Page 66 of Raven

"Let ... my ... mother ... go," I forced out, but each word burnt inside and I fought against my body. All I wanted to do was curl up and shut out whatever the hell he was pushing at me. I felt every emotion to the highest degree and it was drowning me, pulling me under into a darkness. If I just closed my eyes ...

"Stop it. You're hurting him," my mother pleaded, her voice breaking.

"Hurting him? I'm hurting him? Look at what you did to his life. Look at this place. How the fuck am I hurting him, when you've been doing it for almost two decades."

"I was saving him from you."

The man let go of my mother's throat, but he didn't move too far back. He shook his head, his face twisted with rage. "No, you took him from me." He went to swing at her, "You took him from us, from his home," his fist flying towards her, but she moved. She'd snarled at him, her eyes the green of her panther now, her hands a fistful of claws, and she swiped at him, catching him across the arm and tearing his shirt.

They clashed in a blur of claws and fury, each movement a desperate struggle for dominance. I could do nothing, glued to where I was, so unable to move. It was like being encased in lead.

"I would do it again," my mother snarled, baring her panther's teeth. "I would do whatever I needed to keep you from him."

The man got the advantage again, but this time he had her with her back to him. He held her tight in his hold, made her stand up, pushing to her toes or risk losing her head. He pushed her so she was standing right in front of me.

"He doesn't even know who I am, does he? He doesn't even know who he is?"

I met my mother's gaze. They were so green, so bright. Her panther was just there, right under the surface, ready to come out and defend her, to fight, but also, it bowed too. I felt that in her. My panther had connected with hers so many times in my life, because she was all I had.

"Are you going to introduce us, Raina?"

"You need to let her go ..." I pleaded, my voice barely above a whisper.

He shook his head from behind my mother. "She is my pack and she has broken our laws." He lowered his head so his mouth was next to my mother's ear. "Now, tell him. I will not ask you again." One hand gripped her jaw, the other pinned her waist.

I had never really felt my mother's fear, felt her emotions, but I felt them then. Saw them in her. She swallowed, eyes on mine.

"Raina ..."

She sucked in a breath. Her face was cut again, the bruises seeming to have come back and she nodded. "This is your father, Raven," she said, the words falling from her lips like lead.

"And?"

She let her eyes close, defeat relaxing her face. Her dark lashes were wet with unshed tears. "And the alpha to our pack."

"Alpha ... which makes you, my heir. And it is time for you to come home."

As he said it, hands hauled me to my feet.

"I am not going anywhere with you," I growled, defiance surging through me.

"Really?" He raised a brow. "You are the blood of my blood. You belong with your pack, not wallowing in this place with nothing."

My mother twisted in his grip, something in her stronger, more determined. She seemed to suck everything in. I felt that. Like a force against me, and she went to thrust it at him, her power, my power. I don't even know. She used her clawed hands on him, reaching out and slashing at him again. He spun her, grabbing her arm, twisting her. His hand went for her throat again, and this time, it wasn't to hold her still, nor to make her talk.

Her eyes met mine, only for the briefest of seconds, but they did, looking right into me, right at me, and that's the thing I'd see forever. Her eyes. I felt everything in that moment, every ounce of pain and fear, everything she'd kept held inside herself for all these years.

With one quick movement, my father grabbed my mother, and snapped her neck.

TWENTY-NINE

There is a time when you wake up. Just a few seconds, nothing too long, but for the briefest of moments, when you wake, you're caught between that sleep and wakefulness and you forget every single awful thing in your life. And then reality hits you, and boom, the world around you crashes down and maybe it's worse than yesterday. Maybe it's harder and crueller than the event itself, because there was a moment of peace.

I could hardly breathe. My mother's face ... my father, all of it. I ... I didn't even know.

The cold seeped through my clothes, biting into my skin. Rough stone pressed against my back. I blinked, once, twice, willing the world to change, to shift back to something familiar. But the dim, unfamiliar room remained.

A weight dragged at my wrist. Metal bit into flesh as I moved. The chain clinked, a quiet sound that echoed like thunder in the silence.

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