Forbidden

Chapter 36

“She doesn’t… hate you, per se… She just needs some time to adjust to the fact that she’s marrying someone who’s not her Mate. Just try to imagine yourself in her shoes.”

“But, she’s not adjusting. You know how she is. When Misha doesn’t want something, she won’t make it happen, end of story.”

Ah, so they were talking about me.

“She’ll come around.”

“No,” mom disagreed. “She won’t. We’re forcing her. I never wanted to force her into this. She liked him, now all of a sudden she hates him… Should we give her… more time?”

“No, you know the Kings won’t entertain that, already Simone doesn’t understand why Misha is so iffy about her son. Do you want to risk offending them?”

“I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Simone,” my mother snorted. “That woman has shown her true colors and I can’t stand her. I want Misha happy.”

“So do I,” dad obliged. “But sometimes our happiness is hindered by what’s best for us.”

I heard my mom’s heavy sigh. “All right. But I don’t want her to look at me like she does, dear. It makes me feel wrong that my child must think of me as a horrible person.”

“It won’t be that way for long.” Dad replied. “Don’t fret yourself about it. Now go along and get into the car with them, I’ll follow you out in a moment. I just have to lock up.”

“Okay,” and with that, I heard high heels clicking against the wood floors as my mother strode down the hall and out the open door, into the night.

I breathed out and exited the kitchen, quickly heading out behind her.

I wordlessly slid into the backseat of my dad’s car, handing Tegan her shawl and looking out of the window. I caught my mom’s saddened gaze in the side view mirror, and quickly looked away from her, not allowing her to guilt me.

No matter how bad she must have felt about it afterward, she was still Binding me to a man I hated, and I would not forgive her. Not even if my life depended on it.

Dad got into the car moments later, and backed out of the driveway, beginning the drive to the council house, where the celebration was to be held. Everyone in the Pack was going to be there, even the elders—and I knew Tegan wasn’t exactly looking forward to that, because her berating grandmother was an elder and they would be forced to be speak to one another tonight.

Yet she looked gleeful as she lounged in my brother’s arms in the backseat, a calm sort of serenity covering her face. It was that expression that sent a pang of heart ache through me as I began to register that I would never see Liam again.

Maybe one more time.

One more night before…