Natalie had instantly started crying apologies at us. It still didn't matter to Andrew who barked and bared his teeth at her. I had to physically get between them and throw my black pea coat on top of her naked body before Andrew had any inclination to back off. What I was surprised by was how numb I felt about this. I knew every Everton male had a mate with someone who had werewolf blood in them, but I hadn't considered my mom to be an actual phasing werewolf since female wolves were so rare. But that only opened up more questions that I was sure Andrew already had and was conveying them by absolute fury.

Eventually, I communicated with him enough to calm him down and run off, but not without promising I would bring Natalie straight to Cassandra's house.

"Come on," I told Natalie and offered a hand to her while she clutched onto the coat. She took my hand for assistance before shakily putting on the coat and making sure each button was buttoned and the belt was secured around her waist. Suddenly, my phone started ringing and it was Ryder.

"Where are you—did you leave?" he immediately asked me, but I found every sense of justification for keeping my family matters to myself. I didn't want him to know another wolf was in town, even if he should know. "Ash, talk to me. I can feel that something's wrong. Don't make me—"

"I'm fine," I lied as I walked beside my limping mother. "Just stay with Preston's family and say your goodbyes."

"I said my goodbyes when I kicked him out of the pack and beat the sense out of him," Ryder suddenly hissed. His guilty composure was shifted into a defensive one that was going to say anything in fear that I needed reassurance or support for whatever I was feeling or getting into. "He's not here. You are. Tell me what's going on."

I looked over at my mom's puffy face and she had an expression of fear or vulnerability. I guess that whole knowing you're a wolf in someone else's territory fear was immediate even if I had never felt it. "I can't," I finally told him like he had told me so many times. Maybe that's why he paused and debated in his mind whether or not to accept my omission.

"I'm sorry for whatever I did..." he apologized and I felt bad for making him think any of this rejection was his fault. "Promise me you're okay then," he settled. "Promise me that and I'll leave you alone until tomorrow."

"I can't do that either," I mumbled before hanging up.

***

By the time I got home, Natalie and I were greeted with Andrew—now dressed in new clothes—crossing his arms and Cassandra sitting off to the side at the bar to the kitchen with fidgeting fingers.

"Sit," Andrew ordered. I immediately rolled my eyes and looked to Natalie.

"You can go upstairs and borrow any of my clothes," I told her. She nodded mildly and took the den's entrance to the stairs instead of having to walk anywhere near Andrew. "And you," I addressed him. "She just phased. She's scared...and naked for crying out loud. Don't you think—"

"Don't you think?" Andrew asked. "You didn't read Dad's journal too thoroughly, did you? She isn't supposed to be able to phase!"

"Why? Because she's a female?" I asked him. "Because newsflash, I'm a werewolf too!"

"It's not that—"

"And you know what, so what if she's a girl and we're genetically unfavorable to phase," I interrupted in defense. "Dad could've Bit her so she'd be better off when she left—"

"Her family's lineage isn't able to phase," Cassandra suddenly blurted out. What?

"The Black family," Natalie's voice began as she emerged from the stairs in my clothes and gestured for us all to convene in the living room, "has a long line of generations containing werewolf blood. In the Victorian era during the 1800's, the supernatural was being brought to light by the human world. At first, it was just fiction and myths, but then literature got people thinking. The witches were the first to be persecuted and go underground, so the vampires killed as they pleased without anyone powerful enough to stop them. The killings became too obvious and the werewolves got worried for another uncovering of the supernatural, so they resented the bloodsuckers. Eventually, the war between the Lycans and Vampyrs got to a point that no one would win and some of the wolves lived as savagely as the vampires and killed and Bit who they wanted. It became second nature to some...and my family didn't want to live like that so they got a warlock to cast a spell to get rid of our werewolf blood."

"It can't be that easy," Andrew scoffed and send him a look for him to shut up.

"It wasn't," Cassandra confirmed. "The warlocks could only suppress the transformations."

"Until when?"

"Until our 'true nature' kicks in and our bodies have no choice but to act instinctively," Natalie finished. There was a silence as I tried to figure out what that was, but Andrew was quicker than me and approached Natalie before I stood and pulled him back. But instead of chastising Natalie, he looked down at me.

"Don't you get it?" he asked with his dimples concaving deeply. His dark eyes shifted over my shoulder. "They don't phase unless they kill someone."

My hand lowered from his chest and I looked back at the woman who had given birth to us and who had been crying at the cemetery. I had finally pieced it together and my vision crossed for a second.

"You killed Preston," I accused. Cassandra looked down and Andrew sighed. My vision focused once more. "You killed Preston!" I think Andrew understood that my rage would fill the room, so he didn't bother stopping me from approaching Natalie. I only felt his grip lock around my waist when I lunged at her. "You, what? Waltzed into town and decided to kill the first psychopathic wolf you see—for what? So you could phase and try to reason with who—what we are!?"

"No, Ash—"

"I don't get it," I yelled ironically over her explanation.

"Ash..." Cassandra muttered. I shot her a look but then looked to Natalie again and felt my normal self try to reel in my protective wolf side that was somehow drawn to being territorial over Tyriette or odd enough...Preston. I took a deep breath while looking at how Andrew's eyes egged me onto the berating even after he let go of me. But I found myself sitting back down onto the couch. "Explain yourself. From the beginning."

"I didn't come to town to kill Preston," Natalie began.

"We'll be the judge of that, thanks," Andrew retorted.

"Why does it matter? Preston isn't part of your pack and he—"

"But he was Ryder's Beta," I hissed and then remembered something bigger than the rest of this. I glared at Natalie. "Which you knew...You had to know..." This was what she had argued about with Ryder the morning of Homecoming. Meaning, Ryder knew what she did too.

"I didn't know what Preston's relationship was with your mate," Natalie muttered.

"Yeah right," I scoffed. At least we acknowledged that she knew he was my mate.

"Let her explain," Cassandra urged and I scooted closer to Andrew on the couch even though he still stood.

"By the time I heard about Albert...and Andrew's...passing, it was too late," she started. "I mean when it happened, God, everything hurt. Years being away from him and you kids was painful, but once he died, it was excruciating beyond belief. By the time I got to Florida, it was too late and I only knew a handful of the officers in who were still at the precinct, but they told me what happened and I didn't know if you," she looked at me, "would go live with Oliver or Cassandra or, I don't know...but I figured you wouldn't want to see me and then I went to visit the cemetery where I thought you," she looked at Andrew, "and your father were, but they were destroying your headstone. I asked the groundskeeper why they would do such a thing and then they revealed that the presumption of death was revoked."

"That's after I went down to Florida," Cassandra added. It seemed like forever ago, but it wasn't.

"The thought of you being alive was amazing," Natalie smiled and I saw her eyes moisten while she looked up to her first and only son. "It took me a while, but I finally convinced myself that I had spent enough time away from my children and that you needed me. I knew about Albert's will and went to Florida to settle it all, but Cassandra had already done it—as she should have because that's what Albert and I would've wanted. But that was all I needed to know...that you were both still with Cassandra and I headed here."

"How does Preston fit into all of this?"

"I...well I was staying at Greta's, obviously, and I heard the Donahues' daughter um Stormy, I think, arguing with her boyfriend or maybe ex-boyfriend because she didn't know why he was there when he knew he shouldn't be, but he mentioned that Andrew had been angry for no reason and didn't want him around and he didn't know where else to go. She asked why he was mad and he said something along the lines of his mother possibly being alive," she told. That was within days of when Cassandra told us Natalie was alive, I guessed. "So when she kicked him out, I asked her about 'Andrew,' thinking it was you and I was right. Before I could tell her that you were my son, Gregg had pulled me aside and filled me in on what actually happened to Albert."

"Gregg?"

"Gregg Donahue," Cassandra named for Andrew. Stormy's warlock father. "Go on."

"What exactly did a witch tell you about werewolves?" Andrew asked skeptically because he didn't know of any witch other than Stormy. He didn't know how powerful her parents were.

"He said that Marc Ramon killed Albert to Escape and the Maker of the wolf that tracked Albert had killed Marc," she said. I wanted to doubt that Gregg Donahue would be so vague, but I couldn't because he was a man of few words and didn't want to interfere with the Lycan Tier any more than he had to. The information on the web of murder was just a formality. "So Albert was right about the possibility of Marc being resentful..."

"But you thought you could just come to town and kill Preston as if that would make up for everything?" Andrew asked, moving past the sad reality revolving around the plague of imprinting Bitten werewolves.

"No," she hissed. "I was just angry and when I went to see you, you were with Oliver and then you left town with him," she informed. That was right. Oliver and Andrew had spent every minute after school together until I had to drive with him to the airport. "I thought I'd take a visit to your father's old family house, but I waited to go inside because I saw a boy get there first." Her eyes shifted to mine. "Then you got there and then the fire happened. I immediately wanted to pull you out, but another truck got there with two boys. One of them had carried you out and drove off and I was about to go after him to try and get to a hospital, but the other boy...Ryder...had pulled Preston out of the house too." Zander drove me and Ryder saved Preston. "That's how I knew it was him. And when Ryder left to check that you were gone, I had already..." She paused her words that silently drenched of murder in the ellipses. "...and immediately phased...and I couldn't stop myself. I was angry and vengeful and it consumed me like generations of my family who yearned for just one oppor—"

"You killed him," Andrew said and I felt a tear drop down my cheek. I immediately wiped it away.

"I...I did," Natalie admitted. "And then I-I don't know, I was freaked out because I was a wolf and a killer and I didn't know how you were," she stammered and looked at me, "so I figured I would just leave altogether so no questions were asked. But the hotel I stayed in, in Florida, had a McEnroe/Black wedding going on and I figured I would take a look—not knowing it was Oliver's—then I caught your scent and knew that maybe you had seen me and I figured that maybe you deserved to know what I had done for you guys—"

"Done for us?" Andrew quoted. "Sure, Preston killed Marc, but his kill wasn't yours. He bit Aaron and Stella—maybe one of them wanted to Escape from it. He attacked his own pack and Ash. Preston had a lot going on for people to kill him just on the werewolf side of things, let alone all the normal people he pissed off for being a pretentious asshole. But you think you did us a favor by offing him and we would just be in absolute awe of you? We could be one big, happy werewolf family and pretend you didn't run out on us and mutilate the body of a dead teenage boy?"

"Andrew—"

"Ashlynn," Drew addressed over Natalie, probably hearing the increase in my heart rate. "Say something."

I looked over at Natalie. "Preston plotted Dad's death...he put me in the hospital twice...he absolutely hated our family," I told her. "I wanted him to die like everyone else, but not like that. Not with his injuries being unbelievably gruesome. Especially when you framed my mate for it."

"Okay, that was different."

"How is it different?" I yelled. "For weeks people have been blaming Ryder for killing Preston while you get off free. That's messed up!"

"He agreed to it," she raised her voice. "You don't think he was there? He knew I did it. As soon as I got back here on Monday, I told him to take the blame, but that was when I didn't know who he was to you. It made him look like the alpha he needed to be and he kept it from you for who-knows-why even though he kept telling me to be honest with you. And then when I figured it out—that he wasn't just the town alpha or just your boyfriend, I wanted him to tell you. He owed that to you as your mate."

I stayed silent.

"Let me guess," she hissed at me. I saw her eyes darken dangerously and I should see her wolf take her over...just as a predator did when its prey was weakened. She'd hurt it some more. "He still didn't tell you the truth for whatever reason he wants to make up because it makes him look a hell of a lot better with a mate on his arm who's willing to forgive him for an unforgivable sin."

By now, it didn't matter if she was my mother. My blood was boiling and I felt every inch of me hanging on by a thread before I would explode into a giant wolf to defend my mate and destroy her. But as I realized Ryder had his own part in playing into this elaborate lie, Andrew had grabbed my waist from behind to pull me back. I looked back at him behind eyes full of tears yet his were soothing.

You don't need this, he thought to me protectively. Then, he glanced at Cassandra. "I'm going to Meena's," he announced before looking at me. "You coming?"

I looked back at Cassandra and Natalie and the answer I wanted to give was stuck behind my lips.

"Whatever," Andrew impatiently said before exiting.

"Wait," Cassandra said when he slammed the front door shut. She looked at me. "Is he talking about Meena Leonard?"