Page 51

Harper

So this was a disaster.

I mean, what did I expect? I thought Nanna was just inviting us over and the toughest questions we’d have to answer were what we had planned for the future. Instead we did the usual Quinn thing and stuffed all that resentment, that anger down, because right now we had visitors.

And that turned out to be a blessing.

“This curry is incredible,” Nanna told Tor’s gran. “I’m usually terrible with spicy food. Gives me reflux. But this is very mild, yet so much flavour.”

“This lamb…” Gran replied, waving her fork in the air, then making a happy little humming sound. “So tender.”

“I get it straight from the farm,” Nanna informed her. “I lived on the land most of my life and know who’s got the good meat stock.”

“We must get your supplier’s name,” Gran said. “My Anya is always complaining about how tough the meat is.”

“I’d be happy to. Bruce, that’s the lad that runs the farm, he’d be happy for the business.”

“So this doesn’t seem to be going too badly,” Tor muttered under his breath, shooting me a wary look. “I mean, no one’s killing each other.”

“Yet,” I replied, plastering a smile on my face.

“So all of you are tigers?” Mum asked Anya. “Even the girls?”

“Female shifters are rarer,” Anya explained, “but no amongst tigers.”

“So…” I tensed at Mum’s hesitant question, preparing to interject if needed. “Will Harper become a tiger?”

“No!” Anya laughed at that, then forced herself to calm down when she noticed Mum’s expression. “You are born a shifter. You don’t become one.”

“So you’re not gonna bite me under a full moon?” I asked Tor. “Turn me into a weretiger?”

“That last part? Nope. No can do, babe.” His arm snuck around my waist. “But biting you?” He leaned over, making a show of snapping his jaws, something Mum noticed, going pale in response. “That’s not off the table.”

His playful mood, that spicy scent that seemed to deepen as he leaned over to press a kiss to my shoulder, I couldn’t enjoy any of it under my mother’s steely gaze. I stood up abruptly, then tried to cover that with a smile.

“So, who wants dessert?” I asked. “Nanna’s award-winning apple pie is to die for and I’m pretty sure Anya brought some of her amazing halwa.”

Nanna looked at Gran, who quickly explained what that was.

“A desert made from carrots, coconut milk and sugar, with just a little cardamon.”

“Sounds very exotic,” Nanna said, getting to her feet and trying to gather people’s plates. Each one of my guys jumped to their feet, taking over stacking and scraping the plates. “I’ll help Harper dish up the apple pie.”

I took people’s orders and listened dutifully to Anya’s instructions on how to serve the deserts she had brought, before disappearing into the kitchen.

“Well…” Nanna nodded to the guys as they put the plates down beside the sink.

Kieran shot me a long look, making clear he’d stay if I needed it.

I shook my head slightly. “Lunch turned out to be a far bigger affair than I intended. Next time, perhaps your tiger can let me know, so I buy enough lamb?”

“There were more people than I expected,” I replied, stacking the plates in the dishwasher. “Because you neglected to mention that you’d invited Mum.”

“Because you two are so stubborn,” Nanna shot back.

“Because she keeps trying to make up for lost time.” I shoved a pod into the slot of the dishwasher, then stabbed at the button, starting the cycle. “She cares more about my life now than she ever did when I was a kid.”

“And why’s that?” Nanna paused, tea towel in hand, her gaze steady. “Why is that, Harper?”

“Because she’s a meddling control freak that thinks that she can make up for lost time by being over the top now?”

Nanna shook her head.

“Because she’s always loved you, but it was only when she settled down with Peter that she was able to see that she was never the kind of mother she wanted to be.

She has endured some terrible experiences.

She did run through a truly disastrous string of boyfriends, dealing with the trauma of each breakup by finding someone even worse.

That’s stopped now, thankfully.” Nanna rubbed at her brow.

“But it’s either collapse under the weight of that guilt, or try to make amends. ”

For a moment, the only sound was the rhythmic chug of the washing machine, but I could never let that stand. I straightened up, then walked over to the kitchen cupboards, pulling down bowls and setting them up on the kitchen counter.

“By saying sorry and meaning it.” I said that to the bowls, not daring to meet my grandmother’s eyes. “By acknowledging how she fucked up?—”

“Harper…”

My eyes rolled up as I frowned slightly.

“What else would you call it? It was unfortunate when Barry punched a hole in the wall?” My tone was rising, but then I heard laughter from the dining room, forcing me to moderate it. “That Leslie was just misunderstood when he stood over me, screaming?”

“No, that was fucked.” My eyebrows shot up at the sound of my grandmother swearing, but she just waved that away. “You think you’re the only one that throws curse words around? Please. Growing up on a farm?—”

“You had to be tough.”

We both smiled as we said that at the same time.

“We all have had to be.” Nanna nodded at the doorway. “But I think you’ll have a chance to be a little softer with those three in your life.”

“Does that mean you approve of my mates?” I said, hip checking her gently.

“I approve of any men who look at my granddaughter the way they do you. The bear said he’d never even had a girlfriend before you.”

“Kieran,” I corrected, pulling out ice cream from her freezer. “And none of them had.”

“So they don’t know any better,” Nanna cackled. “That will help them put up with the insanity that seems to follow you everywhere.” She pulled the apple pie from the over, using the tea towel as oven mitts. “So you really killed that idiot that was trying to kill you and your friends?”

“Bet you never thought that would happen when you taught me how to use Great Granddad’s army rifle,” I replied.

“I wanted you to be safe,” she said, pausing after sliding the pie onto the cooktop. “I wanted you to be able to protect yourself, but most of all…” She glanced over her shoulder. “I wanted you to never need to, because that’s the hard thing about giving birth to a daughter.”

Her hands went to her hips.

“When you’re holding that tiny little pink bundle of perfection, watching her tiny little lips purse, you know exactly what challenges she’s going to have to deal with, the bullshit she’ll have to endure.

Because you’ve had to put up with all of it.

But your daughter…?” She shook her head slowly.

“You want more for her, better and you’re ready to fight the world to ensure that happens…

” I wondered what Nanna was seeing as she stared into my eyes.

“Only to fail over and over again.” She picked up a knife and waved it at me.

“You’ll discover that for yourself if you have a daughter. ”

“Me, a mother?” I snorted, unable to wrap my mind around the idea. “Can you imagine?”

“I can.” Uh oh, Nanna had the same determined look in her eyes that she had when she first urged me to date my mates. “Those males of yours, they’ll be good fathers.”

“Nanna—!”

“And you’ll be a brilliant mother, my Harper, now…

” She started to slice the pie up. “Help me dish this up and explain to me which are the desserts and which are the savoury ones. I don’t know what any of these things are.

” My grandmother opened a container and sniffed appreciatively. “It smells very good, though.”

I just stood there, trying to process what she had said.

That earned me a dark look, then a flick of her tea towel, telling me gruffly to get a move on.

A mother? Sometimes it felt like I wasn’t competent enough to be trusted with sharp objects, let alone a child.

So why did I see a little girl with a halo of dark hair running through the kitchen, only to wrap her arms around her great grandmother’s legs?

With a blink, I shook my head and then started dishing up the desserts.

“Thank you so much for having us.” Anya leaned in to press a kiss to Nanna’s cheek. “You must come to the restaurant and let us cook for you next time.”

“Us too?” Sally looked at the two of them expectantly. “That was ten times better than anything they provide in the dining hall.”

“You said something about single male tiger shifters?” Gladys added.

“You don’t want to waste your time on those idiots,” Gran said with a wave of her hand. “But there are some very nice leopard shifters that come to the restaurant sometimes…”

I’m not sure if this is a universal thing, but saying goodbye seemed to happen in stages. We got to the front door, then out the front door, then closer to the car, when Tor’s dad stepped in.

“Come on, darling. Let’s leave the nice people to it. Especially after we… inserted ourselves into their family dinner.” He shot me an apologetic look. “Lovely to see you again, Harper. Glad to see everyone is safe and…” His eyes lingered on the bite marks on my neck. “Settled.”

The trouble was, Tor’s family was the social lubricant, keeping the machine rolling, because as soon as they left, it stuttered to a stop. Mum stared at me, pain obvious in her eyes, and that wasn’t what I wanted. But she made me choose, between her pain and mine, when I wanted neither.

“I’ll grab your things,” Peter said, giving Mum’s shoulders a squeeze before nodding to us and going back inside.

“I’m going to put the dishes away,” Gladys said, poking Sally in the shoulder.

“What? No, I want to see how this goes down,” she said, waving her friend away.

“I reshuffled the cards to make sure I win next hand,” Nanna said drily.

“What? Oh, you…” Sally turned on her heel and then marched away.

Which just left us.

Mum was on one side of the front path, me and my mates on the other, while Nanna stood in front of the door. My grandmother looked expectantly at Mum and I watched her suck a breath in, letting it out slowly.

“I’m sorry?—”

“What?” I had steeled myself for a whole lot of things, but Mum cut my legs out from under me with that.

“I’m sorry, Harper.” She shot me a meaningful look, obviously expecting me to shut up and let her talk. “I admit I was… concerned about the direction your life was taking.”

“Concerned.”

My jaw muscles spasmed as I bit that off.

“Yes, concerned. As you so bluntly stated, I made some mistakes.” So, so many mistakes, I thought, but I held my tongue. “And I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to try and make sure you didn’t repeat them.”

But that was the thing. The insanity I grew up in what was had me doing the same dumb things.

My grandfather’s treatment of Nanna. Mum’s dirtbag boyfriend parade.

Each thing created a wound inside all of us, forcing us to shy away from anyone who might treat us well, because change felt weird, wrong.

A hand took mine, clasping it tight, and I looked up to see Kieran staring down at me.

But not now, right? he said, making clear he’d heard my thoughts.

No more , I agreed. Time to break the cycle.

“But…” Mum scanned the lot of us and finally I saw the tension leach out of her. “After meeting your lovely family, Tor, after finding out how the whole fated mate thing works, I think it’s clear that you won’t.”

Her eyelids fluttered, making me think she got dust in them or something, only for her to dab some tears away with a handkerchief.

“Mum…”

I stepped closer but she waved me away.

“I just want you to be happy, Harper and if this is what happy looks like.” She glanced over my shoulder. “Then I’m happy too.”

She went stiff when I surged forward, wrapping my arms around her. It felt like we were always stuck in this loop of pulling and pushing the other away, so her hands went up, fluttering through the air, before hugging me back.

“I want to meet Kieran’s parents too,” she said in a choked off voice. “Though I think we can skip introductions to any remaining family members Mack might have.”

“None left to speak of.” Mack pulled me back against him, holding me close. “But you can be sure we’ll keep Harper safe going forward.”

“That’s all I wanted.” Mum seemed to master herself. “I’ll expect that invitation to meet Kieran’s parents next week, shall I?”

My mother, ladies and gentleman. For someone who’d put up with a lot of crap from the dudes in her life, she sure seemed good at asserting herself with me.

“We’ll see,” I said. “Now, Nanna, did you need help with the rest of the cleaning up?”

“I’ve got it,” she said. “And anyway, those two idiots in there still have two hands and a heartbeat, if not a brain cell between the two of them. Inappropriate questions? That’s a sign of dementia, right?”

“Love you.”

I hugged her close, pressing a kiss to her forehead, before pulling away.

In the car, Tor turned to the rest of us. “So, about that cream pie…?” He wiggled his eyebrows outrageously.

“For siccing your whole family on mine without prior notice?” I spluttered. “The only cream pie you’re getting is to the face.”

“You want me to eat you out after I’ve blown my load in you?” he asked, stroking his face. “Kinky…”

“You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Kieran asked.

“The pet stores are still open, right?” Mack consulted his watch. “We can grab a muzzle or something.”

“How about we just head home,” I said. “Somehow surviving dinner with the fam was scarier than dealing with your brother, Mack.”

His eyes met mine in the rear vision mirror and he nodded slowly.

“Home, a rest and then…” I knew what was coming.

“Cream pie!” Tor shouted, pumping his fist in the air.