“What are you talking about? I am calm,” she said then made a dismissive wave then looked to James. “Guess what?” she said, almost squealing. “Mason, Chris and I are going with you guys to Montana. Daddy is going to give his full support,” she finished with a giggle.
“Yeah, calm as a cucumber sis,” Mason said with an overwhelming amount of sarcasm. “How do you not want to tie her do down and gag her. No, that’s not an invitation for details of your bedroom life,” he asked Chris. Xin Qian huffed crossing her arms.
“Okay enough you two. Really, I thought at this point you’d two grow out of that,” their father complained. He then held out his hand to James. “As my daughter stated I’m the alpha of Oregon territory. I’ll be giving half my enforcers under the command of my son. If your alpha didn’t make a good enough argument Xin Qian and Chris have. It’s time we put a stop to this meddling with the natural course of things,” he said as they shook hands.
“We appreciate it,” James told him and glanced over the mass of people there. He frowned when he saw the man with the Alpha of western Texas. He was vaugely aware the alpha of Oregon saying his farewells and left them. James just glared at the tall, broad man across the room. He shouldn’t have been too surprised but he still wasn’t happy to see him.
“Who’s that?” Chris asked, noticing James glare.
“My father,” he replied.
“Hey, something else you and Lily have in common. Daddy issues,” Chris said with a smirk and James turned his glare on Chris.
“Chis you have the social skills of an ape,” Xin Qian complained then looked to James. “Maybe you should go talk to him. Say hi or something,” she suggested to him. He shook his head but offered her a smile.
“No, I have no desire to talk to him. I just hope he doesn’t get in the way. This kind of stuff is his thing. He thinks that gives him the right to take over,” he replied, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice. He was a little upset that no one had told him he’d be there. After the brief lunch the meeting continued and it was easy to see who was going to help and who wasn’t. The Mexican wolves were clearly not going to help but James didn’t blame them.
In Mexico vampires and werewolves had been fighting since the European invasion. Werewolves were native to the lands while vampires came with the Europeans. It was a bloody feud that few wanted to get involved in that mess. Most of the American werewolves didn’t care what happened outside their territory. Unless, of course, it was directly affecting theirs. So far Tony had South Montana, North and South Dakota, and Oregon. Unfortunately, in James’ opinion, he also had West Texas.
Some of the alphas like North California, Mississippi, and New Jersey, only came for him and/or Lily. Most had left now since James had made himself clear he wasn’t for sale. The only one he’d let come even close was his boss, Freddie. That was only because Freddie meant well and was a good wolf. Some of the Canadian alphas were still on the fence and James knew Tony hoped, at least, one would join them. While the Canadians were pacific wolves when forced to fight, they were fast, deadly, and efficient.
The Roberts house, as typical, was brimming with life. “Hey Uncle James,” his niece said, waving.
“The old man is your uncle?” Wendy said, giving him a smug smirk. When they first met Wendy was no different from everyone else. Fan girling without the crush part. Lily then infected her with that “Let’s pick on James” thing of hers. Now the teen loved to remind him that he’s not a twenty-something anymore.
“He’s not old,” Eliza said and he was about to thank her when his niece added. “Well, not that old.” James narrowed his eyes at the girls.
“Do I need to get your dad,” he asked Wendy. She feigned innocence and gave him a look of confusion that had Eliza giggling up a fury. Despite Wendy’s smart ass remarks about his age, he was glad Eliza had someone to spend time. James could consider Wendy a slightly decent role model… maybe. “You two behave,” he warned them and continued into the house. He shuddered, realizing how old saying that made him sound.
Stepping out onto the back porch, James found who he was looking for. A. J. was playing with Matt and a couple other children. They were under the watchful gaze of several mothers. Surprisingly, his mother was one of them. He stiffened realizing that she was talking to Lily. Fear clamped down on his stomach. Why were they talking? What did they even have to talk about? The two women must have felt his gaze because soon they glanced over at him.
His mother said something to Lily, who gave her a nod, then got up and walked over to him. “Hello James,” she said with a cautious tone. She looked different from when he last saw her. Her brown hair was lighter, streaked with white. Wrinkles adorned her eyes and mouth. But her dark eyes shined with a confidence he’d never seen before.
“Hey mom,” he replied then unable to stop himself he added, “So dad let you come here all by yourself, did he?” She gave him a tight smile.
“James, your father, doesn’t have a say in what I do for over ten years,” she told him. “We got a divorce,” she added with hesitation. His mouth dropped open in surprise. He’d never heard of mates getting a divorce. His look of surprise made her smile more.
“After what happened to you. Then Harley ran away soon after we moved to Texas, I didn’t want to live like that anymore. So I reached out to the alpha’s mate and she got me some help and away from your father,” she explained. James’ father was a man who loved control and he wasn’t afraid to use physical force to achieve compliance. James had been on the receiving end of his fists more than once.
“It was so difficult to leave, you know. We’re mates so every fiber in me told me that I should stay. Mates are meant to be together,” she said with a sigh and James couldn’t help but look at Lily, still with the mothers.
“So you and Dad didn’t come here together?” James asked, bringing his eyes back to his mother.
“No, we came together. He asked me to come along and I agreed,” she said, giving him a smile. “I wasn’t the only one who got help. He’s trying and has come a long way. He’s still not there but as I said he’s coming along.” Not sure what to say to that he stayed silent. “That boy of yours James is just beautiful. I’m so happy for you,” she said, grinning at him.
James gave her a small smile in return, glad to see she wasn’t the soft spoken mouse of a woman she used to be. “Yeah, he is. I saw you met Lily,” he said, trying not to sound like he was fishing for information.
“Yep,” she replied plainly and he gave her a some what frustrated look. “I like her,” she said just as plain then gave him a hug. “I’ve missed you so much James,” she said, sounding a little teary now. He relaxed and hugged her back, just now realizing how much he’d missed her too.
“I miss you too, Mom,” he said, his voice a little rough with emotion.
“Let’s not do this again,” she said, pulling back and dabbing her moist eyes. “Well,” she said, giving him a smile. “Lily has my number. I’d like to meet for lunch or something before you head up north. Now, I’m going to see if anything actually got done in that meeting or you men just clucked like a bunch of old roosters,” she said. She gave him a quick kiss before disappearing into the house. Lily had his mom’s number? Was that good?
James grinned with a chuckle and went over to join the children. A. J. yelled excitedly when he saw him. “Come here squirt,” he said with a laugh. James piced up his son and liftied him up in the air, causing the boy to squeal with laughter.