"I need to talk to you guys," I tell my parents. "It's important." Max, Mara, and I take a seat at the island now that there's spots open. My parents are across from us, leaning against the counter.

"Did something happen? Are you pregnant?" my mom asks. I feel my cheeks go red, because the answer to that is "I don't know". I ignore that question.

"That's not what I need to talk to you guys about," I say, but I see the way my mom looks at me. She's going to bring it up later once my dad and Max are gone.

"You know."

I look at my dad. He's looking at me with concern, like he doesn't know how I'm going to react now that it's out in the open. Then he glances at Lacey, and his eyes suddenly have a terrified look in them. Huh?

"Yeah," I say, but I'm still confused as to why my dad is still looking at Lacey.

"Know what?" my mom asks, looking between the two of us.

I'm taken aback, because I thought she knew. I thought my dad would have told her. But now I know why he looks so scared. I'm not the only one he's been lying to.

"I told you how my first mate, Hannah, died giving birth to Brynn," my dad sighs. He leans forward, resting his elbows on the counter and burying his head in his hands.

"Yeah, you told me the pregnancy was too hard on her body," my mom says. "What does that have to do with this?"

"I didn't tell you the whole story."

"What else happened?"

My dad remains silent, and I can tell that this is hard for him to talk about. I wish I could jump in and help him tell the truth, but I can't for two reasons. I don't know what he's told Lacey, and this needs to come from him.

"Ethan, you can tell me," she says softly, placing a hand on his upper arm.

"I told you that Hannah had previous health problems, and that's why the pregnancy killed her," he eventually says. I'm listening closely, because this is the first time I'm ever being told about my birth mom. The smallest of smiles grows on my face, because even though I know this isn't going to be pretty, getting to hear about the woman who gave birth to me brings a new, happy feeling inside of me.

"Nothing was wrong with her. She was perfectly healthy," my dad says, and I know what comes next.

"Then how did the pregnancy kill her? She was a werewolf, she should have been fine," my mom says. There's a hint of frustration in her voice, but you wouldn't be able to tell unless you knew her extremely well. Her voice rises just a little bit, but it's not noticeable unless you've been around her for long enough to know exactly how her voice normally sounds.

My dad lets out a breath that it sounds like he's been holding, and then he finally says it. "She wasn't a werewolf. She was a vampire."

My mom gasps, taking her hand off of my dad's arm. I don't realize that I've stopped breathing, and I let it out as slow as possible. Below the counter, Max places a hand on my thigh. I can tell that he's even more surprised by this than I am.

"That's why Brynn's pregnancy killed her. Because she was a vampire, and her body wasn't made to carry a hybrid." My mom's eyes dart to look at me, and then back to my dad.

"So you lied to me?" she chokes out in a whisper. Tears well in her eyes, and she's getting paler by the second. She looks like she's going to be sick. "After everything I told you?" She takes a step away from him, and then another.

"That's why I didn't tell you, Lace!" my dad says, raising his voice. Lacey doesn't flinch. He finally takes his head out of his hands and looks at my mom. "Because Brynn is my daughter and she will always come first, but I couldn't lost another mate!" I can hear the desperation and guilt in his voice, and I want more than anything to be able to fix all of this.

"You know how I feel about vampires," my mom whispers, absolutely horrified. She backs away from the island. "You know I was attacked by one. You know how much I hate them. And all this time, I've been raising one as if it was my own child."

I'm trying not to cry now. Hearing Lacey refer to me as an it, like she all of a sudden despises me, hurts more than when I found out they they never told me the truth. Or, now, that my dad never told me the truth.

Lacey looks between my dad and I, shakes her head in disgust, and then she walks out of the kitchen.

"Lace!" my dad calls, getting up to follow her.

"Don't you dare follow me," she says from the hallway, her voice getting farther and farther away. I shiver runs through my body, because not once, in all my eighteen years of life, have I ever heard Lacey's voice sound like way. It's heartbroken, terrified, disgusted, and furious, all in one. It's sickening to hear it.

My dad stops in his tracks, looking even more heartbroken than Lacey sounded. His shoulders hunch over and his eyes drop to the ground. I get up and walk over to where he's standing, wrapping my arms around him. "Dad, I'm sorry," I whisper, letting my tears fall.

He pulls away and shakes his head, refusing to meet my eyes. "Brynn, you have nothing to be sorry for. This is all on me," he says. "I didn't tell you about your mom because I didn't want Lacey finding out. I figured that once you were out of the house, I could tell you and tell her and it wouldn't be that big of a deal."

"I'm sorry for bringing it up though. I wouldn't have brought it up if I had known," I say. He braces himself against the counter again, and I go back to sitting between Mara and Max. Max's hand finds my thigh again, and even the simple touch helps calm me down. I wipe my tears away, and for the time being, they stop falling.

"That's my fault. I shouldn't have lied to either of you. If I had told you guys the truth from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this situation."

I shake my head, because I understand why my dad didn't tell the truth. I don't know what I would do if I was in his position, but I understand why he made the decision he did. I don't know if I think it's right or wrong, but I understand.

"How did you find out?" my dad asks, finally meeting my eyes as he changes the subject. I think he has a hunch on how, but I tell him anyways.

"Max told me the night we met. He's a hybrid, too."

My dad nods, looking back down at the counter.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about him sooner," I say, feeling the need to apologize. Suddenly, my reasoning for keeping Max a secret seems ridiculous, and I'm slightly embarrassed. "I was mad that you guys never told me the truth. I guess I was trying to get back at you."

"You don't need to apologize, Brynn. The secrets I kept from you are way bigger than hiding your mate."

I make a split second decision in this moment, and I say, "There's more hybrids." My dad looks back up at me, and I can feel Max's gaze on me. Even Mara, out of the corner of my eye, looks a little surprised. Our plan was to keep it on the down low until we found out everything we could, but suddenly that didn't seem like a great idea. "They're trying to take over the vampires and werewolves. They asked Max and I to join them. They're the ones who wiped out the Firewoods pack."

"This isn't good," my dad says, and for the first time, he looks genuinely terrified. "They're stronger than us. It doesn't matter how many packs we could get together. Even if we somehow managed to team up with the vampires, the hybrids will still be stronger."

"We have to find a way to stop them, though," I say. "We can't let them get away with this."

"I know, Brynn, but I don't know if there's anything we could do. Unless you could find more hybrids than they have that are willing to side with you, the only ones who stand a chance are you and Max."

Lacey reappears in the kitchen. Her cheeks are streaked with mascara, and her hair is thrown up in a bun. She looks directly at my dad as she says, "I want her out, or I'm leaving."

I feel my heart drop in my chest, and tears well in my eyes. They start rolling down my face before I can push back the urge to start crying. "Lace, she's my daughter!" my dad says loudly. "I can't just kick her out!"

"Then I'm leaving. I refuse to live under the same roof as one of them."

She turns around to go back to her and my dad's room, but I quickly say, "No! It's fine. I'll go."

Lacey whips around to face me, her eyes set in an icy glare. In a burst of anger, I return the look. I never thought Lacey had it in her to be this cruel, but I guess we all have surprises.

"Brynn, you don't have to leave," my dad says, but I can hear his voice breaking. He doesn't know what to do. He's at a cross roads, because he doesn't want to have to choose between either of us. Suddenly, I'm furious at Lacey for doing this to him. This isn't how you treat someone you love.

"It's fine dad. I can stay with Max," I say quietly, because unlike Lacey, I won't make him choose. It's better if I go, because Lacey still needs to be here for my brothers and sisters.

I hop off the stool and grab Max and Mara's hands, pulling them after me. I let them go as soon as we're out of the kitchen, and I run up the stairs.

The sooner I'm in my room, the sooner I can let it all out.