Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 442

Chapter 442

Finally, I managed, “Your mother is… She died.”

Jane’s eyes went as wide as saucers, instantly brimming with tears. “What?”

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“That’s not true,” Max said matter–of–factly. He tightened his arms across his chest, shut his eyes, and shook his head. “Mommy isn’t dead.”

My heart ached. Burned. I thought I might throw up.

“She is dead, loves. She… She fell. A very bad man pushed her over a cliff.” My throat constricted painfully, but I willed myself not to look away from them. Anyone but them. “She couldn’t have survived.”

Jane made a sound that made my soul leave through the bottoms of my feet. She then threw herself into my arms, clutching desperately at my neck. I held her tightly, so tightly I feared I might crack her little ribs, but I couldn’t help myself. I held my other arm out to Max, but he didn’t move.

He just kept shaking his head.

“Nope. Nuh–uh. She’s not dead.”

“Max…” >>

“Mommy isn’t dead. I know she’s not.”

“Max.”

My voice was almost lost below the sound of Jane’s sobs. All the while, Max continued to deny it. Continued to come up with reasons why she might be alive, why all this was silly, why Jane shouldn’t be crying because their mother was going to come back.

I tried to hold it in. I knew he was just in denial. I tried to calmly tell him that she was truly gone, and that all we could do now was honor her memory.

But he refused to listen.

And soon, after the hundredth time hearing him say, “She’s not gone,” and after hearing a thousand of Jane’s sobs until they turned into strained hiccups, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“She’s not gone,” Max repeated. “Mommy is alive; I can feel it!” He pressed his hand to his chest. “I can feel it right here! Mommy isn’t-”

“She’s dead, Max!” The words slipped out of me before I could stop myself. “She’s dead, and she’s not coming back!”

The tent fell silent. Even Jane’s little sounds of distress stopped, and she looked between the two of us. Max’s jaw clenched. I stared at him, willing myself to calm down, willing my wolf to stop howling incessantly in my chest.

Finally, Max stood, pushing aside the blankets, and pointed at me. “You’re wrong.”

He stormed out of the tent before I could stop him.

I knew I should go after him–it was too cold out, and still showing–but for a few moments. I was frozen.

All I could do was sit there, still holding Jane, and stare at the rumpled blankets where Max had just been.

Eventually, I mindlinked my Beta to bring Max back to the tent and put him to bed. I was gone by then; once Jane was asleep, I had slipped out, unable to bear facing either of them right now. I decided to go for a walk around camp, as it had stopped snowing, until I cooled off.

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Chapter 442

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But I hadn’t made it past the flap of the tent before my Beta’s voice mindlinked back: “Max? Alpha, I don’t see him anywhere.”

I froze. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I thought he was with you.”

“No, he ran off.” I lifted the tent flap and emerged into the camp. “Start looking for him. Now.”

I didn’t expect Max to have gone far. He was only six, and it was a big camp; I assumed he had maybe toddled off a little ways and was pouting by the bonfire, or perhaps had slipped into someone else’s tent, perhaps Grace’s.

But upon scouring the camp, my Beta and I quickly realized that Max was gone.

And the snow was beginning to fall again.

Chapter 443