Twenty-five

By the time I came downstairs Oaklyn had her arms wrapped around my mother. To my surprise, my mother didn't mind it.

"It's really nice to meet you, Romona! I can't wait til our families are bonded together by Naomi and my son!" She excited explained. My mothers eyes widened a bit and I decided to interrupt. I coughed softly and caught both of their attention.

"Oh, Naomi! It's been so long since I've seen you! Have you grown? You look taller and more sophisticated!" Oaklyn ran over to me and immediately engulfed me in a hug, "how are you?" She asked.

There are multiple ways I could approach this question. My eyes shifted over to Levi who had a knowing look in his eyes.

"I'm holding up." I responded with a smile. Oaklyn is a sweet woman, she didn't deserve any backlash from me. After all, Levi is the way he is because of his father, not her.

"Mom. We need to know more about heats and ways to potentially slow them down. This is important." Levi spoke.

Oaklyn pulled back and nodded. She knew when to be serious and when to not be. "Well, it has been awhile since I've been in heat but I do vividly remember the pain." She said while walking over to the couch.

"What else?" I questioned.

She sighed, "well dear, before I give you any solutions I just want you to know that the best possible way to prevent your heat from striking anymore is to just.. mate. It's relieving and it strengthens the bond between you and your mate."

I shook my head, "I'm not ready for that. I just need some more time." I quietly responded. She nodded, understanding how I felt. My eyes shifted over to my mother who looked awfully confused. She hadn't read books in werewolves much like I did. I was happy though, I didn't want her to know any of what we were talking about anyways.

"Well, just like regular humans there are other ways to please your partner before taking the final step," she paused and her cheeks grew rosy, "I think you understand what I mean, yes?"

Levi scratched the back of his neck and nodded awkwardly.

"Any other solutions? Please, Oaklyn, if you know absolutely anything tell me." I pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Naomi, there isn't many ways to hold back a heat. You're only denying the inevitable," she could see the desperation in my eyes and began to speak again, "cold baths may work, I never tried them though. But, they won't be as relieving as a single touch from your mate." She shrugged.

Fuck. There really wasn't many ways out of this. Then, a thought popped into my mind. If I had no mate, I would have no heat. If Levi was out of the picture, so would the heat, right? The whole reason that the heat was here was because of Levi so if he isn't my mate anymore it should go away.

Not only would I not be mated to Levi anymore but, I would also not feel the pain from my heat. I would be killing two birds with one stone.

"Is there any possible way to break a mate bond?" I asked her boldly. The room went cold after I finished my sentence. I didn't dare look at Levi.

Oaklyn stared blankly at me before shifting her eyes to her son and then immediately back to me.

"W-well-" she spoke before Levi gripped my arm and pulled me toward him, making me face him.

To my surprise, he looked more saddened rather than angry with me.

"Are you seriously thinking about breaking the bond between us?" He asked sadly. I wanted to slap myself for even saying something like that out loud while he was near me, what was I thinking?

I was completely neglecting his feelings. "I was just curious…" I spoke out.

Which was a lie. I had all intentions of breaking the mate bond, but that was before I looked into his eyes and saw how badly I had hurt him just from my words.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled. Who would've ever thought that I would apologize to him?

Oaklyn cleared her throat and stood up from the couch. "Naomi, rejecting a mate is like a unspoken law. There are only a few circumstances where a mate has to reject their other half and trying to prevent a heat is not one of them."

I took a deep breath, trying to conceal myself. This was beginning to be all too much. I got force marked, ran away from an alpha, lost my dad, got caught, experienced a heat, got brought back to the one place I hated the most and I'm quite sure that my heat was coming back for round two.

This was too much and I'm about to snap.

I flipped around toward Oaklyn once again. "Oh really? Is emotionally abusing your mate one of those circumstances? Is giving your mate bruises and marking them without consent one of the circumstances? How about dragging them away from their loved ones?" I let out a giggle, "oh or how about using alpha command on your mate because they made you upset." I let out another laugh while my eyes watered, "those seem like pretty good ass reasons to me."

At that point Oaklyn's and Levi's jaws were to the floor.

I wiped my tears and grabbed my moms arm. I pulled her and walked out of the cabin. I can't stand to be in that room with either of them for another second just pretending like nothing is wrong.

"Naomi, hunny…" my mother stopped me halfway into the woods. By now I was bawling. She pulled me into a large hug while I cried on her shoulder.

"This is too much…" I cried out, "I know, my love, I know. You can let it out. I'm not here to judge you. We have all the time in the world."

Hugging my mother only made me realize how much I truly did need and love her.