Her eyes cut to Emit.

“We’ll discuss the bruise on her at a later date as—”

“Don’t make him feel guiltier than he already does,” I cut in, causing my mother to release a humorless laugh.

“My poor dear. Did I leave you this vulnerable? You’re not this naïve, Violet,” she snaps.

“Stow. It,” I remind her. “Or we’ll start this conversation at the beginning. Not the end.”

Her jaw grinds, but I’m so not having this conversation with them present and she knows it. I do have boundaries.

“You’ve already told them too much about you. What were you thinking?” she predictably prattles on, already starting the arguing-talk.

“I was thinking they were monsters and I’m a monster, and Anna suggested we put our monster parts together.”

I think Emit swallows a bug or something, given the sound he makes from behind me. Mom glares at me.

“Who the bloody fucking hell is Anna?” she gripes. “Why do you keep talking to her and about her today?”

“Ha! You eavesdropped on me and knew I was alone when Arion went to make a call. Why didn’t you come out then?” I say as I point a finger at her, practically dancing like I’m excited I caught her. “That was private between me and a dead ghost you killed with that spirit thingy you put on me without my permission!”

Vance runs a frustrated hand through his hair, muttering something about not understanding what’s going on right now.

Damien just shoots me a disbelieving look, like he can’t believe I’m actually yelling. Mom’s shoulders sag in relief that I’m giving her this weird shit she needs when there’s hard stuff to talk about.

“You were talking to someone, Violet. I assumed you were either out of your mind or speaking in metaphors I didn’t understand. Possibly even on the phone. I’m not up to my full strength just this moment, so my hearing has been affected. The pipes interfered with some of the specifics, and I didn’t know what to say to your babbling. I also didn’t want to risk the vampire spotting me too soon.”

She heaves in air after finishing all that on just one breath, like she’s been holding it in and waiting to use it.

“And I didn’t know how long he’d be gone and didn’t want to have to act on my feet. Plus, I assumed they’d be along shortly,” she snaps, gesturing toward the guys.

“Monstar quad, Violet? Fucking really?” she adds like she’s embarrassed by me.

Ah, so she heard that too. I grin on that one. The less emotional horror on her face is priceless.

They all step back from us, as Mom tosses Vance a phone. “Everything I have so far is on there. Leave us be. We’re going to be a while,” she says to them.

Vance stares down at the phone after catching it, and then his eyes bounce back up at us.

“We should go somewhere less public for these sorts of conversations,” Vance finally says, and Mom gets that look in her eyes that means she can’t believe someone thought of something obvious that she missed.

That’s why the guys have been so quiet.

“Violet can ride with me,” Mom says tightly. “The four of you can meet us at this location. It’s neutral,” she assures them, handing them a card she pulls from her pocket. “And only because we have a common problem on the loose after a thousand years of getting really pissed off, from what I’ve heard.”

“We’ve spent the last several hours chasing. We’d like a rest, so we’ll ride with you,” Damien chirps, as Arion’s hand finally slips off me completely, following through with the no-touching.

“Violet’s not getting out of our sight,” Arion adds.

There’s a moment of just staring…like everyone is trying to silently argue.

“No one naked in my car,” Mom states when I just stand in my spot, waiting on them to hurry through the push and pull.

You really can tell how thick the air is when too many alphas are in the room at one time, but weirdly it never feels this way when it’s just the four of them. Unless punches are thrown. Then it gets a little heavier than normal.

Arion pulls on his clothes, and threads whir in the air as I quickly fashion Emit a lopsided toga that lands on his body. Everyone’s gaze swings to him like it’s weird for him and normal for me to be in a toga.

Awesome.

Damien muffles a sound, Emit arches an eyebrow at me, and Arion remains rigid, staying close to me but never touching me.

All of us squeezing into a car together while most of them hate each other…should be fun.

The storm finally stops before we board the elevator, and it’s one of those super awkward elevator moments where no one is looking at anyone or saying anything, and everyone is trying to stay in-the-moment serious.

We stop on the floor just under us, after the longest thirty-five seconds ever.

The doors open, and two men glance around at Emit and I in our matching togas, even though his is the fitted sheet and riding up in some funny places.

He looks like a caveman who accidentally bleached and shrank his wardrobe.

I palm my face, embarrassed for him.

The next couple of floors are super awkward with the addition of the two new, notably uncomfortable men.

Worst seventy-nine seconds ever. Math doesn’t add up? Yeah. I’m upset about those extra nine seconds as well.

Poor Emit has to duck out of the unusually small elevator, and the bottom of his ass cheek plays peek-a-boo on one side.

Damien finally snorts, and even Mom struggles to keep a straight face. That really pisses her off.

“You’re seeing him on an off day,” I tell the two guys, who stare at my red boots for a second.

I feel the need to defend Emit a little, especially since I now know he overheard all that gibberish Tiara was saying…

I can’t remember all I said, and it’s worrying me now that my mind has gone off on this stupid tangent.

I trip over the hem of my toga, and Arion snags me before I hit the floor, righting me and showing his hands to my mother with a quick grin.

“Can’t just let her fall,” he says unapologetically.

“You’re going to have to learn to deal with that,” she bites out.

She has a very good point. I don’t trip very often, but things and people usually knock me around a good bit of my life.

The two guys look like they want to run, so I hurry to fix this.

“Really, it’s a long story, but I swear Emit—the tallest one in the fitted-sheet-toga—generally wears pants…er…I guess you guys call them trousers over here. Anyway, we had some plane problems,” I carry on, and then realize I have to account for the fact we’re both missing clothing. “Then there was a fire that miraculously only burned our clothes, because Emit put all my flames out by smothering me with his body,” I state like that’s exactly what happened.

Why do they look so scared? I’m not telling a scary lie.

At this point, I’ve just made it worse, and fortunately Damien takes mercy, clamping his hand over my mouth as he starts steering me toward the door before I can make it…whatever comes after worse but before the worst.

“Thank you,” sounds more like “Mmdi ooooo,” against his hand, but he gets the gist, as he grins.

Mom makes a frustrated sound.

“Another minute, and she’d be bragging about his penis size in quest to save his dignity. Did you really want to hear that?” Damien asks her, forcing me to groan against his hand.

We stop outside the hotel when the small-ish car beeps to unlock. I tilt my head, doing some impossible math.

“I can’t be smelled with a wolf if we’re going so close to Jessup’s territory,” Arion states, arching an eyebrow at the car as he twirls the card Mom gave him between his fingers.

I’m not sure who Marta Long is, but that’s the name on the card. Not Linda.

“He’ll need to arrive by car so as not to look like he’s slinking around the border,” Arion adds, gesturing at Emit as his grin grows. “It’s wise to arrive separately, in case Marta is following up her archery with her next surprise attack.”

“Tell me you don’t deserve worse for defiling my daughter, vampire,” Mom says, and I make a chopping motion with my hand.

“Not going there,” I tell her, cheeks burning at this point. “Nope. No. No. No. Nope. You can’t go there. That’s your fault—not his or mine. We thought we had privacy.”

She acts like she’s going to argue, but when her eyes stay on mine for a second, she sees I’m serious about this one.

“Fine,” she relents.

Now that things are super awkward, I walk to the car, and hop in the back seat.

“Front seat, Violet,” Mom immediately fires back.

But I point at the sunroof. “Emit’s not going to fit any other way.”

“This is the absolute worst week of my entire bloody existence,” Emit seems to say in a decisive tone, staring at the car like it’s the most offensive thing ever.

Mom even hesitates, and makes another frustrated sound as she presses a button on the fob to start the car.

We all need sensitivity training, because we watch without an ounce of shame, as he truly struggles to put himself in what is possibly one of the smallest cars ever. The other three would struggle some too.

When Emit’s head pops through the opening sunroof, Vance scrubs a hand over his face.

“This is why you have rebellions,” Arion says with a restrained smile. “You can’t be taken seriously.”

Emit cuts his eyes to Arion, but how…can he be taken seriously right now?

Vance just blinks a few times. “I’ll meet you there,” he decides, eyes flicking to mine briefly.

“I’ll take the clown car with the wolf, the livid Portocale, and the reason we’re all even here right now,” Damien chirps, eyes on mine as his lips tug up in an amused grin.

Mom swings an accusatory glance my way.

“Unbelievable,” is all she mutters.

CHAPTER 24

VANCE

“So that entire hotel is owned by underground shapeshifters, and you didn’t know it?” Emit says to Arion, laughing humorlessly as he shakes his head.

Arion studies the video over and over, or what small clips Marta found of Idun passing through the halls over two months ago.

The clips are brief, just enough to give us an estimate of how long she stayed in one place while we were distracted by Violet these past few active months, as Marta informed us.

“I didn’t know,” Arion grinds out. “I hate this woman with all my heart and soul,” he adds with a firm nod, referring to Marta.

He leans around the corner, watching them argue, as he tosses the phone back to me.

“And Marta hates us just as much. After all she’s done and kept from her daughter, now she’s acting offended because her daughter is hanging with the wrong monster crowd. Violet’s going to better appreciate the ones who don’t make this an issue,” Damien says with a smirk. “I’m the only one in the room capable of not giving a damn about Marta Portocale.”