“You don’t understand. When your daddy brought me back here, it was a huge upset. He was supposed to marry a girl from the Ansen pack. It was all arranged. And then he left, which was bad enough, but then he found me. I was unattached, but we got pregnant with you and we married without permission from either pack. I couldn’t go back home, do you understand?”
My mouth dropped open but no words would escape. I knew that my mother didn’t have contact with her pack in Florida, but I thought it was because of the distance and how possessive my dad’s pack was. We just didn’t have the time to visit them or keep up socializing. I’d never really thought about it.
“He brought me back here and nothing was the way I thought it would be. Lonnie had been chosen as the next Alpha, passing over your daddy. And that was bad enough, but I just didn’t fit in here. It was nothing like my pack and the harder I tried, the more the aunts pulled away and ignored me. So I just followed. I did exactly what they wanted, and they finally accepted me.”
“Have they really?” I asked.
“Well, as close as they’ll ever come to accepting me,” she said.
“I don’t want that sort of life , Mama. I need your help. I can’t keep this up. I’m going to make changes. And if those changes make them as mad as I think they will, I’m going to need your support.”
Mama’s shoulders curled around her. “I can’t honey. If that’s what you want, you’re going to have to do it on your own.”
“Even if it means you might never see me again?” I asked.
She turned to me, her dark eyes full of tears. “I can’t lose your daddy, the pack. I’ve put too much time in to lose it all now.”
I nodded, trying not to let it hurt that she didn’t consider me part of what she could lose.
“Can you at least promise not to tell anybody anything until I’m ready?”
She laughed, a brittle, rattling sound. “You think I want to be the one to tell him?”
She got up, and without another word, walked out of my room. For a long time, I sat on the bed and stared at the wall. I don’t know why I’d hoped my mother might make this situation easier, but now it was clear I was on my own. And if I didn’t do something, I would end up just like her, unhappy, gray and constantly afraid.
No more being afraid.
I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the contacts. The phone rang several times before I realized that it was daytime and Dick wouldn’t be awake for hours. Friendships with vampires was very rewarding but this whole “dead during daylight hours” was sort of inconvenient. I waited for the voicemail to pick up.
“Hey Dick, it’s Ty. I know you’re sleeping right now, but when you get up can you call me back? I was wondering if that apartment is still available.”
9
“Being left ‘on read’ can be very frustrating. But showing up at someone’s door to ask why they haven’t responded to your text? It’s an overstep.”
—A Gentleman in Any Era: An Ancient Vampire’s Guide to Modern Relationships
* * *
Contrary to what my parents had told me, once I told Dick that I was interested in the apartment, it was all very simple. They didn’t even run a credit check on me and gave me a “family discount.” My savings, considerably padded by the extra income from my new clients, were more than enough to cover first and last month’s rent, plus deposit. I had utilities set up in my name within twenty-four hours of calling Dick.
For the first time in my life, I felt like a real adult. I was buoyed by this strange sense of hope. I had been so sure for so long that nothing would ever change. I thought I knew exactly how my life was going to play out and now, suddenly there were so many possibilities. I could do anything, go anywhere. I just had to have the courage to complete this first step.
Dick and Andrea were the only people who knew. I didn’t want to tell anyone else until I told my parents. And I kept putting that off. I set a deadline for telling them after I had the application filled out. And then I thought maybe I wouldn’t say anything until