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“Donottalk to me right now,“ Mona said, at regular volume.
She led us toward the house.It was the same basic A-frame that could be found all over the village—the same model as my house.But Mona had built an addition off the back with a separate entrance.
The garden may have looked like a fairy tale, but this section in the house was straight out of science fiction.Spotless stainless steel counters gleamed alongside two industrial refrigerators.There was a machine humming its way through some process, and something was distilling that made the room smelled like oranges and rosemary.
She led us over to shelves lined with hand-labeled glass jars.“I keep the seeds here,” she said, gesturing at plastic boxes with dividers.“It’s all alphabetical.If I had Hen’s Teeth seeds—which I don’t—they’d be right here.”
“You’d have to be an idiot to keep them with the rest of your regular supplies,” Dominic said.He reached for a jar at random, opened it, and gave it a sniff.
“Put that back,” Mona said.
Dominic did, then pulled down another jar.“We need to look through everything.”
“This is ridiculous,” Mona said.“I’m a shifter, just like you.I can’t even harvest the seeds from Hen’s Teeth.”
“You could find someone to do it for you,” Dominic said.“Or order them online.”
Mona scoffed, offended at the very idea of buying seeds online.“I have rights.”
“You have no rights if you tried to kill your Alpha,” Dominic snarled, setting the jar down with a snap.“You didn’t even have the guts to challenge her outright.Instead, you tricked her into thinking you were helping her.”
Mona cringed.Dominic was Beta, and he was infused with Mom’s authority.Killing a threat to his Alpha was well within his rights according to shifter standards.
“What goes into the tea you make for my mother?”I asked.“Show me.”
“It’s this,” she said, opening one of the stacked cardboard boxes against the wall.She came up with a box of tea decorated with mountains and a howling wolf.“Every week, I give Dr.Barnes a new box.”
“Bullshit.Melinda’s tea comes in a tin,” Dominic growled.
“No.No, I don’t use tins.All my packaging is recyclable or compostable,” Mona said.She broke the glue on the box to show us a bag in a narrow blue envelope.“There’s seeds embedded in the paper, see?If you bury them with the tea bag flowers will come up.”
“That’s cool,” Micah said.“What kind of—“ He quailed under scathing looks from me and Mona.“Sorry.”
Dominic was shaking his head.“No.Melinda’s tea is loose.”He grabbed the box from Mona, tore the sachet open, and dumped it on the counter.He poked his finger through the small pile, then tore open another sachet.“There’s no seeds in here.”
“I told you that,” Mona said.“I don’t do any loose teas.Bagged ensures you get the right flavor and herbal profile in every cup.Dr.Barnes picks up a box every week, which is enough for her to have two or three cups a day.”
Dominic was already shaking his head.“No.Dr.Barnes definitely delivers it in a tin.”
I could actually feel the blood draining out of my face.“Dom.The doctor.He’s not a shifter.He…he could harvest the plants, if he wanted.”
“No,” Dom said, but I could see his mind turning over.“He’s been treating your mother all along.He has run all these tests, done all this research…”
“Mom’s with him right now,” Micah said.“Edie took her there.”
“That asshole,” Mona said.Her hands were fisted in her pockets.“I never should have trusted him.”
“Why do you say that?”I asked.
“He lied to me.His grandfather, Dr.Claude, did everything he could to ruin my uncle’s reputation.He hated that anyone in the clan might take health advice from anyone but him.So when Ethan came to me, asking about my wellness teas, I was suspicious.But he said that herbal medicine had its place in a holistic practice.He said his grandfather was wrong, that the old man had underestimated what was possible when old knowledge met modern practice.He said that my tea was an essential part of his treatment plan.”
“Edie’s not picking up,” I said as her voicemail picked up.I hung up and dialed again.
“We have to go,” Dominic said, dropping the open box of tea on the counter.
“This was such a nice visit!Come again anytime!”Mona said sarcastically.She nodded at Micah.“Except you.I don’t want to see you for a long time.”
“It’s my mother, Mona.You know I didn’t have any choice,” he started.
