Page 44 of Moonlit Alexandrite

“How did you...?”

Newt made a fist and extinguished the flame as though it had never been.

“I’ve been practicing. Are you mad?”

I realized he was worried about my reaction. Had been hiding his ability in case it upset me.

“You are amazing. I love every single part of you, my son. The control you have here is so impressive, but I don’t want you to ever feel you can’t tell me something, okay? It’s you and me, and now we have our whole herd with us.” I pulled him into a hug that may have been a little too tight, but I needed to get through to him how important he was to me.

“I love you, too, Da. There is something else I need to tell you. I’ve sensed her around town, and she’s not happy.”

“I know, kid. She’s never happy, but you don’t have to worry, I’ll fix it. She won’t hurt us.”

He snuggled in closer to me and fell back to sleep, safe in the knowledge his Da would protect him.

And didn’t that just make me feel ten feet tall.

The others trooped in an hour later, Dion explaining the ratios for a tequila sunrise to Colbie as they all flopped onto the sofa and chairs around me.

“Big night?” I asked. Four heated glares pierced me as I calmly stroked Newt’s hair and nudged Rusty away from the sofa with a toe as he tried to claim his seat next to Lex.

* * *

This was,quite possibly, the last place I wanted to be. I wandered into the diner and sent a wave to Corvena, who was filling coffee mugs while simultaneously calling breakfast orders into the kitchen. She smiled and gestured to sit anywhere.

Of course, I was first here. Despite having purposely arrived five minutes past nine, there was no sign of the black-haired witch I was here to converse with. She would be waiting to make a grand entrance, no doubt.

Corvena, the owner of Astra’s diner, bustled over with a coffee pot and mug, and I smiled as I accepted the black liquid gold. Maybe it would help speed this whole thing up if I was a little jittery.

“Can I get you anything?”

“Just more coffee,” I said, forcing a smile. She nodded and went to retrieve a full carafe to top up the drink I had already downed. At a quarter past the hour, the door to the diner blew open, and there stood the bane of my existence and mother of my child. Tammilyn.

She clicked her fingers, earning a narrow-eyed glare from Corvena, and requested some froufrou coffee to be delivered to the table. I allowed myself a moment of shock, having forgotten how self-centered she could be, as she completely ignored Corvena’s snide response and focused her greedy eyes on me. Shit, this was a bad idea. I eyed the bathroom door and wondered if I could squeeze my body through those tiny windows before she arrived at the table.

“Laisren! I’m so glad you finally came to your senses, my love.” She swooped in to kiss me, and I threw a hand up between us to avoid the contact.

“Sit. Down.”

My voice was all gravel, and I barely contained my look of disgust as she showed a shiver of arousal. Fuck, she was even more deluded than last time we had spoken, but at least she followed the order.

Getting right down to business, I folded my hands on top of the table between us. “I want you to leave my mate the hell alone.”

She blinked owlishly at me. “Mate?”

“Yes. Mate. Her store has been vandalized several times over the last couple of weeks. I know it’s you, and I want it to stop.”

Tammilyn fluttered her lashes in a way that I was sure she meant to be attractive. They were fake and looked like spiders crawling out of her eyelids. Ugh.

Actually, they reminded me of a random piece of trivia Lex had come out with the other day. False lashes were invented in the 1800s by a prostitute who named them cumbrellas. Yup, they were designed to avoid getting cum in your eyes.

“Your cumbrella is coming loose,” I said as her repeated blinking caused one spider to make a break for her cheekbone.

“My... Wait, what?” Tammilyn had clearly been counting on distracting me with her dubious charms, so to see her falter made me grin with my whole vindictive heart.

“This is your only warning. You mess with my herd, you mess with me. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, sweetheart.” I poured every ounce of my resentment into the last word and saw her blanch as my sincerity finally sank in.

A moment later, she seemed to collect herself and stood with a flourish, only to lean over the table and show she wasn’t wearing a bra. I glared at her as she leaned closer.

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