A pang of sympathy for Alex shot through Roxy. “It wasn’t entirely his fault. A friend of mine made him promise not to tell me.” Roxy exhaled and felt the fight—and the anger—go with it. Being this miserable was exhausting. She didn’t want to feel this way anymore. “She didn’t think I could handle it either.”

Carmen sat for a moment. “Then you didn’t reject him because he’s a panther shifter?”

“No.” Roxy leaned her elbows on the table. “But I’m not entirely sure what that means. In my fictional world, sure, but not in reality. Is he…not human?”

Carmen huffed out a breath. “He should have told you all this.”

“I think he tried. But I was too upset. I threw him and my friend out before they could really explain.”

Carmen reached over and patted Roxy’s hand. “And you had every right. The truth about what we are isn’t something that can just be thrust upon a person. It has to be carefully explained.”

“We?” Roxy leaned back. “Then you’re a were-cat too?”

“I am. We all are in our family.” Carmen stood up and smoothed the front of her blouse. Then she took a step back, the air around her shimmering like she was about to combust, and a second later, a large black cat about the size of a Labrador retriever sat on the other side of Roxy’s dining room table.

Roxy’s hands fell to her sides. She stared, mouth open.

A second later, the cat turned into Carmen again. She ran a hand over her jet curls and carried on like nothing unusual had just happened. “You see? Nothing to be scared of. Same person. Just a different form.”

Roxy nodded, not entirely sure what to say or how to react. It wasn’t every day someone brought you delicious cake, then turned into a panther right in front of you.

Carmen took her seat at the table. “You know, my Alex has never told a human girlfriend that he’s a panther shifter. It’s not an easy thing for any of us to do. People are afraid of us. Or they treat us like animals. Or side-shows.”

Roxy tried to imagine Alex’s side of things and what it would be like to reveal something so unbelievable about yourself.

“You and Alex have only known each other a short time. I’m sure you have some things you haven’t told him yet.”

“Yes, but being a shifter? That’s sort of a big detail to hold back.”

“It is. I agree.” Carmen moved her fork around on the plate. She smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Not once did I see Alex mope about a girl when he was a teenager. In fact, I’ve never seen my boy heartbroken before. But he is desperately heartbroken now.”

Roxy swallowed. She knew the feeling.

Carmen’s brows arched. “Remember when Marabella left Wolfgang because she thought he would be better off without her? The pain he was in? The way he suffered?”

Roxy nodded. “I do.”

“Alex is your Wolfgang. You’re his Marabella. Please talk to him. Let him explain. You can come over to the house and have dinner with us.”

“I don’t know.”

Carmen glanced over at the pizza box. “Homemade pork loin with rice and beans and sweet plantains.”

Roxy’s stomach growled. She couldn’t avoid Alex forever. They lived next door after all. She glanced down at herself. “Okay. But not like this.”

Alex finally got out of the shower, dried off, then threw on clean shorts and went back to the kitchen to apologize for being short with his mother. He knew she only wanted to help, and she only wanted to do that because she loved him.

But his mother wasn’t in the kitchen. Nor was she on the back porch. Or getting anything out of her car. She wasn’t anywhere that he could see. He checked the counter for a note, but there wasn’t one.

It wasn’t like her to walk away from a full oven.

He went to the bedroom to grab his cell phone and check to see if she’d texted. He was just unlocking the screen when he heard the front door open.

“Alex, are you decent? We have company for dinner.”

Had she gone to Diego’s? That was impossible. She hadn’t had enough time. Alex had been in the shower a long while, but not enough for her to go to Diego’s and back. She could have called him, though. And Diego could have driven over.

She must have been outside somewhere waiting for him. Alex walked down the hall to see if Diego was going to get any grief over his new girlfriend or if that was just reserved for—Alex stopped as he entered the living room.

Roxy stood in the foyer with his mother. Her hair was damp and twisted into a loose bun, a few tendrils springing out around her face. She wore another pretty sundress like the night she’d come over to have dinner with him and sit in the hot tub. “Hi.” There was no smile, but there was no indication she was unhappy either.

“Hi,” he said back. A thread of hope unwound in him.

She didn’t quite make eye contact. “Your mother brought me cake. And then she turned into a were-cat in my dining room.”

“Panther shifter,” Alex and his mother responded in unison.

“Panther shifter,” Roxy corrected. “I’m not here because everything is automatically forgiven. We need to talk. But your mom promised me a home-cooked dinner and I’ve had a lot of takeout lately. I hope that’s okay.”

“That’s very okay.” He took back every grumpy thought he’d ever had about his mother. Who was currently giving him a look he knew very well. She wasn’t happy with him.