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“Your mother. I want her out of my house. Do you understand?”
“Yes, alpha.” She ran a hand along his chest.
“She wants to see me. I will see her and encourage her to leave,” I offered.
“Thank you.” My long suffering brother-in-law closed his eyes for a long drawn breath.
At the drawing room’s door, I took in the scene with a swift glance. My mother—again so fashionably dressed, I wondered if she’d been to the modiste since she’d been in London—prowled at one end of the room. My mates were at the other, standing much closer than I’d ever seen them in public. Both had shaved and looked more like themselves. I, however, was still in a nightgown, my hair wild, and—I wriggled my toes—barefoot.
The alphas noticed us immediately. All three turned and made to move to my side. Jack was there first, Pax intercepting my mother along the way.
“You.” He cupped my face with his hands. “At least tell us when you decide to leave the nest?”
“I didn’t mean—”
Pax loomed over Jack’s shoulder and rolled his eyes at Jack’s fierce tone. My own went wide. Had something happened after I left to put Pax into a disconcertingly playful mood.
My mother moved into my line of sight. Up close, there were dark depressions under her eyes, and I would have sworn the lines around her mouth were deeper. My heart clenched.
“I am sorry, Mama.” I embraced her, inhaled her familiar scent.
“I wish to be alone with my daughters.”
“Of course, make it brief,” Orley said.
The fussing would be nearly unbearable, but a quick look at Pax told me to endure it. That barely perceptible nod letting me know my mother needed this. An alpha’s need and, for whatever reason, they were going to give it to her. Allow her near me in a way they had not permitted any alpha since I had returned.
“I don’t like seeing you out of bed. Did the doctor sanction it?” she asked when we were alone.
“I am stronger. We omegas are not so weak. Just as you taught us, Mama,” I said with some asperity. “They will want to take me to London soon. There is a great deal—”
“No. You will not!” Mama snapped. She pressed her lips together, clearly struggling with herself. “Not unless you want to.”
“I will be with my mates.” I batted her hand away.
“This is not the fate I wanted for you. Having a mate bond forced on you by that brute when you were… So young! You’d not yet seen the world.”
“Mama! I’ll not hear a word against him or Pax. They are my mates. I chose both of them. Naturally, it was not as smooth as—“
“It is time to leave.” I looked up to see Jack standing in the door. Alpha aggression rolled off him like mist off the sea.
Mama growled. Her body visibly shaking with rage. “She is not safe in your care.”
“She’s be safe with us. It is when she decides to go riding that her health is put at risk.”
I nearly choked.
“My precious daughter nearly died because of your negligence. I knew—”
“Enough.” Orley pushed Jack into the room. “Madam, your opinions on the subject are of no matter. She has mates and, regardless, is of age.. The omegas are tired and desire to rest.”
I met Viola’s eye, her eyebrows valiantly straining to reach her hair line—mine I suspected were the same. With a kind of omega meekness I’d never seen in my sister, she raised fingers to her temple and in a manner that would make an actress proud proclaimed she had a headache and must return to her nest.
“I too have a headache.” My performance was not as convincing, but who was my mother to gainsay me?
“Excuse us, Mrs Hartwell. Our mate needs our tending.” Pax bowed, but the smile on his face was full of venom. I wanted to ask why there existed such animosity between my mates and mother. Even Orley, as even tempered an alpha as one might find, appeared unhappy with my mother.
“Mama.” I kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you in Town?”
