320 Is That Still True?
Corrine took a deep but shaky breath as she tried to keep her calm.
Axel swallowed, watching his mother take several deep breaths. He waited for the right time to speak.
“Your mate,” Corrine finally spoke, “is the same woman that led Ashleigh out of Summer. In order for that monster to drug her, kidnap her, and torture her.”
Axel licked his lips and sighed.
“Yes,” he replied.
Corrine let out a low growl.
“Yes?” she questioned through gritted teeth. “You can simply respond ‘yes’ to me right now?”
“I answered yes, because it is true,” he replied, drawing another growl from his mother. “It is not the whole truth, but it is true nonetheless.”
“The truth is,” Corrine growled standing from her chair and moving away from him. “You knew what she did and you still accepted her?”
Corrine turned on Axel with eyes filled with a whirlwind of emotion. Anger, sorrow, resentment, agony.
“You accepted someone who would willingly hurt your sister?”
“No,” Axel said, clenching his jaw. “I told you, what you know is not the whole truth.”
“I know what she did, and how it has affected Ashleigh!” Corrine shouted.
Tears filled her eyes as she remembered the night Ashleigh had returned to Winter.
Alone together, Ashleigh had told Corrine about all that Granger had said, all that he had put her through. She had cried until there were no tears left inside of her.
And all Corrine had been able to do for her, was hold her and tell her she was safe now.
“I am not saying that Ashleigh didn’t suffer, but it wasn’t because of Alice.”
“You dare say that to me?” Corrine narrowed her eyes at her son.
“It is the truth,” Axel replied.
Corrine clenched her jaw, and anger like she had never known before began to pool in her heart. She looked away from him.
“You will reject her,” she said. “Right now.”
“I will not,” he replied.
Corrine’s chest heaved with heavy breaths as she fought to keep from losing her patience entirely.
“You would choose her over your own family?” Corrine asked.
“No,” Axel said. “I won’t choose. I don’t need to.”
Corrine could hold back no more.
The power within her broke the surface of her control, her eyes filled with a green glow, and the room became thick with her presence. Then, finally, she turned to face him, and he stood utterly unphased by her reaction.
It only angered her more.
Corrine snarled and pushed more of her power on him.
“I raised you to know the difference between good and bad. To know when you are being manipulated! I taught you to honor your family and to put the needs of the pack before your own selfish wants!” she shouted.
Axel did not respond, simply allowing her to let out her feelings.
“You promised to take of your sisters, to cherish them always!” Corrine shouted. “But now you choose someone that hurt Ashleigh, that is who you want by your side?”
“The Goddess chose her,” Axel replied. “And she isn’t who you think she is.”
Corrine growled, and her power grew. Axel closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“You need to calm down,” he said. “This is not helping.”
“You will not tell me to calm down!!” Corrine howled, her voice deep and filled with the echo of her inner strength.
Axel felt the weight of her power increase once more, the pressure of it pushing down on him. It was irritating, and it was taking everything he had to keep from fighting back.
“Please, just take a minute and listen to me!” he called out to her.
“I am your mother!” Corrine shouted. “You will do as I say!”
Axel couldn’t take it anymore. He growled and opened his eyes, bright with the power of the moon behind them he looked directly at her and she gasped.
“And I am your Alpha!” he snarled.
In an instant, Corrine felt the power inside of her snap back into place. She took deep, slow breaths as her sense returned to her and her mind began to settle.
“I shouldn’t have lost control…” she whispered.
“Neither should I,” Axel replied.
Corrine didn’t reply, she moved back to the chair and sat down. Taking a minute to even her breathing and relax her mind.
He poured her a glass of water, placing it down before her. She glanced up and nodded her thanks as she reached for it and took a sip.
Axel sat down in the chair beside her where Galen had previously been sitting.
“Are you alright, now?” he asked.
“Are you still mated to someone that caused your sister a trauma that she will know for the rest of her life?” Corrine asked, not looking at him.
Axel scoffed and then looked at her.
“Are you?”
Corrine turned with furrowed brows and an angry expression.
“What?” she said. “How dare you talk about your father that way!”
“Are you saying that Ashleigh has not been traumatized by the way he kept her in the dark about Bell and Alpha Cain?” Axel asked. “Or by her crippling fear of disappointing him her entire life?”
“That is not fair!” Corrine said. “It is not that simple, and you know it!”
“But it is easy to assume it is,” Axel sighed.
Corrine stared at Axel, still angry from his comment, but understanding his point. She sighed and sat back in her chair.
“You told me you trusted me,” Axel said softly, glancing at her. “Is that still true?”
Corrine closed her eyes.
Any other day, this would have been a ridiculous question. Of course, she trusted him.
But, it was an honest one at this moment. She sighed.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “I do.”
Axel nodded.
“I knew that it was going to be a difficult road to walk, getting everyone to understand that Alice is different than you all know. I had planned to wait, to keep her identity a secret until it was time to finally get her back. I didn’t want to cause a distraction or a rift between our family.”
“Axel, the fact that you felt the need to hide her… doesn’t that already tell you the kind of person she is? The things she has done…”
“I hid her because of the assumptions I knew everybody would make, not because I think she is a bad person, or I am ashamed of our bond. I’m not, and she’s not,” Axel sighed sorrowfully. “Mom, she’s nothing like you think.”
“Then tell me about her, tell me what kind of excuse could possibly convince you that I should accept a woman that is willing to help a madman kidnap my daughter,” Corrine replied with the anger soaking every word.
Axel took a deep breath and sat back in his chair.
“First, she is also the woman that told me where to find Ashleigh.”
Corrine gave him a look of confusion and then quickly turned.
“Obviously she knew where Ashleigh was held, because she was a part of the kidnapping.”
“No, mom, she wasn’t,” Axel said, tears glistening in his eyes that made the anger in Corrine’s heart ease just a little. “She found out where Ashleigh was and told me. And she did that, by trading herself back to the man that has been feeding her Bitter Night since she was eight years old.”
Corrine gasped and brought her hand up to cover her mouth.
“Alice isn’t who you think she is,” Axel said. “Because none of you have ever met her.”