Zena Wynn - Claiming Shayla

“It’s no mistake,” he said in a flat voice. “You own a shop. You knew what that particular blend of herbs would do to Shay’s body, to the babe.”

Oh God, this was awesome. Damn, all she needed was popcorn. It was about damn time someone else knew what her mother was capable of. Ashley felt the gazes of others searching her reaction to the unfolding events. Seeing what she knew, if she knew anything at all. She held in a smile, struggling to look as horrified and stunned as the rest.

“I want to know why.” The human’s quiet voice cut like a knife through the uproar that had risen at Rory’s words.

“Why what? I didn’t do anything,” Laurie Bell protested. “Shayla, I know you’re new here, but believe me, this is all a terrible mistake. I’m a woman, a mother. A midwife, for God’s sake. Bringing healthy children into the world is what I do.”

The human stared at her out of a face set in stone. No sympathy there, either, Mother.

Laurie Bell glanced around wildly. “Why aren’t you listening to me?”

“I’d also like to know why,” Shannon stated. “Nikolai, can you…?”

All eyes turned toward Nikolai. He nodded. Then his eyes lost focus.

Her mother began struggling. “Stay out of my head!”

“She’s fighting me,” he said to Rory in a low voice that still managed to carry. “I need to get in front of her.”

“Kian,” Rory called.

Kian left Shayla’s side, stalked toward Laurie Bell like the predator he was, and grabbed hold of her arm. From the way the muscles in his arms bunched, Ashley would bet money that his hold was painful. Nikolai joined Rory in front of her mother. As he stared into her eyes, her mother screamed her rage. Her eyes changed and jaw elongated. The scream morphed into a deep-throated growl.

“She’s trying to shift,” Alex warned.

Nikolai’s eyes flashed red as he firmly ordered, “You will not shift!”

Ashley watched in horrified fascination as the wolf seamlessly faded away.

The scent of her mother’s fear rose in the air. She stared at the vampire like he was the devil coming to steal her soul, eyes wide and glassy.

Nikolai’s hand clenched on her jaw, and he leaned in close until they were eye to eye. His were a red flame of power. “Bitterness. Hate. So much hatred.”

Laurie Bell shook her head and threw her body back, trying to escape his grasp.

“Betrayal,” Nikolai continued, moving with her. “Love and hatred, intertwined.”

“Noooooo!” she moaned.

“I see a man, one she loved heart and soul. He turned away, mated someone—”

She turned to Rory, hatred in her gaze. The mask was finally gone. “Stop! I’ll tell you all. Just make him stop,” Laurie Bell demanded.

Rory considered, then gave an abrupt nod. Nikolai released her and stepped back.

Laurie Bell angled her gaze up toward the alpha’s mate. “You want to know why? I’ll tell you why. Magnus was mine. Then she came along. She was nothing. Less than nothing, but he mated her. When I asked why, you know what he said? The bastard actually fell in love with her. An omega. A nobody.”

At her words, Wesley protested. Magnus’s mate had been his sister, after all. No one paid him any attention, too caught up in the drama.

She turned her venomous gaze on Rory, then Kian. “When she got pregnant with twins, Magnus was so happy. Even happier when it turned out to be boys. The pack began to accept her. I couldn’t tolerate it. She had my man, my children, and what did I have? Nothing but pitying looks and questions about my suitability to be a mate.” Laurie Bell’s rage was palpable. Her voice and body trembled with it.

“He got his precious sons, but I made sure he didn’t enjoy them, enjoy her .” She smiled then at Rory and Kian, and it was purely evil. “If Magnus had been this much slower”—she held her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart—“getting into the room, you both would have been…” She snapped her mouth closed as though realizing she’d said too much.

“Would be what?” Rory asked in a dangerous voice.

Laurie Bell tightened her lips, refusing to answer.

“You will speak the truth, all of it,” Nikolai ordered. Ashley could feel the power in his words. They pressed on her mind and in her heart, and she had bite down on the urge to blurt out what she’d done. As insurance against confessing, she retreated farther into the safety of the pack, her hand covering her mouth.

“Dead. As it was, I damaged his precious firstborn so he couldn’t lead. Told him it was because his bitch was so weak that his sons were flawed. He died believing it.” She cackled, her laugh so manic Ashley felt the hairs on her nape rise. Her mother was well and truly crazy.

“No matter how much she tried, I never let her or anyone else forget she wasn’t good enough,” she continued. “I was happy as long as the three of you were miserable, but then you brought her here,” she said to Rory, nodding her head in the human’s direction. “Your pregnant mate. And you were happy —” She spat.

The interrogation began. The Raven pack’s alpha and mate, Shannon, and the human all asked question after question, demanding answers when Laurie Bell hesitated or resisted. At one point she bit her lip bloody trying to keep silent, but in the end, the combined powers of the vampire and Rory were too strong.

The whole sordid tale came powering out of her mother in fits and starts as she fought the compulsion. It infuriated her, but she told them all, and she spoke the truth. How she’d tried to smother Kian to death at birth because she couldn’t risk breaking his neck as she’d wanted. How she’d seduced and mated Magnus’s beta so she could remain close to him. How she’d fed Magnus’s mate, Susan, insecurities, causing trouble between the couple at every opportunity, and never let them know a day of peace.

When she got to the part of how she’d pushed her mate into challenging Rory for the position of alpha, Rory bellowed out, “ Enough !”

The force of his power sent most of the pack to their knees.

Laurie Bell’s mouth moved, but nothing came out. If looks could kill, the look she shot Nikolai should have incinerated him. She closed her mouth, a disdainful expression on her face.

Ashley was devastated. For the first time she realized that nothing she’d done and nothing she could ever do would make her mother love her, or approve of her. Laurie Bell hated her, not because she wasn’t a healer, but because she didn’t come from Magnus’s seed.

Sick at heart, she turned and left the clearing. She didn’t care what became of her mother, just as her mother had never cared about her.

“RORY,” SHAY CALLED in a soft voice.

She knew her man, and he was all but vibrating with fury. His claws were out, and through the bond she felt the struggle he had to control his beast. Her mate wanted blood. No, he wanted to gorge on Laurie Bell’s flesh and wallow in her blood.

“Rory,” she called again, “I need you.” Through the bond she pushed, hoping he’d hear her, “Please, come to me. She’s not worth it. Remember the plan.”

It was touch and go, but finally he returned to her side. Shay immediately burrowed close. Rory wrapped his arms around her and held her to him. Now that he was with her, Shay realized she was shaking.

So much hate. So many years of misery, attributed to one woman. It was sickening and so very sad. Shay still intended to make Laurie Bell pay for what she’d done. Justice demanded it, but she was woman enough to feel compassion. She couldn’t imagine the pain of giving someone all of you, only to be rejected, tossed over for someone you considered less than your equal.