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My father hurried into the kitchen, his eyebrows knitted together. I shot him a look, and he must have read the shock in my expression.
He nodded slowly. “I know.”
“Dad... she’s really unwell.”
He tapped his fingers on the countertop. “Yes. I’ve been trying to find a solution but haven’t had much luck so far.”
His mouth pinched as though he was disappointed with himself, but there was a little part of me that doubted that. He’d loved my mother, twenty years ago. But I wasn’t sure how he felt about her anymore.
Maybe now was the moment I should try to find out.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What can I do to help, Dad?”
His eyebrows flicked up. “Nothing, son. You have your own problems.”
Huh?
“I do?”
He nodded. “Yes. You want to marry Monique, but she is committed to the wolf shifters. Surely you can see that is a problem?”
He stared at me, hard, as if trying to read my face. I decided to play into his worries and find out exactly how my father felt about the wolves.
“You’re right, Dad.” I sighed heavily and interlocked my hands behind my neck, groaning as though frustrated. “I don’t know what I should do.”
My father scoffed. “That’s easy. You get rid of them.”
His answer shocked me. He couldn’t seriously want them to go? Not with the blood magic he’d been doing with them. That would be like a heroin addict encouraging their dealer move countries.
“Get rid of them?” I asked. “Monique wants them; she’s happy. I wouldn’t want to upset her.”
My father glared at me. “She doesn’t know what she wants. She’s barely twenty-one years old. It’s up to you to teach her what she wants.”
So, I should just run over the top of her needs with what I wanted? Or what I thought she might want?
Oh yeah, that was noble.
Still, I tried to play along. “Yeah, but—”
“No buts,” Dad snapped. “You get rid of the wolf shifters, and she’s yours. Simple.”
“And if she misses them? Or complains?”
Dad flicked his wrist as though dismissing the idea. “Then you wipe her memory, or keep her tied to your bed until you convince her that you’re the one she wants.”
I was officially related to an abusive manipulator at best, and a rapist at worst. Was that what he’d done to my mother to get her to marry him?
I nodded, careful not to give away my thoughts.
“Plus, the high warlock laws give you the right to any woman you want,” he added.
“That’s true.” I’d never considered the weight or impact of that “right”, until I’d come back and realized our marriage might not be what Monique wanted. “So... how should we do it, Dad? Perhaps if I can distract Monique, you can escort the wolves into the forest and let them go back to the other animals they live with?”
I felt uncomfortable at using the derogatory terms, but my father’s eyes lit up.
I knew he hated shifters.
“That’s a good plan,” he said, which surprised me. But then again, I was essentially giving him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with Xander and Kyle.
