Page 89

She came down the rickety steps of the trailer and stood in front of him.

He flashed her a smile. “Hey, Ma.”

She smacked him on the arm.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Don’t ‘hey, Ma’ me,” she said with another smack. “I haven’t seen you in months.”

Fee turned and stifled a laugh against his arm.

“Geez, sorry. I’ve been busy.”

She narrowed her eyes at him again. “Busy. Too busy for your mother?”

Visits with his mother were draining. The guilt and the anger built up inside him until he had to run for miles afterwards just to get the whole thing out of his system. But the way she was glowering at him now, he realized it had clearly been too long since their last meeting.

“Sorry,” he said, and his mother turned her attention to Fee.

“And who is this?”

“This is Phoebe. My … uh…”

“Friend,” Fee said, sticking out a hand to his mother, standing tall even under his mother’s appraising stare. “Nice to meet you.”

Ma’s eyes flicked from Fee to Theo and back again.

She put her hand in Fee’s. “Nell,” she said. “Nice to meet you, too.” She shook once, studying the nymph in front of her. He’d never talked about Fee to his mother. Their little get-togethers in the forests between the pack lands and his new home were strained enough. Theo never saw a need to bring up the woman he couldn’t live without to the woman who’d raised him.

Which now seemed like a bit of an oversight.

“Your friend?” she asked, her intense stare back on Theo.

“Yes, my friend.” He cleared the emotion, the lie, from his throat.

Ma studied him a moment longer and then tipped back her head and laughed. Big, loud cackles like she’d never heard anything quite so hilarious in her entire life.

“Ma, what the hell?” Theo glanced at Fee, and her eyes were wide in shock at the woman’s reaction.

Ma ignored him, laughing too hard to stop.

“What is so funny?”

His mother’s laughter petered out, and she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Friends, Theo? Really?” She patted his cheek like he was a child. “Friends,” she said with a shake of her head. “These boys are going to kill me.”

When he glanced down at Fee, she was smiling, too.

“I like your mom,” she whispered.

Theo couldn’t help the hope that flushed through his veins. His worlds were colliding and maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Maybe it would create something new.

Something better.

The afternoon had worn on and his former packmates moved on with their day like his arrival wasn’t quite as momentous for them as it was for Theo. Which was fair.

Knox still hadn’t turned up, and Rafe had gone off with Ruby to talk to Willow, one of Knox’s closest friends. If Knox could be said to have friends, which Theo wasn’t so sure about. But according to Nell, Willow had stepped up to Knox’s side ever since Theo and Rafe had left. So, as the sun set, he found himself shooting the shit with Ryder and a few other old friends. Men he’d grown up with. Men he’d once considered family. It was both strange and completely comfortable as they fell into familiar patterns.

“Are you here to stay?” Felix asked, warming his hands over the campfire they’d made in front of the trailer Theo would be staying in for the night. Fee was already inside, claiming she was tired, but Theo knew she was giving him space to reacquaint himself with his packmates.