Mom sighed, but there was still a wide smile on her face, and I was grateful for it. Even if it came at my expense.
“All right, Wy, I’ll quit embarrassing you.”
“It’s not your fault he’s given you so much material to work with,” Callie muttered into her teacup.
My mom snickered.
Snickered.
I didn’t think I’d ever heard her make a sound like that in my life. And it was all because of Callie. She seemed to bring out something in her. Some carefree happiness I hadn’t seen in so long.
Mom sighed and stood up, her joints audibly cracking as she did. “All right, I know Callie came here to talk to you, so I’ll leave you kids alone. You can head back to the garden if you need some privacy.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, not sure if privacy would be helpful in this situation. Last time we were alone, I’d kissed her. Although, judging by the way she looked when she got here, I had a feeling kissing was off the menu.
Which was something I should have been happy about. I just needed to remember that.
“You have a garden?” Callie asked.
Mom’s eyes lit up. “Well, not really. Not yet. But the boys have promised to help me get it started someday soon.”
My stomach twisted with guilt at the hopefulness in her voice. We had promised to help, and I had every intention of following through, but things kept popping up that prevented it.
“I’m sure it’ll be lovely,” Callie said, a wistful note to her voice. “My mom had an amazing garden when we were growing up. I used to help her in it all the time.”
“I bet she loved that,” Mom said.
Callie nodded, her face stoic, but I could see right through that. She was hurting at that moment and everything in me wanted to reach out to her. To hold her. To help her. To do anything I could to make it better.
But I didn’t have that privilege, so I sat back with my hands fisted in my lap. I had no one to blame but myself. I’d spent just as much time trying to get close to her as I had trying to push her away, and now we were stuck somewhere in the middle.
I had a feeling the conversation we were about to have would push us one way or the other, I just didn’t know which side I wanted to land on.
Chapter 17
Wyatt
“Should we go out back?”
Mom left a few moments ago, leaving behind an uncomfortable silence between Callie and me. I didn’t want to have this conversation with her, but I wanted to sit in this awkwardness even less.
“Sure,” she said softly.
We stood, and I ushered her in front of me toward the back door. I had to hold my breath as she passed so I could keep my head clear for the conversation to come. We stepped into the cool air and my stomach clenched in knots. The moment of reckoning was here, and I still wasn’t sure if I was ready.
Callie spun around and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Your mom’s human.”
I reached up to scratch the back of my neck. “You noticed that, huh?”
She sent me a scathing look that I absolutely deserved. “Of course I noticed, Wyatt. She’s not only a human, she’s sick, isn’t she?”
“Yeah,” I croaked. “She’s got lupus.”
“I’ve heard of that.”
I nodded. “It’s an autoimmune disease. Basically, her body is attacking itself. She’s actually a lot better than she was when she got here. Doc Monroe’s been taking really good care of her.”
“That’s why you ran off that day, isn’t it? When you got that phone call after we had lunch. Something was wrong with your mom, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t think she’d put that together so fast, but it was clear I was good at underestimating her. I’d have to stop doing that. “Yeah. She had a bad fever that day and Wes had to bring her over to Doc’s house.”
Callie turned away, her profile lit by the waning moon overhead. She was so beautiful in that moment, I didn’t know how I’d stop myself from touching her again.
“Is she going to be okay?” Callie asked softly. “I mean, is it under control?”
I blew out a deep breath and ran a hand down my face. “Well, like I said, she’s doing better, but we’re still not out of the woods. Because her immune system is so overworked, if she caught even a cold, it could be dangerous for her.”
Callie snorted. “Then I guess it’s good she lives with a pack of werewolves. She won’t catch anything from us.”
I swallowed harshly. “Yeah. Lucky.”
She turned back toward me, her eyes laser focused on mine. “Which brings me to my next point. Why didn’t I know your mom was human? Why were you keeping that from me?”
I bit my tongue as a hundred answers flew through my brain at once. At the last second, I chose the safest one. “We’ve kept it from everyone. No one in the pack knows she’s human except for Doc, Beatrice, and the alpha.”
“But why?”
Now it was my turn to look away. “How do you think a pack of werewolves would react to finding out there was a human living on their lands? In my last pack, they didn’t take it too well and I’m not willing to put her in that kind of danger again.”
She was quiet for a long time as every worst-case scenario played out in my head.
“So, you’re scared to tell them.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “Terrified,” I admitted.
Callie took a rocky step forward
