Read Online Choices by Viola Rivard - Free Book Online

better person. I know now that they were acting the way normal parents did and despite the fact that I was always complaining, they really cared about me.”
    Lark scooted closer, so that they were shoulder to shoulder. “What happened to them?”
    “I was with them for a while and eventually they decided to adopt me. Before the adoption was finalized, my mom came into the picture. She showed up out of the blue one day, with her nice car and her hair all done up.”
    Taylor paused, searching for an adequate analogy for what she wanted to explain, but couldn’t pinpoint one.
    “I think it’s only something you can understand if you’ve never seen a biological parent before. It was amazing to be able to look at her face and see parts of myself. We looked so much alike. She was a skinny, grownup version of me, without the acne or braces.”
    Lark gave a wan smile. “I looked a lot like my father. I suppose I always took that for granted.”
    “I was in awe of her,” Taylor said. “She told me all about her life, how she’d had me when she was a teenager and that her parents made her give me up for adoption and she always regretted it. She told me that she’d been looking for me for years and that she wanted to be a part of my life. She wanted to adopt me.”
    “But what about the Smiths?”
    Taylor bit down on her lip. “I didn’t think twice about it. I went to live with my mom.”
    Her eyes became distant as she thought back to when she first went to live with her mother.
    “My mom was nice, her husband was nice, my little sister was a brat, but she was a good kid.” Her brows furrowed. “I should have been happy with them, but from the very first night I laid down in my new bed, I had this terrible feeling in my gut, this feeling that I’d made the wrong choice.”
    “Did you go back to live with the Smiths again?”
    Taylor shook her head. “My mom knew I regretted choosing her. She never said it, but I knew that she knew. If I would have asked her to let the Smiths adopt me, I think she would have said yes. But I couldn’t go back to them, not after I’d turned my back on them. I don’t believe they would have held it against me, but at fourteen I lacked that level of insight.”
    Taylor let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. “I don’t know who I would have been happier with. I think if I had chosen the Smiths, I would have always wished I went with my mom.”
    Lark said, “And you’re worried that if Alder and Hale make you choose, you’ll regret not choosing the other?”
    Taylor silently nodded.
    How long had she been there now?
    A week?
    How had already she fallen for both brothers?
    How was she in so deep?

CHAPTER TEN
     
    The female came barreling towards Hale like a blonde-haired, blue-eyed nightmare, throwing her arms around him and squealing his name. His entire body went rigid as he shot Alder his trademark what-the-fuck-is-this look.
    The meeting room was a wide cavern with several tables and chairs. The multitude of carved windows kept it well-lit during the daylight hours, and Hale could clearly make out the smile tugging at Alder’s lips. Although Hale was supremely agitated by the female attached to his midsection, he was glad to see Alder was no longer pissed at him.
    Hale put his hands on the female’s shoulders and gave her a firm push. She looked up at him, her large eyes shimmering with tears.
    Tulip.
    “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    “Silas cast me out,” she said, her bottom lip wobbling. “I thought they were going to kill me.”
    Just what he needed, more bullshit from his past popping up. His past, of course, being everything that’d happened before Taylor showed up.
    When he’d originally agreed to give Mount Ezra to Whiteriver, Hale had been certain that Silas would fail as an alpha and the wolves would come crawling back to him, begging to rejoin Halcyon. But when they hadn’t, it put Halcyon in an awkward position.
    To the west was another