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A relieved chuckle escaped him and he wrapped his arms around me. “I’m sorry I laughed,” he apologized, “It wasn’t funny.” He kept his face serious, too serious, and I shook my head.

“You know I can feel your emotions through the bond, right? So points for actually being sorry I’m upset, but total fail on the not funny,” I informed him. “And good job on setting the bar so high on apologies,” I added, waving to the empty plate and cup. I reached up on my toes and pecked his cheek. “Love you, and you can tell Trent I’m never looking him in face again.”

I spun around, leaving him open mouthed in the bathroom as I hurried to closet and yanked on some clothes. I suddenly needed some girl time, lots of girl time. I found my phone by my bed and sent a text to Leah and Anna. They could learn to get along for my sake, I decided as I texted a request to meet up for lunch.

Liam, I screwed up my courage, choosing to ignore the fact that he’d heard me earlier, and hoping he was smart enough to not mention it.

Yes, ma’am, he replied instantly, his polite tone telling me everything.

I fought back the flare of embarrassment as I asked, Can you escort Leah here? I asked her to come have lunch.

Absolutely, he answered eagerly. I’m still here so I’ll go knock.

Thanks, I added faintly, breaking the connection, and not noticing the fact that I’d spoken only to Liam, and hadn’t used the Pack bond.

I made my way to the office, figuring I’d catch Dad there and as I passed Wren’s room, an impression of innocent joy came over me, and my steps slowed as I allowed the sensation to flow over me. There was no hate, or worry, or fear, only simple cheerfulness, and for a moment I basked in that easy happiness. As I moved on, some of the anxiety about seeing my Dad the morning after I abruptly moved out disappeared, and when I walked into the motel office I was smiling.

“Bunny!”

“Dad!” I cried, as happy to see him as he was to see me as his arms wrapped around me in a bear hug.

“Are you happy?” He asked, holding me away from him as he studied my expression.

“I am,” I promised him, holding up my pinky for him. “Pinky swear.” He hooked his finger around mine and shook it solemnly.

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you, you know that right?” His expression was unusually serious. “For you to be happy.”

“Mission accomplished,” I told him, bowing my head to him, trying to lighten his mood before I ruined it completely. “Mom is gone.”

He didn’t look surprised and one of my eyebrows went up. “She always runs away,” he sighed. “It’s kind of her thing?”

An unwilling snort of laughter escaped me. “Her thing sucks.”

He shrugged slightly, “I used to agree, but there’s a lot about your mother I didn’t know, never knew, and never suspected.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. “I guess I can’t blame her for surviving any way she could.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, “You’ll going to make me sympathize with her and right now I just want to be pissed that she ran off before I could yell at her again.”

“She still has horrible taste in music,” Dad mentioned and I pumped my fist.

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about. Eight hours, Dad. It was a new record in hell.”

He laughed, releasing me to ask, “What are you doing today?”

“I’m hoping to have lunch with Anna and Leah,” I answered and he glanced up in surprise. “Yeah, I’m feeling ambitious today, like I can conquer the world or at least some girl drama.”

“Good luck,” Dad offered, bemused. “And remember, Anna turns into a wolf.”

I tugged on my lower lip with my teeth, nodding. “Yeah, I might need to bring backup.”

Dad chuckled, “I’m not sure Dom would let you go anywhere without backup right now.” He shook his head. “You getting kidnapped messed with his head.”

“Well, I wasn’t too thrilled about it either,” I retorted. “Twice is twice too many in anyone’s life.”

“At least it was your mother this time. I know she’d do anything to protect you.”

“I can’t believe she just left,” I murmured, more pained by her choice than I wanted to let on. “I thought she’d stick around, see what it was like, at least for a little while.”

“It may have been more than she could handle right now, Bunny. Give her time, she might surprise you.”

I twisted around, giving Dad a tight smile. “Did she even see Monster?” Dad shook his head, his own smile disappearing. “Yeah, mother of the year, right there.”

Dad didn’t reply, but there really wasn’t anything he could say that would make me forgive her for that. The door opened behind me, a cold gust of wind accompanying it, and we both turned to see Wren standing there, looking uncomfortable.