I was young, and I was naïve, and I wanted, more than anything else, for her to find her own happiness.
I guess I thought that by staying away, I’d ensure she was happy.
I was wrong.
Neither one of us was more happy, apparently. In fact, we basically wasted five years apart when we could have been…
I don’t know.
Married?
Having kids?
Spending all of our time together?
I’m filled with so much sadness, pain, and regret at this revelation, and I don’t know what to do.
That’s not true.
I know exactly what to do.
I run to my mother’s house. She still lives in the same little run-down cabin she’s always lived in. She raised me there, and she did her best, but she always wanted me to be something that I’m not.
Grad school?
Really?
That’s never been my thing, and she knows that. My mother and I used to fight about it. Once, I even found out she’d applied to several graduate schools using my information. I’d been accepted, too. She tried to enroll me for classes, though, and that was where I put a stop to things. I made it clear that wasn’t my style. It wasn’t what I wanted.
I went to college and got my undergraduate degree because I wanted to: because I thought it was important. Besides, I promised my grandfather that I would. That was it, though. My mother always dreamed of me becoming some big-shot CEO but all I’ve ever wanted was to work in Claw Valley, to live here, and to make a name for myself.
There’s nothing wrong with owning a bakery. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Working with my hands, creating delicious foods, and making sure I have a way to feed the people I love the most? That’s something I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid. I use all of my grandparents’ favorite recipes in my shop, and Lion’s Bakery has been a wild success.
Only now, I wonder what other secrets my darling mother has been keeping.
I run until I reach her house. It doesn’t take long. Even though I know that I desperately need to do this, I also know that I can’t take my time with this. Not tonight. Felicity is wildly upset, and there’s only so much a little fox can do when left on her own. If I leave her too long, she’ll wander out into the woods again, and this time, I won’t be there to rescue her.
I shift on the porch and grab one of the blankets my mother leaves on the porch swing. She says it’s for decoration, but it’s just in case someone comes over in their shifter form. This means we can communicate normally because I can shift back to my human self, wrap myself up in the blanket, and talk to my mom.
No nudity required.
I knock on the door and wait.
A few minutes later, she opens the door. She’s bright-eyed. There was no way she was sleeping. She might be in her pajamas, but my mother, despite being a lioness, has always been a night owl. She was probably up reading or surfing the Internet. She’s addicted to social media, if I do say so myself.
“Brendan?” She asks, confused. “What are you doing here?”
“Not much,” I say casually, but then I don’t hold back. “So, is it true that you told Felicity to dump me because I was going off to grad school and couldn’t be successful with her by my side?”
The look on my mother’s face says it all.
It’s true.
Every fucking word of it is true.
I thought at the time that the breakup seemed strange. We were young, yeah. We weren’t so young, however, that I couldn’t have predicted something like that happening. Our relationship had always seemed so stable and strong. It had always seemed so incredibly wonderful. Up until the night that Felicity dumped me, I never saw any future for myself that didn’t include her.
Now I’m discover