by Keri Arthur
I raised an eyebrow. “Monty didn’t update you?”
“He said that he and Ashworth were staking out a possible hideout, but other than that, no.”
I quickly told him what we’d discovered and then added, “He probably didn’t mention the shifter because we have no body and no immediate way of tracking the other two.”
“And the specter? Have you any idea why she killed that shifter or why she’s haunting your movements?”
“No, and no. But given she’s a White Lady, she’s obviously out for revenge.”
“On the shifters, or the demon?”
“Possibly both, given they appear to be connected.”
He grunted. “What about Belle? Could she attempt to talk to the specter?”
“Not without her cooperation.”
He frowned. “She can’t summon her as she does other spirits?”
“She could, but without the name or something personal of hers, she also risks summoning every other spirit in the immediate area.” And even if she did have one or both of those things, our specter was capable of magic. It was quite possible she’d already warded herself against a summoning.
“What are the chances of the remaining shifters returning to that house?” he asked.
“About as likely as Ashworth surviving an entire night in Monty’s company.”
Aiden laughed. “That I can believe.”
Conversation moved on, and twenty-five minutes later we were driving into Bendigo. He found a parking spot just opposite Officeworks, then hurried around to help me out of the truck. Nerves rose, but I tamped the ridiculous things down. No matter what was going on, Aiden absolutely wouldn’t do anything to break my trust.
He placed a warm hand against my spine and lightly guided me toward a small but stylish-looking restaurant. As soon as we stepped inside, a waiter approached, his outfit as understated and elegant as the room itself.
“Good evening,” he said in a low but warm tone. “How can I help you?”
“We have a booking—Aiden O’Connor.”
“Ah, yes,” the waiter immediately said. “The third member of your party has already arrived. If you’d please follow me, we’ll get you both seated.”
He turned and moved toward the rear stairs. Aiden pressed me forward, leaving me little option but to follow.
“And just who are we meeting?” I whispered urgently. “What the hell are you up to?”
“Nothing serious,” he returned evenly. “Someone just wanted to meet you, that’s all.”
“Who? And why all the secrecy?”
He hesitated. “The latter is at her request. I can’t gainsay her, no matter how much I might want to.”
Her. Not him, not my father or husband. I took a deep breath and tried to control irrational fears. Aiden would never contact either of those men. In fact, he was far more likely to go after them.
“Aiden—”
“Just wait,” he said softly. “It’ll all become clear in another few seconds.”
Frustration stirred yet again, but I held my tongue and clattered lightly up the steps after the waiter. This area was smaller—and more intimate—than the downstairs room, and contained booths and half-walled rooms. We were led into one of the latter.
Seated at a small round table that dominated the area was a woman. She was rangy in build, with silver-gray hair and eyes that were a deep, almost sapphire blue.
I knew in an instant who she was, even though I’d never seen her before.
Karleen Jayne O’Connor.
Aiden’s mother.
Seven
For a moment, I could only stare. In any other relationship, it would have been a natural progression for me to meet his parents, but this wasn’t any other relationship. He was a werewolf, and I was a witch, and never the twain shall meet—at least not in terms of a serious relationship, anyway. His parents had only given way to Katie’s desire to marry Gabe because she was dying.
His mother was the last person I’d expected to be here—the last person I thought would want to be here.
But it explained the secrecy. Explained why he couldn’t say anything. She wasn’t only his mother, but his alpha—one of his pack’s leaders—and he certainly wouldn’t gainsay her orders for someone like me. If I’d been a wolf, things might have been different… but I wasn’t, and never could be, so it was stupid to even start thinking along those lines.
It also explained why we were meeting in a restaurant well beyond the reservation’s boundaries, in a room shielded from prying eyes. It wouldn’t do for her to give our relationship any sort of credence by being seen with me.
Aiden pressed his hand harder against my spine, all but forcing me into the room. His mother stood, her gaze cool as it met mine.
“Elizabeth Grace.” Her mellow tones belied the ice in her blue eyes. “I’m pleased to finally meet you.”
“And I you.”
I took her offered hand warily, but my psychic senses thankfully remained mute. Her aura wasn’t giving a whole lot away, either—it was almost totally red, an indicator of someone who was powerful, passionate, and competitive. Everything you’d expect an alpha wolf to be, in other words. But there were also faint wisps of black moving through the red, and that was often an indicator of either grief or an unforgiving nature.
In her case, I suspected it meant the latter.
I forced a smile and added, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I’m utterly surprised to see you here, Mrs. O’Connor.”
“Please, call me Karleen. There’s no reason to be formal in a place such as this.” Her gaze flicked to Aiden. “You did say she was straightforward.”
“She’s also astute enough to realize this is a rather unusual situation, so I wouldn’t beat about the bush too much.”
His voice, like his mother’s, was pleasant but his aura continued its run of riotous color, suggesting that while he’d agreed to this meeting, he wasn’t exactly happy about it. And that only increased my tension.
He pulled out a chair to seat me, then claimed the one between us. The waiter handed us each a menu and, once we’d ordered drinks, quietly left.
Karleen took a sip of water, her gaze once again on mine. Assessing me. Judging me. It was the why that worried me.
“My son tells me you’re able to communicate with my daughter, Kate.”
Now that was a statement I hadn’t been expecting. “Yes, I can, although she mostly initiates the contact.”
Grief flickered through her aura, even though her expression remained unmoved. “Then her ghost does indeed roam this reservation? She hasn’t moved on?”
“It was her choice—something she wanted to do. But she isn’t a ghost—she’s far more than that.”
“According to Aiden, she’s become the reservation’s guardian.”
I nodded. “She’s helped us on numerous occasions.”
“So he’s said.” Her tone remained even but her disbelief was a thick wave that washed over me. “I’m afraid it’s a situation I’m struggling to accept. You and your friend are both strong psychics, and we both know it’s a field with a well-earned reputation for fooling the unwary.”
“If I earned the moniker of fool, it was at the beginning of our relationship rather than now.” Though his voice remained mild, anger sparked brighter in Aiden’s eyes. “I let my hatred for witches override common sense, and I didn’t trust Liz early enough. The end result could have been you having two dead children rather than just one, Mother.”
“Be that as it may, you will have to forgive my skepticism without proof.”
“If you wanted that, why all the secrecy?” I asked. “Why not simply come to our café and ask us to do a full séance?”
Another insincere smile touched her lips. “Because the gossips would have had a field day, and there’s already enough talk about your relationship with my son.”
“My relationships are neither their business nor yours,” Aiden said sharply. “And again,
that is not what you came here for.”
She glanced at him, one eyebrow raised. If she’d been in wolf form, hackles would have been raised. “Indeed.”
The waiter came back with our drinks. I nodded my thanks and resisted the urge to toss back my whiskey and ask for the bottle. Getting drunk would neither help the situation nor impress the woman sitting opposite. She was expecting the worst from me—thanks to the fact I was both a witch and psychic—and while it was tempting to give her exactly that, I wouldn’t do it to Aiden.
Once our meals had been ordered, I leaned back in my chair and said, “The only way I can give you proof is to let her talk through me.”
Aiden glanced at me. “That’s dangerous, isn’t it?”
“It’ll take a lot of energy, yes, but Katie won’t drain me—she wouldn’t risk it, given our relationship.”
The wisps of black in Karleen’s aura thickened, though I wasn’t sure whether it was annoyance at my mentioning the R-word, or grief over losing her daughter. “I still find it difficult to believe Kate would sacrifice herself in such a way.”
“Katie was always more concerned about family than other people’s expectations.” This time, the edge in Aiden’s voice was deeper and hinted at old hurt—one that went far deeper than Katie’s death. “She did this for us—to keep us safe—as much as for the reservation itself.”
“And yet it was her husband’s actions that ultimately placed this reservation in danger.”
Annoyance surged, but I tamped it down. Hard. This situation was tense enough without me unleashing emotionally. “That was not Gabe’s intention, but strong magic always comes at some cost to its initiator. He simply didn’t expect his death would be the price he paid.”
She studied me for a moment. “You use the magic of this land—what’s the price you pay?”
“That is yet to be fully revealed.”
“Interesting.” She took a sip of her red wine. “How would I know that I’m actually talking to Kate rather than simply you using information gleaned from Aiden over the last few months?”
“Mother—”
I touched his thigh, felt the taut muscles there jump in response. He glanced at me, anger briefly flaring in his eyes before he contained it. I suspected this time it was aimed at me; he was, after all, an alpha in waiting, and given I wasn’t, my interrupting could be seen as overstepping boundaries.
“That is a question we get quite often from skeptics.” My voice remained surprisingly calm, despite the inner turmoil. “And the easiest to answer. Ask her a question about something only you and she would know.”
“Then when are you free to do this? Tomorrow perhaps, after the café closes? I wouldn’t expect you to drop everything, of course.”
There was something in her tone that suggested the wise would do exactly that, but I was nothing if not obstinate.
“No. If you want to talk to her, we do it tonight, after dinner.” I couldn’t quite help the edge in my voice. “It has the benefit of reducing any chance of you being spotted with me. Can’t feed the gossip mill, can we now?”
The black in her aura abruptly sharpened. I had a vision of teeth being bared, even though she hadn’t moved a muscle. As a pack leader, she was well used to controlling herself.
“Neither of us are dressed for walking around in the bush at night, my dear.”
“We don’t have to. We can stop on the road that circuits a good part of the O’Connor compound near the wellspring, and I can call her to me.”
I crossed mental fingers as I said it, because in fact I had no real idea if it was at all possible for me to initiate contact via the threads of wild magic. It wasn’t something I’d had to do—and until last night, something I hadn’t even thought was possible.
“You don’t usually carry your spell stones with you when we go out,” Aiden said. “How safe is it to attempt such a connection without initiating an active protection circle?”
I hesitated. “Ashworth created a non-pinned circle around the first lot of feathers we found. I’ll try and repeat that.”
“And if that fails?”
“Then hope nothing attacks us while we’re doing this.” Or, if it did, that I could use the wild magic to protect us all.
Karleen frowned. “Why would something attack? And why would you need a protective circle when talking to my daughter?”
“Because, as I informed the full council yesterday, we have a flesh-stripping demon stalking the reservation.” Aiden’s tone was full of bite. “Allowing Katie to speak through her basically leaves Liz defenseless.”
Karleen’s frown increased. “But you have a gun—”
“Bullets are rarely a viable option against demons, unless they’re made of silver and blessed by a priest, and we all know just how unwelcome any weapon made of silver is in the reservation.” I was damn lucky to have gotten my silver knife back, and that had only happened because Aiden had seen firsthand just how necessary items of silver were in the fight against supernatural beasties. “If you don’t mind me asking, why the sudden desire to speak to her now?”
The black smoke flared again, but this time it was definitely grief, though it disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. Maybe the only reason her aura wasn’t as dark and as turbulent as Aiden’s had been when I’d first met him was thanks to sheer force of will.
She picked up her glass and took a drink and then studied me several seconds before replying softly, “Perhaps I simply wish to know that she is indeed happy in her choice.”
It was a statement filled with so much unintended heartache that I couldn’t help but feel for her. She was a mother who’d lost her child in what was initially thought to be a murder suicide, and no matter how strong a person you normally were, that would have been a hellish situation to cope with.
“Fine,” I said. “We’ll attempt it tonight, then.”
“Thank you.”
I nodded but didn’t bother replying as the waiter came in with our meals. The conversation turned to more mundane things and, while an underlying tension remained, it was at least pleasant enough.
Once we’d had coffee and dessert, Aiden called for the bill, but Karleen insisted on paying for it. The night was filled with a misty rain by the time we left and, though it wasn’t cold, Karleen nevertheless pulled on a light sweater.
“I’d don’t suppose you’d be a dear and go get my car for me?” she said, looking at Aiden. “It’s one block over, on King Street.”
“We’ll drive you over—”
“My dear boy, Elizabeth may be limber enough to climb into your truck with a tight dress on, but I, however, am not.” She took her keys out of her purse. “It won’t take you long, and I promise I won’t scare her away.”
The hint of acerbity behind that comment had me wondering just who she had scared away—Aiden’s loved and lost wolf, perhaps?
He gave me a questioning glance, but when I nodded mutely, he took the keys and left. The tension that had eased over our meal immediately ratcheted up. Mrs. O’Connor, I suspected, was about to go all alpha wolf on my ass. She might truly want to speak to Katie, but it certainly wasn’t the real reason behind her sudden desire to meet me.
I’d always known that if Aiden and I lasted more than a few weeks there’d be some form of push back from his parents. Aiden was destined to be a pack alpha once his parents stepped down, so him getting seriously involved or even marrying anyone other than an equally strong female alpha werewolf was totally out of the question. Aiden himself had warned me multiple times that we could never be anything more than lovers and friends, but his mother was about to emphasize that point, and in no uncertain terms.
“I hope you realize that there will be no repeat of Kate’s situation.” Her voice was so cold it sent a chill up my spine. “He will never marry you. Ever.”
“And why would you think he’d even want to?” My voice was calm despite the mix of anger and anguish boiling through me. “I’ve never been under a
ny illusion as to how this relationship would end, Mrs. O’Connor.”
“Perhaps so, but the fact that he cares for you—”
“Caring is not love. We have a strong relationship, yes, but I’m not a wolf, and neither of us have ever forgotten that.”
Her eyes were chips of blue ice, and the spine chills got stronger. “His sister said such a thing, once.”
“Yes, and had the situation been different, would she have been given permission to marry Gabe?”
“Of course not.” Her gaze remained hard. Ungiving. “And for one very good reason—the offspring of any such union rarely survives. Those who are not stillborn often have such serious defects they die before their first birthday. Few are those who live to claim their wolf heritage, let alone make it to adulthood.”
A few still meant some had survived. A few meant there was still hope.
And yet, there was no such hope. Not for me.
“I’ve seen the anguish of such a situation,” she continued relentlessly, “I’ve seen what it does not only to the couple involved, but to everyone around them. I don’t want that for my son.”
“Your son is a grown man and he has the right—”
“I will not stand idly by and see him hurt,” she cut in curtly. “Not when he was younger, and certainly not now. Perhaps one day, when you have your own children, you will understand. In the meantime, take a bit of advice and end this relationship. Soon.”
I stared at her, feeling like I was standing on the edge of a precipice; one step either way would lead to my doom. My heart pounded and my throat was dry, but the fear she stirred to life was met by something else—obstinacy, and perhaps even a bit of stupidity.
If my growing suspicion that this was my home—that there was no going back for me, no leaving—was true, then I had to be respected by all the members of the governing council. And right now, one of the most outspoken members of that council had me in her sights.
