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“She was wonderful,” Milo replied.
“Was?” Colt looked down at him, his brows furrowed.
“She died three years ago after a car accident. She veered into a ditch. The roads were icy and visibility was crap. By the time she was found, she’d already died.” Milo cleared his throat. He still wanted to cry whenever he talked about her.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Colt gently squeezed his hand. “What made her wonderful?”
Milo had no idea why Colt was asking, but he recalled what his mate had said about his own mother the night they’d met. “I never knew my dad. He bailed when she found out she was pregnant with me. My mom raised me by herself. She worked long hours but always made time for me.”
“Did she bake you cookies and give you hugs?”
“Yes to both. We didn’t have a lot of money, but I never felt as if we were lacking for anything.” He told Colt about the zoo, movie night, and all the ways she’d made his childhood, and adulthood, special.
“When I was twenty, my mom met a guy,” Milo said. “They got married a month later, but the marriage didn’t last long.”
“If it’s okay, can I ask why?”
The forest was so different during the daylight. It seemed friendlier with the sound of birds chirping and a light breeze rustling the leaves. The sunlight poked through the canopy in various spots, but it felt ten degrees cooler now that they weren’t in the direct sunlight.
“I’ve always lived at home. It’s hard to afford your own place when you have a minimum-wage job. My mom didn’t mind, and I thought of us as a team. While my mom was dating Chris, he seemed cool with me being there. It was after they were married that he began making comments that I was an adult and should’ve moved already. I tried to stay away as much as possible because they were newlyweds and would naturally want time for themselves, but that wasn’t good enough for him. Chris and my mom argued about that a lot, among other things.”
Colt remained quiet, staring ahead as Milo talked, but Milo knew the guy was listening to him.
“After six months, they divorced. I felt guilty for the longest time because a lot of their arguments were about me still living at home. I’ve been working since I was sixteen, helping my mom with the bills. Chris made me feel worthless, and whenever my mom wasn’t home, he would say I was the cause of their failing marriage.”
“How old are you?” Colt asked, still holding Milo’s hand.
“Twenty-seven.” Milo remembered what the deputy had said to him in the car. “How old are you?”
“Two hundred and twenty,” he said as if that wasn’t a big deal, and then added, “I didn’t mean to shock you.”
“Deputy Lowery filled me in on how long shifters live,” Milo admitted. “That surprised me, as did learning that he’s a lion shifter.”
Colt seemed lost in his head as they took the path to the right when they came to a fork. “Not everyone is blessed with a good mother, but I’m glad to know you had a happy childhood,” he said, though he wasn’t looking at Milo. “My father died when I was a small pup. I don’t even remember him. I was raised by a single parent, too.”
He stopped, which made Colt stop. His mate glanced down at him as Milo said, “I remember you telling me she was a heartless bitch.”
Looking around, Colt led them to a fallen tree, where they sat. “Even that’s too nice for what she really was.” He examined their entwined fingers. “I was raised with Kellen and my cousin. For some reason I’ll never understand, my mom hated Jared. Not that she was loving toward me or Kellen, but she took her anger out on my cousin the most.”
Laying his hand over their joined ones, Milo asked, “Did she hurt him?”
Colt glanced away, swallowing roughly. “She hurt all of us. I’ll spare you the details, but it went on for a century and a half.”
Milo couldn’t imagine his mom raising a hand to him. There were times when she’d gotten upset with him when he was a kid, but the disappointed look in her eyes was punishment enough for him. “Physically?”
“Every way possible. Physically, verbally, emotionally, mentally,” Colt replied. “Then she got inventive.”
Milo wasn’t sure he wanted to know how inventive she’d gotten with her abuse.
“She forced Kellen to beat me with a leather belt whenever I looked at her the wrong way.”
A gasp escaped Milo.
“I don’t blame Kellen. He got it twice as bad if he refused to punish me. But I know he still carries the guilt of what he had to do to me.” Colt lifted their joined hands and ran his bearded jaw over Milo’s knuckles. “When my mom killed Jared, I took off, my head so fucked that I don’t remember a good portion of my life for the next twenty or so years.”
“I have no idea what to say.” Milo was sickened at the thought of the three of them living such a horrific life. He wanted to hug the boy that used to be Colt, protecting him from his mother’s wrath.
“There’s nothing you can say.” Colt’s eyes held unshed tears, appearing just as haunted at the wolf inked on Milo’s back. “I think I panic so much when you’re not with me because I’m terrified you’ll realize that you got saddled with someone worthless and decide to cut your losses.”
