Page 36 of The Lunatics

He held up a hand. “No, don’t. I’m not saying this to gain another apology from you. We really should desist with them. I’m simply telling you because we won’t be going back there.”

“But my stuff is back there.”

He turned the SUV onto the wider avenue that led away from his parents’ street and slowed to the speed limit. “I’ll send someone for it. In the interim, I’ll give you my credit card, and you can replenish your essentials.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “Why, Michael?”

He glanced down at his phone, like he was double-checking that it was off. “My mother was going to use you.”

“Use me how?”

“In the same way she uses all of us. To further whatever plans she has.” He gripped the steering wheel, the muscles of his forearms flexing. “She manipulated both of us at dinner, and we played right into it.”

“How so?”

“In a thousand minute ways, half of which I probably missed or misinterpreted,” he said. “For instance, she placed all of my male relatives around you less as a shield and more to antagonize you. She immediately confronted us to throw me off balance. Both her insinuation concerning your well-being and her calling me an idiot were meant to test our bond, to discover just how protective we are of each other. And the way she outed you was designed to turn the family against you, so that if she did order your execution, they wouldn’t put up much of a fuss afterward.”

Ireallydidn’t like that woman. “Wonderful.”

The smell of Michael’s anger permeated the air, a clear sign of just how upset he was. “And don’t believe for even a second that her welcoming you to the family assures your safety. My mother manipulates everyone around her almost without thought. It’s as natural as breathing to her. No doubt she saw your mastery over the shift less as a confirmation of your control and more as an ability to exploit. That, paired with your bloodline, would be seen as a great threat to our enemies. One she’ll try to use to her advantage.”

I let out a shaky breath. “What made her like this?”

“Her parents,” he said. “At least that’s my assumption, based on the way she attempted to raise me in her own image. As her heir, I know her better than perhaps anyone, even my father. I know the way her mind works. Just who she would casually mention your heritage to for the news to have the biggest impact. I can see it now, the way the rumor would build. The parties she would invite you to in order to show you off and let the others know she wasn’t bluffing. All with the aim of you acting as a distraction while she worked toward her true goal in the background. And if one of the other factions in the city happened to lash out and preemptively kill you before you could cause them trouble, well, then no one would be able to directly pin your death on her.”

It was a struggle not to growl. “Then we don’t play her game.”

He shook his head. “Even knowing her as I do, I still find myself carefully placed on her political chessboard. I don’t rise to her bait, and I realize later that I was caught in a double blind, and that was what she had planned for me to do. Or I overreact in a way I’m sure she won’t anticipate, only to find out days or even weeks later that she did.”

What a piece of work that woman was. I needed to call my parents and reiterate how much I loved them. “Why do you put up with her?”

“For everyone else,” Michael said. “And to attempt to curtail the worst of her nature. She may do terrible things, but there’s a purpose behind them. Our enemies are ruthless, so she must be, too. To her, it doesn’t matter who she hurts so long as our family remains safe and her territory intact.”

“So, we beat her by taking away her chess pieces? Is that what this is about?”

“That’s the hope.”

“What’s to stop her from telling everyone about me anyway? Out here in the city, I’ll be an easier target.”

His teeth flashed in the darkness. “Ah, but I’m out here alone with you now. She’s seen how protective the bond has made me over you. I have never challenged her like I did tonight. And now she knows that there’s a possibility I could get caught in the crossfire if she exposes you. She won’t risk that.”

I really hoped he was right. “What if this was somehow her plan all along?”

He cut a glance at me. “We can’t discount that as a possibility, but judging by her reaction at dinner and her response to us leaving, I don’t currently believe it was her intent. I think she wanted to keep you close. You’re an unknown commodity. She can’t learn how best to manipulate you without getting to know you. Tonightwas a test. If we had stayed, she would have continued testing you until she discovered every one of your buttons. And then she would have invited you out in public and started pushing them.”

“You know, I think a city full of homicidal preternaturals on the brink of war sounds like a much nicer place to hang out than your parents’ house after all.”

Michael laughed. It was the first time I’d heard himreallylaugh. The sound was low, but infectious. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked over at me, and the aloof refinement I’d come to expect from him slipped a little, a tendril of warmth surfacing in its stead. His full lips spread wide to reveal perfectly even teeth.

I stared at him in near shock. Dear Goddess. The man had dimples.

Quickly, I turned away and schooled my thoughts. Danger lay that way. Much safer to keep my mind on his diabolical mother and the mess I now found myself in.

We fell silent as we crept closer to the city center. I gazed out of the window, our surroundings fading as I turned my focus inward. In my pack, we told stories of legendary mated pairs, wolves bound together from warring clans, who started out as bitter enemies but eventually united their people under one banner. Would Michael and I be counted among them one day? Or would we end up serving as a cautionary tale instead? After everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I was worried we’d be the latter.

We eased to a stop at a light just off the highway, and the unhoused man on the corner holding a sign sayingANYTHING WILL HELPnodded at our car. Michael lifted his fingers off the steering wheel in greeting.

I sat up and started to pay attention. There was foot traffic here, restaurants offering a wide variety of fare. My gaze skipped over the people littering the sidewalks, coming to rest here andthere on the ones who moved just a little bit differently than the rest. They walked with more purpose, had an innate litheness that humans couldn’t compete with.