KAI POV
I locked myself in the bathroom like it was a bunker. My back pressed against the cold tile wall, knees pulled up, phone clutched in a death grip. I had fought monsters, bled under the moon, survived dark magic and deranged alphas… but pressing that stupid green button to call my mom? That felt like suicide.
Dialing her number had been the first battle. My thumb hovered, shaking, until I forced it down like a soldier pulling a trigger.
And now every unanswered ring was torture.
‘Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to go,’ I whispered in my head, my voice brittle, desperate. ‘If she doesn’t pick up, it’s not my fault, right?’
Summer stirred in the back of my mind, her growl echoing like smoke through my ribs. ‘You know that would just make her more upset.’
“I know…” I muttered unde
