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One more flirty interaction and Leo is going to show Jay who his mate is for real.

“Ugh. Let’s not wield your full charm with random humans, please, and thank you,” Leo mutters, and smooths his wolf’s ruffled ego.

“Sorry, babe,” Jay chuckles, but stops abruptly.

There, across the room, laughing with two of her friends, is Jay’s mother. Blonde hair in a high ponytail and wearing a short white dress in preparation for her tennis lesson.

Leo wonders how bad a player you had to be to need a decade’s worth of weekly lessons.

“Mother,” Jay says quietly.

None of the other patrons pay him any mind, but it does, however, get Miranda Rhodes’s immediate attention.

She’s lovely in her own way, and if Leo didn’t know any better—that thebeauty hid the heart of a snake—he’d think she was sweet-looking. Her face breaks into a surprised smile before it falls, replaced with a look of abject fear.

It’s the only way to describe the panic on her face and how she leaves her two friends standing in the restaurant, still talking to her.

“Junior. Oh god. What are you doing here?”

“Well, hello to you, too, Mother. You remember my mate, Leo?”

“No. You have to go. Right now. Come on.” She grabs Jay’s wrist and hauls him to his feet, and before Jay can pull away, Leo has her wrist in his.

“Let go of him. Right now,” he growls.

“Jamie. Please. You have to leave before he sees you.”

“Who, Mom? Patrick Carnell?”

She blanches and shakes her head.

“Not him. Your father. He’s here for a round of golf with some visiting celebr—oh, no. It’s you?” Her eyes squeeze shut, and she whimpers.

“Mom? What’s going on?”

“Please, just go. I’m not sure why you came here or what you expected from us, but you have to go.”

“You aren’t going to ask after me? It’s been a decade since I’ve seen you in person. Don’t you want to know why I called in October? About Nix Rena?”

Leo watches the play of emotions cross her face, lightning-fast and ranging from sadness to fear to regret, but she lands on disdain. It doesn’t reach her eyes, but she plows on anyway.

“No. Gideon told us we were dead to you, so I don’t know why you’re here or what you want, but you aren’t going to get it. You shouldn’t have come.”

“Mother, please. You owe me this much.”

Jay grasps her hand, and it’s enough to draw her eyes up toward his face.

Time slows as a myriad of emotions flicker across her face.

No one is more surprised than Leo when she finally nods.

“You’re right. Come with me. He’ll be here soon and…” She shakes her head, cutting off that train of thought. “Just…not here.”

“Okay,” Leo says, “then where?”

She flashes him a small, grateful smile.

“We can find a meeting room.”