Chapter Six

Gina. 

When I stepped back into the ballroom, the air felt different, thicker, heavier, crackling with tension. The music was gone, replaced by murmurs and gasps, as if the whole pack was holding its collective breath. All around me, wolves huddled in tight groups, whispering, watching. Watching me.

I held my head high, even as my stomach churned. My cheeks still burned from the kiss Alpha Ryan’s kiss. The man everyone feared. The man whose name alone sent shivers down spines and made even Brandon stutter like a child.

He was gone now, slipped away after making his announcement in the most dramatic, public way possible. Mate. That word still echoed in my ears. That kiss still lingered on my lips.

I was still reeling when I saw her, my mother making her way through the crowd, her tray abandoned, her apron stained with wine. Her gray streaked hair was frizzing at the ends, her hands shaking. But it was her eyes that struck me most: wide, terrified, wet.

“Mama,” I called, meeting her halfway.

“What did you do?” she whispered harshly, grabbing my arms with surprising strength. “Gina, tell me you didn’t.”

“I did,” I said, forcing a smile that trembled at the edges. “I’m his mate.”

Her face crumbled. “No. No, Gina. No, baby you can't go with that man”

Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks before I could even say another word. I reached for her hands, trying to calm her, reassure her.

“Mom, listen to me,” I said quickly. “It’s okay. He’s not like they say, not to me. He wants to help. You can come with us you’ll be free. We’ll be free. No more Brandon. No more servitude. Just you and me, starting over.”

But she kept shaking her head, backpedaling like she couldn’t bear to hear the words. “You don’t understand, Gina. You don’t know  what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about? This is good. It’s better than anything Brandon ever offered. You think staying here, as a slave, is better than being free with me?”

Her lips trembled. “Freedom bought by Ryan is no freedom at all.”

I was losing her. I could feel it. “He promised me you’d have a job. A real one. A home. No more collars, no more orders. Just peace.”

My voice cracked, and I hated that it did. I had clung to that promise like a life raft, and now it was slipping through my fingers.

“I can’t go,” she whispered. “I won't go, that man is the absolute devil. "

My pulse spiked. “What do you mean mom, I have read the stories too?”

She looked around, eyes darting like she was afraid of being overheard, and pulled me into a corner of the hall, behind a marble column draped with ivy. Then she leaned in close, gripping my face between her palms.

“Ryan and his father… you’ve heard the rumors. I lived them,” she said, voice trembling. “I grew up in the West Pack, Gina.”

The air left my lungs. “What?”

“I left when I was barely twenty. Ran in the night with a group of deserters. We were hunted like animals. Only four of us made it across the border. He and his father… they butchered anyone who defied them.”

“Then why would he spare me?” I asked, trying to hold onto logic. “Why would he promise to protect me, to give you a new life?”

“Because he needs something,” she said, her voice nearly a hiss. “He always needs something. And when he’s done getting it, he discards people like yesterday’s trash. Or worse.”

“That’s Brandon!” I snapped. “Brandon used me. Brandon marked me in secret, took everything from me, and left me bleeding on the floor when I lost his child! And you think Ryan is worse?”

She winced like I’d struck her. I hadn’t meant to be cruel, but the anger came boiling up too fast, too hot.

“You don’t know him like I do,” she said. “You see power and freedom, but I see death. Destruction. Gina, I’ve watched that man rip out another Alpha’s throat in front of a council just for questioning his authority. I’ve watched his father burn down an entire village because one warrior refused to join them. They are monsters in silk.”

I shook my head. “No. He’s… he’s not like that. Not with me. I felt it.”

“You felt a performance,” she said, wiping tears from her cheek. “The way he walked in there, kissed you in front of everyone? That was calculated, Gina. To show Brandon, to show all of us, that he could take whatever he wanted, including you.”

I took a step back, her words slicing through me. “But… he said I could leave after a year. He said you could come, that he’d give you a job”

“And what happens when a year passes and he changes his mind?” she whispered. “What happens if you decide to leave and he says no? Gina, you’re not just walking into a deal. You’re walking into a trap. It's too good to be true”

“I can’t stay here,” I said softly. “Brandon won’t let me live. He said I was his toy. His toy, Mama.”

She flinched.

“I know,” she said. “I know what he is. But at least with him, I know the devil I’m dealing with.”

“Are you really saying you’d rather stay here? As his slave? Than be free with me?”

Her silence was answer enough. But then she said the words anyway, and they shattered something inside me. I had fought so hard for her, for her to come with me and suddenly she had this bad stories about Ryan. I didn't even know she grew up in the west side until today. 

"I am going with him mama." I finally said with finality, staying here, watching Brandon and Ashley every day for the rest of my life was not an option or a life I wanted to live. 

“I would rather be a slave to Brandon,” she whispered, “than have my freedom bought by Alpha Ryan.”