Broken by My Mate

Leaving Home

Chapter 8

Tucker’s POV

As expected, the news did not go over very well with my dad. Who was literally shaking in anger. He was a good man who was dealt a bad mate. He took his taking care of his mate and family seriously. He provided us with everything that we could want or need. We weren’t rich, this was a smaller pack, but he did his best. When he had to travel away from the pack for the Alpha, that was when mom was at her lowest. It was when she would drink, and become frustrated with just being a Beta female, instead of a Luna.

I couldn’t fault her for wanting to be Luna. Her original mate was an Alpha. Maggie had scooted her chair back from the table. I could see that she was prepared to run. I looked down at her and said, “You can go to your room and pack a bag. You are going to start staying at the packhouse. I cannot leave you here for Mom to take her anger out on you later.” Maggie hopped up out of her chair and was down the hallway before I finished speaking. She knew our mother was not going to agree with it, but she also didn’t want to stick around for the argument.

“I agree, Tucker,” my father said, as he glared at Mom. “So you have been harming our children. Our innocent children, all these years, because you were angry. I am disgusted at what you have done, Cybil. I have bent over backward to be the man you wanted. We are mates for the Goddess's sake. Why are you still wanting someone that never wanted you? Why is my being a Beta unacceptable? Is this really over your losing your mate? Or because you missed out on being a Luna?”

“You will never understand, Keith. I do love you, but I love him too. I can’t help that. I still have feelings for him. Every time I see him in the newsletter for the ranked wolves, it hurts my heart. I came with you to Silver Stream because I love you, and you are my mate. But so was he. I can’t shut off how I feel. I can’t make it stop. You are blaming me for things that are completely out of my control,” my mother told him as she grabbed at his hand, trying to keep him from leaving.

“You are obsessed, Cybil, that is what you are. What you did to them was wrong. For you to condemn our children for existing. It is just crazy for you to even think like that. You said he rejected you, and you told me you accepted it. He should not have any hold on you anymore. You could have asked for help to get past this, yet you didn’t. You refused to give him up in your heart. How do you think that makes me feel? That you want him more than you want me? I can’t even look at you anymore. If you want to go to him, you can. All I ask is that you reject me before you leave the pack,” my dad told her.

I can tell that he was still shocked about our abuse and was trying to correct it as best he could. He didn’t know about it, but he did know about the emotional abuse. She did it to him as well. She was just as rude and hateful to him as she was to us. I see our dysfunction all over the place, but it will not change my plans.

“I am sorry, I will stop thinking of him. I want to stay here, with you Keith. I can do better, “ my mother cried out and tried again to grab Dad's hand.

“For the last 24 years, I have bent over backward to be your perfect mate. You never did anything like that for me. You whined about “Tanner this” or “Tanner that”, always leaving your focus on him. Why can’t you love and care about me, or our children, in the same way? I don’t understand why he is still so important to you. It doesn’t make sense. Most women who get rejected hate the man who rejected them, but not you. In your heart, he is still the perfect man. I will never understand why you are like this. I gave you everything, but this is how you treat me and our children? There is something wrong with this whole situation. Mothers do not hurt their pups like this. I am going to go spend the night in the packhouse too. Please pack, and get out of our house, and out of our pack. Go back to your precious Tanner, just remember to stop and reject me first,” Dad told her as he got up to go pack his own bag. Mom was still shocked at what had happened here tonight.

“Why would you tear our family apart like this, Tucker? Why would you tell such lies to your father? He is willing to toss me aside, at your word. I swear I do not remember doing any of it. If I did, I was clearly not myself. I am sorry, I can be a better mother and mate. I can fix this. Please let me fix this,” Mom begged as she sank onto her knees on the floor.

I remember all the pain that she gave me, all the harsh words she said to me. The worst was when she was comparing me to people I didn’t even know. I know who they are now. They are Tanner’s sons. Mom always thought that they were the perfect children, always pointing out their achievements. More recently, pointing out how they are now perfect Alphas. I have news for her. No one is perfect, we all have flaws. I can’t wait to tell Mom the best part. I hope that dad is on board with it. I don’t want to have done all this for nothing. But it could go either way, as my father was a rule follower. He would not want me to hurt an innocent person. I am trying not to see the parallels between my mother's actions and mine.

Austin was right. I royally messed up. I had a plan that had 2 objectives. Dealing with my mother first, and then punishing someone from the Wright family for all the abuse we suffered. I can’t fix what I did now. I took Elena, I cannot return her to her pack. I would be killed, and I have a great many things to live for. I will just change my plans. Mom is dealt with. I will make sure she leaves the pack tomorrow.

The guilt I felt lessened knowing that I would not be killing Elena. Taking Elena was a huge misstep for me. I should have thought this through better. But I will right my wrongs, and tomorrow I will go down to the cells and reject her. That way she won’t feel the pain anymore, but I am sorry to say that she will be feeling it tonight. I can’t help but feel happy that at least some of the retribution I always wanted to deliver was finally about to be carried out. I got the revenge I needed for our suffering. I always felt so weak that I couldn’t protect Maggie properly when we were little. Yes, I know I was a kid, but I loved my sister. I did this for her to be able to get on with her life. To know that I did the best I could to fix what mom did to us.

My mother stared up at me from the floor like she wanted to put a couple more marks on me. She knows better than to do that because I will have warriors here in a heartbeat to deal with her tonight. She can get the cell next to Elena if she wants. My father came back into the room with his arm around Maggie. He has a duffle bag thrown over one of his shoulders, and Maggie’s backpack on his other shoulder. She is pulling some rolling luggage behind her but I already know that it will be her books inside the rolling bag. Her clothes are in the book bag.

My mother screams threats after us as we open the door and exit the house. For me, it will be the last time I am here. There are too many bad memories here for me to return. I think that Dad and Maggie will come back to get the rest of their clothes, but I don’t see them coming back here to live ever again. We walked in silence as we headed to the packhouse. When we got closer to the packhouse, my dad asked, “Tucker, you said that you had good news. Something about finally getting your revenge. What did you mean by that?”

“My whole life I have dealt with not being good enough for mom. I never excelled at things that she thought I should. Tanner's sons were always better than me, in every aspect. I was not able to get one of them, or Gabi and Tanner, but I did manage to get my hands on their daughter. Elena will be paying for the sins of her parents. I had to suffer as an innocent child. Why should they get off scot-free when Tanner and Gabi caused this whole thing? Before you say it, I know Elena was innocent in this, just like Maggie and I were, but I can’t let all we went through go unpunished,” I told Dad.

“Son, she is innocent. You need to let her go. You didn’t think this through. You should have come to me, and we would have dealt with your mother together. Elena’s family is going to punish us all when they find her,” Dad told me.

“I changed my mind, Dad. I can’t physically hurt her, or I would feel it too. I found out that she was my mate when I met her yesterday,” I told him. I could hear Dad and Maggie cheering about me finding my mate. My father was hugging me in happiness before I could stop him. My sister was smiling bigger than I had seen her smile in years. I knew I needed to correct what they were mistakenly thinking.

“Dad, she is my true mate, but I will not accept her. I can’t. Just seeing her family would hurt me after all I have gone through. I will build Elena a small home here. She can even help to design it. She will live out her life here peacefully, but she will never be allowed to leave. I will be making Genesis my chosen mate. I will be the Alpha here and at the Stone Mist pack. Don’t try to argue with me. Elena knows my name. She can never leave,” I told them. The rest of our walk to the packhouse was in silence. I had Austin show them to their rooms, and then I headed to shower. This dinner took way too long tonight, and Genesis is about to arrive. I needed to get ready for my dessert. I never realized that all my bad decisions would come back to bite me in the ass.