He stared at Yarrow and then played an ace pegging two points for a thirty-one on the cribbage board. “My mother’s never been scared of anything in her life.”
Yarrow shook his head. “I don’t buy that. Even fairy queens are scared for their children. And she has to think this guy is a danger to you.” Yarrow started the next round of play, laying down a nine.
“You think?” He just couldn’t see his mother having such tender emotions for her children. She always seems so contained, and especially with him, she could be downright evil.
“I do. All moms are the same, even if they don’t seem like they are on the outside.” Yarrow chattered his teeth as Corbin took yet another set of points. “I think it’s because you two are the most alike. Has anybody told you that?”
“Only all the time. Cullen and Cosmo are always telling me it’s because we’re both growers. Because we both can make things come up out of the ground. That’s why she gets madder at me than she does anyone else.”
Maybe that was it. It was hard to believe, but it could happen. Cosmo and Cullen were always telling him it was because they were so much alike. Maybe those two had the kind of relationship that other people in their lives didn’t. Maybe Cullen had it with their dad, who was a giant dragon and very gruff and not at all into the illusion thing. He said that once in a while Cosmo would get into it with their mom’s best friend, a fae woman named Arian who was quite the seer.
Yarrow snorted a little bit. It sounded almost like a pug. “One way or the other, you need to just meet with her and talk it out because if you keep dreading it, it’s just going to get worse. And then Evander’s going to dread it, and when they finally do meet, it’s going to be weird. You need to just suck it up.”
They counted up their tricks, and he pegged a sixteen while Yarrow only pegged ten. But then Yarrow got eight in his crib, so they ended up being pretty much neck and neck.
“You’re probably right.” His heart stuttered when he thought that maybe Evander might think he was ashamed of him, or something that was absolutely not the case. In fact, there was nothing more opposite. So he grinned at his friend and laid his cards down. “I think we’ll have to finish this game later. I need to go talk to my mom.”
“Sure, of course.” Yarrow nodded. “We’ll have coffee in a couple of days. In the morning, you can bring me pastries.”
“Almond croissants, right?” Yarrow loved nuts. Sometimes Corbin wondered if he was a squirrel shifter.
“You got it. I’ll make sure I bring them. Thanks, man, I can always use the perspective.”
Yarrow waved a hand in the air. “No problem. I’m always here to dispense sage advice.”
He had to laugh at that because Yarrow had also dispensed the not-so-terribly sage advice on occasion. Sometimes, he would tell Corbin that the weather was going to change, and it would end up being thirty degrees hotter than he said it was going to be. Or he would tell Corbin what football team to bet on, and they would end up losing by forty points.
One way or the other, he couldn’t necessarily always trust Yarrow’s advice. Still, he waved at his friend and headed back to his house. Because something told him, a niggle of intuition, that his mother was going to be there waiting for him. Hopefully, she would not have woken up Evander.
She was sitting at his kitchen table when he got there, sipping tea. But Evander was nowhere to be seen, so he hoped that everything was okay. “Mother, I didn’t expect you.”
“Then you’re not as bright as I give you credit for, my son. You knew I would be here.” She arched an eyebrow at him, herlips pressed together in a thin line. It was the first time in a long time he had seen her face anything less than smooth.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I know I’ve been avoiding you.” He sighed and traced a pattern on the table with his fingers as he sat down. “This whole situation with Evander has just been so fraught, and I know you disapprove.”
“It is not so much that I disapprove. I worry. I do not wish for you to get hurt. He is already an unknown factor, being as he is one of the Wild Hunt.”
“Even among fae, that’s just a myth, Mother.” It was a fairy story, one that was intended to intimidate children and humans.
“I don’t think you know as much of your history as you think. You tend to focus on the dragons, especially recently, since you became a guardian of this house. There are many factions among the fae that you don’t know about.” She reached over to touch his hand with one of hers. Her smooth green skin, so like his, except he carried a smattering of dragon scales.
“Then tell me about it. What is there to be afraid of with him?”
“Those from the clan of the Wild Hunt are very unpredictable, Corbin.” She shook her head slightly, just enough to make her hair shiver on her head, the flowers in it dancing a tiny bit. “And then, if he has had vampire blood and unicorn blood infused into him, I cannot imagine how erratic he might be.”
“Well, I’m not worried about him. He is my mate.” Corbin stared right into her deep green eyes. Her eyelashes were like little tiny vines with leaves entwined in them. “I love him, Mother.”
She drew back from his touch. “You can’t possibly love him yet; you barely know him. Yes, you can feel the mating call for him. You can feel the pull he has on you. But you can’t know that you love him, that comes with time.”
Corbin took a deep breath in and let it out. Then he took another deep breath in, and he let it out. “Mother, I’m going to be perfectly clear with you, and I want you to listen to me. I may be your son, but I am not a child. I would imagine that if you asked your husband, as I have asked my brothers, they would remind you that dragons aren’t fae, and we know when we’ve mated. I have known Evander for months longer than you ever knew Father before you took him to your bed. So I’m sorry, but you don’t get to decide whether or not I’m in love.”
That was as calm as he could be, and he could feel Cullen and Cosmo encroaching.
Don’t kill her. It’s not worth it.
It might be a little bit worth it, but still. Sometimes, she’s handy. She’s just pushy. Don’t do anything rash.
We’ll be there in two shakes.
