Page 7 of Witchbane

This time Toby, Korissa, and Carl all shared a look.

“What?” I demanded.

Carl held up his hands, showing the chicken all cut up perfectly. “How would you like me to slice the bread?”

Not at all a smooth change of subject, but dinner was important. A lot of the pack came for dinners most nights, to socialize and eat, as well as grow the pack bond. I had to figure out how to survive having a couple of proverbial dragons at the table.

Chapter 2

To say dinner was tense was an understatement. My mother spent the entire meal talking over me and arguing with Liam’s ex-wife about the benefits of my character, as if she knew me, all while attacking Liam. Elaine was the opposite, defending Liam and attacking me. It was a bit like a really bad tennis match. The pack had arrived in spurts, taking one glance at the mess we were presented with, and packed up food to go, vanishing into the night. Traitors.

Dylan had been oddly absent, both him and his lover Sean, which was unusual. Had someone warned them ahead of time? When was the last time I had seen them? A week or more? It had been a while.

“Anyone seen Dylan or Sean?” I asked Leigh before she could escape out the backdoor.

“Only out at their shop,” Leigh said. She looked away. What wasn’t she telling me?

“Liam banned that vampire from getting anywhere near the house,” Carl offered cheerfully.

Vampire? Alexei, aka Al, was working at Sean’s auto shop. He and Liam had gotten into a bit of a scuffle recently, but I didn’t understand how that meant Dylan and Sean wouldn’t be around. “Al? Why would that keep Sean and Dylan away?”

“Sounds like there might be a thing,” Stacey said. She leaned over to kiss Toby on the cheek. “Thanks for dinner. You’re doing good.”

“Hey, I helped with dinner,” I pointed out.

She nodded. “Thank you for dinner. Good luck.” Then she was gone, like everyone else. Abandoning ship while the hull was breached by some leviathan of our unwanted pasts and secrets. I fucking hated personal baggage and I had a lot of it.

I turned to Carl, who hung around, keeping a watchful eye on Liam. “Dylan and Sean, a thing with Al?” Dylan and Sean had been super into each other, I couldn’t picture them needing a third. But maybe that was some learned bias in my head? Thinking they weren’t looking for more when maybe the right person hadn’t come along before?

“Not so much Sean and Dylan. Sean… Dylan is trying to make it work.”

Compromising to have a third? If Liam tried it, I’d gut him. But that was how I was programmed. Liam too, as he even hated his pack touching me too much. I was his first, and that was okay, even if it was a little caveman. How was Dylan dealing? He was as dominant as Liam. I needed to call him asap.

“They will work it out,” Carl said, then shrugged. “Or they won’t. Relationships are funny that way. And not everyone is fated to be together.”

It was an oddly comforting thing for Liam’s second to point out since he’d had a fated mate at one point in his life. Sean and Dylan were not fated, but they had fit together really well. At least until I’d come into the pack and ended up getting Dylan kidnapped and tortured. Maybe that had changed him in ways Sean couldn’t understand? That would be my fault too.

Carl gave me an irritated glare. “Don’t get involved.”

“But it’s my fault.”

“Right. Everything is your fault. Let’s go with that. How about you make it not be your fault by not getting involved? The pack has been banned from having access to your old vampire buddy, let’s keep it that way.”

“Banned?”

“The only time your mate is a hotheaded Neanderthal. You and that vampire are not to mix. Let them sort it out.”

“But that means I can’t see Sean or Dylan.” And how bad was it that I didn’t realize until that moment that I hadn’t seen either of them recently?

“Yes,” Carl agreed. “Let them unravel their own shit while you worry about yours.” He waved his hand at the other room where Liam was trying to keep everyone from breaking into an all-out war. “You have a kitsune to learn to control and a mother to send on her way. Maybe work on that.”

I growled at him, but could hear them and wished I couldn’t.

“Sebastian has always been a fast learner. I’m sure he’s a wonderful asset for Liam’s businesses,” my mother said.

“He’s created a handful of fabulous recipes for the bakery,” Liam defended me. “And the tea shop is his creation. His blends attract people from the big cities.”

“Your recipes were incredible,” Elaine told Liam. “Why would changing them benefit your brand?”