The Alpha Triplets And The Rogue
Chapter 42

Erica’s POV

I take a few steps away from Ashley and Bryce. I hold my free hand over my ear and listen carefully.

“Mom?” I say and my voice is stunned.

“It is me, Sweetheart. I just want to call to check in.” My mother’s voice rings through the phone and tears begin to stream down my face. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Mom.” I hesitate. “There is so much to tell you.”

“We don’t have much time,” my mother says quickly and I notice that she is whispering into the phone.

“Do you know what you are saying you did?” I lower my voice and look around the crowded mall. I want to make sure that no one besides Ashley and Bryce are trying to listen to my conversation.

“I do,” my mother hisses through the phone. “Please don’t believe what they are saying.”

“I would never believe such a ridiculous claim,” I assure my mother. “I know you wouldn’t steal from the school of all places.”

“Thank you, Baby,” my mother says sweetly. “I don’t have much more time.”

“Mom,” I plead through the phone. “I have so much more to tell you.”

“All in good time,” my mother says. “One day we’ll be together again and you can tell me everything.”

“If you could just let me know the truth,” I beg her. “I can help. The triplets would help.”

My mother scoffs loudly into the phone. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Luna Alice had something to do with it and her sons did her bidding to finish the job.”

I turn and look at Bryce with hurt in my eyes and he shakes his head from side to side.

“Mom,” I try to remain calm because I have to remember that I am in public. “The triplets aren’t the same that we remember. They are kind and caring. They are taking care of me.”

“I didn’t want to send you to the North Pack,” I can hear my mother’s voice getting angrier the more that I try to defend the triplets. “It was all your father’s idea. Now you will leave there brainwashed.”

The tears are running down my cheeks so quickly that I am unable to wipe them fast enough. “You don’t understand, Mom,” my voice is beginning to c***k. “They are my mates.”

But there is no response from my mother. The line is dead.

I turn my head towards Ashley and Bryce and they are both looking at me with stunned looks on their faces. I can tell that neither one of them knows what to say.

Lowering my head, I walk back over to them and Bryce wraps his arms around me. “I just want to go home.”

Bryce nods his head and k****s me gently on the forehead. “Of course,” Bryce says with a worried smile on his face. “Let’s get you home.”

Bryce shoves the Victoria’s Secret bags at Ashley and scoops me into his arms. He carries me out of the mall bridal style. I can hear the hushed whispers of everyone that we walk past. I know that I should care about them staring and whispering but I am in no mood to care. Once we get to the SUV Bryce tosses the keys to Ashley and tells her to drive home.

Bryce crawls into the back seat with me in his arms. He strokes my hair and k****s my tear stained cheeks the whole ride home. I cannot help but to think about what my mother said about Luna Alice. Is it possible that she was a part of all of this? Did she really hate for my family to come visit every summer? If she had something to do with it I am sure that Alpha Devin had nothing to do with it. His friendship with my father means a lot to him. Or at least I thought that it did.

We pull up to the pack house and I can see that Ace and Chris are waiting for us. Without saying a word they grab all of the bags from the back of the SUV and carry them up the stairs. Bryce refuses to let go of me and continues to carry me once we get out of the car.

Luna Alice is glaring at us as we walk into the pack house. “Just what do you think you are doing?” She screeches at Bryce. “Why are you always carrying this girl around? Do her legs not work?”

“Not now, Mom,” Bryce grumbles at her.

“Is that anyway to speak to your mother?” She yells loudly.

“I said not now,” Bryce growls loudly. Luna Alice takes a step back from her son and clutches her hand to her chest in shock. Bryce ignores her dramatics and continues to walk with me up the stairs.

“You didn’t have to do that for me?” I whisper in his chest.

Bryce places a little k**s on my forehead and he sets me down on the couch in Chris’s room. “I did,” he says, “and I would do it again. No one will speak to my mate with that tone.”

Ace and Chris file into the bedroom and slam the door shut in Ashley’s face. “You have explaining to do later,” she huffs loudly as she stomps away from the door.

Ace and Chris drop my bags to the ground and rush over to me. “What did your mother say?” Ace asks carefully.

I sniff back the tears that are still threatening to fall from my eyes. “She didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know.”

“That’s not true,” Bryce says angrily. “She said that she believed our mother was involved in whatever is going on with her parents.”

“What?” Chris says angrily. “You don’t actually think that our mother had something to do with what happened to your parents.”

Refusing to look Chris in the eyes, I shrug my shoulders. “She does seem to hate me an awful lot.”

“You absolutely cannot be serious,” Chris’s face is turning red with anger.

“Erica didn’t blame our mother,” Ace tries to defuse the situation. “She simply pointed out the fact that our mother doesn’t like her.”

Chris gets up and paces the floor angrily. “It is one thing to say that she dislikes Erica. It is another thing to say that mother was in on the conspiracy that got her parents kicked out of the West Pack.”

“We never said that she did,” I try to defend myself but Chris is no longer listening.

“I am not going to sit here and listen to this s**t,” Chris says as he storms out of the bedroom and slams the door loudly.