Claimed By My Three Alphas
Chapter 157

AMERY

I stood there, anxious and nervous about the whole thing. There was not a single movement coming from the house, and I was beginning to doubt that anyone truly lived there. I was contemplating turning around to leave with my head bowed in disappointment, when I heard some noise. I looked on with great expectation, and soon, I heard the creaky door unlock, and she revealed herself to me.

She walked slowly with her back slightly bent, holding a dim lantern in her hand. My mouth flew agape, as the memory I had of her when I was little flooded my brain. She was the exact image of the woman I had hazily remembered after Madeline bathed me in the poisonous liquid; just the older version.

"Who are you? Why are you here at this time? Did you lose your way?" she asked, looking up at me with great concern. Her voice sounded exactly like mine, but again, just the older version.

I just stared in awe of her, unsure of what to say. I looked behind me to see Levi, Asher and Quincy standing a few feet away from my biological mother and me. They nodded their heads at me, encouragingly, and I bit my lower lip, practicing what I was going to say. "Can't you speak?" Her voice came across as harsh, and for the first time, she had a good look at me, When her eyes met mine directly, she shuddered, moving slightly away from me.

I could tell that right there and then, she knew exactly who I was. It wasn't that she recognised me as the baby she had held in her arms; it was because anyone with eyes would easily guess that I was her daughter. I was the spitting image of her. "Ondina, is that you?" she asked, her voice had softened and she looked at me with big, curious eyes.

"Is Ondina the name of the daughter you gave birth to eighteen years ago?" I asked, knowing the answer to that question already, but I just asked for the sake of clarity.

A drop of tear fell from her eyes, and she nodded in the affirmative. "Yes. That's my baby girl. Please, tell me you're her. Please, tell me you're my baby girl," she pleaded, holding on to a ray of hope.

"Yes. I am her. I'm your baby girl, Ondina," I answered.

She gasped at the unbelievable luck of seeing me after so many years, and the lantern fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. Tears of joy streamed down her face and she pulled me into a warm embrace, holding me so tightly like she was never going to let me go.

I wrapped my arms around her, too. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I cried like I had never done before. My foster parents had showered me with so much love, but there was just something different about being in the arms of the woman who had birthed me. The embrace was smothering, but I didn't mind. If I could, I would be in her arms forever, but it was all right because time was on our side. We could laugh, cry and make new memories to fill up all the ones fate hadn't let us have in peace. "Now, I wish I had a mother," Quincy said.

"You just had to ruin the beautiful mother and daughter reunion," Asher chided.

I knew it hadn't been Quincy's intention to say that out loud, but that made me remember the brothers were around and they had been kept waiting for me.

I pulled out of my mum's embrace and that was the first time she was noticing their presence. "Who are those handsome boys?" she asked.

Levi, Asher and Quincy drew forward and exchanged greetings with my mother, who just stared at them in utmost wonder.

"Hello, ma'am. I am the guy who is going to get married to your daughter," Asher introduced himself.

Levi and Quincy threw him distasteful glances, and my mother just gave them a small smile.

"From what I can see, you three are interested in my daughter. May the best man win," she stated, then turned to look at me again, and slowly, she cupped my face in her small palms.

The tears had dried up on her face, but her eyes were still teary. "I never thought I would see you again, Ondina. You're so beautiful... You grew up to be so beautiful,... and I missed it all," she said, blinking back tears.

I managed to give her a small smile. "It's okay. I know it's not your fault," I said to her.

She shook her head, disagreeing with me. "No, it is my fault. I should have fought harder. I should have protected you and still kept you by my side. I never should have let you go. Everyday..." her voice broke, and I squeezed her shoulders lightly, reassuring her it was okay.

She picked up from where she had stopped. "There is no day that goes by that I don't regret letting go of you. I hid you from your kind because of... because of a stupid prophecy and that evil Alpha King, who would be punished by the Moon Goddess," she said. "Mum!" I called, trying to stop her from speaking any further, reasoning that no matter how terrible he was, he was still the Alpha Princes' father and they wouldn't want her to speak badly about him.

"Mum? Did you just call me mum?" she asked.

I was also surprised at how easily I had called her that, but I simply just smiled and nodded. "Of course, you're my mum after all. Don't blame yourself for everything that happened. Because of what you did, I was able to stay in the human realm with people who were kind and wonderful to me. If you hadn't given me up, I wouldn't have been alive today, so it's okay. Let's forget about the past and start afresh," I explained.

The tears she had been trying to hold back slowly fell from her eyes, and once again, she hugged me tightly.

"Oh, Ondina. Thank you very much. You grew up to be such a lovely girl. Thanks for forgiving your incompetent mother. Thank you for calling me mum even though I am undeserving of that title. Thank you for coming back to me. Thank you, my daughter. Thank you," she kept repeating, and I just patted her on the back and stroked her lovely brown hair with grey streaks.

"Come on in, my love. There are so many things I need to know. I have so many questions for you and I have a lot to tell you," my mother said minutes later, as she released me from her hug and pulled me by the hand.

"Yes, we have a lot of catching up to do, although I assumed I would be the one to ask the questions," I explained with a small smile.

A broad smile found its way to her lips. "Of course. You can ask me anything you want. I just hope you're not in a hurry to go back, but even if you are, I won't let you go. This time around, I would ensure you stay by my side," she stated in a firm tone. "Whatever you say, mum," I said.

Levi picked up the lantern which had fallen and after my mum and I went into her little cottage, the three brothers walked in after us in no particular order and gently closed the door behind us.

The cottage smelled of honey and dew. It was a small space, but it was cozy and comfortable. The little fireplace at the corner of what served as the living room made the place warm. There was an old and worn-out sofa with an ant-infested table at the centre. There were also several bowls containing bottles of honey laying close to a bookshelf, whose frame was broken and in it were books that had been ripped at the edges, which one could only guess was the work of rats.

"I make and produce honey," she explained when my eyes remained fixed on the bowls.

"Oh, I see," I said.

"It is how I manage to make a living," she explained.

My eyes caught sight of picture frames hanging on the wall and I walked towards them slowly and ran my eyes all over them. There was a picture of when I was a baby, a photograph of my mother and the man I guessed was my father as I had also seen him in my trance.

"That's your dad," she said, looking at the picture with a longing affection.

"Where is he? Are you guys separated or... is he..."

"He's not dead, don't worry," she said, knowing what I was going to ask even though I was unable to complete my sentence.

"He's just somewhere right now, but he'll be back soon enough. I'll get him back," she said; her voice laced with determination.

"Why do you always act so stupidly?" I heard Asher ask.

"He's just a typical lastborn. Let him be," Levi said.

"You're older than me with a few minutes. Don't act all mature now," Quincy retorted.

When I looked to see what was going on, I saw Quincy taking some honey from one of the bottles my mother sold. When he noticed our gaze on him, he froze.

My mum smiled sweetly. "It's okay. You can have it all. I should have served you something to eat after coming all the way here," she said.

"Thank you, ma," Quincy said.

"If only Amery was half as kind as you, the world would be a better place," Levi snorted and grabbed the honey from Quincy and emptied some of its contents into his mouth.

"Let me have that," Asher said, grabbing it from Levi, and proceeded to have some as well. "It's really good," he noted, and wanted to have some more, but it was snatched by Quincy.

"Weren't you calling me stupid for taking me some? Bloody hypocrite," he said, then moved far away from the brothers to have it alone, but they went after him, demanding a share of the honey.

I chuckled. "It's so good to see them having fun together," I expressed.

"They are brothers, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. Actually, they are the Alpha Princes," I disclosed.

She didn't say a word, but I could see her tremble and she swallowed hard, then tried to just force a smile at me. I knew something was troubling her, and that was confirmed with the anger that was evident in her eyes as she stared at the three brothers laughing heartily.

I couldn't understand why then, but soon, I'd come to see things from her point of view.