My heart fired off a beat. “He’s never heard him say it.”Thankfully.I couldn’t imagine he’d appreciate it.
Storm rocked a few more times, then looked over his shoulder at his piano.
I helped him twist back around. “I wish he didn’t hate the idea of life mates.” Every time someone so much as mentioned the word, even if it wasn’t in connection to me, he tensed up.
“Maybe he’ll come around.”
“Maybe,” I murmured with little conviction, but then inhaled a long breath and shoved away my negativity. I’d never been a pessimistic person before. No way was I becoming one now. “So”—I tipped my head to Ads’ tablet—“have we narrowed it down?”
“Nope, but we should, shouldn’t we?”
“Well, youaregetting hitched in five days.”
Her eyes lit up at the reminder. “I feel like I’ve been planning this wedding forever.”
“You have been planning it forever.” Ever since she’d scraped her knee climbing the tree under my window when she was eleven, and my brother had carried her back into the house and dressed her wound with Minion Band-Aids. For all her talk of abiding by Lycaon’s wishes and marrying her preselected mate, Adalyn would’ve ended up choosing my brother even if he hadn’t been chosen for her.
An hour of hairstyle browsing set to Storm’s Symphony Number Six later, Adalyn had finally narrowed it down to two looks, which she set off to try out.
Once she was gone, I texted Liam to find out when he’d be back from Camilla-hunting.
On my way now. Should be there in fifteen. Sorry. Heard you got stuck with Storm.
ME:If by stuck, you mean I got the privilege to spend my afternoon with your son, then yes, I got stuck with him.
The audacious girl who’d propositioned her Alpha reared up her head and typed out:I’m hoping to get stuck with his father next.
A chuckle came through the mind link.
Smiling, I went back to playing with my ward. After foam ball tosses and a few crawling contests, Storm yawned and fished out a board book from the box of toys in the corner of my bedroom.
He held it out, babbling, “Mamama.”
I shook my head as I reached over to take it from him. Before I could correct him, he squealed, dropped the book, and speed-crawled over to my doorway. He seized Liam’s shins and hoisted himself up, spilling a litany ofdadas.
Liam’s dark eyes lowered to his son. Flattened lips hinting at a bad day, he bent and hoisted Storm into his arms.
I picked up the book. “Still no luck finding Camilla?”
Without lifting his gaze off Storm, Liam asked, “Why did he just call you that?”
Thatwas the source of his foul mood? “Because he apparently deems Nikki too hard to pronounce.”
“So you taught him to call you Mom?” His tone was so scathing my fingers garroted the book.
“Of course I didn’t.”
“Thenwhydid he call you that?” he repeated between barely parted teeth.
The hand not holding Storm’s picture book perched on my hip. “Maybe because he hears me call my mother that way, and since he spends so much time with us, he thinks it’s what you call people who take care of you.”
Liam kept staring at me, and not in a nice way. It was the way he looked at people he didn’t trust. Or like.
“I correct him all the time for your information.”
“Didn’t hear you correct him just now.”
“Because you walked in, and I got sidetracked.” My knuckles whitened around the book. “What exactly would I gain from Storm calling me Mom? In case you forgot, I already have a family, Liam. I’m not looking for another one.”
