“Lily’s family disowned her for mating with Clive?”
“Everyone except for Tess. Before I met them, I thought they were prejudiced against shifters. It’s not that. They’re just intolerant of everyone and everything outside of their little world.” It was pathetic really.
“After everything you told me about your grandmother, I’m surprised she acknowledged you as part of her family.”
“She came to see me the day after I moved in with Tess. We sort of just stared at each other in silence for a minute. You can imagine how horrified she was by my skull earrings and pentagon medallion, can’t you? She asked me straight out if I worshipped Satan.” And she’d been totally serious.
His mouth curved. “You said yes, didn’t you?”
“Of course. Then she laughed. I think she probably accepted me just to piss off Lily.”
“Or maybe she respected that you couldn’t be intimidated.”
Harley shrugged. “April’s an enigma. Anyway, I quickly learned that being acknowledged by April and being approved of by her were two different things. But the only approval I sought was that of Tess, and I told April that. Still, when I started to do well at school and learned to play the violin, April formally accepted me into the family. They were all nice enough. Of course, I was treated as human and expected to behave as one.”
“And you did,” he said, without judgment.
“Sort of. I mean, I accepted my cat and I enjoyed shifting and exploring Tess’s land. But I didn’t share any shifter-related things with anyone other than Tess because I didn’t want their bullshit to touch my cat.”
He nodded, totally understanding that. It was yet another example of her protecting her true self by hiding it. They stopped at a red light, and he said, “Promise me something.”
“No.”
His mouth curved. “Promise me you won’t ever do with me what you did with Tess; you won’t try to be falsely perfect out of an understandable fear of being rejected.”
“I won’t. It was tiring. And I found being mature extremely boring.”
A few hours later, they were back at Mercury Pack territory. Most of the pack was in the living area of the main lodge, where the pups were bouncing on the sofa. “I don’t know where they get all their energy from, but I want some of whatever they’re having,” said Harley.
Jesse held out the bear. “Cassidy, this is—”
With a beaming smile, Cassidy took the stuffed bear. “I love it! Tell Tess I said thanks!”
Seeing Harley frown, Ally smiled and said, “You get used to it. Cassidy has a lot of small visions that are more like ‘knowings.’ Mine always seem to be bad. I’m still bummed that I didn’t foresee that your car was rigged.”
Derren put a hand on Ally’s back. “Seers don’t ‘see’ everything.”
“Yeah, well,” said Ally.
“Yeah, well, what?” asked Derren.
“That’s it. That’s all I got.”
Derren just snorted, sliding an arm around her shoulders.
Lifting her head out of a magazine, Nat said to Jesse, “Well, do you have her aunt’s approval?”
Jesse took Harley’s hand. “I do.”
“Good. Family approval is important.” Nat went back to her magazine. Harley couldn’t decide if the woman was happy for Jesse or was reminding them that Harley would never have his family’s approval. She’d stopped making sly remarks to Harley, as if satisfied that she’d made her point and didn’t see the need to harp on about it.
The front door swung open and Kim marched inside, cheeks red and mottled, wearing an ugly scowl. Halting in front of Jesse, she held up a shredded white T-shirt. “Did you see what she did?”
Harley stifled a smile. Earlier, she’d been exploring in her cat form. The margay had wanted to do some surveillance of Kim’s temporary territory. Seeing Kim’s clothes hung up on a washing line had been a temptation too much to resist. “I’d say, ‘It wasn’t me, it was my cat,’ but I did egg her on. A lot.”
Kim’s nostrils flared. “You dared to come near my lodge—”
“Just like you dared to come near mine this morning,” said Harley, watching as Kim’s eyes flickered. “I know you were there; I scented you.”
“Kim,” Nat admonished, sounding exasperated.
Jesse growled. “You’ve been warned about coming to my lodge.”
Eyes wide, Kim insisted, “She’s lying! I turned up that one time, yes, but you made it clear I couldn’t go there again unless you invited me. I wouldn’t disrespect your wishes.”
“Yet you’re hovering around my lodge.” Which, to Jesse, indicated that she was full of shit.
“I’m telling you, she’s lying! She probably wants me gone, so she came up with this little plot, hoping you’ll throw me out.”
With a huff, Nat got to her feet. “Harley doesn’t care enough about your existence to concoct such a plan, Kim.” She was right, of course. Nat turned to Jesse and Harley. “It will not happen again.” Grabbing her daughter’s arm, Nat hauled her out of the room, saying, “You and I need to talk.”
Hands on her hips, Shaya turned to Bracken. “I don’t suppose you have any idea why Kim can’t just let this go, do you? I mean, he’s mated now. He’s partially imprinted on someone else.”