Page 45 of Those That Defy the Realm

“Mum, what are you doing working out here?” Her office is near the front of the large lodge, along with a couple of the other Alphas’.

“I thought we could talk as you start dinner. You’ve been home for a week and we’ve not caught up properly.” Her words are warm but my wolf is instantly on alert. I sense a plan. I love my mother dearly, and she is an incredible female but sometimes she can overstep.

“We’ve been in meetings together almost every day,” I say as I start sorting through the vegetables from the small walk-in pantry cupboard in the corner.

“Yes, but that was sorting out the pack business, and you catching your father and I up on the agreements being put in place in Froan. We haven’t talked about everything else, the members of Ty and Rory’s new pack for instance.”

The potato I’m adding to the pile of ingredients slips out my fingers, luckily it bounces on the edge of the tub I keep them in, so I can catch it before it hits the floor. There’s no way she knows, right? I mean she didn’t directly call out any names but the way she said it has my meddling radar spiking even higher. “I’m sure you’ve had Ty tell you all about each individual more than once.”

“Yes, but I want your opinion on them. You spent enough time there to get a gauge on them. Are there any we should be looking into a bit more?”

I don’t tell her that Ty is more than capable of doing his own due diligence on the vampires he lets into his pack. Instead, I dutifully recount all that I can about each one as I start chopping and prepping the food.

“And what about Henry? You’ve not mentioned him yet and he seems to be taking a second in command role.”

“You know Henry yourself, Mum,” I try to deflect. “I’m sure he passed your approval when he was here, otherwise you’d have told Ty so.”

“He wasn’t bonded when he was here. Although I must admit, I’ve been reading more of his work since Agent Morris put him on my radar. He’s very clever.”

“Yes, he is. He’ll be a great asset to the Froan pack.” The words taste sour on my tongue. Not because they aren’t true, but because they are. Henry will be a huge asset to the pack, and to all vampires if his work with the Froan authorities manages to get replicated across other nation states. He’ll be in demand there so much that there is no chance he can spend any time anywhere else, like here.

“You two seemed to get along well when he was here last winter. Did you spend much time together during your weeks away?”

And there it is. The real reason my mother is giving me this grilling. “Yes, we attended many of the same meetings at the council offices.”

“But not outside of work?”

Taking a deep breath I put down my knife and face my mum. “Yes, we did. And before you ask, yes it was in a non-platonic way but I’m not discussing this with you.”

“You’re not discussing what with Mum?” Kai walks in and I groan internally. There’s no way he didn’t hear the entirety of my last sentence.

“Nothing,” I reply futilely, shooting Mum a look, begging her to keep quiet.

“Ash and Henry are a thing.” Mum ignores my request.

“Ah, awesome. We all took bets on whether you two hooked up at Solstice. And whether you’d do it again whilst you were across the sea.”

“What?” My head whips to my older brother. “Who is all?”

“Er…” He thinks for a second. “Me, Rune, Millie and Raff.”

“I can’t believe this.” I turn to Mum, “Can you believe this?”

“I believe I remember you being fully on board with being meddled with when you found a mate.” My mum’s words smack into me like an avalanche. Mate? No… I know I’m lowkey obsessed, but surely it’s way too soon to be thinking about them in that way.

Them. My mum is only talking about Henry, but my brain automatically includes Claire as well.

“Betting isn’t meddling. It’s making money off my love life. There’s a big difference.”

“We can absolutely meddle if you want.” Kai looks positively mischievous as he pulls up a chair and straddles it backwards, resting his forearms on the back rest. “But I’m going to need the details.”

“No,” I tell him firmly, pointing a knife at him so he knows I’m not joking. “You leave them alone.”

“Them? I thought we were talking about Henry?” My brother’s brows knit and his forehead creases.

Oh fuck.

“Indeed, Henry doesn’t use they/them pronouns does he?” Mum asks, looking worried that she might’ve offended him the whole time he was staying with us.