My ears flick. “I didn’t know,” I say, and my voice comes out small, fragile.
“Of course you didn’t know. None of us did.” She exhales long and hard and drags her hand down her face. “Look,” she says. “I have my own personal bone to pick with you.”
I close my eyes and open them, bracing. “I don’t understand why you hate me,” I snap. My tail lifts off the ground, held high and alert, betraying me.
Angie scoffs. “Hateis a bit dramatic, Mara. What I don’t like is how you’re playing this tug-of-war game with my son.”
“I’m not?—“
“Oh, yes, you are.” She steps in front of me, blocking my path to the cabin. “Did you, or did you not, tell him you didn’t want a baby on the community lands?”
My ears flatten against my head. My tail stiffens straight out behind me, the tassel rigid, and the heat climbs up the side of my neck, shame burning me from the inside out.
She sees all of it, reads it on my face like an open book. “Mm. Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
“That’s between?—“
“I am not defending my son’s actions.” She cuts me off. “What he did was wrong. He should have come to you about it. I will beat his ass about that tomorrow and the day after.” Her finger comes up. “But you two. Youbothhave communication problems. This is not all my son. Neither of you knows how to talk to each other about what you need, and it is doing more harm than good.”
Something in me goes hot and quiet. My claws push out against the dirt under my feet. I want to scream at her that she doesn’t understand, that she can’t possibly know what it’s liketo be rejected, to build your life around that rejection, to finally have what you want only to discover it was built on lies.
“You spent a whole year with him,” she snarls, her eyes never leaving mine. “And the minute you learn of his mistake, you are out the door.”
I straighten. “My mate bond with your son is none of your business.”
“You are giving my son whiplash, Mara.” She doesn’t even flinch. “He clearly wants to make you happy. And he’s willing to do some of thedumbest shitto do it.” Her finger comes up again and this time it’s an inch from my face, her eyes blazing. “This is the second time I have had to watch my son fight your father. And the next time, somebody is going to end up?—“
“Angie!”
Jacob’s voice cracks across the yard from the porch. He’s standing in the open doorway, one hand on the frame, his head tipped down at her with a look.
Angie’s mouth snaps shut. “Ugh.”
She spins back to me, fury full-body now, and I think she is actually going to put her hands on me, Jacob or not. “This is why we can’t get along, Mara. You expect me to sit and watch you play with my son like he’s a puppet for your entertainment and say nothing. Well, you can just call me the shitty mother-in-law, because I am not going to do it.”
“Youarea shitty mother-in-law.”
Silence drops, and then Jacob is already moving. He leaps from the porch, wolf agility carrying him clear across the yard in one long impossible glide, and he lands between us so cleanly that my breath stops. He fills the space, broad shoulders squared, and that’s enough. My tail drops and I take a step back.
He turns to Angie first. “Enough.”
“You always have to be the reasonable alpha, Jacob.” She stabs her finger at him. “But let me tell you. If this were Seth out here? You’d have averydifferent position on?—“
He huffs. Then he bends at the knee, ducks his shoulder, and lifts her clean off her feet.
“Jacob—goddammit—put medown!” Her voice rises to a shriek.
He doesn’t. She pounds his back with her fists, her feet kicking in the air. Then he turns to me and bows his head. “I have put your mate in bed,” he says, his voice steady. “He will need some care.”
I bow my head back to him. “Thank you, alpha.”
“Oh, you arepissingme off right now, Jacob?—“
He pops her ass. “I will calm Angie,” he says to me, head still slightly bowed. “And we will return tomorrow to help you. In peace.”
“Fuckpeace, I’m notdone?—“
He turns away and walks through the clearing toward the forest. Angie is still kicking. He clears the tree line, ducks under a low branch without breaking stride, and the dark swallows them both.
