“Oh, right. Well, come on in, both of you.”
“So I’ve got the menus for you to look over, but I need to ring Sylvie quick sticks,” Renee said, bustling over to the kitchen table and pulling out pieces of paper. “They’re used to catering at the last minute, as one never knows when a bond will be formed, but the more notice, the better.”
“OK.” I quickly scanned the lists, and it looked delicious.
“Hello, Mother.”
I looked up to see Aidan and Peter had appeared, both of them looking stiff and uncomfortable.
“You weren’t at the door to receive us, and you haven’t offered anyone a beverage yet,” was Lois’ reply.
He blinked, then looked down at his hands before saying, “Can I get anybody a drink?”
“Tea for me. You know how I take it,” Lois said.
“Anyone else?”
We all shook our heads, probably too scared to ask for anything in the suddenly tense atmosphere.
“Nana Renee!” Kade said as he came barrelling into the living room. “You gotta see what I built! I used the sets you gave me and my Moons of Endor set and made this whole diorama of the big battle scene!”
“Did you?” Renee said in that crazily enthusiastic way most grandparents seemed to master instantly. “Well, you’ll have to show me. I’ve just got to finish one little job with Mum, and then you can tell me all about it.”
And he would too. I was feeling sorry for the woman already.
“You let your child approach a matriarch in this disrespectful way?”
Lois’ words cracked across the room, and my back straightened so fast my head spun, but not for long. I fixed the strange woman in my sights.
“I’m sorry?” That was mumspeak for anything but, and she heard me loud and clear. Her frown deepened.
“Renee is an elder in our community now. You must afford her the respect due to her, and any male child of yours should be trained to do the same.”
“Kade, darling,” Renee said, “can you show Aidan what you want to show me? I’ll be down in a second.”
Her voice was all sweetness and light, but I was a mother too. I knew how to read between the lines. I turned and waited until my mate had hustled my son down the hallway, shutting the bedroom door behind them.
“I’m sorry, but who the fuck are you to be telling me how to raise my child?” I said, biting each word off. I’d had plenty of people like her in my life, telling me this and that when he was a baby, but that wasn’t gonna fly now. I took a step towards the woman and saw her hackles rise. “My little boy saw the lady he decided is his grandmother and wanted to show her the toys she gave him, out of appreciation and excitement. How the hell is that disrespectful?”
“You’re one of those outsider girls, coming in here and disregarding the way things are done.” Her jaw set like granite. “Mating my son without even sharing two words with him. Not approaching me and asking for the requisite permissions. Made me a laughing stock of the town.”
“Hello.” All our heads whipped around at once to see several older women accompanied by Ophelia in the doorway.
“Apologies, Flick. Usua
lly, we would ask permission on a day like this, but we saw it was open.”
It wasn’t, but Ophelia’s friendly smile made that seem OK. Daphne, Peter’s paternal grandmother, stood to one side of her, while the woman who said she was Lois’ mother was on the other.
“That’s fine,” I said, swallowing down the burning venom in my mouth. “Lois and I were just discussing Kade.”
“Finally a grandmother, darling?” Lois’ mother said, going to her daughter and putting an arm around her. “I’m Nelly, by the way.”
She held a hand out to me, and I took it.
“Why don’t we all take a seat?” Ophelia said.
“Get the alpha some tea!” Lois snapped when Peter arrived with her drink.