Chapter 140: I am your mother

Noah’s POV

Elias is weird.

Old news, I know, but I mean it. Elias Deus is really weird. My fingers dance around the mating bite on my neck as I wait for him to watch Lucas drive off and my omega purrs.

The bite hurt so much that I blacked out immediately in the basin, but when I came to, hearing Elias’s voice was like receiving a healing kiss.

I like it a lot.

I press my finger into one of the punctures and bite down on my lip to keep the moan inside. I think I like the feeling of his mark embedded into my skin a bit too much.

Our eyes meet briefly when he turns slightly towards me, and just like he has been doing since we left the temple, Elias looks away from me again.

See? That’s why I said he was weird.

Apart from taking me apart in the purification basin of the temple and side eyeing the Goddess’s statue through it all, this man has been playing hide and seek with our eyes.

He’d stare at me like he’s in a daze and whenever I returned his stare he would look away immediately.

"Come on" he says and I copy his posture by shoving my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. The alpha leads the way into my family home, and I follow like a loyal disciple.

I’m a marked omega now.

I can’t believe it.

I press my lips together to contain my happy noises. My swooning dies when Elias opens the door and goes in first.

For real, isn’t this jerk aware that he should let me in first? I’m his husband and his mate; he should treat me like a king. I glare at his back with annoyance.

"Come in, it’s safe" he says with a gruff tone and I melt. "Oh, thanks" I whisper as I walk through the threshold.

My bad, I judged too soon. He was just being a protective husband. Elias shuts the door and gestures for me to go up the stairs.

I climb up three steps and just before I take the next step, I am stopped by my father’s wife’s voice.

"Noah" she calls and when I turn around, Elias positions himself in front of me protectively. "Can we talk?" she asks and my alpha scoffs.

"Keep walking, Noah" he orders and I turn around immediately to keep moving.

"Noah, I know you are leaving for Gottingen tomorrow. You can’t leave with a distorted image of me" she calls out.

"What exactly is distorted, Goldsmith?" Elias asks in a mocking tone, and I turn around to look at her.

"I am talking to my son, not you monster" mom raises her voice and I get startled by her. I have never heard her raise her voice before. I’ve seen her angry, but she has never yelled.

"I will make sure you don’t see the sun rise for that, Goldsmith" Elias hisses and I grab the collar of his coat from behind to stop him. My heart is pounding and I know he’s going to kill her.

"I’ll listen to what she has to say" I tell him and he turns his icy expression to me. "Are you begging to be killed too?" he asks and I let go of his collar.

"No" I say quietly.

"You will go up to your room and you will go to sleep."

"You don’t get to treat me like this" I say in an attempt to be brave, and he suddenly grabs my nape. I gasp and hold on to the railing as the alpha pulls me down to close up the distance the staircase puts between us.

"I get to treat you however I want" he says and without thinking, I slap him across the face and he doesn’t flinch.

"Let. Me. Go" I hiss at him and he meets my teary gaze of anger with his steely one of rage.

"I want to talk to her" I say and he lets go of me. The action is abrupt, and so is the way he walks up the stairs. He walks past me like I’m merely in his way.

I blink twice.

"You see that? That is what alphas are like. They treat you like rags" my father’s wife says with disdain, and I ignore her as I go down the stairs.

"Talk" I say, wrapping my arms around myself to ward off the sudden coldness I feel.

Only Elias Deus can make me feel warm and gooey one moment and then turn around to leave me cold in the next minute.

"What did you hear from Conan?" she asks and I shrug. "The truth" I say.

"I am your mother, Noah. I am your mother. The state recognizes you as my son. He signed every legal document and gave you to me" she says and I shut my eyes.

"But you never cared for me as a son" I say the bitter truth as I open my eyes to look at her.

"What about your pregnancy? Where is the son you were supposed to have?"

"I lost it" she says and I wince. "It happened when you were kidnapped by that unloyal dog" she adds.

"That was why they said your sickness was my fault?" I ask.

"The stress your kidnapping caused me was inhumane! Conan took you and you went with him willingly, do you know how bad that made me look?" she asks.

"I was subjected to abuse as a preteen. I stood and I did everything they asked because of your ’condition’...do you know about that?" I ask and she rubs her temple.

I remember being emotionally blackmailed by adults into doing too many things from the day I got back from the kidnap. I did it all because I rarely saw Mom. I did it because I loved her even if it was clear she didn’t want me.

"Everything turned out fine, didn’t it? You have the body of a perfect omega, you’re healthy, you’re smart, and you got over the trauma of being abandoned" she throws in my face.

"YOU BROKE ME" I yell and she stumbles backward like I just hit her across the face.

"You broke me, and you broke my real mother" I say, moving away from her till my back hits the wall.

"I am your mother" she insists.

"Stop saying that. I wanted to listen to you and tell you there’s nothing you can do to me anymore. I know everything and I believe Conan" I say.

"No...no...he is locked up in a--"

"Don’t even finish that statement. We know what you did" I say in a calm voice that surprises even me. She opens and shuts her mouth multiple times before her eyes are filled with tears.

"You don’t know what it’s like. I loved your father, but I couldn’t conceive no matter what I did. Okay? I asked him to get Conan pregnant and pay him off, but you...you wouldn’t feed off anything else as a newborn till we brought your real mother to you" she says.

"He was a- Conan was a child" I shake my head.

"Yes, but in Winslow law, it was okay" she wraps her arms around herself.

"That’s not true."

"It is when you hold the law in your hands and can find loopholes. We made the age when a person presents as an omega to be the age of consent. If the omega can slick, he or she is considered an adult" she says and I stare in disbelief.

What?

"I...I studied the law here...what you’re saying is not possible..." I stutter.

"You only see what we show you Noah. But really, I was suffering. Your father wouldn’t stop going to Conan and I hated it; I did what I had to do to protect my husband" she says and I sag against the wall.

"You’re a monster"

"I’m a mother! I am a mother. Don’t you sympathize with me? You could sympathize with Conan, why not me?" she asked with a tearless sob

"And my dad?"

"What about him?" she stops her wailing to ask.

"What did he do?"

"That dimwit? You exposed everything I did, why are you asking me about your father? Whatever he did, you’ll have to find out by yourself" she hisses at me and when she remembers she should be sad, she suddenly switches her expression to regret.

I’m crumbling into different pieces, but she’s a star actress, I’ll give her that.

I can’t do this anymore. My body needs rest, and my brain needs to shut down.

"Goodnight" I whisper and she grabs the sleeve of Elias’s shirt on my body.

"That’s it? Noah, please, you can’t go with them again. I need you" she says as she tugs on the sleeve.

"Don’t you ever touch me again. If you do, I won’t be able to stop my husband from killing you" I say and pull my hand out of her grip.

She gapes at me as I walk up the stairs with my heart heavy and my head hurting.

I walk down the hall without falling apart, and when I open my bedroom, I expect to find the worst. But instead of meeting a steely alpha, I’m met with a hug.