I step away from Marge, utterly shocked at every single thing I found in her memories. “Kat?” Marge calls my name, but I force myself back into her head.
I need to see everything. The full extent of the things Mateo, Ezra, and even Marge have hidden from me. I need to see everything I can find.
As I get back to her memories, I grasp on the one of us in the kitchen. The first thing that catches my attention is the strange, eerie glint in my own eyes as I gripped her arm. Burning gold eyes stare at me before my claws slip out, cutting her.
I can feel the fear she felt when I said I would get Marabella. The fear isn’t there for herself, it’s fear for my children’s life and safety. I can see she is rather willing to die than let me go to them right now. I frown at her feelings.
My heart pounds so loudly, I can hear it in my ears.
All this time, ever since the babies were born, they were monitoring me. Watching me, conspiring against me. All of them were, and still are, acting as if I am some monster, not the mother of the twins.
“Kat, breathe. It is just the new moon, they worry about you. They would never do anything to upset you,” Marge comforts in her sickeningly soft voice, which I now know is nothing but a fucking lie. A goddamn game she plays to please the mates that are making me out to be a monster, not a mother.
“You all think I would hurt my children?” I ask her, my voice eerily calm even to my ears.
I try to shake the feeling off, I know it isn’t me, but it is slowly coiling around me, strangling me in a vice, and I recognize it, but still can’t fight it off as it threatens to swallow me.
Madness, pure, loud, and awful madness creeps in, trying to take a hold of me, but the thread snaps once Marabella wails even louder, and soon after, Eziah joins in with cries of his own.
“It’s just the postpartum, and you are not shifting-”
A loud, threatening growl cuts off her rant. Marge steps back and hits the wall before I realize the sound comes from me. It is so foreign that I struggle to accept I am the one who sounds like that.
It shocks me for a second, but once my baby’s cries reach my ears again, I force myself out of it, heading for the stairs to try to settle them.
Marge is on my heels, but I pay her no mind as I rush to my babies. “Luna, let me, your mates are almost here,” Marge says, stunning me.
“What? You called them home?” I ask, spinning on my heel towards her as the front door smashes against the wall downstairs.
I look over the balcony. Their scent wafts to me, instantly invading my senses, but this time, it doesn’t affect me as it usually does. A growl of warning escapes me. Pure, livid, raw rage burns within me as the realization sinks in.
Ezra and Mateo, fuck it, even the traitor Marge, are acting as if I am some monster that would easily hurt her own children. I died for them, for fuck’s sake! And I would do that another thousand times if it meant my children are safe. How can they not see that?
My head snaps back to Marge. “How could you?” I ask her as the feeling of betrayal sets in deep within me.
“Luna, I meant no disrespect. Alpha just wanted to ensure-” She raises her hands and tries to take a step back, but I cut her off.
“Ensure what?” I snap at her. No excuse she can create can undo the damage all of them have done. No excuse can force me to get over the betrayal from the people I care the most about. The same fucking people who pretend to care about me, while all they do is lie straight to my face.
Ezra appears on the stairs behind her with Mateo by his side. I stare at him. My blood is boiling with betrayal and rage. These two… How dare they claim they love me, if this is how they treat me? If this is what they do behind my back?
“Outside! Now, Kat,” Ezra commands.
His aura washes over me, but all it does is anger me even more. He came here thinking this could work? How dare he try to force me to submit to him!
“Nice try, Ezra, I am not fucking Mateo.” I spit at him through gritted teeth. “I am not your little bitch on some fucking strings! How dare you try to command me!”
I can feel how my rage heats up the surroundings. Mateo growls at my words, and I turn to head for the stairs, intending on ignoring them all and getting to my kids.
“You are not going up there, not while you are like this!” Ezra snarls, moving so quickly it is a blur.
Mateo darts past me, heading to the room, as I turn my glare on Ezra and shove him off. Marge has taken off, no doubt because she was told to, but I am past angry. I am fucking livid they would all go behind my back and plot against me.
“Come on, let’s go outside,” Ezra suggests, reaching for me again. His voice is a little softer, but just because the fuckhead has calmed down doesn’t mean I have.
“Don’t touch me!” I scream at the top of my lungs, disgusted at the very thought of any of them touching me. “You have all been working behind my back like I am a danger to my children! I would never hurt them. How could you think such a thing?” Tears burn in my eyes, but at this point, I’m not sure if it’s because of anger, hurt, or their betrayal.
“No one said you would, Kat. It’s just a precaution,” Ezra tries to placate me.
He might think those few words can calm me, that his precaution is nothing but worry, but I don’t see it like that. Especially if he is doing that to “protect” his children from their own mother!
The darkness writhes through me, the venom fills my mouth. It leaves a toxic taste as my gums tingle and my canines elongate. My claws slip from my fingertips as I try to fight against shifting.
“Kat?” Ezra calls my name.
His voice sets something off in my brain like an electrical current rippling right through every nerve ending and engulfing me in flames of anger until I can no longer see my mate. Instead, I see only a man who is trying to hurt and destroy me.