TWENTY-TWO | THE TRUTH

"That boy..." Mom begins as we drive home in a little tan car. I blush, avoiding her eyes as I feel her looking at me. "He seems...*protective*."

"Yeah. A little." I mumble, squirming under the weight of her gaze.

"And nice," She adds.

"Uh-huh."

"And completely infatuated with you." She's grinning now, her tone light and teasing.

"*Mom*," I groan, rolling my eyes, despite the warm, fluttering in my chest.

"Just saying," She murmurs, glancing at me.

"You know as well as I do, thing are only going to get worse from here. Ry showed up. That was our first vision." I feel my mood sober as I remind her of our current predicament. There's so much I want to talk to her about. So much we need to get out in the open now that we're together again.

"Wisty, like I told you, not all visions are set in stone." Her words are like a balm to my frayed nerves, a soothing reminder of hope.

"This one was." For some reason, I just want to take that hope and tear it to shreds. Negativity surrounds the brief light of hope and tries to extinguish it. I can't afford to let hope grow right now. I don't know if I could survive when it inevitably gets torn to pieces.

"Well, these things take time." Mom sighs and pulls into the driveway of the house I've been calling home for the last two weeks. My heart nearly stops in my chest, seeing the familiar form of a Wolven waiting by the front door. "I can give you a few minutes to talk while I get settled." Mom says, a little smile playing around her lips.

"You don't need to-" I begin to protest, not sure I want to be alone with Blue right now. Considering our first vision's finally come true, I know we need to talk about the possibility of the others.

"Just a few minutes." Mom pats my hand lightly before getting out of the car. She nods at Blue as she passes him and throws a wink my way before going into the house. I sigh and get out of the car, slowly walking up to him.

"Hey," I greet him, not really sure what else to say. He doesn't immediately respond, but pulls me into his chest and gently envelops me with his warmth.

"Are you okay?" Blue asks softly, holding me close. Confusing swirls of emotions bombard me. Both his and my own.

"I'm fine. Really." I tell him, shaking my head at his over-protectiveness. "Just a little sore." He nods into my neck, breathing slow and deep. We stay like that for a little while, his strong body pressed against mine, breathing in each other's scent. Feeling the swirl of our motions mingling through the connection we share.

After what feels like an eternity and too soon all at once, he pulls away from me.

"We should probably keep meeting up. For the visions." He adds the secondary part almost as an afterthought.

"Uh-huh. For the visions." I echo, grinning up at him. He smirks down at me, a mischievous light in his silvery-grey eyes.

"Hey, now that one of them's come true, we should talk about the others." Blue says slowly. Hesitantly. I nod, the motion feeling disjointed as I recall the visions we've been having.

"Maybe not tonight, though. I'm really worn out-" I tell him, more than anything, just wanting a day to talk to Mom before I pour my soul out to Blue. I need time to think about all this. But my mind keeps going back to that last vision we shared. The threads of hope in me are threatening to grow again. I want so badly to have a life. A real future with Blue, but... Nothing's ever gone right for me. With so much uncertainty around the future, I don't know how to broach that subject with him. If anything, I have the urge to bolt.

"Fine." He sighs, closing his eyes and wincing. "But remember, Red," He opens his eyes and looks at me knowingly. "Don't run." I open my mouth to protest, but he releases me and turns to leave. "Check your phone. I'll call you." He calls over his shoulder before disappearing into the woods.

"So," I call, closing and locking the front door behind me as I go into the house. "Mr. Hale is my dad." It's probably the first thing that pops into my head when I think of this whole mess. Mom's in the kitchen, going though the cabinets and pulling things out here and there.

"Uh-huh." She doesn't elaborate, which irks me. I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at her. She's avoiding the subject. I inwardly groan and wait for her to stop moving.

"Did you know it was him when I first told you?" I ask, wondering how long she's known he was here. *Why didn't she just tell me?*

"Kind of. I guessed it was a possibility." She sighs and rests her arms on the counter, looking me in the eye as she speaks. Uncertainty and fear flow through the bond. "I wasn't completely sure, but after you mentioned Jin," Her expression sours and a flare of reproach spikes between us.

"What do you have against Ms. Jin?" I frown. "I mean, sure, she's a little weird-"

"She was one of the main reasons your father had to leave." Mom's voice is cold. Hard. Unforgiving. "That woman was like a petulant child." She massages her temples as she talks. "Always wanting to do her own thing, despite the consequences, always throwing tantrums-"

"She's a grown woman-"

"She's a vampire." Mom growls. I freeze and stare at her. Her disgust towards vampires thrums through the bond hotly.

"So is *he*." I breathe, the words I didn't want to admit flow from my mouth. "So am I." The disgust Mom feels immediately dies out and she covers her face with her hands. Shame shudders through her and she shakes her head before looking up at me.

"You're nothing like them." She chokes out, tears in her eyes.

"Did you know?" I ask, feeling just so tired now. Numb and tired and so very sick of all these questions in my head. I can't even muster any feelings about my true nature. I really am just a monster. Half Wolven. Half vampire.

"Your father..." She swallows and comes over to me, taking my hands in hers. "Your father and I met when I went to college. No, I didn't know what he was when we met. Vampires," She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "Older vampires can hide their nature from other supernatural creatures. They can appear almost human. Smell human."

"All I knew was that I loved him. He was my mate. Gods know, I tried to fight it." Mom laughs bitterly, shaking her head. "I thought he was jus another human. But your grandmother, even more so then, hated anything that wasn't like us. I was just like her then." Mom's tone is suddenly full of self-loathing. "But I couldn't stay away from him. We were lab partners in one class and he was the teaching aid in another. The more we got to know each other, the more I started to fall for him. He was so smart and kind and-" Mom laughs. "He made me laugh. I felt so safe with him. So comfortable and happy around him that, one day, when the semester was over and he asked me out, I said yes."

"We fell in love, Wisty. Beyond what I ever thought love could be." She sighs and shakes her head again and looks down at me. "Then I married him. Not by the Pack, of course, mind you, your grandmother never knew I was dating anyone. I spent a lot of time away from the Pack to get my degree, telling her it was best I stay in the city for the classes... when really, it was so I could see your father."

"She never knew?" I frown, finding that hard to believe.

"Well, she did her best to find out, but she made the mistake of sending your uncle Zariel to spy on us." Mom laughs riley, rolling her eyes. "He was such a romantic, my brother. He told me to leave the Pack and elope with your father." I stare at her in surprise, though I didn't get to know my uncle, I find it hard to believe straight-laced Paris is his daughter. "It wasn't until after he died we actually listened to his words and ran off to get married. By the human Court system at least. And by Coven means."

"By then, you knew what he was?" I ask, still surprised she married a vampire.

"Well, yes. By then I had begun to suspect...and when a couple of vampires went rogue in his Coven, there was an accident. One thing led to another, Zariel was killed, along with about half the Pack, and twenty percent of the humans in the nearby city." Mom sighs again, her eyes loosing their luster as she thinks about those sad days. "Soon after that, I found out I was pregnant with you. I told your grandmother. She banished your father, rather than killing him. Of course, she thought he was only a human." Mom rolls her eyes and grimaces.

"He had to leave anyway. Jin was one of those in his Coven that had gone rogue and he needed to...re-train them." I raise an eyebrow at her words. What the hell does that mean? "Somehow, Hunters got word of your existence and came from the west to try to kill you before you were born. That's when your grandmother took it upon herself to destroy any and all Hunters in the area and drove away countless other supernatural creatures thereafter."

"O-other supernaturals?" My eyes widen. This is the first time she tells me there really are others out there.

"Yes. Witches, necromancers, other shifters, goblins, ghouls, vampires, demons," Mom lists and shrugs. "There's an entire encyclopedia. The point is, she didn't want anyone else in the Pack to die. So, our allies all agreed to the war and successfully drove away all known creatures in our area - and keep them away." Mom shudders. "It was a tragic time. So many lives were lost. But it opened my eyes. After you were born, I knew what your grandmother would do. She passed the Alpha-ship to you without my knowledge, knowing full-well that you were a hybrid. But, then she didn't know you weren't human, but part vampire." Mom let out another rye laugh. "I began to leave the Pack to search for a place I could take you, where her influence couldn't reach...but I never found one."

"The look on her face when she found out..." She winces and closes her eyes. "On your tenth birthday, the vampire-side began to show. It wasn't supposed to express itself until you were seventeen. But I suppose because you're a hybrid, we should have expected the the unexpected. I was able to sneak back into the Pack's territory just in time. And the rest is history."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" I spent the last seven years hating myself because I thought I did something wrong. I thought my very existence was an abomination. All because of one person's opinion.

"You found out, remember?" Mom twists my hands outwards so my wrists are exposed. The thin, straight scars running from the wrist to my elbow are more faded than before, but still visible. Like seams on a doll. I stare at them, thinking back to that night when I tried to kill myself. But why? I close my eyes, searching my newly unlocked memories and finding the missing piece in flashes.

*I was thirteen. Mom and I had been apart for a year. Every day was harder than the last. Being so far from family, and people...at the time, I had punished myself for being different, hiding in a motel - staying away from humans, too. Within weeks, I'd started noticing things. My vision going red. My throat and lungs burning. An intense pain in my bones. Phantom whispers when no one was around. And then, I snapped. The landlord came by to collect rent and I...and I..*.

I shudder, pulling my arms from Mom's and wrapping them around myself.

"I killed a man." I breathe, the world around me getting colder. "I drank his blood and ripped his throat out-"

"I should never have left you alone like that." Mom grabs my shoulders and forces me to look at her. "After that, I made sure to call you everyday. I should have realized how hard it would be to be away from everyone so suddenly."

"Mr. Hale...he's the one who found me." It's not a question. I remember the blood. Everywhere. Then those familiar jade-green eyes. Then everything went black.

"He made sure to keep an eye on you when we separated. Never too close, but always just a few minutes away in case they ever found you." Mom nods somberly. "It's a good thing, too. Your father contacted me and we took you to a hospital. He made sure you wouldn't remember."

"The scars..." I begin slowly, frowning as the flashes of memory flicker into focus again. "It wasn't until after I'd been in the hospital for a few days that I...made them." I look at her for confirmation.

"Your father's influence faded when you tried to remember. I didn't want to talk about it, but you kept trying and trying to remember. And one day you did." Mom shakes her head again. "He had to make the memory purge a little more potent after that."

"Huh." I chew on the inside of my cheek as I think it over. That must be why it's all still so fuzzy. "So what now?"

"Now," Her face relaxes, the mental walls she had unknowingly made begin to crumble. "Now, we can be together again."

"But they know where I am. Shouldn't we be packing?" I frown, not sure how she got to that conclusion from our current situation.

"No. No more running." She says firmly, a small smiling gracing her lips. "I think we've finally found some allies."

"Allies? You mean Mr. Hale?" I try not to scoff.

"He's your father, Wisty." Mom rolls her eyes and pulls me into the kitchen. "And the leader of a very powerful Coven, but no, he's not the ally I'm referring to. Alpha Salvador has agreed to become our ally."

"What does that mean?" I ask slowly, not sure I get where this is going.

"He has agreed to protect us until you Bloom. You'll be stronger, faster, and able to defend yourself. Your scent will change, and the Reinier Pack won't be able to track you."

"So...what you're telling me is that we're safe for the next two months?" I ask, a little stunned.

"Yes."