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“Hi, honey.” Mom stood and gave me a tight squeeze. “Ready to get all dolled up for your fated mate?” It had been a while since I’d seen her so excited.
My breath caught in my chest. I hadn’t thought about Ty in a handful of hours. Since there was no positives to telling her about our exchange in the country club parking lot, and I didn’t have the heart to tell Mom that Ty and I had gotten off to a rocky start, I kept it to myself.
“Absolutely.” I laughed and pointed at my head. “This hair needs a lot of work.”
We chatted while we waited for our stylists. I needed a distraction from my thoughts, which were mostly of Ty, despite how angry I was with him, so Mom filled me in on the latest gossip from her women’s book club. I tried to focus on her, but thoughts of Ty came too often and were too powerful to be drowned out by anything else.
“How often do you find yourself thinking about him?” she asked between sips of coffee, taking me by surprise at the quick change of subject. That had probably been her plan.
I thought back to yesterday’s interaction with Ty and frowned. There was no good way to tell my mother that my thoughts about him weren’t all kind. “More than I should,” I answered more honestly than I’d intended. But… it was my mom. Telling her didn’t feel dangerous. It wasn’t like she would run out and tell all her friends. “I still don’t know why he’s my fated mate, but I can’t deny the attraction… the pull.”
Mom smiled and nodded. “Maybe you should find out what his true intentions are. Maybe that’s the key to understanding why he’s the one fate chose for you.”
I thought that over as we sat under the hairdryers. If I didn’t give Ty a chance, even though he’d royally fucked up and hurt my feelings, demeaned my career, and acted like an entitled asshat, I would never be able to live with myself. I would always question what his intentions were and if I had prematurely ended the whole thing before it had even started. Plus, rejecting one’s mate was a big deal, especially when he was about to become the alpha.
I glanced around the salon. Even after all these years, people in this town still stopped and stared when they saw me. It used to make me uncomfortable. There were no other arctic wolves in this town or near this pack. I used to be sure they were intrigued or repulsed by how different I looked from them because they didn’t really socialize with me the way they did with my brothers. As I got older, it didn’t bother me as much. Now, though, I was sure their stares were due to the mating business with Ty.
After our hair was newly coiffed and Mom’s was colored, we met up with Sabrina at the local diner.
She waved to us from a corner booth. “Hey, guys!”
Mom slid in next to Sabrina, and I sat across from them. “Did you enjoy your day off yesterday?” I asked.
Sabrina grinned. “Of course I did. I slept a full twelve hours and binge-watched that new show about police detectives who hunt ghosts. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I’m dying to know how the luncheon went.” She tapped her long fingernails against her glass of soda. “Did you get a chance to talk with Ty?” Obviously, she hadn’t heard the tale.
Mom patted Sabrina’s arm like she was glad Sabrina had asked the question. “I’ve been anxious to know, as well.”
“What can I get for you, ladies?” The waitress chomped on her gum and stood at the edge of the table; her pen poised over her pad of paper.
We all ordered our usual cheeseburgers and fries, then I turned my focus back to the eager faces sitting across from me. These were women who wanted details.
“To answer your question, yes, we talked.” I bit my lip, unsure of what and how much I wanted to divulge. “He asked me out on an official date. Dinner.”
Sabrina squealed and clapped, then rolled her hands in the universal motion of tell me more. “I am so stoked to hear that. I knew he wouldn’t waste any time pursuing you, Liza.”
Mom, on the other hand, seemed reserved over the idea of Ty and me pursuing a relationship. Sadness clouded her eyes. “I just don’t want to see you hurt, baby girl. The Kellers live in a different world than we do. They run in a completely different social circle, and it’s no secret that they are wealthy.” She was trying to protect me, but there was nothing wrong with Ty’s lifestyle—nothing I had to fear. I could hold my own.
I sighed. “I know all that, Mom. Besides, it shouldn’t matter. Either Ty likes me for who I am or it just won’t work out. It’s as simple as that.”
“It’s not just their social standing that worries me.” Mom took a sip of water. “Being an alpha’s mate doesn’t just give you a special title. You would have as many responsibilities to the pack as the alpha does. Do you think you’re ready to take that on?” She sounded as if she didn’t think I was.
Even though her doubts hurt, I shrugged as much to the question as to the uncertainty behind them. “I don’t know. Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about those things. I’m just focused on my potential relationship with Ty.” Was it really called focus if I was unable to think of anything else? “If we’re truly fated to be together then those responsibilities will come naturally to me. I hope.”
Mom leaned forward, apparently not done airing her grievances or worries. I was having a problem discerning one from the other. “I’m worried the pack won’t accept you.”
“Oh, is that because I’m from a lower class than Ty, or is it because I’m not actually a member of the pack?” I wasn’t part of his pack. Or any pack. Which begged the question: where did I belong? Would I know it when it happened? I also wondered with increasing regularity whether or not fate knew I needed a pack and chose this one for me by fating me to Ty. There were considerations to make, but right now, I was locked in a heated eye-exchange, watching their reactions to my accusation. Mom lowered her gaze to the table, and she and Sabrina fell silent. We all knew it was one or both of those things.
“Perhaps,” Mom said quietly. “But you’re just as much a member of this pack as anyone else.” We both knew that wasn’t true, but no one ever really mentioned it because the rules of propriety and our family forbade it.
I was tired of hiding behind the family tendency toward denial.
Her words floated on the air, and each of us might as well have had a bubble over our heads that said ‘LIAR’. I was adopted. An outsider. It wasn’t like it was a secret or that it ever could be. Anyone with eyes who could tell light hair from dark could see it without knowing my history. I didn’t belong.
My dream came to mind. I wondered, not for the first time, if I should try to find out where I belonged. If I uncovered my past, perhaps it would explain why I was the way I was. One could hope, anyway. I’d never seriously considered it before, even though I thought about it regularly. Now, maybe it was time. Maybe knowing where I came from and how I’d ended up here would explain to me why fate had put me and Ty together.
I sighed, deflated. “Clearly it doesn’t matter to any of these people that fate and Ty both chose me as his mate. All that matters to them, anyway, is what they think of us.” And that was the word that spread from the one who thought it until everyone in town had an opinion they were more than happy to share.
Mom reached across the table and squeezed my hand gently. “No, Liza. What matters is what you think of yourself.”
