Page 44 of What a Wolf's Heart Decides

Suddenly, she’d had her fill of pancakes—and Glenna Rupert’s schemes. She stood and grabbed her jacket. Shrugging into it, she made her voice as polite as possible. “Thank you so much for the food. It was lovely.”

“You don’t have to go so soon!” Glenna said. “I didn’t even show you the kitchen. Sabine and I are making a batch of elderberry jam.”

Ben rose. “It’s okay, Mom. I’ll drive Haley back to Bard’s place.”

Haley slanted him a look. At least one Rupert knew how to read a room.

Glenna and Sabine joined them as they walked to the door. Just as Ben reached for the knob, Glenna caught Haley’s gaze—and held it, her blue-green eyes as powerful as magnets.

“Don’t be afraid to ask Bard if you can stay,” she said. “Just for a visit. There’s more to Elder Lake than mountains and pancakes.”

Yeah, like dominant mama werewolves. Haley gritted her teeth as she fought to break Glenna’s stare. The older woman’s flour-dusted apron might have fooled her once, but not now. Glenna was as dominant as they came.

Ben opened the door, making the bell ring. Glenna blinked and looked away, severing her wolf’s pull.

Haley released a shaky breath. Even if Ben was the man of her dreams, she wasn’t sure she could endure a mother-in-law like Glenna.

“Later, Mom,” Ben said, ushering Haley outside. “You too, Sabine.”

Sabine gave a wave from behind Glenna’s shoulder. “See you.”

Haley tensed. Any second now, the odd sensation would descend again.

But it didn’t. Sabine’s smile was genuine, and she stood on tiptoe a little as she waved.

Then Glenna closed the door, and the moment passed.

“You ready?” Ben zipped up his jacket and gave her an expectant look.

Haley cleared her throat. “Yeah. Sorry. Pancake hangover.”

He gave her one of his big smiles, but the twinkle in his eye was missing.

She wasn’t going to feel bad about that. He might have been ignorant about his mother’s plan, but he’d been prepared to go along with it.

Without another word, she turned on her heel and headed for the car.

And she opened her own door this time.

8

“You know what the cure for a pancake hangover is?”

Haley turned at Ben’s question. They’d driven in silence since they left the cafe, neither daring to break the uneasy truce they seemed to have struck. “Uh, no. I guess I don’t.”

He glanced at her as he took the car around a bend. “A hike up the mountain.”

“But I have to—”

“It’s an easy trail. I want to show you the best of Elder Lake before you leave.”

Leave. That’s what she’d been about to say. Last night, she might have fought to stay in town. But brunch had changed all that. She wasn’t willing to put herself between Bard and Glenna.

Suddenly, the pancakes sat heavy in her stomach.

Glenna was a force to be reckoned with, but in a test of wills, Haley would put her money on Bard any day of the week.

“It’s an easy trail,” Ben said. “If we’re lucky we might catch a glimpse of the herd.”

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