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“No, love.” My adoration of them both filled me from head to toe. With their support, I could do anything, including facing the people who didn’t care about me anymore and who had violated everything in their “rule book” to be here uninvited. It spoke volumes about their mental state. I couldn’t imagine how upset they must have been not to be invited or what it took for them to come. “Let’s go enjoy the party.”
“You sure?” Onyx rubbed my arm. “Because you don’t have to.”
“I know, but I feel as if I do. Especially when my family is breaking all the rules of the social contract, I have to be the better person. Asher, will you dance with me?”
“Of course,” he breathed. “I was starting to think dancing would not be part of our life.”
“It won’t be on the regular,” I laughed. “But if it suits? Let’s go for it.” And that was how I led the parade of my mates and meI back into the ballroom. Not only did I dance with Asher but with Onyx and with both of them together and several other guests as well. And I managed to avoid those who had the ability to ruin my evening.
The party had not begun, or at least the log wasn’t lit until midnight, so it was well into the early morning hours when my luck ran out and I came face-to-face with my parents over the shrimp cocktail. Seriously, everything on the buffet was incredible. There were carving stations for beef, pork, lamb, and ham with a chef ready to serve you whatever portion you liked. A salad area with at least two dozen cold dishes, a bread area, desserts, and so on.
But the shrimp was definitely the centerpiece of the whole thing. I had no idea that shrimp even came in a size anywhere near these gigantic things. They were surrounded by ice with a crystal bucket of sauce nearby, and people lined up to get to them. No different from the buffets my dad occasionally took us to when I was growing up, telling us toget his money’s worth. My brothers decimated those things.
And I’d been looking forward to getting a taste of those succulent-looking shrimp, which made my mood when I reached for the same one my mother did even worse. Still, for just a moment, I was ready to make peace. I don’t even know where the impulse came from, but my lips parted just to say hello, something, anything, when she sneered at me and scooped up some of the red cocktail sauce. I couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
She did. Without a word, she splattered it across my bare cleavage and laughed. My fingers tightened into claws, and I was half a second away from shifting and shredding my own mother, or former mother when Asher’s arm tightened around my waist and he dragged me back away from her. A shift was still trying to happen, my wolf so angry she didn’t care what she did, but Onyx closed in next to me and I felt the surge of power from her. She had the ability to control shifts, to make bigger wolves or other forms, but I hadn’t realized she could stop them. Spoiler alert: she could.
The minute she sent that power, my wolf retreated deep inside, no less angry but also not trying to force the shift. The rest happened so fast, I could hardly keep track of it. My mates hustled me out and up to our room, and Asher called his parents on the phone. We were leaving, and it wasn’t because we didn’t love them or weren’t grateful.
They offered to forgo political correctness and toss my parents out on their asses, but we didn’t want to cause them any difficulties, so we begged them not to. And, as my mates in their wisdom had tried to get me to do earlier, we packed and loaded everything in the car. Asher’s parents came out to kiss us goodbye and then the mansion was behind us, our real life in the headlights.
I curled into a ball in the back seat and tried not to cry. They weren’t worth it.
Chapter Seventeen
Fox
“I almost let it slip on Winter Solstice,” I said as we walked through the threshold of our new home. Storm and Bishop walked behind me, and Bishop had the list in his hands. We’d bought the house months ago and then hired a contractor to make things just right. Eventually, we wanted to build a home of our own, but this would be our place for quite a while.
Until we had a family—with children. “The real-,fireplace thing. When she made the comment about wanting a real fireplace, I nearly told her right then. Even if you two were mad at me.” Storm closed the door behind us, and we stopped, shoulder to shoulder, staring at the place.
Our mate’s Christmas present.
Of course, we’d had some things under the tree from each of us, but they were only a means of throwing her off.
We had bought Valentina a house for Christmas.
“She’s going to tell us off and kick up a fuss like no Christmas has ever seen,” Bishop said.
We all laughed. She threw a fit over any extravagant spending on her, but what in the hell did she expect? She gave us love. What else could we do but give her everything in the world?
“But then she will know that we did it because we love her,” Storm answered. “She’ll be okay. If not, Bishop, you’ll have to hold her potato-sack style until she calms down. You know how much she loves that.”
All of us cracked up. She hated that. She loved it secretly but hated it all the same.
“Let’s go through the list. V will be back from shopping soon. I don’t want her getting suspicious.”
The counters had been replaced with quartz. Some of the flooring had been cleaned and polished, since it was marbled cement. Not my first choice, but it worked with the open floor plan. Valentina had a master suite of her own and then each of us had our own spaces complete with offices for studying and, eventually, work.
There was a library downstairs. It used to be a nursery, but that wasn’t on the horizon for us. Yet. While her mates were already on board with the idea, we had come out on the other side of a war only a few months before. Now wasn’t the time to start asking for pups.
“Everything is correct. When does the inspector come out?” I asked. The mortgage company inspector had confirmed a date, but we had hired an independent contractor to look the home over before the paperwork was signed.
We didn’t trust outsiders easily.
Valentina deserved the best because she was the best thing that ever happened to all of us. The villain and the wars and the tears and the heartache had taught us all to be trusting and reliant on each other in every way.
That war with Dean changed us all. And, despite him, we were all better people for it.
