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Liquid sloshed over onto the saucer on the other side of the table. “If I expose my daughter, I expose myself,” Sorsha said, her voice tight. Then it lightened into the unbothered boss bitch tone I'd known all my life. “Besides, no significant harm was done. The Ironwoods are still standing. Valentino has his gym. The O'Shea boy has his hotels. Our families have a blood alliance. Things worked out rather well in the end, didn't they, darling?”

I couldn't see Mother's smile, but I could feel it aimed at me. All my life, Mother had treated me like something that needed to be protected, positioned, and propositioned off. I'd spent years moving pieces across a board she hadn't even known I was playing on.

Now she knew. And she sounded… proud. Some pathetic little girl still buried inside me wanted her mother to be impressed.

I hated that girl.

I understood her too.

“Once I realized what you were doing, I decided to stop interfering and see where you took it. I have to say, I'm very impressed, Rosalind. You created opportunities I couldn't have engineered half so elegantly myself.”

Pride warmed my chest for one pathetic second before I understood. She was proud of me. And she still thought everything I'd done ultimately belonged to her.

I'd thought I was finally a player. My mother still thought I was a piece.

“We're not here to discuss the old board,” Mei Ling said. “We're here to reset it. The players have changed, Sorsha. The question is whether you intend to change with us.”

“I have always been on my own side,” said the Lobo Alpha. “Being on my own side doesn't require me to be against yours.” A pause. “We're family now.”

I nearly choked for the second time that afternoon.

Mei Ling only hummed thoughtfully. Not agreement. Consideration.

“Good,” Mei Ling finally said. “Then we'll start there.”

That was it. No threats. No bloodshed. No one dragged anyone into a basement. I was almost disappointed.

“But if you ever interfere with my family again, Sorsha, Fenrir won't be the one putting me in handcuffs.”

Silence.

Mei Ling sipped her tea.

Sorsha stirred hers.

“Now, speaking of family, I'm taking Rosalind to meet the aunties in Chinatown this afternoon. I'm teaching my new daughter mahjong. It's a game of strategy, memory, probability, and lying to people. I think she'll be brilliant at it.”

“I thought my daughter and I might spend the afternoon together. We haven't had any time alone since the wedding. We could go shopping, darling. That color does nothing for your complexion.”

I wasn't wearing pink today. I was wearing forest green, since I'd been spending so much time in the woods lately. This was my new favorite color.

I had a choice to make. Go shopping with my mother, or get in the car with Mei Ling.

I set down my napkin and pushed back my chair. “I'd like to learn mahjong.”

Mei Ling rose beside me. Sorsha remained seated.

I hesitated. Then I rounded the square table, leaned down, and kissed her cheek. I didn't bother with whispered words. Neither did she. The board was clear. The pieces had moved.

Maybe this game didn't need a winner. It only needed new rules.

“I'll see you later, Mother.”

I turned and took Mei Ling's arm.

I'd faced Alphas. Murderers. Corrupt cops. My own mother. I'd taken a mafia werewolf enforcer's knot and lived to tell the tale.

Surely I could survive the ride to Chinatown.