Chapter 52

I waved at Wayne as he got inside the car to go handle a few pack matters. There was a group of rogues seen nearby the border and he went to question them along with a few other wolves under him. I stayed at home during the next day, pondering and having some chai latte whilst Nora was making dinner. The night had passed by with ease. I slept in his embrace, forgetting all of my worries. When the morning sun shone, I turned over a new leaf and decided to not listen anything from my mother anymore. Whatever she spat out, it was bullshit and I truly needed to stop listening to her.

"Don't you feel bored here? I mean, Nora, you cook all day and light." I said, hands underneath my chin while my shoes were knocking against the table's leg. I had found boredom finding its way to me after Wayne had left. There was nothing more to fight with him about.

We had invited Grayson, the Alpha of the Goldridge Pack and his mate, Claudia over for dinner and Nora was preparing exactly that. They had called Wayne early in the morning, informing him when they were going to arrive. Almost around six. There were still many hours left as it was still early.

"I enjoy doing what I do, Clara." She replied, turning on the heat.

I placed my hands over the counter and sighed before getting up from the seat. My head was cloud, I had been in great stress over the past couple days and I needed some relief. "I'm going to take a bath." I announced.

It was just Nora in the house, the rest of the workers were outside, tidying up the garden. My voice echoed across the empty rooms and hallways as I spoke. I waved my hand at her before walking to the stairs and heading back to my room.

I could hear the sound of my mother spitting words in the silence. She hadn't stop, nor she had any intentions to. It had been more than a day and I began assuming that her presence here was going to be trouble. Wayne intended on moving her out of the basement and locking her up else where for peace of mind. He couldn't bear her as well—just as I couldn't.

She was trouble, needing to be pushed out of our lives but at the same time, we needed to keep her close incase she wandered off and made another poison to kill us all.

I never understood her hatred and I no longer wanted to understand her. She was her own person and locking her up forever was the greatest punishment she could ever get.

My bones and flesh melted into the warmth of the water. I soaked in all the relief and breathed out all my worries. A thin layer of smoke drifted around me in the air as I lit up a candle at the corner of the bathroom. The tension in my bones released. I stayed in the bath for a few long minutes, relaxing my self for as long as I could.

Things were turning around for the good.

Wayne and I were getting better for each other. I had began accepting the person he had become—the monster. I could see past it and I could accept him. There was only one problem left and it was the poison that we needed to destroy, just as we had done before. Though, then, it didn't turn a person into a lunatic, blood sucking monster, it merely weakened a werewolf for a short period of time.

It wasn't going to be hard but after that, we were free from all worries. Handling mother wouldn't be difficult either, we would lock her up somewhere in the corner of the world and never let her leave.

And then Wayne and I could move on with our lives. I could finally return back into the relationship once we had, better than what we had. We both had changed, greatly. Neither of us were the same people as before. Mistakes weren't going to be made and there weren't going to be any regrets.

I stepped out of the bath after half hour and wrapped a towel around my wet body. Smoke was built up in the entire bathroom so I left and went to the room to change. I pulled on a new full-sleeves shirt and buttoned it up before pulling up blank pants and tightening them around my waist.

Breathing steadily, I stepped out of my bedroom and headed back downstairs to check on Nora and take nibbles of the dinner she was preparing. Just a few more hours. My heart suddenly pounded in my chest. It was out of nowhere.

Adrenaline

I placed my hand on the sides of the stairs and slowly stepped down. With every step, I felt the world around me collapsing as if something terrible was on its way. The silence was odd. I could no longer hear Nora in the kitchen nor the scent of the food she was preparing for dinner.

A dry lump grew in my throat and I swallowed hard before stepping down from the stairs and glancing at all four directions. My heart thudded harder before my gaze fell over Nora, lying on the ground, passed out—or worse.

I couldn't imagine what had happened.

I neared her without uttering a sound. Her pulse echoed in my ears. She was alive. Her hands were spread flat on the ground and she was lying on her stomach. The scent of her blood was in the air and as I got closer and closer, I found a wound at the back of her head as if she was knocked out with something hard. My eyes widened and I became fully aware of my surroundings.

My breathing hitched as I heard footsteps behind me, not one but two. I feared turning around as a part of me knew who was behind this.

Her chuckle was rough, "Well, well, the bird is out of its cage." My mother said, standing behind me, free and far away from the basement she was locked in.

Every fiber in my body stiffened and I turned around. It wasn't just her. Just beside her, I found him, my Uncle, Hawk, both of them grinning at me without any empathy in their eyes, proud of what they had become.

"What did you do to her?" I asked Mom, fearing what she might have done to Nora. She was already an old woman, anything dangerous was going to take her to her death quicker. "Did you poison her?" I raised my voice, my finger directed toward Nora that remained on the ground, passed out.

My mother chuckled again, mischievously, "Of course not," She shook her head and Uncle Hawk joined in with her joke. "But—you, Clara, you have been a terrible, terrible daughter." Sadness and anger spread over her face as she began stepping toward me.

I took a step back out of fear and the bile in my throat grew. I felt the slickness in my palm as I closed my hands and curled them into fists.

Uncle Hawk sneered before he rushed quicker toward me, quicker than my mother. He grabbed me from behind. I screamed and thrashed but I couldn't overpower him as my every move was taught by him. He pulled my hands behind my back. Pain shot through my arm like never and I kicked my legs while screams continued to pour out of me.

His strength took over mine and he restrained me to the ground while my mother kept moving forward to me. In that moment, I understood what she was about to do.

"You know what you are, Clara? A disgraceful daughter that I wished I would never have. You set me up, you played with me and you prisoned me in this hell hole with that vicious man I never wanted to see again! And over all that, you showed no gratitude for all that I—we had done for you." She exclaimed, her voice louder than my screams.

I silenced down and my eyes became wide in fear while my stomach coiled. She kneeled beside me and from her pants, she pulled out a small bottle. She pulled the cork off the tiny bottle and grabbed my face.

"No!" I exclaimed, thrashing at her. It was a struggle to pull away and I failed.

Every time.

Tears poured down my cheeks, wetting my face before I could even control my emotions.

"You'll learn to be more grateful to your mother after tonight." She yanked on my face harder, pressing her fingernails against my cheeks while Hawk held my arms tightly behind my back.

I heaved in few breaths before pressing my mouth shut as she bought the bottle to my lips. I could smell it. The poison. It was an awful herbal scent, similar to the poison she had made before.

My body trembled and the fear crowded me. After fighting and struggling, it became overwhelming and everything froze. She forced the liquid of the poison into my mouth before pressing her hand above it. I tried to sputter and spit it out but I couldn't. When it became harder to breath, I swallowed it down, unable to do anything anymore.

A memory flashed to when my mother would give me medicine, it was in a similar way as I always hated getting sick and taking medicines. I choked on them always and she used to force it down my throat always so I could get better.

But this wasn't a medicine.

It was poison.

She had betrayed me in a way I could have never imagined and in those few minutes, I felt as if everything had crumbled.

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