Page 66 of Bred Mate
She is immediately spoiled by her father, her three uncles, and me. We name her Yvie, and she is such a pure delight that I stop thinking about much of what has gone on before. The forest we used to live in still calls to me from time to time, but giving birth here has redefined my sense of home. I belong to a new placenow. Yvie is the eldest child of the alpha of Louisiana. She is a princess, and she is treated as such.
I fall into motherhood and matehood, and looking after my baby, and months go by in which all is so intensely well I can barely stand it. It’s sickening, really. Karl is well settled into his new role. The leadership challenges have stopped with the birth of our daughter. It is amazing what a baby can do for a city, not just a family.
Yvie is down for her nap one afternoon when the front door opens in a disconcerting way.
A man steps through into the foyer. He has dark gray hair and he’s very tall and his features have a certain familiarity to them. He walks in like he owns the place, which immediately irritates me. Sometimes Karl’s henchmen do that. He doesn’t like it when I call them henchmen. I don’t like it when they hench.
“Can I help you?” I ask the question with a good amount of salt in my voice.
He glances at me briefly, in the way men do when they think you are irrelevant, and though it has been months since my last violent impulse, I suddenly have the almost uncontainable urge to rip his throat out.
He tries to walk further in, but I block his path.
“Who are you?” I ask the question with even more obvious annoyance.
“I own this house,” he growls. “Who are you?”
“That’s my daughter,” my mother says, pushing past him. “Ellie, this is Orion.”
Oh, great. She’s come traipsing back and she’s bought some aging bodyguard with her. Karl is going to be pissed.
Speaking of Karl being angry, Karl has come out of his office and is standing behind me, making an even more effective blockade for our uninvited guests.
“I thought I told you not to come back here,” he says, staring at my mother.
“You did tell me that,” she smiles. “So I went to Hawaii, found your father, who had tired of his then current wife and offspring, and convinced him to bring me back here to the home he owns. The home you have no right to tell me to leave now.”
“The fuck, Mom,” I exclaim.
She smiles even more broadly. She’s loving this. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I’m thinking of my youngest brother.
Connor is eleven years old now. He’s shot up about a foot since she last saw him. He’s been doing well in school, but I get the sense she’s about to derail all of that. I don’t want her here. I don’t want him here when she is here. She probably has a missile launcher in the back of the car for him.
“Hello, son,” Orion says. “It is good to see you.”
“Why are you here?” Karl is curt in his response. “Where are your wife and kids? Why are you with this creature?”
Orion looks taken aback. “My relationship ran its course. Margaret and I are together now. We are here because you just had a baby.”
“You came here to make our child related to itself?” I snap the question.
The two of us are very much on the back foot. We get hardly any sleep as it is, and neither one of us is prepared to receive family or enemies. These two feel like both. I realize I am carrying a bottle brush in one hand and my shirt has baby stuff on it.
“You gave up your role as alpha,” Karl says, instantly defensive. “You left this house to me.”
“That was when your brother had a werewolf at his disposal capable of drawing the loyalty of the pack. Now I have one by my side, and not any freshly made genetic freak ingénue who does not truly want the role. I have found a true wild alpha female werewolf.”
“She’s going to eat you alive, buddy,” I murmur.
“So you’ve come to reclaim the state?” Karl crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the counter, his expression inscrutable. “After I’ve spent months establishing leadership, putting down rebellions, settling matters, starting a family?”
“No,” his father laughs. “I’ve come to see my granddaughter. The offspring of a true werewolf. Our bloodline grows stronger for this mating, my son. You have made me more proud than I can express.”
Karl looks confused. I don’t blame him. I am also confused. I assumed these two were here to do very terrible things, but they mostly seem chill aside from how rude Orion was to me. But it’s possible he’s just a rude man.
“Wait a minute,” I say. “Is this about what happened last time you were here, Mom?”
“Maybe,” she says. “I believe I stated that explicitly, but the two of you have the dead-eyed stare of new parents, so it may be going over your head.”
