Werewolf and Vampire Mate [Book 1 Complete]

chapter nineteen.

"No. I was not on drugs." Although, now that I am reacquainted with normalcy, the entire weekend is beginning to feel a bit like a fever dream. Maybe the champagne Nik gave me was spiked and I hallucinated the entire thing. "I lost my phone. I'm sorry I didn't call Harper sooner. I'm sorry she called you at all," I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?" My mother snaps.

"Nothing."

"If you're going to be living here again, your attitude is going to need to be readjusted, young lady."

"I don't want to be living here again."

She glares at me. "How dare you? After everything we've given to you? Do you have any idea how privileged you are?"

I duck my head, feeling appropriately scolded. I know I am privileged, I know I have been given opportunities—between the private high school I attended and now Yale—that others will never have. But I would give it all up to have parents that love and understand me. Or is that a privileged thing to think? I'm not sure anymore.

"You only get to go to that university because your father and I work tirelessly to–"

"Give it a rest," my dad sighs, looking tired. "Enough."

One might think he is sticking up for me; he is not. He's simply tired of hearing my mother's voice.

We go silent for a long stretch of time until finally my mother brings out dessert. I'm already full. Why does every meal here have to be three full courses? Why can't we just have a normal meal like I am sure other families do?

I pick at my dessert—dark chocolate tart—until I feel my mother glaring at me.

"Now my cooking isn't good enough for you as well?" She asks coldly.

"What? No. I'm just full, that's all."

"Sure. Now that you're a Yale-educated young woman, you're too good for–"

"I never said I'm too good for anybody! You and dad were the ones that practically forced me to go to Yale and now you're mad that I went?" I shout. I've never ever shouted before in this house.

"How dare you?" She hisses, her eyes narrowed.

"Cut it out, both of you," my father chimes in.

This is too much. I feel like the walls are closing in on me, like this house is sucking the very life from my soul.

I stand up, throw my napkin down and storm out of the room.

"April! You have not been excused, come back here right now!" My mother screams from behind me.

I ignore her, marching straight for the front door. I can't sit here and pretend we're some happy family. My mother and father hate each other. He's disinterested in me, consumed by his work to escape the misery of his home life. And my mother is so obsessed with perfection that it tears apart everything around her.

I throw open the front door and walk straight out, slamming it closed behind me. I jog down the street, my eyes stinging with tears and then I start to run.

I run until my lungs burn and my legs ache, until I collapse against the side of a building far from my house, panting for air.

It's dark, the sun having long since set. There is a crunch of glass underfoot and I flinch, spinning around.

But it's just North.

His hands are stuffed into the pockets of his navy bomber jacket and even though he must have run behind me, he isn't the slightest bit puffed. He only looks mildly uncomfortable. "You alright?"