145

MAXINE

"Zel!" I screamed, running to her and wrapping my hands around her. I pulled her back, both of us falling backward on our behinds.

"What do you think you're doing?!" I yelled. "You can't kill yourself."

She removed my hands from her and stood to her feet. I did the same. "I wasn't trying to kill myself, Maxine. Far from that. I'm my mother's only biological child." She dropped.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"My siblings were all adopted. The only child she gave birth to was Gabriel and I. As we grew older, the family got bigger." Zel explained.

"Whoa…" It made a lot of sense now. I thought the kids were Cinder's, all with different fathers. I know, it was a derogatory thing to think about Cinder. I had considered adoption but I thought too much about it.

"This was where he died. He was trying to save me, Mom, Oz, and Raine. He was a wolf. Mom had fallen in love with an Alpha and she had his child. He had rejected her, of course, because he already had a luna." Zel sighed and took a