Page 135 of Unforgivable

I do all of this without looking to see anyone's expression. It's none of their business if my casserole isn't perfect.

When the tea and coffee are ready, I finally spin around. My males, including Inuit, are stonily staring at Alpha Macon, who calmly looks back at them without flinching. Mom and Elder Bea aren't even in the kitchen. I can faintly hear them with Penny, Sarg, and Tyler up in the loft. That's probably the best place for them. Luna Elizabeth is sitting to the right side of Alpha Macon, where lunas belong.

Dad is looking down at his coffee mug as if he's reading the future in the empty porcelain bottom.

Carmichael is staring at the casserole. It is his doom, after all, though I may have to re-think my plans of making him eat it. I don't want him to be sick, and the food is worse than I expected.

I pour the tea and coffee before sitting in the last empty chair, sandwiched between Ezra and Thjis, far from Alpha Macon. I glance around, cataloging expressions, trying to read intentions, risks, weaknesses.

Alpha Macon won't allow any harm to come to his mate if he can help it. That, more than anything else, is a sign that he doesn't want bloodshed. He couldn't have been expecting Carmichael to be here, however.

Alpha Macon thanks me for the tea and waits for everyone to have their first sips before he speaks. "Elizabeth and I have been traveling. Mostly through the east and south, but occasionally through the north as well." He pauses, and we all wait patiently. He blows on the tea and takes another sip before he continues, "in our travels, we heard... rumors." His hand is steady as he sets his teacup down, but my she-wolf senses the turmoil in this elderly wolf.

"Rumors of what?" Carmichael spits out, eyes hard as diamonds.

"You must learn patience, young alpha. Perhaps your young mate can teach you more than you think you need to know," Alpha Macon says with a bite.

Carmichael growls but has no other opinions to offer. It seems that even talking about his mate is enough to settle him.

Alpha Macon heaves a sigh.

I'm pressing my palms to my thighs to keep my body still. If I let go of my control, even for a moment, I fear I'll start yipping like an excited pup. What rumors? I want to snap at Alpha Macon just like Carmichael, but the stillness of the older wolves at the table tells me to stop, think, listen.

"My young niece's pack," Alpha Macon murmurs, "has many old friends. It is where my grandson has been for nearly six months."

I have stopped breathing.

"Daan and Cloe are arguing. Their mating lacks intimacy that is troubling to those in the family close enough to notice. My son made the mistake of sending them away when it would have been more prudent to know exactly what was going on."

Ezra grabs my hand under the table, and my mind flashes back to the conversation we just had in my bedroom. Did my seduction work?

And if it did? What the hell do I do now? I thought... no... no, I know that Daan doesn't want me. He chose her. He rejected me. I was almost killed, but it freed me to be here. To fall in love.

If he suddenly wants me back, then what do I do? The desperate need to escape rolls over me. Should I run away with my males, after all?

"I saw this... disconnect myself," Alpha Macon continues, "a few weeks ago. I then came home for a few days and went for a visit with my mother."

I think I'm squeezing the life out of Ezra's fingers. I feel Thjis cover both our hands with his own, entwining his fingers with ours so that the pressure I'm exerting is on his big bear paw.

"I pointed out that it was as if Daan and Cloe weren't truemates, and do you know what her reaction was?"

Dead silence reigns over the table.

"She laughed," Alpha Macon said tiredly. "I know that laugh. It's the laugh she used when she thought I took too long to come to a realization."

Dad's coffee cup explodes in his hands.

---

---