My Enemy, My Mate (Complete)

Chapter Twelve - A

My mother and I were sitting on my bed, our tears long-since dried. I was in a state of absolute shock. I had already run all of the possible scenarios in my head, each one worse than the last, until finally my brain just stopped processing it.

I couldn't handle this. I couldn't even think. My body had grown cold and I couldn't process any information.

"Rosemarie, we have to tell Brendan and your father," my mother whispered into the silence.

My head whipped towards her, the first movement I felt I had done in ages.

"Why?" I croaked out, my voice still raw from my earlier sobs.

"Rose, I think that Brendan at least deserves to know he is going to be a father," my mother said softly and touched my hand with her own pale fingers.

I looked down at her warm fingers on my old cold ones. I briefly wondered if I actually was in medical shock and that was why I was so cold. My body started to shake a little. Of course my mother would think Brendan was the father. Why would she think any differently with all the information my father was force-feeding her?

Mom noticed my lack of any response. She hesitated for a moment before continuing:

"Unless something happened to you while you were with the Merphate pack. Please tell me they didn't do anything to you."

"Brendan isn't the father." I whispered to her so low that if she wasn't a werewolf she probably wouldn't have heard me. "Jackson Merphate is."

There, I said it. I let the proverbial cat out of the bag. What else could I do? To save the pack I would gladly throw myself under the bus a hundred times over. But my innocent growing baby? Jackson's baby? I couldn't, I just couldn't. I closed my eyes and sent a brief prayer up to the Goddess for forgiveness.

My mother's face contorted in fury. She moved to get off of the bed, but I leapt over and grabbed her by the arm.

"Where are you going?" I asked quickly.

"I am going to tell your father what that beast did to you!" She said, trying to twist her arm away from me.

"Mom, wait you don't know the whole story!"

"The whole story? Don't tell me you have some sort of Stockholm Syndrome? Rose what he did to you is not okay." She stopped struggling and turned to face me, concerned.

I shook my head gently and let go of her arm.

"Mom, you have to promise not to mention a word of this to Dad. He can't know I told you any of what I am about to say," I warned in barely more than a whisper. You never know who was outside the door.

"Darling, I don't understand. Why can't I tell your father?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you a word of this," I whispered. "But circumstances have changed and if I have any hope I need someone else to know and someone who is willing to help me."

"Rose, what are you talking about?"

"Mom, Jackson Merphate is my mate."

She gasped and took a step back from me. I was worried I lost her: lost her love, her help, her empathy and any possibility I had of getting out of the situation I was now in. I continued, hoping to at least stun her enough to hear the whole truth.

"Daddy knows. He has known for months. I wasn't abducted by the Merphate Pack. Phil didn't kidnap me. He released me and helped me get away. I was being held prisoner in this room, like I am now."