Page 5 of Witchbane

“Do you want to be here?” She asked, startling me.

“What?”

“Is this man keeping you here against your will? I know they are probably wolves like Xander’s people, but they don’t have a right to keep you here.”

“I love Liam,” I told her, only newly confident with that declaration. He was mine; I was his. Fate-decried or otherwise, it was a done deal.

“But won’t marry him?”

How did I explain to her that marriage didn’t mean to me what it meant to her? “We are mate bonded. It’s a bit more binding than marriage.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a shifter thing…” I started, not really certain how muchApahad told her over the years. “It means our souls are married. Bound together with magic.”

That deadly look landed on me again, and I flinched, unable to help it. “And you didn’t see fit to tell your mother?”

“It’s new, Mom.”

“Like happened yesterday new?”

“A few months…” But there had been a lot going on. And we hadn’t exactly been close when I wasn’t running across the country in fear of my life. I was going to give Oberon a piece of my mind for telling her where I was.

“A few months!”

I took a step back and Liam was there. I curled into him, not wanting to face a wrath that was not only unwanted, but unjustified. She’d abandoned me as an infant, visited only a handful of holidays in my life, and thought she had a right to say who I loved and how I loved him?

“Mrs. Wheeler, dinner is almost ready. Perhaps you’d like to stay and eat. If not, I can have some of my people escort you back to your hotel. Seb is tired and needs rest.”

“My son is here,” she told him. Was she expecting to stay with us? “It wouldn’t be right to leave him without making sure he’s treated right.”

She’d left me my entire life andnowwouldn’t leave without seeing me treated right? I was shaking my head already, clinging to Liam. I would rather have faced downApafully changed into his monster form than my mother demanding we meet whatever fictional criteria she’d invented as a test. Then I heard voices from outside again. Korissa was home.

Now it was Liam who stiffened, his grip on me tightening as the door opened to reveal not only his daughter, but a supermodel looking woman with a suitcase in tow. The woman was tall, thin, but curved in all the places media said women should be curved, with flawless ivory skin, clear blue eyes, and a face that could have graced many a magazine cover.

I blinked. My mother turned to look. Korissa stood owl-eyed and a bit panicked as she stared at me and her father. She was returning from a preholiday trip to visit her mother. Which meant this woman had to be?

“Elaine,” Liam said, sounding strangled. “What are you doing here?”

If I’d thought the idea of my mother showing up made my heart race, then the reality of Liam’s ex-wife and my mother showing up at the same time had me ready to pass out. Korissa and I met gazes with what were probably an equal amount of terror.

“My daughter insists there is a man permanently in your life, inherlife, and I don’t get to meet him? Ridiculous.” Her voice did not match the beauty of her face, the cadence biting and dripping with scorn. “After moving out here in the middle of nowhere…”

“My business is here,” Liam said. “And Korissa loves it here.”

“I do,” Korissa said. The two of them looked nothing alike. Odd since Korissa’s hair was dark and both her parents’ blond. But Liam’s was that sort of blond that began life darker and faded over time. She also had his curls and nose. I was grateful I wouldn’t have to look at Korissa from this day forward and see her mother staring back at me.

“I should go check on the food,” I muttered and pulled myself out of Liam’s embrace. A trip to my camper was sounding better and better every step away I got.

“We should all sit down for dinner, then I’ll see you both to the best hotel in town,” Liam said. At least he tried. He was met with instant protests from both women.

I wasn’t sure how I’d survive even a day with both my mother and Liam’s ex-wife in the same house with us. I didn’t realize how out of it I was until I reached into the oven to grab one of the pans of chicken, but Toby grabbed my wrist, holding my hand away.

“You’re not wearing a glove,” he said and brushed me aside to use a towel and an oven mitt to remove the chicken, placing it on the stovetop. “Are you okay?”

Odd question coming from Toby, as he was the one usually in an internal war. “My mother is here. Korissa’s mother is here…”

He shrugged. “It’s your house.”