“Hello, Mrs. Burnell.”
“Good afternoon, sweetie. How are you?” the woman asked, her tone warm and welcoming.
“I’m fine, thanks. How are you?” I was a little confused. Since I’d come back with Anders, I’d only spoken to his mother a handful of times.
“I’m great,” she said, then her tone became more business-like. “Listen, I thought you might come over to my place fordinner. I’d really like to get together with you to iron out the last few details for the mating ceremony.”
“Oh. Uh… sure. That sounds lovely.” Maybe if I built a good relationship with his mother, she could get Anders to grow up and be the man the pack needed him to be. The manIneeded him to be.
“Great! I’m going to put in an order at the Chinese restaurant near my place. Can you pick it up on the way? Meet at my house around six?”
“Sure. I’ll see you then.”
“I look forward to it,” she said.
Several hours later,as I walked up the steps of Mrs. Burnell’s house with a big paper bag full of Chinese food, I wondered if Anders knew I was here. Had his mother told him? Or was this something she’d planned alone? I shrugged it off as I pressed the doorbell.
Monica Burnell opened the door a few seconds later. She looked at least ten years younger than her sixty years, with a dark blonde pixie cut and vibrant blue eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled.
“Juniper, I’m so glad you could come. Get in out of the cold,” she said, beckoning me inside.
“Thanks,” I said, stepping into the warm foyer. The first thing I noticed was how nicely appointed the home was, the second was the smell. Incredibly strong potpourri gave off a cloying, almost overpowering scent. It made my sinuses burn, but I did my best to act like I didn’t notice. “I’m glad you asked me to come,” I said, trying not to grimace at the scent. “I was getting a little stressed out planning all this by myself.”
She patted my back. “I’m sure Anders has no patience for it, does he? The boy has never been a planner.”
I couldn’t have agreed more, though, he did seem to have an almost obnoxious desire to plan this alliance between the packs. When it came to money or power, he was more than happy to plan. That didn’t help my opinion of him.
“Where can I put the food, Mrs. Burnell?” I said, hefting the bag.
“Oh, gosh,” she said and chuckled. “Call me Monica, please. Let me take that.” She scooped the bag from my hands and I followed her to the kitchen.
After pulling out the containers, I made myself a plate of orange chicken, fried rice, and a couple of small spring rolls. Thankfully, the smell of the food helped subdue the sweet smell of the house. We ate and talked about the weather, my grandparents’ store, and everything that was going on around town.
“I can’t tell you how excited I was when I heard you’d finally learned to shift,” Monica said while dipping a crab rangoon into the sweet and sour sauce. “I always thought it was awful how those kids teased you when you were younger.”
I had to bite my own tongue to keep from pointing out thatherson had been the ringleader of that little group that had liked to fuck with me. “Kids can be cruel. I’m happy to have my wolf now, though.”
Once we were done eating, we started on the ceremony. Monica helped me make some decisions on things I hadn’t been sure about and also got me to change my mind on which valet company to use for parking cars. Eventually, our conversation moved to other things as we perused brochures for local photographers.
“Have you had any dealings with Leviathan Cross?” Monica asked.
I nearly spat out the coffee I’d been sipping. Dealings? I mean, he’d done things to me that would make some porn stars blush, but I doubted that was what she was getting at.
“Uhm, yeah,” I said hesitantly. “I met him in the forest. He helped me learn to shift.”
“I’d heard that, but wondered if it was true. You know, when he showed up in town, word spread likewildfire. He’s a legend. We all heard about him when we were kids. I’m sure you did too.”
“I did.”
She started laughing. “Oh, goodness. I just remembered. When Anders was a little thing, almost five years old andstillwasn’t fully potty trained, I told him that if he shit his pants while we were at the grocery store one more time, I’d leave him in the woods for the Demon Wolf to take. Guess what? No more poopy pants after that.”
I snorted, and it turned into a full-blown giggle. After the fight we’d had and the way he’d acted the night before, the idea of him walking around with crap-filled underwear was a delightfully hilarious scene.
Monica’s smile faded, and she looked out the window wistfully. “You know, my grandfather actuallyknewLeviathan. He was his beta. He never had a good thing to say about him after what happened with Leviathan’s poor mate.”
The smile died on my lips at the mention of one of our suspects. Looking at her, I tried to gauge what she was thinking and what she might know.
Clearing my throat, I decided to probe a bit and see what kind of information the woman might have.
