by Vivi Andrews
Grace rapped on the door and it swung open under her fist—unlatched, as was traditional in the pride, but becoming less and less common with the influx of new arrivals. “Mom?”
“Grace! We weren’t expecting you today.” Her mother’s face lit with pleasure as she bustled around the couch—the easy joy on her mom’s face striking her again as out of touch with the happenings in the pride. Her siblings joined the rush—though her father didn’t seem to be at home—and it was several minutes of greetings and small talk later before Grace was able to catch her mother’s eye.
“I only have a few minutes, but I was hoping I could have a word with you.”
The wattage in her mother’s smile shot up. “Of course, darling! It’s a bit cold for the porch. Why don’t we borrow your father’s den? He’s representing the family at that ridiculous meeting.”
That ridiculous meeting, Grace realized belatedly, would be Hugo’s mandatory meeting for non-fighting families of the pride, encouraging them to consider relocating to locations the Organization didn’t know about for the duration of the war. “It isn’t ridiculous,” Grace protested automatically as she trailed her mother into the tiny, book-filled den. “You should consider going.”
“We’ve been safe here for this long,” her mother said as she transferred a stack of books from one of the room’s two easy chairs.
“Things are different now,” Grace argued, taking the other chair in the claustrophobic room. Her father’s collection had expanded again and there was barely room for the both of them to sit down once the door was closed. Her siblings could probably still hear them, but Grace hoped they weren’t feeling curious—which was a useless hope among cats. “The Organization—”
“Oh, yes, the Organization.” Her mother made mocking air quotes—proof she lived with a teenager. “Every generation thinks their threat is the biggest and only threat to come along, but we’ve lived through our own dangers in our time and we’ll live through this one right here.”
“Mom, it isn’t the same. They know where we live and while we’re going after them, we can’t be worrying about loved ones back here.” She shook her head sharply. “I don’t have time to argue about this. In fact I don’t even have time to be here. If you’d just get a phone—” Grace broke off, not wanting to get into that argument either. “I just needed to tell you that Kelly won’t be coming to dinner tomorrow night because I’m not seeing Kelly. And I haven’t been for over a month.”
Her mother’s open, easy expression fell closed. “But I saw you together.”
“We’re friends. Just friends.” Her mother opened her mouth to argue and Grace bit the bullet. “In fact, I’m seeing someone else.”
“Oh?” A sly, pleased feline smile worked at her mother’s mouth. “Is it serious?”
“It sure as hell isn’t funny.” Graced wished she could take the words back as soon as they were out of her mouth. Her mother looked entirely too smug.
“Excellent. Bring him to dinner.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Grace hedged. “In fact, coming to dinner at all, right now, when things are so crazy—”
Her mother’s mobile face tightened into wounded disapproval—its usual arrangement when she was speaking to Grace. “Are you ashamed of your family now? The big important Second doesn’t have time for her family?”
“I wasn’t even aware you knew about the promotion.”
“We heard along with everyone else,” her mother said, all wounded pride. “Our daughter didn’t see fit to come out here and share her news with us.”
“I have been a little busy, Mom.”
“You’re having an affair with that Roman, aren’t you?”
“Are you kidding me?” Grace launched out of her chair, wanting to pace and prowl like Dominec always did, but there was no space in the room so she just loomed over her mother. “That Roman is your Alpha and he’s still mated to Patch, but no. I’m not having an affair with Roman. Thanks for asking. And for implying I slept my way to second-in-command.”
“If you aren’t ashamed of us, you must be ashamed of him. This new male.”
“It doesn’t have to be about shame,” Grace snapped. “It might just be about the fact that you’re going to hate each other. And that I barely have time to think right now, let alone come to dinner.”
Her mother shook her head with soulful, guilt-bearing sadness. “I have never understood how your father and I failed to instill in you a belief that one should always make time for family.”
Grace barely stopped herself from growling. No one drove her crazy quite like her mother—which was part of why it was so hard for her to make time for her family.
“Mom. I love you,” she said through gritted teeth. “And I will try to make it to dinner tomorrow night and I will invite my—” Oh holy monkeys, she had no flippin’ idea what to call him. “—Uh, my friend. But no guarantees. Okay?”
Her mother sighed, but nodded, sighing again. “That Kelly is such a sweetheart.”
“He’s a prince.” He’s also all wrong for me. “See you tomorrow. Hopefully.” With or without Dominec.
Chapter Forty-Three
“My parents want you to come to dinner tomorrow night.”
Only ruthless discipline kept Dominec from tripping over his own feet and doing a face plant into the snow when those were Grace’s first words to him after he dropped off of the roof of a nearby bungalow and fell in beside her as she was leaving the Alpha’s mansion that night after another marathon planning session.
He took a moment to collect himself before grunting, “Why?”
She pulled a face. “I told them I was seeing someone new and they said they want to meet you.”
He had a feeling that wasn’t the whole story, but he didn’t push for more details. They walked in silence for a dozen yards as he mulled over the invitation, side by side but not touching as was their habit. Frankly, he was surprised she’d told her parents about him at all. And flat out shocked that she might even consider letting him meet them. He wasn’t exactly parent-friendly relationship material.
“You don’t have to come,” she said in a rush, obviously expecting him to balk.
“Do you want me to?”
The question seemed to startle her. He was glad she took the time to think about her answer—Grace was always honest, even when others gave automatic socially pretty responses, she would be real with him.
“Yes,” she said finally, sounding as surprised by the word as he was. “I want them to meet you.”
“Then I’ll go. What time?”
“Six.” Her eyes were dazed—and nervous.
“It’ll be fine,” he said, giving in to the unfamiliar urge to comfort her. “It’s just dinner. We’ll all survive.” Probably.
She nodded absently and they walked in silence until they reached her bungalow. By unspoken agreement, it had become their habit to come here at the end of each day. He slept here with her most nights—except for those when he was too agitated for sleep. Even Grace’s presence couldn’t always soothe him.
“They don’t want to go hide,” she said as she closed the door and fastened the latch.
It took Dominec a moment to realize she was still talking about her family. “You’ll convince them.”
She nodded absently, shrugging out of her jacket and hanging it on the hook next to the door. “I didn’t really think about how this would affect all of us. Do you think we’re rushing things? Putting our non-combatants in danger by moving against the Organization prematurely?”
“If it were me, I would have gone after them yesterday.” He hung his jacket beside hers.
“You’re right.” She sat on the bed to remove her boots, gaze focused inward. “We’ve already wasted too much time by being divided. The Three Rocks shifters may or may not be right about coming out to
the humans, but they’re one hundred percent right that we need to stop being divided by pack and pride segmentation and ruled by rumors. It’s time we were a united force and now we have a common enemy to unite us. Roman sees that. I see it. And we can’t let them keep picking us off. It’s time shifters stood together.”
Dominec shrugged, kicking off his own shoes. “I could care less about the shifter unity rah-rah bullshit. I just want to kill them all.”
Grace frowned, focusing on him again. “This can’t be personal, Dominec. Roman is already questioning whether we can trust you with us when we move against them.” He growled and she stood, carrying her boots to the closet, shooting him a glare to shut him up. “If you go off mission again, you’ll be endangering everyone else and we can’t allow that.”
He prowled away from the wall, stalking her until he caught her against the wall near the bathroom. He pinned her with one palm pressed flat against the wall behind her shoulder. “I am going with you,” he said, low and rumbling, gazing into her eyes with unblinking intensity to impress his seriousness. “That is not up for negotiation. I’m your backup. Always.”
“You have no perspective,” she whispered, but the denial was weakened by the arousal he scented, heady and rich in the warm air between them.
He leaned in to breathe the luscious scent off the skin of her neck. His body crowded hers into the wall. “I don’t need perspective to fight for you.”
She tipped her head to the side, giving him better access. “I should not be getting turned on by this,” she muttered.
“But you are.” The words kissed her flesh.
“Oh yeah,” she murmured—until he found a better way to occupy her mouth.
“Mom. Dad. This is Dominec. Dominec, these are my parents. Robert and Malin Calaveras. And these are my siblings. Hope, Will, Valor, Faith and Honor.”
Grace breezed through the introductions in a rush, holding Dominec’s hand—which was something she’d done so rarely it was almost as bizarrely disorienting as the worlds-colliding feeling of introducing him to her entire family.
Her father was beaming—which was his natural state—but her mother’s expression was layers of horror, concern and the determined, false cheer of the good hostess.
“Dominec,” she cooed, working hard to ooze welcome. “It’s so lovely to meet you.”
“And you,” Dominec managed, and Grace could have kissed him for those two syllables. His hand was clenched tight around hers and she was suddenly realizing that the thought of this dinner was just as hellish for him as it was for her. Why had she thought she wanted him to meet her family again?
“What happened to your face?” Honor asked, with the blunt awe of youth.
Her mother frantically shushed her, but the question seemed to put Dominec at ease. Grace could actually feel the muscles in his shoulders unknotting beside her at the familiar inquiry.
“Bad men and acid-tipped claws,” he said flatly, receiving dropped jaws from all seven of the welcoming Calaveras family members. Apparently they hadn’t been expecting such a simple—and honest—reply.
At a loss as to how to respond, her mother reverted to uber-hostess mode. “Shall we eat? I hope you like lasagna, Dominec. It was Val’s turn to pick and he can’t get enough of Italian cuisine.”
She ushered them all to the dining area. Grace tried to hang back enough to catch Dominec’s eye and make sure he wasn’t doing that freaky flicker-shifting thing, but Honor and Faith hovered and Grace gave up on a private moment, walking hand-in-hand with Dominec toward the table. Her mother had set an additional place at the table next to where Grace had traditionally sat—so at least they weren’t going to be separated. If things went south, she could always pinch him under the table and make a run for it.
They should have agreed on escape signals before they arrived. Too late now.
But, miraculously, no escape signals seemed to be necessary. Her siblings and parents had come prepared with dozens of questions to pepper him with and conversation flowed relatively smoothly—though Dominec was stiff and answered in single syllables whenever possible. Still, he was trying. She had to give him credit for that.
Her family asked him about their dating history—brief though it was—and about his history with the pride. Her parents wanted to know where he was born and if he had any family living there, while her brothers were more concerned with finding out what exactly the differences between lions and tigers were, in terms of strength and agility.
All things considered, it was a remarkably painless dinner. She even saw a flicker of a smile on his lips once or twice when Honor or Faith asked him a particularly odd question.
It wasn’t until her mother brought out a chocolate cake for dessert that things went to hell.
It started innocently enough, with her father making an overture. “You’ll have to join us here for Christmas Eve dinner, Dominec.”
“Ah…” Dominec swallowed, visibly taken aback by the invitation, but Grace’s attention was locked on her father.
“You won’t be here, will you? By then you’ll be somewhere safe.”
“Grace,” her mother murmured, her name a soft scold. “We don’t need to discuss this right now.”
“You’re going to Black Lake, aren’t you?” Grace insisted, ignoring her mother. The Black Lake wolves weren’t fielding an actual platoon in the shifter army, but Amala had agreed to open the caves to non-fighting personnel who needed a safe place to escape—since the Organization had the coordinates of Lone Pine and it was no longer secure. The wolf Alpha had also agreed not to interfere if her fighters wished to join the Canadian force amassing for the upcoming battle, but most of her wolves would be guarding the caves. Even Grace, with her personal feelings about the tranq-happy wolves, had to admit it was one of the safest places for the young, the elderly and the infirm to wait out the battles.
Her father held up a pacifying hand. “We’ve always been safe at Lone Pine—”
“That was before it was a giant juicy target left virtually undefended when all our best fighters will be off attacking Organization bases,” Grace exclaimed. “The Organization knows exactly where we are. We need to get all civilian shifters as far away from potentially dangerous areas as possible. Hugo and Moira have contacts with some bears who can hide smaller groups if you don’t feel comfortable going to Black Lake with the others.”
“The pride is the safest place—” her mother insisted.
“Not anymore!” Grace shouted, and her younger siblings regarded her with wide eyes. “We’re evacuating. For good reason. If you won’t listen to me, listen to Hugo. Or Greg.”
Her mother—always the stubborn one—looked ready to argue Grace into the ground, but her father held up his hands in a call for peace. “We’ll consider it,” he said. “But I do think you’re exaggerating the danger, Gracie.”
Grace ground her molars. Second of the freaking pride and to her parents she would always be little Gracie who was to be seen and not heard.
“They killed my son in front of me.”
The stark sentence seemed to echo in the silence that followed. Grace turned her head, but she only saw Dominec’s scarred profile. He was gazing directly at her father.
“I realize you think we’re overreacting to the threat, but I’d rather overreact and still have my family than downplay a real danger and forever carry the memory of my wife and child being beaten to death before my eyes while I was too sedated to move against the bastards who did it.”
“Dominec,” Grace whispered, finding his hand under the table. It was cold and didn’t so much as twitch when she wrapped her hand around it.
“Young man, I’m very sorry for what you suffered, but the situation isn’t the same—”
“You may think you’re safe here,” Dominec interrupted, still staring steadily at her father, “but I thought I was safe there.
And if someone had told me to run and I hadn’t… I don’t think I would have been able to live with that. It’s hard enough to live every day that they are dead to begin with.”
“Daddy, please,” Grace added her voice. “I know you think it’s unnecessary, but please, will you just do it for me?”
It was her mother who spoke. “All the children’s friends will be spending the holidays in Black Lake. It would be lonely here, wouldn’t it? We really ought to go.”
Grace hadn’t realized how much the fear for her family had weighed on her until she felt it lift. They would be safe in Black Lake. Small, well-guarded groups were already starting to make the trip. By the time the attack came, the vulnerable would be safe and Grace could do her job without worrying that her family would be unsafe in her absence.
“Thank you.”
Her mother nodded slightly. “Now. Cake.”
“He’s very dark, Grace.”
Her father had taken Dominec into his den under the pretense of showing him a first edition Dumas and her mother had sent the young Calaverases off to do their homework before handing Grace a cup of coffee and stepping onto the screened porch with her. It was a cold night, but the hot coffee helped and here they at least had a vague hope of privacy.
“And?” she prompted when her mother said only that.
Malin’s soft round face pulled into a frown. “Are you sure you want to be dating someone like him? Someone so dark will bring out the darkness in you. I’ve always worried that it’s too close to the surface as it is. With what you do. And what happened before—”
“Mom. I’m good at what I do. Just because I’m tough doesn’t make me dark. I like being strong and Dominec likes that about me. He would never try to make me be less than I am just so I will have to lean on him. If we’re both a little fierce right now, maybe it’s because these are times that call for ferocity.”
“We worry about you.”
