Page 63 of Our Deceptive Heat

“Ruin. He would destroy us and make her disappear. We’d never find her,” I whisper. “We don’t have the money yet to break away from Alpha Labels.”

“If you continue to keep this secret, you’ll lose her, anyway.”

She puts her hands on my upper arms and leans in to kiss my cheek.

“Don’t wait too long. If you see a window, chase it. Don’t let it pass you by.”

I swallow hard and nod my head, taking her advice in and making a wordless promise to do exactly that.

“Now, tell me how my brother is. He doesn’t call me nearly as much as I like.”

I talk her ear off for half an hour, and then Ryn, my mother, and Aunt Ariel come out and sit with us. I’m given a plate with a breakfast burger, pancakes covered in syrup, and homemade hash browns.

“Sita is in trouble again.”

I pause, my burger halfway to my mouth. “But we got her out and into rehab.”

“Yes, and you know how the tabloids ran with the fact they thought Tyr was having sex with an underage girl. I’m really grateful for whoever fact checked it and made it disappear.”

I flick Ryn an amused look. Ariel follows it and gasps.

“Was it you?”

Ryn startles, pulling her food closer to her. “What?”

“Did you make those nasty accusations go away?”

Ryn’s cheeks turn red and she shrugs. “It’s my job.”

Ariel, who doesn’t resemble Tyr at all with her chestnut hair and grey eyes, pulls Ryn into a hug, holding her close for long moments.

“Oh, thank you, thank you.”

For a couple of minutes, we all just give Ariel time to compose herself. She sniffs and returns to her food.

“So, Sita?” I prod.

“Sita? Oh, Sita, yes, she took off from the rehab. Claudia has gone down to see if she can find her daughter and rein her in.”

I wince at the mention of Tyr’s mother. When she left them at Ariel’s when they were eight and five, she was coming back. It just took her until Tyr was twenty. His relationship with his mother is rocky, to say the least, and Tyr’s abandonment issues go deep now. But Sita loves her mother.

“Tyr’s going to lose his mind,” Selene says sadly. “That poor boy takes far too much onto him. He can’t save her forever.”

Ryn looks at me with a million questions.

“What you don’t see is how Tyr is psychotically protective of our image. Fighting to protect our privacy. Sita undoes a lot of what he does. She’s sold information about us and the pack to the press. She doesn’t care, but he won’t stop looking after her,” my mother says to the curious omega. “Everything Tyr does is to protect people he cares about.”

Ryn looks down at her hands. “I didn’t know.”

“He doesn’t want anyone to see that side of him. But he cares about his family and those he thinks are his family.”

She says this pointedly, keeping an eye fixed on the omega, but Ryn doesn’t look up.

“Mm. Just like someone else I know,” my mother says and elbows me. “This one will cut off his own arm and bleed to death if he thinks it will save someone he loves.”

Ryn peers up at me, her eyes searching mine. I can feel my face heat and laugh self-consciously.

“Mum, you promised.”

---