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“It’s been so long, Eli! I’m sorry I kept missing the past few family gatherings. It feels like it’s been twelve years or something.”
I snorted and shook my head, allowing her to walk us towards one of the empty couches.She must know something. Why else?
“That’s only a little dramatic, Maya,” I replied, raising a brow. “Gordon said you were looking for me earlier?”
“Oh right!” She set her drink down on the coffee table and took my hand into hers. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
I blinked as she looked around. My pulse picked up.She knows about Gage. She must.
“You’ve spent a lot of time in America lately, right?” I nodded. She took a deep breath before continuing. “I want to go to graduate school in New York City, but my parents are being really weird about it. Obviously, it’s not the cost. It’s not even like I couldn’t get home easily if I needed to.” She rolled her eyes, as if I was living proof of that. “It’s just being so far from home, I guess. They keep telling me I have no idea what I’m trying to sign myself up for, but…you like it there, right?”
“I…” I struggled not to express my disappointment. It had nothing to do with her. Uncle Sam was usually the odd one out — my father was the alpha, Gage was the beta, and Sam was…the third wheel.Still. I really hoped she’d known something about what Gage was trying to plan.
“I do like it there, most of the time,” I replied. “The weather in Texas is — well, it’s terrible, frankly, but I imagine it will be more suitable up in New York City,” I said, tipping my head to the side. “Why do you want to go so far, though? There are plenty of good schools in London.”
She shrugged. “Because I want to see more of the world? I want to meet other people? I mean, you met Iris in Texas, right? Who knows who I might meet!”
I clenched my teeth together, fighting back the urge to immediately deny Iris and me were ananything. We hadn’t had that discussion yet. Besides, Maya was right in the sense that I had met Iris because I’d gone to Texas…and I liked her enough to bring her back here. I nodded slowly. “Scotland wasn’t far enough, huh?”
Maya snorted and shook her head. “You don’t get to be the only globe-trotting Archer, Eli,” she said, reaching out to swat at me. Sometimes I forgot that Maya was the youngest of us. I gave her a small smile.
“If you really want to go, you should go.”
“That’s what I said! Will you talk to my mother before you leave? There’s been some weird things going on with her and my dad and Uncle Gage, and I think that’s making her even more worried than usual. It—” she stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes going a little wider.
It what? Don’t stop now, Maya!I frowned, glancing over my shoulder to see my mother storming towards us looking like a bat streaking straight out of hell. My stomach dropped into the couch. “Uh oh,” she whispered, looking back at me. “I’m, ah…yeah. Let me know if you want to go out for drinks after this, okay?”
Maya fled before I could say anything else, and Viola swooped in like a bird of prey, taking my cousin’s seat on the couch. I froze, feeling more like a shrew than I ever had. My wolf growled, ears pressing back. Vitriol was practically rolling off the woman in waves, and I had no idea why.
“Uh, hi?” I said, subtly trying to lean away from her and into the other side of the couch.
Viola gave me a dark look, as if she knew I knew something, but I had no idea what this was all about. “Eli,” she said, putting far too much emphasis on my name.
My gut felt like a tube sock someone had stretched out and tied in a knot. “Yes?” I tried again, trying not to allow her to make me feel like a little boy. She still loomed over me, even though she was shorter. “Can I help you?”
We’d said our pleasantries earlier. I still didn’t understand why, for the love of the ancestors, that my father allowed her at Archer family dinners, but he’d been doing that since they had separated. Something about family harmony or some other bullshit. I don’t know. I stopped listening years ago when I couldn’t convince him to stop inviting her.
Viola sniffed, giving me a pinched look. “I spoke with that girl you brought along from America.Iris.” She said the name like it was an insult.
Oh no. If my stomach had dropped into the couch before, it was now falling all the way through the wooden floors. “Why?”
I regretted the question as soon as I asked it. My mother had never taken well to being questioned, even when she’d been with my father. At least Brock wasn’t somewhere nearby.Right?I took a brief glance around, relieved to see he wasn’t lurking in the shadows.
My mother fixed me with a look that clearly indicated I was “acting a fool,” as she’d say. “Because I’ve heard through the grapevine you intend to take her as your mate, and I needed to meet the woman who might become my daughter-in-law. I must say, Eli, I really think you could do so much better. She—”
I swallowed down a growl. “No one said anything about taking anyoneas a mate,” I bit out, grinding my molars together.
She arched a well-manicured brow. “No? Then why did you fly her all the way over here to meet the rest of your family? You don’t do that with someone you’re casual with, Eli.”
“Why I do or don’t do is none of your business,” I said, trying to force myself to be calm. All it would take was one eye roll, and she’d probably blow up. “I haven’t decided to take anyone as a mate, so don’t interrogate her about it.”
Viola’s eyes flashed and her nostrils flared. My stomach turned over. “My boy, I wouldneverinterrogate someone. But you can’t blame me for taking aninterest. You’ve never brought home anyone before! And finding your fated mate is the most—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I snapped, unable to stop myself. It didn’t matterwhoshe was talking about, but a lecture aboutfated matesfrom my mother?Aftereverythingher shittymate—
“Eli,” she said sharply, her brows pinched together.
I sucked in a long breath, trying to calm myself before my wolf could push fully to the surface. “I have a call to make.”
