Page 93 of Blue Moon Mistress

Luckily, there isn’t a sheriff waiting to harass me when I pull onto the highway, and I make it to the guys’ house, a little before ten.

But it’s not the guys who greet me.

“Good morning, Mrs. Miller,” I say with my cheeriest smile.

The woman is clearly on her way to church, heading down her steps as I head up theirs.

But she’s not the woman I’ve seen so many times before. Her glare is dark, her teeth oddly sharp and she bares them at me. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting.” I keep my smile locked firmly in place.

“You leave these boys alone, you little hussy. I know what you’re doing to them and I won’t let you drag them down to hell with you.”

“I imagine that’s a choice they can make on their own. I don’t think you have a say in it.” I know I shouldn’t, but I smile at her again.

It only makes her madder and I take a step back when she shoves her hand in her pocket.

Her next muttered words contain so much malice, I literally go cold.

“Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.”

“Mrs. Miller.” Joshua’s voice is sharp and commanding, like a man scolding a dog. It makes me flinch too. He comes up the steps behind me, groceries in hand.

“Oh hello, Joshua!” Her whole posture changes, her face softens, and if I had not witnessed it, I might have been fooled.

But this woman was a completely different one to the one who’d just threatened my life.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she says with a huge smile. “I thought I’d drop by and ask if you boys wanted to join me at church today.”

“We do not. And if you cannot stop yourself from verbally abusing our guests, I will put up a fence to keep you and your opinions on that side of it.”

She draws back, shocked, as if she has no idea what he’s talking about. “I don’t know what she’s told you, but—”

“I was right here, Mrs. Miller. I heard what youjustsaid to her. And frankly, I could call the cops on you. That constitutes a death threat.”

The woman pales. “I think you misunderstood me.”

She doesn’t look to me for help, and at this point, I wouldn’t offer it.

“I don’t think I did.” Joshua shifts the paper bags he has in each hand and for the first time since I met him, he actuallylooksscary.

Mrs. Miller swallows, her eyes wide and I wonder how much of that inherent danger of what he is still exists in him now that I’ve claimed their wolves.

“I see…” She says, sounding as though she doesn’t. And when she looks back at me, an unfamiliar darkness passes over her face, but it’s only for a moment.

And then, she wishes Joshua a wary “good afternoon”, and starts toward the church that’s about a quarter mile north.

We watch her go for a long moment before Joshua says, “Sometimes these wolfy ears are a curse… sometimes, they’re a blessing. What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know.” But I might want to do the same spell I did on the sheriff to see if she’s speaking on her own behalf… or someone else’s.

I can’t imagine a scenario where Aphrodite could get that close, and Anthony might be jealous, but that level of influence is beyond him.

Joshua leads the way up the stairs shaking his head and I follow, opening the door for him so he doesn’t have to set down his groceries.

“Somehow I expected Johnny would be the one getting the groceries.”

“If you cook, you don’t have to shop or clean up. Which might be why he’s gotten so good at it.” He looks down the hall. “Why haven’t they come to ambush you?”

---