Rejected His Miracle Luna (Dorothy and Ignatius)
Chapter 76

Chapter 76

-Dorothy-

"Really, I'll be fine. Angie said she can handle this

Rita had called me to let me know that she was on her way over. I couldn't bear the thought of her running into Tally members on the way and urged her to stay where she was.

Angie had said that there had only been a few and they were on the far side of Bielke territory, nowhere near where I sat in the cliffside cottage,

"If anything happens. I'll call you immediately, I promised her before hanging up and burying my face in the crook of my

I had been curled up on the sofa in the living room but, after a few minutes of anxious foot-tapping. I got up and began. pacing back and forth. The floor was cold to my bare feet but I paid no mind to the chill that ran through the house in its entirety. I was restless and on edge, worried about Angie, worried about my mate whose mind I had still been unable to reach.

I groaned out loud in frustration and was about to stomp back up the stairs when a familiar scent wafted through the air. A presence that sent sharp pri ckles across my skin.

-Ignatius-

I stared in disbelief at the woman who stood before me. She looked exactly the same as she had been the day she left me. Her long white hair tumbled down over her shoulders and swished at her knees. Hair exactly the same snowy white as my own. Only her eyes were different. When I was a child she would look down at me with sad empty eyes Eyes that would only thicker with life when she was in her element, tink ering about her small study with potions and magic.

Now my mother's eyes flashed with fierce determination. There has a burning rage behind her eyelids and it both relieved and scared me. My mother was alive. She was standing right in front of me, even though I had long ago accepted that I would never see her again

She was, however, on a different side this time. She was an opposing force, so powerful and frightening that a part of me wished to go back to the days when we all thought Moirah was dead and gone. She smiled at me. There was no love in that smile, no affection for the son she had left behind.

"Hello, Ignatius"

I was rooted to the spot, torn between the powerful urge to run into her arms and be carried in her arms the way she used to do. The other part of me wanted to turn on my heel and run. To forget the Tally and their leader. To take my mate and hide away somewhere no one would ever replace us, least of all the ghostly woman who stood before me now,

I couldn't speak, couldn't think straight. My mind found it too difficult to comprehend that the woman before me was not an apparition, a spectral memory brought to life by my own imagination.

It couldn't be possible, It shouldn't be. Even Tor was at a loss, quiet and reserved, he rumbled softly in my chest. Warning me to be on guard.

"How is this possible?" my words were quiet at first, but the more I spoke the louder they became, "Where have you been?!"

The flood gates were opened and every emotion I had felt towards my controversial mother poured forth as I stared at her. "Why did you leave us? Why did you leave me? You've been here this whole time? Why didn't you take me with you?"

Moirah remained silent, eyeing me from the shadows with the tiniest hint of an amused smile. That smile only infuriated me more. She disappeared. For years. And when we finally came face to face again she had the audacity to look bemused as if my response was uncalled for.

Fri, Jan 26

Chapter 76

"Ignatius," her tone was light as if she wasn't discussing the first moment in my life that left a scar on my heart forever. *Don't you remember? I tried to take you with me, but things just didn't work out that way." I combed her fingers through her hair reclined against the rickety table beside her. It was full of jars and vials that tinkled together when jostled

A dark liquid stained the wood and it creaked as she balanced her elbow against the tabletop. "I had always meant to come back for you," she said nonchalantly. "I just didn't."

"That's it?" my voice rose louder than 1 intended for it to. And, no matter how much I tried to still myself, my knees felt weak and my hands shook. "That's all you have to say? What kind of answer is that? What kind of mother are you!"

She looked genuinely puzzled at my response. "I thought you'd get over it pretty easily. You were young, after all. And aside from his verbal assault, you were never in any danger around Elliot She shrugged before continuing. "You needed a home, and I couldn't offer you that

"I needed a mother!" It was a roar. My voice cracked and my hands balled into fists as I lost myself in my anguish.

Moirah frowned, "Don't shout. That won't help anything. This is my turf after all and you're being very rude just barging in here like this.

I was genuinely bewildered. I didn't know what I wanted from her, nor was I prepared for how she would react to seeing me at all. But the last thing I had expected was for her to treat me as if we had no history at all.

As if I wasn't her son and she hadn't abandoned me. There was no relief for the aching knot in my throat, no payoff or moment of clarity. Moirah was a stranger, and she seemed intent on keeping it that way. "What's wrong with you?"

"Don't be rude, Ignatius. I bristled at her words and she raised her eyebrow with an air of condescension. "Now, are you going to tell me why you're here slinking around my campsite?"

All of my rage and adrenaline left my b*dy as quickly as it had come. With just a short conversation, Moirah had whinled me down to the last child I used to be. I was numb as I stared at her, suddenly exhausted on my two weak legs.

"You don't even care. Did you ever really care?"

Something like sorrow flashed in her eyes but it was gone so quickly I thought I must have imagined it. She shook her head and set her law.

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"Of course I did. But there is no helping what happened. If I had stayed any longer. Elliot your father would have killed me. I was ready to leave and you were hiding. I had to make a choice, and I chose me. I do not regret my decision.

My anguish drained from me as she spoke. I steeled my heart towards the cold woman who shared my blood. Maybe she had loved me once, but that person that I had known was gone for good. There was no point in begging for love from someone who had closed themselves off from that emotion years ago.

"Why are you attacking my people, Moirah?"

"Oh that's right," she said casually. "You're the leader of the Bielke now, Johan did mention that. I suppose Elliot is dead. then!" She seemed disappointed at that thought, although I doubt it was because she held any kind of affection or sentiment for my father.

"Elliot is alive. He was banished. Is all of this because of him? Are you trying to get to him? Because if that's all you want, will gladly deliver him to you myself if it means you'll leave my jack alone."

"You would give up your own father! Elliot must have rubbed off on you after all," she mused. "But why not kill him? It's Balke tradition.

We have i

new traditions"

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Chapter 76

She stroked her chin and looked at me sideways as if investigating the stranger who had once been her son for any signs of

his father.

"But no, this is not solely about Elliot. Although, I must admit I'm sad to hear that he won't be there to witness the demise of his beloved pack. The Bielke has been a plague to the land for long enough. It's time they pay for their years of tyranny"

"How can you say that? You were once Bielke yourself. You can't wipe out an entire people because of the actions of a few"

"Not only actions," she interrupted me with a slender finger in the air. "But inactions as well. How many times did the Bielke stand by and watch their neighboring allies be slaughtered? Because they were believed to be "weak: How many stood by and watched what Elliot did to his own mute and said nothing"

She looked at me inocently. "You don't think just because you're in charge now I'm going to call off my troops, do you?"

Tor growled in my chest and I felt my skin bristle as he tried to break through and take control. She was a threat to our people and she was right in front of us. It would be all too easy to take her out. But I held him down, I couldn't bring myself to harm her. There had to be a way to reason with bee

"Why Johan? Why would you take in that psychopath? You can't truly support his mad plans for revenge"

She tapped her clawed finger against her lips. "I don't need to agree with it nor understand him. All I know is that there is a pain in his chest and it won't be relieved until he has righted the wrong that was done to him. It was merely a great coincidence that we had our eyes on the sume pack. Your park. Johan has been a very useful ally." "You're a monster, Moirah."

And I meant it. Despite my empathy and all of the reasoning I had tried to use to justify her actions, Moirah had so severely destroyed the bridge between us that there was no reaching her it all

"Harsh but fair, I suppose," she rutted. "The world is not that black and white. I'm merely doing what I have to. I chose this path and I'm not going to betray myself by not walking it to the very end." "With that being said she sighed. "I can't let you leave here alive?

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