Rachel's Man
*Three Days Later*
Elijah stood outside the home he’d dreaded coming to and took a breath. He was nervous, but he’d waited long enough. Hearing his phone ring, he took it from his pocket, and his face paled at seeing who it was.
“H-he-llo?” he stuttered.
“H-he-llo? Boy, if you don’t sound like Lionel Richie,” Terrence said, laughing wildly. “I bet you are about to ask me is it me you’re looking for, aren’t you?” Elijah gave a nervous chuckle, partially out of fear, partially out of the fact that he had no clue who Lionel Richie was. “Anyway, I just called because I heard you were going to handle your business today. I like to think of us as friends, and I want to be there for you in your time of need. So, I’d like to give you a bit of a pep talk if that’s alright?”
“Yes, sir.”
Terrence inhaled deeply. “GET YOUR ASS IN THERE AND HANDLE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE I TAUGHT YOU, OR I’M COMING BACK AND NOBODY WILL HAVE TO ALLEGE WHAT I’VE DONE TO YOU! I WILL WALK THE NEW YORK FASHION RUNWAY WEARING YOU AS THE SIGNATURE PIECE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” Elijah almost threw his cell phone and ran. “I hope that was enough of a pep talk for your ass. Do you need in person support?”
“No!”
Terrence gave a belly-deep laugh. “Didn’t think so. Make me proud, Elijah. I’m rooting for you not to piss me off,” he said before hanging up.
“Jesus!” Elijah screamed, putting the phone back in his pocket. If Turnemloose considered him a friend, he would make damn sure to never become an enemy. Walking slowly up the stairs, he opened the large door, and his mother wrapped her arms around him. He smelled her perfume, and his eyes tinted. “I thought you said you didn’t wear that fragrance anymore,” he said.
She waved him off. “Did I? I say so much. I can hardly remember sometimes.”
*“She did it on purpose!”* his wolf raged.
He took a deep breath. *“Calm down. We have business to handle.”*
*“You’re right.”*
“I’m so happy you’re here.” Claire said, oblivious to his stony demeanor. She grabbed his hand, pulling him into the dining room. “Are you hungry? Let me call Mary Beth to make you something to eat.”
Removing his hand from hers, he shook his head. “I’m not hungry, mom, I came to talk to you.”
“About?”
“Christmas.”
Her smile returned. “I had a lovely time. I especially enjoyed the pearls you gave me. They were my favorite gift all year.”
Taking a seat at the table, he clasped his hands and placed them in front of him. “Good for you. I, on the other hand, didn’t have a lovely time. In fact, my Christmas and the time after were and have been downright shitty.”
“Elijah, language!”
He scoffed. “Just because you don’t like the delivery of the message doesn’t make it any less clear. I’ve been having a shitty time. I’m sure you know why.”
She turned her back and fumbled with the placemats on the nearby table. “Is this still about that woman?”
“Rachel.”
“Whatever her name is. I told you you’ll get over her. Just give it some time.”
“Here’s the thing. I don’t want to get over it. I want to sit in it, feel it, and I have every intention of dealing with it.” He was trying his best to keep his cool, but every time she intentionally called Rachel out of her name, it made his blood boil. “You should know she left me, probably for good, and the more I think about it, the more I applaud her for doing so.”
His mother whipped around, glaring at him. “She really has you wrapped around her little gold-digging finger, doesn’t she?”
“Don’t talk about her that way.”
“I’ll talk about her however I want! You come in here and interrupt my day—a day I thought I would spend enjoying time with my son—to talk about a woman who probably has as much control of her finances as she does her weight.”
Time seemed to stop. Ice pouring in his veins, Elijah’s eyes darkened, making him appear almost beastly. His voice deepened to a lethal low, and the calm man everyone knew disappeared. “Don’t you ever make another comment like that about my mate.”
“I honestly didn’t want to travel down that road, but you left me with no choice. Do you really think she’s worthy of the Montgomery name? She’s beneath you, and the sooner you realize it, the sooner we can move forward. Elijah, I don’t care that you’ve marked her, or that you believe you’re in love. She will never be one of us. I refuse to let some trash of a wom—”
Elijah let his wolf free. Showing itself on his face, his eyes burned a brilliant yellow. He banged his fist so hard on the table that he cracked it and roared so loudly that it echoed through the halls. The more fear etched itself on Claire’s face, the more his wolf pushed against him, and he almost shifted. “Rachel! Her name is Rachel! Not that woman, gold-digger, and certainly not trash! Her name is Rachel and if you disrespect her one more time—” He exhaled sharply, trying to regain control. “Don’t. This is the last warning you will get. I may have a familial bond with you, but to my wolf, you are an enemy.”
He’d never spoken to his mother that way. Never once raised his voice or talked out of turn, but he could no longer deny that there were dark places in his life that needed light to heal, and his mother was one of them.
Claire squared her shoulders and ran her hands over her pearls. “If your father could hear the way you just talked to me. He would be so disappointed,” she said.
Moving quickly across the room, Elijah pointed at his father’s portrait. “Who him? Come on, mom, get real. If dad had been there for Christmas and saw Rachel and Morgan, we both know how I’m talking to you right now would be the least of his concerns.”
“I do not know what you’re getting at, but I’d suggest you monitor your next words. You will not sully your father’s reputation in front of me.”
He stared at her. “Oh my God, they were all right about you. I never wanted to see it, but I can’t pretend anymore that we live this fairytale life you want us to portray. You know just as I well as I do that dad was a racist piece of shit.”
“What the hell did you just say?”
Pointing his finger in the air, he walked around the damaged table. “Actually, let me rephrase that. Your husband–your mate–was a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, elitist, classist, abusive, piece of shit.” Leaning towards her, he cut his eyes. “Is that your problem with Rachel, mom? Are you racist too?”
“Don’t be so obtuse. Your middle name is Anita, after all. Rachel could be green for all I care. My problem with her is she’s not of our stature.”
Elijah laughed harshly. “Wow, just wow. Did you really say because you named me Anita, you aren’t a racist? I guess slave owners who forced themselves on slaves weren’t rapists and racist either, huh?” Claire remained silent, and he shook his head. “And don’t dismiss the very essence of Rachel by comparing her to something you know doesn’t exist. Do not dismiss a part of what makes her beautiful. I didn’t make you *‘go down that road’* or any other, you happily volunteered. You had the temerity to part your lips and make a vile comment about her weight, as if your thoughts about her would have affected how incredible I know she is. Rachel is my type in every way imaginable. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on her.
“As for stature, she has more class than both of us combined. She never disrespected either of us, though she very well should have. I find it amusing, however, how quickly we forget where we come from. You think I didn’t witness dad’s abuse to you? That somehow, I wasn’t privy to his favorite pastime of calling you ‘gutter trash’ because you’re from Skid Row? He was a terrible husband and father; you should be proud that I’m not like him. He forced me to sleep with grown women at age twelve to prove to him I wasn’t gay. How quickly you seem to have forgotten what a genuine piece of shit he was. Here you are protecting his bullshit in death, like you did when he was alive.”
Claire pursed her lips, and he sighed. “Look, I don’t want to fight with you, but I’m not sorry for how I’ve spoken, and I don’t apologize for how I talked about dad.” He looked at the ceiling and quickly wiped his eyes. “Do you know that Rachel saved me? More times than I can count. I would be dead without her. Your only son, dead, but she risked her life for me. I almost killed her, and she still risked everything to keep me from going insane. And she didn’t do it because of what I have or what I could give her. She did it because she’s a good person, and she loved me enough to fight for me.”
“I-I didn’t know.”
“Because you didn’t want to. You don’t know shit about shit because you never tried. Rachel didn’t leave me because of Christmas. She left me because the same poison that dad spewed somehow seeped into me.” He huffed. “Mom, I love you. You know that. I know you tried your best to protect me from him. I know you did your best to protect yourself. You will always be in my heart, but Rachel is the embodiment of what drives me to become a better man. She makes me want to get up in the morning. Even now, when she’s gone, she’s still what makes me want to get up, because at least if I do, I have a fighting chance of becoming a fraction of the man she deserves.”
Walking close, he kissed her on the cheek. Her body was still, her breath ragged, and anger and sadness heated her skin. “I came here today to make something clear to you. You will never disrespect my mate again. You will not call her out her name. You will not come to our home and make her feel unwelcome. I’m serious. She could tell you you’re not allowed in her kitchen, and I’d put on my white outfit, matching gloves, and usher you to your seat.”
Claire looked momentarily confused. “I don’t understand.”
“Rachel and I used to watch her church service on TV on Sundays. You have to see the usher’s march to get it. The point is, I belong to her, not because we are imprinted, but because I love her with every fiber of my being. You need to accept that it will never change. If that doesn’t work for you, that’s fine. I understand, but you understand this. If by some chance she ever goes temporarily insane and takes me back, I’m jumping at the chance and will try my damn hardest to get it right. I will marry her, I will have children with her, and I will spend the rest of my life proving to her I’ll never take her for granted again. If that’s too much for you to deal with, then it hurts me to say, but I don’t need or want you around.”
Elijah’s wolf calmed, washing a cooling sensation over him. Having finally gotten him to say what he should have all along, it synced with him completely. As he stood in the doorway, he paused. “Correction, we don’t need nor want you around,” he said, and closed the door.