I can’t help but grin. “Ah, blunt honesty. My favorite.”
And I’m not even joking.
She returns my smile, and there’s a hint of Kat in her expression. She’s older. Late forties, with a hint of gray in herreddish-brown hair. “I think Patric would prefer if you weren’t her mate.”
I scratch my jaw. “Don’t I know it?”
“Have you apologized to Kataleya?” She looks at me calmly, but my answer is important to her.
Very important.
“I should have done it sooner, but yeah. I have.”
“And why hadn’t you done it sooner?”
This is nothing less than an interrogation, but this is Kat’s mom, and I owe her an explanation, so I withstand it.
“It took a while for me to do it because… well. I don’t like being wrong.”
She nods. “And did you mean it?”
“With every fiber of my being.”
She cocks her head as she studies me. “And do you love my daughter?”
“Like I never loved anyone in my life.” It’s a surprise how easily the words flow.
Love is… new.
I hadn’t thought I would admit to it just like that.
“My mate doesn’t trust you or even like you. And when I heard what you did to Kataleya, I wanted to tear your throat out myself.”
I nod, respecting her honesty and her protectiveness. “I deserved nothing less. I was wrong, and I won’t let my stubbornness blind me into acting so stupidly again.”
“Good. I heard about you, Aren Kasen, and what I heard was that you had good reason to want to stop ferals, but you could be willfully ignorant.”
“I nearly killed my mate. That had a powerful effect on me.”
“But you were out hunting another feral yesterday?”
“They need to be stopped, Leonore. You know as well as I do that they pose a risk to us all, not just the humans who crosstheir paths. If there were another way, I’d be doing it,” I growl, frustrated.
She studies me for a beat. “When I first mated with Patric, we had a lot of growing pains. He was used to doing things his way, and I was used to doing things mine.”
“What does this have to do with ferals?”
“It took us a long time to learn to work together. Patric is stubborn. So is Kat. I’ll keep him away from you to give you time to work through your differences with Kat. Don’t hurt my daughter again, or I will bury my claws in your throat.”
I watch her walk away.
“That means she likes you,” a young, feminine voice calls out. “She doesn’t want to, but she does.”
Carlie, Kat’s little sister, is watching from the infirmary window. “Should you be in there?”
“Probably not.” She disappears inside, and I snort and head for the main house.
I should warn her about Gregor not liking people in there without him, but I figure it’s someone else’s turn to have Gregor grumble at them.
