Chapter 65: Chapter 64

Lanie “Mama, you're here.”

| threw my arms around my mother, and she hugged me back tightly.

It was surreal to see her standing there in the entryway of the Constantine mansion.

Barely a week had passed since I'd left home for the mating ceremony, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

She pulled back from me, studying my face.

| saw myself reflected in her own green eyes and cin namon-red hair. Her nose was covered in way more freckles, though, a trait she’d passed down to my sister instead of me.

“What’s wrong?” she asked before | could say another word.

But then her eyes traveled to a figure standing over my shoulder.

“Mama, this is Gabriela.”

My mother blinked in surprise.

“Yes, | know.”

An uneasiness passed over me. Gabriela was our Luna, of course my mother would know who she was, but there seemed to be more than polite recognition exchanged between them.

Gabriela gave a little bow. “Nice to see you again, Julia. Please join us in the sitting room.

As soon as we sat, my mother turned back to me, her brow furrowed with concern.

“What is it, my darling?”

| took a deep breath and told her the truth. “I was worried if | couldn’t look you in the eye, that you might lie to me.”

me.”

She glanced from Gabriela back to me.

“Am | really part vampire?” The words tumbled out.

My mother sighed, her hands knitting together in her lap.

I inn “Please,” | sat forward in my seat placing my hand over top of hers, forcing her to meet my eyes. “Just tell Out of the corner of my eye, | saw Gabriela give my mother a small nod.

What the hell was going on between them?

Did Gabriela already know about this?

it would’ve been nearly impossible for him to reproduc What the f uck?

“Did you just plan on keeping this from me for the rest of my life?!” | demanded.

“Lanie, you have to understand, | kept this from you to protect you. If the Council ever found out, not only would | have been killed...” her voice broke. “You and your sister would have been as well.”

“That’s why you had that witch do the spell?”

“Yes,” she answered. “It was supposed to bind itself to you and Serena so your vampiric powers would never awaken. And no one would be the wiser.”

Except it didn’t work.

And who knew if it would work for my sister?

“But my powers did awaken. And if Serena’s do, too, what’s going to happen to her?”

Another look passed between my mother and Gabriela, Boiling rage bubbled up from deep inside me.

They were still shutting me out. They weren't telling me the whole story.

“We don’t know” Gabriela answered calmly. “But she’s sixteen. We have two years to figure it out. You, however, are out of time.”

nun A look of fear washed over my mother’s face, and an uncomfortable heat began to creep up my neck.

“How many people know about this, Lanie?” my mother asked.

Gabriela jumped in before | could respond.

“Xander and Zane, Braden, and myself My mother looked confused. “Braden? You mean the vampire from...?”

“Yes,” Gabriela snapped sharply.

Braden from what?

First Aidon knew him, and now my own dam n mother?!

“Before you ask...” my mother said, “your dads don’t know.”

| had expected her to explain the whole Braden thing but this caught me off guard. Why the hell would they not know?

My mother swallowed hard. “I never told them that | have vampire blood, so | certainly wasn’t going to tell them about their daughters.”

Apang of sadness seized me as | thought of my mother, hiding who she really was from her own mates.

| thought then of Xander and Zane, and how nothing really changed when they found out who | really was. 2/3 Or at least it didn’t appear to Thadn’t realized that this wasn’t the norm, that there was a world in which another set of mates might harm me for revealing my true self...

“You can’t stay like this, Lanie,” Gabriela said solemnly. “Not when more and more people are finding out about you. It’s too risky”

“What's the alternative? Can | really just make the vampire side of me go away?”

My mother stared off into space for a moment.

“There is one way... we could cast the same spell on you that was cast on me, but...”

She trailed off.

“But what?” | asked, my voice barely a whisper The tension in the room grew thick, and my palms started to sweat.

“But if you do the spell, you'll give up all your memories.”