Page 77 of Fractured Mates

Another scream echoes through the house and has my steps increasing in length, taking the stairs three at a time.

Are you sure you want to do this? Kyler asks through our bond.

I don’t miss his choice of words. “Want to” instead of “can.” He knows I can, and I do, too. But just because I’m capable of something doesn’t mean there isn’t a risk. I’m not cocky enough to believe I’m invincible.

There are a million scenarios I can fabricate proving it would be a bad idea for me to continue, but all I can picture is my sister’s hollowed face in that picture. I allow myself to imagine what she had to go through to look that way. That’s enough to know that I not only want to do this, but that I need to.

I’ve got this, I finally reply as we reach the landing on the second floor, but that’s not where I stop. The alpha’s room is on the third floor, and I have no doubt in my mind, even without the alpha gene in his pathetic body, Astor has taken it upon himself to move in as if he were one.

We hurry forward, but when we get to the last set of stairs, there’s a familiar face there bringing me to a halt.

“Mom?”

She nods, tears shining in her green eyes. “Hi, baby girl.”

My heart hammers in my chest. The picture didn’t show her age, but I can’t miss the changes now. Her hair is greyer than the light brown I remember, and wrinkles line her eyes and mouth. She’s lost even more weight than I thought and seems like a shell of the woman I used to know.

I brush away the softer parts of me that want to hug my mother for the first time in too many years and step forward to move past her.

She holds her hand out. “You need to stop, Sophie.”

I shake my head. “There is nothing you can do to stop me from doing what you couldn’t. Jules deserves better.”

The last sentence is spoken with a disgust I have no desire to hide, which makes my mother flinch. “He won’t hurt her.”

I laugh, and I’m tempted to punch her in the face, because Astor has clearly already done more than hurt Jules, based on the picture I saw. He’s traumatized her.

“Have you gone blind?” My voice raises, but Kyler presses his palm over my spine, reminding me to keep calm. This is a fight that’s more than personal for me, but I need to stay levelheaded, or I might as well walk away now.

“Astor already hurt her,” I say with an even tone. “I saw the picture. You were with her. How can you not see what I do?”

She’s shaking her head, and her hands are flailing. “It’s not him. It’s never been him. It was always…”

“What, Mom?” I snap, losing patience and unable to hide my disappointment in the woman she’s become. “You always have an excuse. I used to hate you for that, but now, I just pity you.”

I shove past her, feeling the heat of Kyler right behind me. Though, when I turn around, he’s stopped to help my mother sit on the steps. He whispers something in her ear, and she sobs loudly, the sound like a knife to my chest.

“Run, Sophie!” the voice that must be my sister yells before she starts to cry. “You never should have come back.”

Her weeping breaks my heart. “I never should have left” is what I want to tell her, but I won’t show weakness in front of the enemy. I won’t show him how much I care. Astor only needs to see how much I hate him and intend to murder him.

I step forward and pause at the door, double-checking that the knives I stashed in my boots and the one clipped to the back of my pants are still in place. Okay, and maybe to get my nerves in check.

You’re not alone, Sophie, Kyler reminds me, and I turn to face him.

His jaw is tight, and his shoulders shake with built-up tension. I know he wishes I weren’t here, that this wasn’t my fight, but the fact that he’s not stopping me now is all I need to know that he’s my person. No matter what happens next, I’m thankful it was him sent to stop me, even if he didn’t succeed.

I squeeze his hand and offer him a small smile. I know.

Together, we enter the room where Jules’s voice came from. My eyes scan the area quickly, and I count seven shifters hiding in the shadows, two next to Astor, one of who is holding on to my sister, and then my father on his left.

He hasn’t aged as much as my mother. He still has the same brunet hair and dark-blue eyes, though his nose is a little more crooked than I remember.

“Sophie,” he says to me, voice indifferent. “Welcome home.”

I huff with a smirk. “Quite the welcome party you threw.”

My stare moves to Astor next, and bile churns in my stomach. He still looks so much like Thane did, and memories try to force their way forward, but my bond with Kyler is stronger than my past. All I have to do is think about the mate I should have had first and any thoughts of the one I killed slowly disappear.