He inched forward, jerking his chin at the picture in my hand. “Because I found that file in Elias’s shit. He’s the one who’s been keeping a file on you, Skye.”