Their Human Mate

Run, Ember

Ember

The dream I had that night was sort of foggy. I saw my mother. She was walking toward a light. In that light, I could see my father’s face.

“Mom,” I called out. She reached dad and then turned around and looked at me, emotionless. A tear fell down her face, and dad reached out of the light to wipe it away.

“Run, Ember. Run as far and as fast as you can. Go to Miami. He will not follow you there.”

My mom stepped into the light with my dad, and the light faded. I was soon in utter darkness, and I heard a voice behind me — Ryder’s voice.

“Look what you made me do!”

He grabbed me from behind, and then I woke up in a sweat. Mom. My first thought was that I needed to get to my mother. As soon as I hopped out of bed, I ran to the door and swung it open. Ryder was on the other side of it with some flowers. I didn’t have time for him. I pushed past him.

“Move, Ryder. I need to get to my mother,” I said. His bodyguards blocked my way.

“Move. Now,” I commanded, but it fell on deaf ears. If anything, they looked like they pitied me.

“Ember,” Ryder said behind me. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

“Whatever you need to say can wait, Ryder. I need to get to my mother,” I said, frustrated, though a pit was forming in my stomach.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Ember.”

“And why the hell not?”

“Because she is dead, Ember.”

I stood still. He was lying. No way that dream was real. Was it?

“I need to see my mother,” I said. I felt as if I were about to hyperventilate.

“Ember…” Ryder started to say, but I cut him off.

“SHOW HER TO ME. NOW.”

His eyes flashed black for a moment — a sign that always meant he was losing his patience with me. He looked at his guards and nodded. They parted, and I drove home with Lamonte and Ryder following in their own car. When I got there, the place was a f*****g mess. Ryder’s men were already inside. The walls had s***h marks on them, as if some sort of animal had come through. My stomach turned as I approached my mother’s room. Blood. So much blood. It was sprayed everywhere. My mother’s body was on the bed, covered in a sheet.

“Mom,” I called out as I approached the bed. I threw the cover back and immediately puked.

There was not much left of my mother. Her insides had been pulled from her body. Some of her organs were missing. Her eyes had been plucked out and the top of her head looked as if it had been caved in. Both of her arms were ripped off. A s***h mark ran across her neck. It looked like she had been clawed by a bear, or a…

“Wolf,” Ryder finished my sentence. I dropped to my knees. My mother. Dead.

Ryder came over and put his arms around me. “It looks like one of the wolves reported being sighted on the news came through the window,” he said, motioning to the broken window above her bed. I burst into tears. She was already in pain. To imagine the pain she must have been in when this happened. I should have been here. Home. Instead, I had stayed at Ryder’s. Ryder…

I looked at him as my mom’s words came back to me.

Run, Ember. Run as far and as fast as you can. Go to Miami. He will not follow you there.

Was she referring to Ryder? It was just a dream, but the coincidence was too great. Could Ryder have had something to do with this? We did have a huge fight. I pulled a gun on him. Maybe he had a pet wolf and set it on my innocent mother. My mind was spinning.

“I want to leave here,” I told Ryder. He nodded. “Grab her things,” he commanded his guards.

I stood up and went behind the house. It was a very hot day, but I couldn’t bear to just leave my mother like that. Ryder followed, curious to see what I was doing. I grabbed a shovel and started digging a grave in the backyard.

“Ember, love, we have people that will do that,” he said, trying to take the shovel, but I snapped. No one was burying my mother but me.

“Don’t f*****g touch me. Just…stop. I am burying her here. Father is buried out here. She will be beside him.” I kept digging.

I’m not really sure what he said after that. I tuned him out and kept digging. My head was a mess. He went back inside, and Lamonte came out, grabbed a shovel, and helped me dig. I recalled the day my father died. He had always wanted to be buried in our backyard for some reason, and we honored that wish. I dug his grave and visited him from time to time. Now here I was, doing the same for mom.

After the grave was deep enough, Lamonte went back inside. He returned with what was left of my mother, wrapped in a sheet. He laid her in the hole before climbing out. I was on my knees, tears falling, using my hands to push the dirt back over the grave.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this again,” I said. He stayed silent, which was good. I wasn’t trying to hear anyone say anything.

Ryder came back outside. “Ember, some spies were just spotted around the mansion. I have to go,” he said. “Stay with her,” he said to Lamonte, who nodded. Ryder and his bodyguards left soon after, leaving just me and Lamonte. He went into the house and came back out with a duffel bag.

“We need to go. Now,” he said.

“Just give me a moment, Lamonte. I doubt Ryder will let me out of his sight once we get back to the mansion.”

“We’re not going back to the mansion, Ember. I’m getting you out of Tallahassee.”

I stood up, confused. “Why? Ryder said we needed to go back to the packhouse.” He started walking toward my car. I followed.

“Ryder is not the man you think he is,” Lamonte said as he climbed into the car. I got in the passenger seat.

“Ryder is just trying to keep me safe, as annoying as it is,” I told him, though I only half believed what I said.

“Ryder is the reason your mother is dead.”

He said it looking me dead in the eye, then cranked up the car and sped away.

“You’re lying,” I said. He kept driving, zipping along the highway.

“I’m not, Ember, and I think deep down you know that as well as I do.” I was silent. Thinking. Was this revenge for me pulling a gun on Ryder?

“You’ve lived with us long enough to know he is prone to dramatic outbursts when he is upset. Did you ever wonder what really happened to Victoria?” he asked, making a sharp right.

“She killed herself. Suicide.”

“It’s all bullshit. Victoria was in love with another, and Ryder tried to claim her for his own on the threat of killing the love of her life. When she finally got the courage to leave, he couldn’t take it, and snapped her neck right in front of her lover. He is so fascinated with you because you honestly look so much like her. He has a type,” Lamonte said. He made another sharp turn. I had no clue where we were going. I took it all in silently. Then I started putting it together — why this was so important to him.

“It’s you, isn’t it? Victoria’s lover.”

He didn’t reply, but his silence was confirmation enough.

“If Ryder is such a bad guy, why would you stay and work for him? What does he have over you?” I asked.

“It’s something I am forbidden from explaining. I had a hunch something bad would happen again when he first brought you to our land, so I prepared better this time,” he said, coming to a stop in front of a blue Honda Accord. He got out and I followed. He opened the door, started it, then tossed me the keys. I caught them.

“This is as far as I can take you. If you want my advice, head to Miami. He cannot follow you there — it crosses into enemy territory.”

They were essentially the same words my mother had said. Why was Miami so important?

“Come with me,” I told him, holding out my hand.

“I can’t leave this territory,” he said before handing me a flier about a cook wanted at a restaurant in Miami called Moonlight.

“Seek out the Moonlight restaurant and speak to the owners, Seth and Carter. Tell them Seal sent you. They will know who I am and help you get settled,” he said, before pulling me into a hug. A lone tear fell down my cheek and he wiped it away.

“I hope that by helping you find peace away from this madness, my Victoria will be at peace,” he said, before pulling away.

His face then seemed to contort in a way I didn’t understand, as if he were fighting something within himself, and he started speaking to himself.

“No. You will not do this again. She is not yours.”

He threw me the duffel bag. “Take it. It has money and the resources you will need to get away.” He took my phone and dropped it on the ground.

“Ryder has a chip in your phone to track you. NOW GO.”

I hopped in the car, watching him struggle with himself in front of it.

“For Victoria, Alpha.”

He said it before pulling a gun from his waistband and pressing it to his own head.

“I’m sorry, Vicky.”

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. I screamed and drove away. I knew the way to Miami, so I drove. I drove like a bat out of hell, processing everything he had told me. So much was happening so fast, but I would have time to grieve later. I believed Lamonte. No one would randomly risk their own life the way he just did to help me escape. Whatever love I had ever felt for Ryder disappeared the second I accepted the truth — he had killed my mother.