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I blushed under her praise. “Mom, you never told me any of that.”
“I know.” She took my hand. “It never felt like the right time.”
We walked together into the garden, and she handed me my old gardening gloves, apron, and rain boots. I donned all of my old stuff, savoring the way the fabric gloves tickled over the backs of my hand as I grabbed my usual trowel and small shovel. Mom suited up, and we both crouched low to the ground to begin weeding.
“You know,” Mom began, “I had a feeling you would be safe with the Wargs.”
I glanced at her. “But Mom, every time the Wargs came up in the past, you would tell me about how dangerous they were.”
She nodded. “I’d always believed that was true. But after Troy came through the village, stuttering about how you were kidnapped by the Wargs’ Alpha and taken prisoner, I started to suspect that there was more to the Wargs than I’d given them credit for. For one thing, as much as I missed you, I wasn’t worried about you as much as I thought I should be. Something was telling me that you were somewhere safe and secure.”
“Really?” With the Wargs, I’d worried so much about Mom and how she was taking the news of my being gone. It eased some tension to know that she’d at least been able to sleep at night. “I’m glad there was something telling you I was okay.”
“Me too.” She shot a mischievous look at me. “I guess you can’t pretend anymore that this mystical stuff doesn’t exist, huh?”
I laughed at the tease. “Well, Mom, I guess I can’t deny that. When I consider all the stuff I’ve found out about myself, I have to agree.”
She smiled and dug out another weed with her trowel. “Could you…tell me about that night? I’ve been worrying myself sick about what kinds of awful things might have happened to you.”
So, I told her the truth about the day Night had saved me. I admitted that I had been planning on leaving the pack to get away from Troy, and I told her about him drugging me and keeping me in his bedroom. I glossed over the most intimate, scary bits, not wanting her to worry about me.
“So, you were planning on running away that night,” she said to herself. “I worried you might do that, and I know I did a lot to talk you out of staying.” She stuck her trowel into the soil and wiped the dirt from her gloves. “I should have run away with you, Bryn.”
It surprised me to hear her say that. “I wouldn’t have asked you to do that for me, Mom. This place, this land…you have roots here. I could never have asked you to come with me.”
“I know you wouldn’t have; that’s why I should have insisted on going along, too. I realize now that I was so shortsighted. I was sure that there was a place in the pack for you, one that neither of us were aware of, but all I did was make you feel like you had to hide your plans from me. I pushed you right into harm’s way, Bryn.”
“Oh, Mom, don’t say that.” It made my chest ache to see how sad she was. “You had faith in me when nobody else did. You were always in my corner, and I know that if you suspected even for a moment that Troy would chain me up in his bedroom to do who knows what to me, you would have gone with me in a heartbeat.”
She gave a sad sigh. “But why didn’t I see it? I should have had some indication of the danger.”
I reached over to touch the back of her gloved hand. “If you were me, I think you would tell me it was because the spirits didn’t want you to know.”
She paused, and then burst into laughter. I joined her, and she turned her hand under mine to intertwine our fingers briefly before we resumed gardening. We sat in companionable silence, plucking at weeds.
Eventually, I came across a particularly stubborn weed. I got annoyed trying to dig it out with my trowel, which seemed too imprecise for the job, and finally plucked off my glove, my hand already forming into a claw, and buried my hand in the loose soil. I followed the root of the weed down a few more inches and then lifted it up, only to find it wasn’t a weed at all, but a large radish that had dug itself deeply into the soil.
“Whoo!” I said, shaking the dirt off my hand. “Look at this thing! I hope my claws didn’t damage it too much.”
Mom gasped and caught hold of my hand. She stared at my claws, still covered with dirt. “My, my. I can’t say I thought I’d ever see the day that you were able to do this.” She let go of my hand, her eyes bright with excitement. “Please, tell me about your wolf and your first shift.”
I launched into that story next, but left out the fact that it had happened right after Night and I had made love for the first time. I did tell her that he had been with me at the time, and about how he had helped me.
She pressed her hand to her heart and sighed. “I wish I could have been there to see it, or that your wolf had felt she was able to come out while I was around. But true love was the only catalyst for her, I suppose.”
“The Wargs’ Elders and Violet told me that my wolf locked herself away to protect me from the trauma of losing my birth mom.”
“I see.”
“They also told me that I’m a descendant of the original pack mothers.” I added that a bit quieter, because it still seemed like something that was meant to happen to someone who deserved that sort of honor, not me. “I guess they have a plan for me, but whatever it is, it’s hidden to us.”
Mom nodded. She didn’t seem at all surprised to hear this news about me. “These things always work on their own time, not ours. But I knew that I was always meant to find you in the forest, Bryn. I knew you were meant for something more.” After a pause, she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and gave me a shy look. “Can I see your wolf?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” I grinned.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It still took me a few seconds to reach my wolf, but every time I shifted, that time got shorter and shorter. Soon, I knew, I’d be able to do it at will just like any other shifter. The change came over me more quickly, too—my wolf was eager to let our mother see her.
I shook the clothes off of my body as I shifted and got up on my hind legs. I did a turn for Mom, who clapped harder and laughed.
