Like a twisted freaking fairy tale. My daughter was literally holding hands with a dangerous man, a criminal, someone who even the fierce shifters I knew said was trouble.
I walked toward her.
Her gaze met mine and her smile fell away. “Mom!”
“Come on. We need to go home, now, before you get yourself killed.” I couldn’t put it any plainer.
“God, Mom. You’re so dramatic.” She recovered quickly, rolled her eyes, and continued walking but looked over her shoulder at me. “What are you even doing here?”
“What do you think?” I said, my jaw clenching. “I’m here to bring you home.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I’m not a child. You don’t need to bring me home, I’ll go home when I want to.”
She and her little boyfriend walked to stand behind Holly which put me on the wrong side of the circle. I hurried back to stand beside Tabi, my heart racing. If there was ever going to be a showdown, my daughter and I should be on the same side. This felt wrong, in every way.
Esther and Holly abruptly stopped talking, their gazes sweeping over all of us.
After an awkward moment, Esther turned, motioned with her head and her eyes to the parking lot. “Let’s go.”
“No, Tilly…”
Holly took a step closer to me, and her nostrils flared. I never in my life would’ve thought a twenty-something-year-old wisp of a woman would scare me, but she did. There was something in her hazel eyes. A warning. A threat. A command to see her as the alpha and me as something less. But when I looked at my daughter, I knew I couldn’t back down.
“My daughter is coming with me.” It came out in nearly a growl.
“No, she’s not,” Holly said coldly.
I looked at my daughter. “So, I can’t tell you what to do, but she can?”
My daughter blushed. “It’s not like that.”
“It is.” I inhaled sharply. “These people are already putting you in danger. They’re getting you in trouble. You’ve always been smart; be smart now.”
Indecision shone in my child’s eyes.
“Come on, baby, this is what we told you about. No one else will understand you.” Cam practically purred in her ear, but I didn’t miss the way his hand tightened around hers.
“I understand you.” And it wasn’t because we were both suddenly shifters, but because we were mother and daughter. “Please,” I said, my voice soft.
Tilly drew her shoulders back, and I instantly knew I’d lost. “I’ll come home when I’m ready.”
Damn it. “Tilly—”
Esther grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. “This isn’t over. But we need to go now.”
I wanted to argue, but Tabi must have realized what I was going to do, because she subtly shook her head, her gaze darting to the three dozen big men around us. Oh, right, we were sort of surrounded. When I saw my daughter, everything else had faded away. But if these brave women, who understood this world better than I did, felt we weren’t safe, I needed to listen.
Even though it killed me to walk away from my child.
“You have to wake up,” I whispered. “These people are not for you.” When she didn’t reply, I gritted my teeth and squared my shoulders. “I love you, Til. I’ll see you soon,” I told my daughter, trying to show all the emotion I couldn’t say in that one look.
As we pulled out of the drive, I couldn’t believe I was driving away, leaving my daughter behind. A feeling of helplessness I’d only ever felt a few times in my life washed over me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl into a ball and disappear forever. It didn’t just feel like my daughter had walked away from me, it felt like I was losing her to something confusing and terrible.
One minute, I was the one in the backseat and the next, I was on the floor. Only, I hadn’t just sunk onto the floor. No, I was tiny. The seat towered above me. Esther, in the driver’s seat, looked massive. A tremble moved through my body, and I looked down. I had... four legs and round ears.
Was I… a mouse?
“Holy shit!” Tabi squealed and picked up the shirt I hadn’t even realized was wrapped around me. I guess when I shifted, I shrank out of it. “She’s a dragon and now she’s a mouse?”
