Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
I’m surprised to discover my mate barely dressed, and my mom wearing one of her blazer and chiffon skirts I swear to god she time-traveled to the early nineties to steal from some unsuspecting businesswoman.
“Mom, why are you here?”
“Well, I’m at the fridge because I’m looking for half and half,” she says. “You’ve only got full, and these days I find that sets my stomach right off.”
“She’s refusing to leave,” Karl says. “I don’t know how she got in.”
“Through the front door, dear boy.”
“You’re banned from this city, not to mention this house,” he snarls.
I don’t recall there being hostilities between Karl and my mother, but I guess watching me almost get shot by her unhinged husband, the fact that she tried to marry me off so I’d kill the guy’s kid, and the fact that she’s a werewolf who once abandoned her family because she was afraid she’d eat her baby all play a role.
“I’m a werewolf, darling,” she reminds him. “Your little subby wolves can’t help but roll over for me.”
Karl makes an irritated sound. “Ridiculous,” he says. “Last time you were here you kidnapped…”
“Mom!” Connor yells an entirely unearned title at her as he comes down for breakfast. The entire house is now orbiting the kitchen. It’s fortunate my other brothers no longer live with us. They have their own places and girlfriends. Tim is going to start studying soon, and Tate has a talent for concrete work. “You’re here!”
He is so incredibly excited to see her. Not going to lie, seeing him so happy to be in her presence when she gave him up for me to raise is like a punch to the guts, but I’m trying to not be bitter. It’s bad for the baby, who is now using my intestines as a jump rope.
“Of course I am, darling,” she smiles at my brother. “Would you like a gun?” She has the insanity to pull a weapon from her purse and offer it to Connor as if she is giving him a toy car.
“Yes!” he exclaims.
“No!” I say, sweeping the weapon out of her hand before she can give it to him. Karl takes it off me and disassembles it in a matter of seconds before summoning Baldwin to take it away.
“Mom! You cannot be here,” I say.
“I want her here! I want to have pancakes with my mom!” Connor starts stamping his foot.
“I have to be somewhere,” she says, diabolical as always. “Would you rather have me here, administrating my erstwhile husband’s estate where you can see me, or would you rather not know where in the world I am?”
“I would rather you were at the bottom of the ocean,” Karl growls. He’s fiercely protective at the moment. I think it is an instinct thing. Anybody looks at me the wrong way and he is ready to lose his shit, so the fact that a baby-eating werewolf just raided his fridge is clearly pissing him off.
She smiles, wickedly calculating.
“You should be more careful,” she says. “If you send me away now, I promise I will make you pay.”
I am about to intervene, because this does not sound good.
“Get out of my house,” he says. “Get out of my city. And get out of my state.”
“Very well,” she says. “You want to do this the hard way? We will do it the hard way.”
“No! Don’t do things the hard way! Mom!” I try to intervene, but the baby decides to sucker punch my diaphragm.
She turns on her heel and leaves the kitchen. Connor runs after her, eager to spend more time with the woman who gives him absolutely everything he wants.
“Baldwin, make sure she doesn’t run off with him again.” Karl says.
Baldwin follows, and there is more bickering as he confiscates a child-sized machete from my mother. Connor is losing his mind about the unfairness of it all and loudly declaring how he is more than old enough to have his own weapon and how he won’t do anything stupid with it, he promises.
“He’d cut off his own foot off within five minutes,” Karl says, deeply unimpressed.
“She’s tormenting us,” I sigh. “We’re never going to be rid of her. And the threats about making us regret sending her away aren’t idle. She’s going to do her best to fuck everything up. I guarantee it.”
“I need to be able to stab people!” Connor shrieks from the hall.
“Every good story needs an evil witch,” Karl says, surprisingly salty and sassy for a man who used to show his aggression primarily through the medium of murder. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m going to ensure we have a happy ending.”
“I’ll give you a happy ending,” I grin, reaching for my favorite food at this stage of things—a sleeve of plain crackers.
“It’s not fair! I never get to kill anyone!”
Connor is pissed, but Baldwin is handling it with his usual diplomacy.