Page 8 of Wolves of the Rising Moon

“So you just assumed you know what’s best for me?”

She nods, chin high. “Yeah. And in this case, I’m totally right. You convinced yourself you were happy when anyone could see you weren’t. Then you convinced yourself you could do it all. Have your mates and healer magic when you were risking your life.” Her eyes flash with anger. “I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t watching you put your life on the line. So I did what I had to do. I won’t apologize for it, Willa.”

Jeez. When she puts it like that…

I take a minute and let her words sink in before letting myself drop into the stool at the island. I’d opened the can of worms.

And Mari was just getting started.

“For instance, are we going to talk about the living situation? I could probably do my job better if I lived, oh I don’t know, in the healer cottage instead of coming here every day during what you’ve so congenially dubbed ‘office hours.’”

I scrunch my nose at her. She said she didn’t mind trekking back and forth since the weather’s warmed up.

But I don’t have a chance to say so because Rafe and Jonah come back from their evening patrol. Not around my property. They still have two wolves stationed on the edge of the woods at all times since the Drago thing. But they also make sure to patrol the entire pack land border themselves at least once a day.

Sometimes twice.

It’s an improvement, though. It took Rafe an entire week to leave my side after Drago.

They enter quietly, both clothed for Mari’s sake.

Jonah kisses the top of my head and settles into the couch and Rafe gives me a quick kiss on the mouth before heading off to the shower.

“He called dibs,” Jonah says as my eyes ask the question. Jonah and Rafe fighting over the shower was quickly becoming a nightly tradition and to see Rafe just head for it without a single word from Jonah was…

Well, nice but weird.

“And that’s another thing,” Mari continues. “There’s no room for the three of you here. And the Great Wolf only knows what you’re gonna do when you finally decide to let Drago on the same mountain as you.”

I’d been listening idly to her breakdown of my life, but the mention of the sociopathic wolf finally drew out a response. “That killer isn’t getting anywhere near me.”

Mari and Jonah share a quick glance over my head before she returns her gaze to me. “Oh, killer shmiller, we all have baggage, Willa. Stop playing morality police.”

I swivel to look at Jonah, hoping to find support, but he just shrugs and puts his hands up. “I’ve learned better than to get in the middle of a fight between you two.”

I purse my lips at him and turn back to Mari. “I’m sorry, but if drawing a line at literal murder makes me a morality traffic cop, then just give me a high-vis vest.”

Mari keeps going as if I hadn’t said a thing. “You’ve got Rafe and Jonah so wrapped around your finger they won’t say anything. So it’s up to me to knock some goddamn sense into you. Quit trying to jam my head full of useless plant stuff, get yours out of the sand, and deal with your shit, Wilhelmina!”

“What are you saying? I should just accept a murderer as a mate?”

“God, you’re dense sometimes. I’m saying you just banished him to the Kootenays and left him there. Everyone assumed you sent him away until you could figure out what to do next, but the more time passes, the worse you look and the crankier you get. You need to figure it out, babe. At the very least, have a conversation with him.”

My stomach drops to the ground. As much as it killed me to admit it to myself, Mari was fucking right. I had basically exiled him and then tried to pretend the problem wasn’t real.

“You won’t have to do it alone,” Jonah adds.

Mari nods. “Yeah, you can call a whole pack meeting if that’ll make you feel safer.”

The idea of calling a pack-wide meeting to sort out my fucked up mate situation was almost worse than the fucked up situation itself.

But I could talk to Drago. That much I could handle.

I give Mari a stiff nod, and instead of thanking her or telling her she was right, I change the subject. “So, do you even want to live here?” I ask.

She shrugs, taking my non sequitur in stride. “I think it’ll make my job easier. Plus, I want you to have space for your mates, Will. To have the life you want. I took the healer magic so you could be the omega you always wanted. But you’ve been so stubborn about ignoring everything, you’ve put yourself in limbo by refusing to deal with anything. And your mother-henning about herbs and plants is gonna drive me insane.”

“I am not mother-henning you.”

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