The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 160

I ran until I physically couldn’t anymore, to do so would make me collapse. During my run, the moon had gone high and then lowered again. The sky was turning golden with the light of the rising sun.

I shifted back to human form just outside the pack house. The servants must have worked hard in my absence. Most signs that the ceremony had occurred at all were now gone. The stage had been dismantled, all the decorations taken down.

Only the pushed down grass and holes in the dirt for the tent spikes indicated any sign of the event at all.

I wished I could have erased it from my mind just as easily, but it remained, burned in my thoughts. I wasn’t likely to forget it the rest of my life.

The hallway light was on as I entered the house. This wasn’t unusual, especially since they must have been expecting me to return home. Yet the light in the sitting room, just to the left of the foyer, was also on. There was movement within, the clink of a coffee cup against a saucer.

Someone had waited up for me.

I stepped into the doorway. I wouldn’t have been able to walk past without being seen even if I tried to be sneaky. Better to just

face what this was.

It was almost a relief as I sensed my mother.

Almost.

I would rather see her than my father or Brittany, yet, I didn’t really want to see the disappointment in my mother’s eyes. That would cut deepest, I thought.

Still, there could be no avoiding it. I was the one who had created this situation, and then I had been selfish in running away.

Now was the time to confront the consequences I had created. Even if one of those consequences was a break in my mother’s trust and love.

I walked into the sitting room. There, Mom was sitting on one of the sofa’s facing the window.

“There you are,” she said. She was holding her coffee by the saucer. She pulled her hand away from the cup to pat the open seat beside her. “Join me for a minute. It’s almost sunrise. The sky is so beautiful then. It’s worth seeing.”

“You shouldn’t be awake this early,” I said, approaching. “You need rest.

As I approached, I realized she was still wearing her dress from last night.

“You haven’t been to bed yet,” I said.

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She looked up at me finally, and gave me a sad sort of smile. “How could I sleep when I know my son is suffering? Sit. We’ll

talk.”

I searched her gaze, but saw no disappointment, only worry.

Oddly comforted by that, I rounded the couch and took a seat beside her. For a long moment, neither of us said a word. We just sat side by side in the quiet and looked out the window, watching as the dawn painted beautiful colors across the sky.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” she asked, as the glow of the sun peeked above the trees, making it harder to look anymore at the colors. She looked at me, and I felt I owed it to her to look back.

“I genuinely don’t know,” I said. “Vanessa has been in my thoughts, and I… I don’t know why I said her name.”

Mom set her cup and saucer to the side, on a small table beside the couch. Then she turned toward me, placing both of her hands

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over mine. Her hands were warm from holding the coffee. Mine were still cold from outside.

“You’ve had a hard time of Mom said in a soothing voice that only mothers used. “Losing Laila was a shock.”

“I loved Laila,” I said. “But it wasn’t Laila’s name I said. It was Vanessa’s. If I had said Laila, it would have been wrong, but… Why would I say Vanessa?”

Mom was patient. Letting me ramble before proceeding. “You said Vanessa has been on your mind. Why?”

I swallowed hard. I couldn’t tell Mom about having slept with Vanessa. That was such a betrayal of my engagement, and the promises I had made to her and to dad, to do the best for the pack.

But, even outside of the sex, though it was certainly mind–blowing, Vanessa had beer on my mind for other reasons.

While I had been helping Ava, I had seen Vanessa’s motherly side. I’d seen her worry and her care. I cared about that little family. I wanted to help them, to protect them.

“You remember Vanessa’s daughter, Ava?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Her condition had worsened, and she’s been in the hospital for weeks now. She needed a donor match for werewolf essence. Her wolf is too weak, even for her age. It’s crippling her immune system.”

“I’ve heard of conditions like that,” Mom said. “It can be very serious.”

“Yes,” I said. “Vanessa searched everywhere for a donor. Our pack member Riley has been helping her get the word out, making fliers and posts. Marcus happened to see one and brought the matter to my attention. I gathered as many willing people as I could, and we went to be tested.”

“Were you a partial match?” Mom asked.

“More. I was a full match,” I said. “It was something of a miracle. I’ve been going back every few days and -‘

“No, you can’t be a full match.” Something in my mother’s face changed. The worry was still there in her eyes but the sadness was disappearing. She sat up a little straighter, gripped my hand a little tighter. There was an urgency to her now that hadn’t been there before. “Jason, that’s impossible.”

“The healer said it was rare, but

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“No, Jason. It’s not just rare. It is actually impossible.”

“I’ve been donating to her for weeks now, Mom. And it’s been working, she’s growing stronger. There’s no

“But that can’t be…”

“I don’t understand. Why would you say that?” Did she know something that I didn’t?

mistake.”

“Jason.” She searched my face, but I didn’t know what she was looking for. “The only way that a donor of werewolf essence could be a full match is if they were blood related.”

Everything suddenly went very still. The world must have continued moving. The clock was ticking. The sun outside was rising above the tree tops, brining blue to the sky at last. And my mother was looking at me like she had just realized something very important.

I was realizing it too.

“Ava…

is my daughter?”

I thought of the black market listing, searching for a donor match. The listing hadn’t said what kind of donation my daughter needed. I had written it off as coincidence, but was it possible that it was something more?

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“I believe so,” Mom said. “That is the only way that this would be possible.”

“But I didn’t know Vanessa back then. And I never…”

Too many thoughts, possibilities, filled my mind. But I’d made assumptions in the past and had been burned by them. I couldn’t allow that to happen again.

If this was true, I needed proof this time, real and actualized by my own hand.

“We have to investigate,” I said. “I want a new DNA test. And I don’t want Brittany anywhere near it.”

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