Chapter 12

Twelve

The kettle screeching wakes me the next morning and I shuffle into the kitchen in my robe and slippers.

My mother—as usual—is fully dressed and looks ready to face the day. I don't ask if she slept. I know the answer.

We'd had a shouting match last night that got us nowhere. It only ended when the wolves got between us.

It happened so fast, we both blinked at them, confused.

I knew my mother would never hurt me… apparently, that conviction didn't translate to them.

In the cold light of morning, my mother didn't look as mad.

"I am sorry for last night. I suppose meeting them, when I was already angry was a bad idea, but when I went looking for you they were who I found."

"I didn't react well either, but I don't enjoy being treated like a child."

She nods. "You may have their wolves, Scarlette, but they have a piece of you too. It's why I found them. And it terrifies me that they could take you from me without even knowing it."

I take the tea cup she offers me and stare down at the hot liquid. "And I need you to accept that it was a choice I made."

She doesn't tell me she will, but she also doesn't say she won't.

"I ran into Aphrodite yesterday."

Wincing, I take a long drink of my too hot tea. "How did that go?"

"She certainly wasn't expecting to see me. And she tried to use that sugary-sweet voice on me. You know the one. As if I'd be fooled." She shakes her head and opens my refrigerator. "Where is all your food?"

"I hadn't planned to be here this morning. If I came home at all this weekend, I was going to pick up groceries on the way."

She gives me a reproachful glance and I shrug.

"We both know werewolves run hot and no witch in our family has ever passed up the chance."

She finally shuts the fridge and her shoulders droop—just enough that I notice. "Do you love them?"

I could lie to her. But I have a feeling she'd feel the lie. "I don't know. It's been two and a half weeks."

Scowling down at the wolf who's sat in front of her, looking at her like he wants to ask a question, she says, "You'll want to figure it out and quick. If you don't. You need to break things off with them while you can still be friends."

I understand her concern, but… I don't want this to end. And I know that she's weighing the risks, but even if this strange little romance has to end, I don't want to cut it short.

"I will take your advice into consideration."

Shaking her head, her lips quirk in a half smile. "No you won't."

"Fine. I respect your concern, but… I can't end this prematurely."

Silence descends and that's the only reason we hear it.

We both turn toward the front as gravel crunches and the bright sound of wet breaks pierce the morning.

The wolves bound through the room and I'm not surprised that the guys are here. I just would have liked at least two cups of tea and some food in me before we got into this discussion.

I probably should have gotten dressed too.

But there's no time for that.

I pad to the front and open the door for the four men I could have still been enjoying the warmth of.

I push that thought away. It's just going to make me grumpy.

"Good morning," I say, stepping aside to let them in.

I see Chase dodge out of the way so he can be last through the door, and I'm not surprised when he kisses me and closes the door for me. I imagine, if it was just the five of us, the fun would already have started.

"You're early." I say, quietly, even if my mother will probably hear it.

"None of us slept well last night." Joshua takes my hand, kissing my palm.

"We just wanted to make sure you're okay."

My mother makes a strangled sound behind me.

"Emotionally." Thomas clarifies glancing over my shoulder at her.

"Even if I wanted to hurt my own daughter—which I don't—your wolves wouldn't let me."

"And I brought breakfast." Johnny holds up a bag.

That will probably soften up my mother a little bit.

With six people and four wolves—no matter how ghostly—the house feels impossibly small.

"Go run the property," I say, sweeping my hand toward the door, and the wolves glance once at my mother and then bound away.

Johnny leads the way back into the kitchen and sets to work.

"You're awfully familiar with my daughter's kitchen."

He glances over his shoulder and just gives her a wide grin, no other explanation.

She'll press if she doesn't get an answer, or worse, make wild assumptions.

"I got sucked into a spell search at the beginning of the week. They were kind enough to take turns coming out to check on me."

"We're still a little mad at you for that." Joshua gives me a long glance and then eyes the stack of spells that I need to look further into.

"Comes with the territory."

My mother glares at me, and I know that she's going to have more questions for me once they're gone. But her gaze doesn't linger.

"I need to know your intentions."

Again, I sigh, but before I can scold her, Chase is the one who speaks.

"Which intentions? Because if you're worried about your daughter's safety, it should be perfectly clear that she is in no danger from us. As for our other intentions. I think that's between her and the four of us.

"What we want can only go as far as what she's willing to give. We won't take more."

"And if this relationship becomes what you all hope it will?"

Thomas's lips quirk in a smile. "Then you can rest in the knowledge that we are all happy and that should be your main concern for your daughter."

"What about my grandchildren?"

All of them flinch, startled by the sudden shift.

"Mother," I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. "It's been less than a month."

"And you could already be pregnant."

"I'm not."

I manage to keep from reminding her—again—that I'm not sixteen. I almost do remind her that she's the one who taught me how to keep that happy event from being an unexpected one.

She looks at me like I'm being naive before turning back to them. "Even if you raise them as your child," she waves her hand at all of them. "The world at large will require that only one of you is legally the father."

At the mention of fatherhood, they all soften and look at me.

Chase is the one who turns back to her, irritation in his eyes. "If that is what Scarlette wants, the five of us will discuss it when the time comes. You will not be involved in that decision."

The smirk on my mother's face tells me the accusation was just a fishing expedition.

"She just wanted to be sure there was a chance for grandkids with you. She doesn't actually care about the legal aspect of parentage."

Johnny brings a spinach and feta casserole—its top cobbled with the bright rings of heirloom tomatoes—to the table. "It would be better, easier even, if you just ask us what you want to know. We don't have anything to hide from you."

"Fine. I want to know how long each of you have been… afflicted."

I'm already denying the request when I see the brief flash of panic in Chase's eyes. "There's absolutely no reason they need to tell you that."

"It's fine." Joshua says, and he's about to tell her.

"No. It's not." I force myself to only look at Joshua. "You might be willing to tell her whatever she wants to know, but there are things you do not give a witch you don't know power over."

"Do you honestly think I'd—"

My glare is sharp when I turn back to my mother. "I know that I'll do anything to keep them safe. Even if it means barring you from knowledge you don't need to have."

"Why would knowing when we were changed be dangerous?" Thomas cuts through the casserole, confusion marring his pretty face.

"Because if a witch knows when and where you were bitten, she can use the place of your rebirth to kill you."

That confusion only gets deeper. "You're a powerful witch… why couldn't you just kill us outright?"

"Aside from the fact we can still be convicted of murder in a human court and living on the run is no life at all?" She looks behind them and they follow her gaze to the window. "The wolves protect her because they are hers… but they protect you, because you're hers too."

The wolves are back, each standing next to the man whose bodies used to bind them, heads almost level with the guys sitting down.

"I'm not a murderer," She says, straightening her shoulders. "But if my daughter dies, you will follow her to the grave."

"We wouldn't—"

"Maybe not on purpose." She glares at them and I see the intent in her eyes.

"Mother." I try to warn her, but she doesn't listen.

"If you break your connection to her, she dies. If that happens there is no place on this planet you can hide from me." Straightening, her eyes dart to the wolves and then back to them. "She holds the state of your existence in her hands, but you hold her life in yours. I don't know you. I don't trust you. And I will not let you kill my daughter because she doesn't want to burden you with that potential guilt."

Johnny's fork hovers in front of his face. "What is she talking about?"

No one's going to eat until I answer.

"You can choose to take them back from me. It is a conscious thing, all that has to be there is the true intent to remove yourself from my control."

"You told us that before." Joshua says, his words elongated with concern.

"But if you do, there are consequences." My mother glares at me and I know that if I don't tell them, she will.

"If all of you take the wolves back… they'll kill me."

The pronouncement is met with silence and then curses.

"But if I do something that is so bad you'd rather be subject to the moon's cycle and losing your humanity each month… I'd probably deserve it."

My mother sets her tea cup down, too loudly, and leaves the room.

"Why didn't you tell us that?" Thomas asks, shoulders rigid, eyes on his food.

"Because it was my risk to take."

Joshua shakes his head. "You still should have told us. What if we'd accidentally done it?"

"I trusted you wouldn't." I glance toward the wall the wolves have disappeared through again. "What would it take for you to give up being able to stay human?"

They look at each other and I know they haven't thought about it.

"I imagine, it would be something horrible. Something unforgivable. The spell allows me to control you and if I was another witch, maybe I'd abuse that. But I'm not another witch. And even if this thing we're trying doesn't work out, I'm not going to be that kind of witch."

I hear my mother coming back a moment before she appears. The guys probably won't notice, but she has washed her face and reapplied her makeup.

The idea that she shed frustrated tears over this whole thing stabs at me. Guilt isn't what I want to feel around any of them.

But she sits down and picks up her fork staring at the untouched casserole in front of her before looking back at them.

"I apologize. But you have to understand, I love my daughter and you could too easily take her away from me." She laughs and it's a bitter sound. "If you were just werewolves, everything would be fine."

"I wish," Thomas says, looking at me for a long moment before turning his attention back to my mother. "We all wish that we had met your daughter well before last month's full moon, and it has nothing to do with the fact she's taken away our need to turn. But now, I have another reason to wish we had. Because I know you don't trust us, and you have no reason to. Maybe, if we'd wound up in her path before, we'd have had the time to earn your trust."

Joshua nods beside him, "I hope, we've started doing that now."

She asks about their jobs, nodding when Johnny describes the racoon he had to pull out of someone's attic yesterday morning. His job makes the most sense for someone to have been turned.

Thomas mentions that he'd been scouted, but tore his ACL before the draft that would have decided his fate. The lycanthropy had fixed that… but there was no way to explain it, and being under public scrutiny had seemed like a bad idea, and he'd always liked helping kids at summer camps, so…

Joshu had barely touched on his job, and while my mother looked like she wanted to interrogate him, she turned to Chase. "And what about you?"

"I run a local bar."

"Run it?"

He shrugs. "I'm part owner, but the other guy handles all the business aspect of it. I sling drinks, break up fights, the fun stuff."

"That doesn't exactly sound like a career."

"I've been at the Liberty for almost twenty years, so…"

"Forgive me if I don't believe you. There are child labor laws in this country."

"And I'm forty-six."

She looks at him for a long moment and then turns to me. "That is very interesting."

We finish breakfast while Johnny tells more wild animal stories and when we're done, my mother gives them all a once over.

"I suppose, I have less to worry about." The glare that narrows her eyes makes me think she doesn't believe herself. "But that doesn't mean I trust you yet."

"We wouldn't expect you to."

I see them out after my mother stops them from trying to do the dishes. She stays inside—much to their relief.

"Come over once she's gone?" Thomas asks, the first of them to kiss me goodbye.

I nod. "It won't be until tomorrow."

He doesn't look happy about that, but heads to the truck and Johnny slips into his place, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me up to draw me to his mouth. "You could sneak out like a teenager tonight…"

"Tempting."

Chase whispers a thank you against my ear and delivers his goodbye kiss to my throat and I have to squirm a little to deal with the desires that drags through me.

Only Joshua lingers, and I have to think it's because the others are afraid of my mother. And they have every reason to be.

"I don't doubt that you're going to be okay, but… you know that if you need anything, you can always call us. Right?"

"Of course."

"Good."

He kisses me, deeply and long enough that my mother comes out to the porch.

He gives her a tightlipped smile before jogging to the already running truck.

"They like you." She says, watching them go. "I hope that's enough."

"I don't rush into things."

"Don't you?"

"Not when it comes to spells… what's happened after is something different." I look at her when the truck disappears. "How long did you know dad before you two got married?"

"That's different?"

"Is it?"

"For one thing, there was only one of him." She gives me a sidelong glance, but it's with a smile. "Which one were you trying to protect when you refused to let them tell me how long they'd been wolves?"

"I was protecting them all."

"Chase then. He must have been turned very young." She watches the truck drive away. "Were you protecting him from me, or the others?"

"You of all people know that it's better to tell secrets when they're ready to be told."

She sighs heavily. "Speaking of, take me to the Carraway plot. I want to check on your grandmother."