Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
I knew that look.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Mimi is leaving Ivy House.”
“Wow. So late?” I checked the time. She’d been there for a little over four hours.
“Yes. She’s headed back to my place. I have no idea how she’s getting there, but she has the address. Apparently she didn’t want to stay the night in the house.”
His smirk was hilarious. I remembered him essentially feeding Kingsley to the dolls on his brother’s visit.
I finished as much of the plate as I could, then sat back and put my hand on my belly.
He glanced at me and then speared the meat on my plate. He knew I didn’t take home leftovers. It annoyed Mr. Tom, and Austin always insisted on cooking fresh when we were together.
“You know,” I said while he finished, “we should probably set up an additional housing development that is solely Ivy House’s. Property has a good shelf life if we can keep the territory going.”
Over dinner, he’d proposed a number of things, the most notable being inviting one of the production cairns to live in the territory. We didn’t have the resources to send protection to anyone, but if he and I could collaborate on housing, we could protect them here.
“Ours can be for magical people in general, and hers can be exclusively for gargoyles,” I continued. “Assuming we can find someone to stay here.”
“That is the hope, certainly.”
“We’ll definitely need a manager for all of this, though. I’m already stressed just talking about it.”
“A manager, yeah.” Austin shook his head. “People have always said Mimi has a sixth sense.” He hit me with a hard stare that made me lean backward. “She is very intense. In her heyday, she was named one of the most intense alphas around. She was also one of the most generous. Her pack thrived, but it wasn’t until she took over leadership.”
“She fought for placement? Challenged, I mean.”
“She mated the alpha. When they’d only been mated for a few years, another pack attacked and took his placement. I understand that there were a few very dark years under that leadership. No other packs would come to their aid. So Mimi orchestrated an uprising within her pack to overthrow the alpha and his enforcers. She didn’t do it all at once, though. She knew they didn’t have the brute strength, so she resorted to sly maneuvers. The enforcers disappeared one by one. Slowly. Systematically.”
“But wouldn’t the alpha wonder where they’d gone?”
“Eventually, yes. But her plans were already in motion. Finally she was down to a mere handful, and then every able-bodied shifter worked together to take down their captors. They named her alpha on the spot, and she led that pack until she chose to step down. She couldn’t withstand challenges, but her people supported her regardless. They wouldn’t allow anyone to replace her. And they thrived under her leadership. She took that pack from an unknown to one of the most prosperous in the country. My mom, who learned from her, continued on, and now Kingsley. The money we all have is because Mimi invested every dime she had into that pack, over and over again, and eventually saw incredible returns.”
“She sounds amazing.”
He regarded me silently again.
“She’s tough,” he finally said. “You probably won’t like her. I ask, though, if you can, that you humor her. Or humor me, maybe. Just try to get along with her as best you can.”
“Of course I will!” I frowned intensely at him. “How could you think otherwise? Trust me, I’ve had experience getting along with troublesome in-laws. It’ll be great.”
Austin
Austin pulled open the door of the Porsche for Jess, trying to keep his nerves in check. Truthfully, though, he was worried about Jess’s reaction to his grandmother.
Jess stepped out and looked up at his house, and her joy at seeing it melted his heart. He needed to get her on the deed. Hell, he needed to get her a key. They hadn’t had time to hammer out the details of more thoroughly (and legally) joining their lives together. It was way past due.
“Ready?” he asked, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach.
“Honestly, Austin, you’re freaking out over nothing.” She clearly felt his emotions through the bond. “In-laws know that they aren’t always going to get along with spouses. We make the best of it until the holidays, and then we all get drunk and argue. It’s basically a Jane tradition.”
He couldn’t help but smile as he slipped an arm around her and pulled her close. “I feel like you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“I haven’t known what I was getting into since day one in this magical life. Why change things now?”
He laughed, pushing open the door and following the glow to the kitchen. Mimi sat at the table with a clean plate and a glass of water. She held a book against the tabletop, her eyes glued to the page.