My mat steps to the center of the ring and extends her hand. It’s customary to shake hands as a show of faith and renewed trust, but I don’t trust my mat. I step away from Rook anyway, because like it or not, I am a matriarch now, and I can’t disrespect the cockatrice way.
Cunning green eyes track me as I move confidently closer, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up in warning. I tell myself that she’d be condemning herself to death if she tries anything, but that doesn’t do much to make me feel better. But I can’t balk or show any hesitation or fear. Just like I told Rook before, to do that would invite endless challenges from rival lounges, and until I get my evil shift-stopping anklet off, we can’t have that happen.
I take my mother’s hand in mine. It’s deceptively soft—probably because she’s never done a day of hard work in her life—and unsurprisingly cold, like every other aspect of who she is.
“This isn’t over,” she tells me flatly as she gives our clasped hands one hard pump.
I release her hand and step back. “I don’t know, mat, from where I’m standing, it looks like the tides are turning.”
I spin on my heels to move back toward Rook and the enforcers of my new lounge, leaving her to stew on that. My pulse pounds in my ears as I walk away, adrenaline and relief rushing through me. I can’t believe we did it. I mean, I had faith, but to know it’s over...I can’t help the smile that crawls across my face. I look up, searching for Rook, my eyes filled with victory, but my stomach plummets when I spot the rage pouring off of him.
He shouts a warning as my perception seems to morph into slow motion.
Rook takes a running step forward and then explodes into his cockatrice. But it’s the change at my back that I feel almost on a visceral level. I whirl around just in time to see a clawed cockatrice foot headed right for me.
That stupid lying bitch!
I have enough time for that thought to flit through my mind and to get a hand up in front of me protectively before I take a cockatrice roundhouse to the chest. I go flying.
Claws rake down my shoulder and across my abdomen as I get flung through the air. A wing comes slicing toward me, and I’m batted down mid-flight. I slam to the ground with a painful crunch, and dirt plumes around me as I gasp to replace the wind that was just knocked out of me. I watch as Rook surges toward my mother, a call for retribution roaring out of his black beak.
He’s less than ten feet away from her and closing fast. He’ll kill her. I know this absolutely. Not only is he a hell of a lot bigger than she is, but she just attacked his mate. His eyes are unforgiving and filled with hate and vengeance.
But out of nowhere, another massive cockatrice slams into my mom before Rook can get to her. She screams as she goes crashing to the ground. The massive red cockatrice is on her in a flash, immediately trapping her neck in its maw.
It takes me a beat to figure out who’s trying to force my mat into submission, and pure shock flashes through me when I realize it’s...my pat.
Completely stunned, I slowly try to push to my feet as my pat clamps down on my mat’s neck and thrashes. She roars, but it sounds more outraged than pained. Me, on the other hand, I’m fucking hurting. I quickly give up on my efforts to get to my feet when new strikes of pain light up through my body.
When it’s clear she can’t break out of my pat’s hold, my mat submits with a bitter trill. She shifts back into her human form as he lets go, and I watch, completely flabbergasted, as she begrudgingly lifts her chin to my pat, exposing her neck to him.
My pat snaps down at her, stopping just shy of her flesh. The action is a warning that the mercy being shown could be revoked at any moment. I can’t even begin to process what my pat just did. I wouldn’t have seen it coming in a million years.
Not only did he come to my rescue, but he put my mat in her place too, and he just promised—in his cockatrice way—to rip her throat out if she crossed him again. My mat breathes hard, seething from her back on the ground, but she doesn’t move a muscle as my pat crows out a warning before shifting back into his human form again.
“How could you?” my mat snarls up at him.
“How couldyou?” he growls right back. I’ve never seen his face hold so much emotion. “Even if that weren’t our daughter you were attacking, you dishonor me and our lounge by going against your word to rescind a challenge and attacking when the other person’s back is turned! What is wrong with you?” he bellows.
“You didn’t hear what she said to me!” my mat defends.
My pat’s eyes spark with even more fury. Taking a deep breath, he straightens up and looks around. “I hereby rescind my claim and my mate’s claim to...the Denali lounge,” he announces.
What the hell?
My eyebrows jump so high they nearly reach my hairline.Holy shit. He’s making them step down from their own lounge!
“You can’t!” my mat screams at him.
He looks back down at her. “I can, and I do. Enough is enough. You made me ashamed to be mated to you today,” he tells her, and whatever she was about to say dies on her lips. She stares at him, completely astonished, and she’s not the only one.
My pat hasneverstood up for me against her before. If I hadn’t just witnessed it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it possible.
I feel hands on my body, and I look up to find Rook’s furious and concerned gaze moving over me. I give him a weak smile and a completely nonsensical thumbs up as he moves to pick me up. My hip pops back into place as he helps me to my feet, and I bite back the scream that wants to escape, but it comes out like a gurgled screech.
Rook freezes. “I’m going to rip her apart,” he threatens as he moves to cradle my dirt-smudged face in his hands.
I huff out a laugh and then wince, because I’m pretty sure I have a broken rib or two. Damn, she really did a number on me. I know I’ll be fine with no permanent damage, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.
