Leo's POV
The broken-down house sits like a rotting wound on the edge of Shadowcrest territory. Each step toward it fills me with shame I refuse to acknowledge. Helena was right about one thing. Her father once commanded respect in our pack. When he died, we erased his family from memory like they never existed.
But I'm not here to apologize.
What's done is done. I'm here for one reason only. To make sure she doesn't leave. I can't explain this burning need, but even after rejecting her, something inside me demands she stay within Shadowcrest territory.
Helena's mother Dotty sprawls across the front porch steps. A liquor bottle dangles from one hand while a cigarette burns between her fingers. The sour stench hits me before I'm halfway up the path. It's the smell of a werewolf whose wolf has abandoned them. The scent of the broken.
I've seen it before. Not often, but when it happens, the devastation destroys both human and wolf. I wonder how long she's been walking around wolf-less. Then I push the thought away. She's not why I'm here.
Dotty doesn't notice my approach. She's too busy wailing like a wounded animal on her front step. I clear my throat, hoping to snap her out of whatever breakdown she's having. Instead, she cries louder.
"Shut up," I growl.
Her bloodshot eyes snap to mine. She scrambles to wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Alpha Leo," she tries to purr, her voice slurred and desperate. The attempt at seduction makes my skin crawl.
"I'm here for your daughter."
Fresh sobs burst from her throat, but these tears feel different. Selfish. "She abandoned me. Left me here to starve. Now I have nothing. No money, no way to survive."
She reaches toward me with trembling fingers, hope lighting her drunken features. She actually expects me to care for her pathetic existence. I step back before she can touch me.
"You're her mother," I say slowly, trying to make sense of her words. "You should have been supporting her."
"I'm grieving," she shrieks.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, fighting to control my temper. Even though Helena means nothing to me, this situation makes my blood boil. "How long has Helena been working to support you?"
"Seven years," she slurs.
The confession hits me like a physical blow. I roar with rage, the sound echoing across the empty yard. She finally stops her pathetic crying.
"She's been supporting you since she was fifteen?"
"Fourteen," she corrects, then immediately realizes her mistake.
"Did you not care about her education?" I snarl.
"She's a burden," Dotty screams back. "I never wanted a child that wasn't mine."
I pace across the front lawn, fury making my vision blur. My foot slips on something scattered in the grass. Looking down, I see photographs spread across the ground like fallen leaves. I gather them up, and my stomach turns.
Each photo shows Helena. Walking to work. Leaving the diner. Standing outside this very house. Someone has been watching her. Stalking her. I flip one over and find sloppy handwriting: "I am watching."
Someone was hunting my mate. But why would anyone care about a nobody like her?
"What do you mean she wasn't your child?" I ask, my voice deadly quiet.
Dotty's green eyes widen with terror. She shakes her head frantically, pressing her lips together.
I shove the photos into my pocket and close the distance between us in two strides. My hand wraps around her throat, claws piercing her skin. She gasps and claws at my grip.
"I won't ask again," I warn.
I drop her to the ground where she lands hard, gasping dramatically. I give her exactly one moment to recover before nudging her with my boot.
"Where did Helena come from?"
She looks up at me from the dirt, fear flooding her features. But even terrified, she shakes her head. "I'm bound by an oath. I can't tell you."
I loom over her cowering form, but she won't break. I shouldn't care about any of this. I rejected Helena. She's already fled my pack. But something deep inside me burns with the need to know everything about her. To understand where she came from.
"Who bound you?"
The fear drains from her eyes, replaced by something else. Something wrong. Her expression shifts into dark amusement, like another presence has taken control.
"An ancient one."
The words that leave her mouth aren't hers. They don't belong to her wolf either. These words come from whatever creature bound her with forbidden magic. She's telling the truth, but that doesn't mean she gets to walk away. She'll pay for how she treated my mate.
I grab a fistful of her red hair and drag her toward my car. She screams and thrashes, trying to escape, but only makes things worse for herself. Once I find someone to break this oath, she'll tell me everything. Then I'll sentence her to death.
I throw her into the backseat where she curls into a ball. But that disturbing amusement never leaves her face.
"You were her mate," she almost laughs. "And you rejected her."
I gun the engine and speed down the road, trying to drown out her twisted laughter.
Back at the pack house, I rip Helena's mother from the car and toss her to my waiting guards.
"Throw her in the cells."
They stare down at the hysterical woman but don't question my orders. Unlike with me, she goes with them willingly. Something has broken inside her mind. She's completely shattered now.
Not that it matters. I doubt Helena would miss her abusive mother anyway.
Inside the pack house, I hunt down my Beta Joshua. He'll find Helena and bring her back to Shadowcrest territory. I don't care if she's kicking and screaming the entire way. She will return.
I can admit when I'm wrong. It doesn't happen often. But rejecting Helena Ervin might have been the biggest mistake of my life.