Page 55 of Half Wolf Mate

“Hunters killed my mother too…I think.”

“Isn’t that something you’d be sure about?”

I shrugged. “I never knew my mother. I was told she was killed when I was around two. I was adopted by her friend and kept safe until hunters found me.”

Seemingly intrigued, he turned to me and folded his arms. “How did they find you?”

“That’s the puzzling part. Seventeen years flying under their radar, and they just showed up one day, killed my aunt, and have been after me since. The only culprit I can think of who would tip off the hunters is my Uncle, Sam, but he loved Aunt Lydia. I don’t think he would want her killed.”

“Maybe not intentionally,” Adam murmured.

My gaze flew up to meet his. Adam could be on to something. Perhaps it was Sam who tipped off the hunters. Combing my fingers through my hair, I sighed heavily. “I feel like I’ve been living in a confusing nightmare for months. I’m so tired.”

“Well, you’d better perk up, Sydney. Getting tired and letting your guard down in this world will get you killed. Has your mate taught you nothing?”

“Sounds to me like you care. I guess you’re not as awful as you pretend to be.”

He scowled. “Whatever. I’m sorry about your aunt. Humans sometimes get caught in the crossfire.”

I nodded and leaned against the headboard. My head and my leg ached. “Thanks. Aunt Lydia was my mom’s best friend. Mom’s last wish was for her friend to take me and protect me from the shifter world, so I didn’t know I was a half-werewolf until recently.” I felt comfortable talking about my mother with Adam because he could relate. “From Mom’s letters, she knew trouble was coming because she’d fallen in love with the wrong man. A human. A hunter.”

Adam drew closer, his eyebrows knitted. “Huh. Sounds a lot like my mother’s story.”

“What a coincidence, huh?”

He nodded, but he still wore that frown, and he was watching me with new curiosity. “My mother was with my father for a while,” he shared. “It wasn’t a match, as in she wasn’t Dad’s true mate. Their union was more for procreation. When I was around seven, Mom left. I was mad at her for a long time. She abandoned me. But when I got older, I understood why she left. She hated being one of my father’s concubines, sharing him with other females to create as many offspring as possible to help the pack grow.”

My eyebrows shot up.

Adam shrugged. “A lot of the older shifters still engage in archaic practices. Anyway, Mom wanted more. She wanted love.” His lips kicked up slightly at the corners. “She told me all of that in a letter. In the other letter she left me, she told me how much she loved me. How hard it was for her to leave me. But she hated her life in my father’s pack and had to leave. Dad wouldn’t allow her to take me. She said she’d get her life together and come back for me. However, she joined the Moon Guardians, and her life went further downhill. They ostracized her, and without the protection of a pack, she was murdered. You understand, now, why I hate them? Why I hate the Alpha?”

Adam’s mother and mine had too many similarities to be coincidences. “Cole had nothing to do with what happened to your mother all those years ago.”

“No, but his father did. I hate Cole by extension, and after I find Benjamin and kill him, I intend to stick around New Orleans and make your mate’s life hell.”

I rolled my eyes. “Grow up.” He hit me with another of his fierce scowls. “Okay, Adam, this sounds crazy, but your mother’s story sounds exactly like my mother’s story.”

He snorted.

“My mother left her first pack, too, and joined the Moon Guardians,” I said. “She fell for a hunter and was shunned by the pack for her betrayal. She was killed by hunters. Her name was Sophia Elliot.”

Adam’s gaze jumped to my face. “Sophia Elliot? That’s…” His eyebrows cinched together. “That’s my mother’s name.”

The silence that ensued was deafening. Adam and I gaped at each other for…I wasn’t sure how long.

Chapter 24 Sydney

My mind raced.

Adam was my half-brother. “How old are you, Adam?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Twenty-eight.”

“I’m twenty. The timing adds up, and our stories about our mothers are the same. We’re siblings.”

Adam’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. It was like he had trouble processing. So did I, but my excitement about discovering a blood relative mounted.

Finally, he said, “If that’s true, then your father killed my mother, which means Benjamin Pierce is your father.”