Chapter Thirty Two

When the door was flung open I woke up but, groggy as I was, I couldn't properly comprehend that it was Castus's mother in the doorway glaring me to a fate worse than Arachne. But even with her dark piercing eyes scissoring through the soft slothful atmosphere Zack and I had created I just couldn't get myself to wake up properly.

Zack remained asleep as she approached, I glanced in his direction, expecting him to wake up and run for his life.

"So my sons mate is also a slut," She said the word "mate" with such contempt I could see it fly across the room in the form of spit.

"I'm not a slut," I bit out.

"And yet you lie in bed with someone other than your mate," She had this fucking grin on her face...

"We weren't doing anything." If I'm being honest that sounded a little too guilty for my liking.

"You are in the bed of a man other than your alpha," She said again, her voice high as though she were explaining it to someone a little slow in the head.

I growled, "I said we weren't doing anything."

"I hope Castus finally sees that he's missing nothing without you when he hears this."

I felt my body tense at that, because she was his mother and I was worried she knew how he would react.

He'd been so angry when he found out Zack and I had kissed (albeit accidentally, or, well sort of) but he never hated me, he was just angry with me, punished me, what I'd done this time was a much smaller trespass. However... well... fool me once shame on you fool me twice?

"I've said before that you deserve being locked up, I'll say it again."

"Say it again then I don't fucking care you bitch," I'll admit that wasn't the smartest fucking comeback but it felt hella good.

"You," She stepped closer, "Deserve to be locked up," She hissed.

I tried to play it cool and I gave her a lazy smirk.

"No one but you deserves to be locked up... unless they have a face like yours. Because I'm pretty sure that's a crime somewhere."

Her eyes sharpened.

"You disgrace my son, you ripped apart my pack and destroyed our reputation, what you did to your parents is disgusting, you are cancer, you even don't deserve to talk to me."

"Fuck off then," I groused, I couldn't even muster the energy to come up with good insults anymore.

"You are the mate of an alpha, even if you say you are a boy you still have to observe the rules of courtesy. No one but a slut would sleep in the bed of a man other than her alpha."

My mouth opened and closed as it tried to fish out a deathly retort, one that would clench her fists and make that already angry complexion a nice beetroot red.

But the truth was she was getting to me, she was right.

It was a different thing to defy Castus when it came to stupid rules like talking to him but it was quite another thing when what I was doing could be perceived as being unfaithful. I hated feeling like I'd been caught in the act of stealing candy from a baby by that woman, the woman who in this analogy may as well be a serial baby murderer.

She walked around one side of the bed, her eyes slicing through me like acid as she walked staring unblinkingly, then she walked over to the right and again just stood there staring, her expression brightened.

"What are you doing?" I had to ask.

Her voice was filled with glee, "You aren't marked."

My hand unconsciously went to my throat and feeling it unmarked scent little slivers of ice running through my body. I wasn't sure why being around her unmarked made me so nervous but I hated it because she was scum and I didn't want to be nervous around her.

"I didn't want to be marked," I felt as though I had to let her know that I wasn't unmarked because Castus didn't want me, it was because I didn't want him. It was important. For some reason.

Her eyes flickered back to mine, "You lie, Castus doesn't want you, he's not sure of you, if he wanted you he'd have marked you."

I grit my teeth, "What in 'I didn't want to be marked' is it you didn't understand? I didn't let him mark me not the other way round."

She grinned and I could have sworn I'd seen horns growing from her head. "Don't be a fool, if an alpha wants his mate he would take his mate and mark his mate, it is his right, not to mention it was how I raised Castus."

"Well maybe you accidentally raised a much better man then you intended!" I bit out.

Her eyes narrowed viciously, "Are you trying to tell my I don't know my own son?!"

"I'm not trying, I'm stating, you don't know a single fucking thing about your son but his birth date, you aren't a mother, you're just the woman that gave birth to him."

She was beyond fuming, to be frank I was getting a bit on edge myself, I was worried she would genuinely start a tussle right here in Zacks bed. I mean, I would totally win... but I wouldn't want to wake up Zack.

"You little foul little incubus, you know nothing about Castus, I spent my life providing for him, you might know your way around his cock but you know nothing about him! Nothing! And you never will because Castus can never love you, I've told him time and time again that he should just hide you away in a nice little cell so no one will ever know what trash he ended up with as a mate!"

She was yelling by now, and my heart was genuinely racing in fear, I'm not even too sure why, but I wanted to hide it as best as I could so I just painted a grin on my face and hoped she believed it.

She apparently did as the lines of deep rigid anger on her face deepened.

"I'd begged him to put you in the basement like the scumbag you are, no windows, no covers, just a good old fashioned cell, maybe even put in some bars for a laugh!" Her eyes had a devilish manic glint in them now but the anger was still rolling off her in waves. "Would you like that? No sunlight, not ever again, knowing your mate is upstairs mating with a woman much better than you!"

My mind spun as my heart raced, I unwillingly swam through the images she'd put in my head and bile rose in my throat, suddenly I was desperate to leave the room because whatever kind of argument this was she was winning and I wanted out.

"No books, no games, no TV, nothing to distract you from what a pathetic unwanted slut you are, listening in as he lives a wholesome life with a woman of better blood than you, purer, smarter, stronger, a real woman, not a man who thinks he's one."

I wanted to say something, that I wasn't trans, maybe make a witty insult, but my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, I was worried that if I moved it the vomit would come out and go everywhere.

She was smiling now, she knew she was succeeding in hurting me.

"I promise you that by the end of my little holiday here I'll have changed his mind, I know how to do it Sven, because I'm his mother and I know what it takes to get him to do what I want."

I should have said something, my mouth was clearly trying to, but words failed me, I wanted to tell he that she was a lonely old cow and that Castus would never do that to me but I couldn't because I had this nagging feeling like maybe she was right and maybe she could change his mind and if she managed to make what she said a reality I think I would die a death much worse than I'd ever imagined. A life like that wasn't a life, it was so horrifying it felt like my mind was trying to repel the images still swarming my shell shocked brain.

"I'll start by telling him your latest activity, of course he'll know I'm telling him the truth, because he's an alpha now," Her anger was made up with a grin, like makeup on a rhinoceros it didn't do much for her face.

She continued staring at me as though she were expecting me to explode or hoped I might break down in tears but I couldn't bring myself to hear her properly anymore.

I just desperately wanted to leave.

He would never do that to me, he would never reject me a second time, he loves me, he wants me, he wants all of me, by his side. I tried to believe it.

But there's something about the way outrageous things are said that force your brain to question their validity, like if they are so completely obviously wrong then why would people bother saying them?

Panicking, I wanted was to leave the room, all the air was escaping my lungs and I felt physically ill.

She left the room instead, her slamming the door woke up a very dazed Zack from beside me but I didn't look over I just tried not to cry as I got up from the bed.

The witch was gone but her curse still lingered. I needed some space, I need time alone, I needed to shift and hunt something large.

I could feel my fangs lengthening against my will and I forced them to go back.

Zack tugged on my sleeve as I sat there silent and very still.

"Was that Castus?" He asked, his eyes wide.

I shook my head, still not yet willing to speak.

He sniffed at the air, "H-his mother?" He sounded confused.

I just glanced at him and then looked away.

My head was still swimming, I should move. I got up from his bed feeling like I had to get back to my room, staying here made me feel guilty and my heart was still hammering away.

I gave Zack a week smile and in turn received a worried frown but I didn't dilly dally I just left and closed the door.

I smell Castus approaching, maybe he heard her slam the door, maybe she'd managed to tell him already, maybe he was angry? He was approaching fast.

A part of me desperately wanted to get away but the rest of me was almost desperate to just collapse into his arms and start crying, that would never happen because... something, and I could never admit I had been affected by his mothers acidic tongue.



I hid in my room and curled up in my covers.

Something about the way she spoke reminded me of the time I went to a boys named Allen's house with two other boys.

His father was strict and angry and yelled at us when we did anything wrong like not taking our shoes off or drinking in the glass cups on the patio.

When we left both of the boys I went with were angry with Allen because of his father and Allen explained to me that he hated them more than they did him because Allen got the worst of his fathers wrath.

I wondered about that, what it possibly felt like growing up with a mother like that, did he experience the worst she had to offer? And what could that possibly be?

Slowly the thoughts she'd put in my head started to break free again like an above ground reservoir had sprung a leak.

I laid my head back and I tried not to cry. I could feel Castus coming closer and I willed him to stop and turn around, I couldn't take any more confrontation for the day.

With my wolf so near the surface smelling his scent drove me a very different kind of crazy. I inhaled the air and my gums itched in a particularly interesting way.

I exhaled. Did I love him or hate him? Now was the time to decide.