Wolf Betrayed (Talon Pack #4)(13)

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or do you want me to try and guess?”

Charlotte turned at her mother’s voice and shook her head, a small smile playing on her face. Since wolves didn’t age past their thirtieth birthday—and sometimes even a few years before then—Ellie and Charlotte looked more like sisters than mother and daughter. Technically, they were sisters, but Ellie had adopted Charlotte when she was a young child, and Charlotte had called the other woman her mother since the day she had been brought into the Redwood Pack from the bowels of the Central Pack. The two of them had long, dark hair with bright brown eyes. Though they had two different birth mothers—thanks to their father, the former Alpha of the Central Pack, finding two mates in his lifetime—they looked much closer than half-sisters with their light brown skin and shapely hips and curves.

Charlotte wasn’t sure what she would have done without Ellie and Maddox in her life. They’d brought her hope in the darkness, and when her little sisters had been born, showed her that family was more than blood ties and history.

It was what you made it.

Thinking of how her life had once been, chained in a basement and hidden from the world, Charlotte wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist and hugged her tightly. Ellie didn’t say a word as she hugged her back, the familiar comfort of home and family sliding into Charlotte with that one touch.

“I’m going crazy,” Charlotte whispered after a moment.

Ellie slid her hand over Charlotte’s hair before pulling back so they faced each other on a fallen log she’d sat on outside her parent’s home. The sun was shining, and the breeze that slid over them was cool, but not too cold. Sitting here, where she’d sat so many times before, she could almost forget there was a battle going on outside of their borders and that her life had been rocked from its foundation once again just by walking into the Talon infirmary.

“Why are you going crazy, my love?” Ellie asked.

“I think…I think the moon goddess hates me.” Tears stung the backs of her eyes, and Charlotte cursed herself for being so weak. She couldn’t be crying, not when so many others were in worse positions and situations than she was. She should be grateful, and yet she couldn’t quite find the happiness she knew could be hers if she only gave in. Or maybe there wasn’t any happiness at all, and her world would continue to crumble.

Ellie sucked in a breath, taking a moment before she finally spoke. “I used to think that,” her mother said softly, surprising Charlotte. “About me, that is. That the moon goddess hated me. Then I found a purpose in fighting against the Centrals and found my Maddox, your father. I think that sometimes, fate and the scary world of mating and shifters takes you down a direction you never thought would be possible.” Ellie met her gaze and cupped Charlotte’s cheek. “I’m here if you want to discuss specifics. Or, I’m here only to listen. But know you’re never alone, Charlotte. Never.”

Charlotte closed her eyes and sighed. “I need to sort everything out before I can talk about it.”

Ellie just smiled and shook her head. “You know, some people do this thing called conversation to sort things out.”

She rolled her eyes at her mother’s words. “Yeah, well, I’ve never been one to take a shine to convention.” She leaned forward and kissed her mother’s cheek. “I need to go to the Talon den.” A pause. “I promised Walker I’d be there.”

She didn’t want anything to do with Shane, but her wolf calmed him, and the Talons needed her. While she hated to admit it, the idea that someone needed her for something touched a part of Charlotte that she did her best to ignore. Though no one had ever treated her like an outsider because of her birth, she’d always felt like a bit of one anyway. She’d never voiced her concerns, though she had a feeling her parents, and even Bram, had figured it out long ago anyway.

She didn’t have a title in the Pack, and for many wolves, that wouldn’t matter. Before the humans had found out about the existence of shifters, people in her position would merely find a job within the human realm and call the den home if that fit into their plans. Now, many of those employed outside the dens found themselves jobless and stuck within the wards until her Pack, as well as the other Packs in the country, figured out the next steps. She still trained with her cousins and other wolves because not doing so was a dangerous thing for a wolf, and she would fight alongside many of her fellow wolves during any hand-to-hand combat, but beyond that, she didn’t really have a role. It killed her that she had to sit on her hands and do nothing during many of the altercations. She knew it was her cousin Nick’s role as the new Beta of the Redwood Pack to ensure that she was comfortable and feeling needed, but she didn’t want to bother anyone. And she had always been good at hiding her feelings.

She’d had to learn early on, after all, since her father was the former Omega of the Pack, and his life dealt in feelings.

But now, the Talons needed her, and hopefully, that would lead to more responsibilities.

She said goodbye to her mother and headed to her vehicle so she could drive to the other den. Though there were underground tunnels, she wasn’t a fan of them since she couldn’t feel the breeze on her skin as easily. She’d been trapped in basements and other places when she was younger and didn’t want to relive that feeling if she could help it.