Finley had made sure his family would all arrive at the Loft before he brought Zara. His mother’s flower arrangements in pink and cream with gold accents were scattered around the room. His sister Allison had shown up with a literal crate of candles that were spread around the room waiting to be lit. The caterers had shown up and organized the food along the countertop.

The Loft overlooked the Pike Place Market sign, the Seattle Wheel, and all the life teeming below in the street. The sun was still high enough over the water that by the time he returned with Zara the sun would be setting.

“I’m off, try not to tear the place apart while I’m gone. And don’t scare her when we get back. You know how you guys get.”

Cash stepped forward with Axel hanging over his shoulder upside down. “Brother, our mates haven’t gotten scared off, yours won’t either.”

“That’s not true,” Cassie piped in. She was sitting on the countertop swinging her legs back and forth, her black and red plaid boots laced up to her knees. “If I hadn’t known about cougars, you guys would have been too fucking much for me.”

“Bullshit,” Allison laughed. “You needed our kind of crazy.”

“Sprite, Allie, watch the language will ya?” Cash sighed.

“Son, I don’t know why you keep trying to get these women to stop swearing. How long you gonna keep that up?” Fin’s dad Jeffrey asked.

“Until they learn.”

“Cwap!” Jett screamed, skidding around the floor in a frilly pink party dress.

“Jetty, do you want some red lipstick?” Cassie enticed, trying to get her daughter to punk out even the slightest bit.

“No! Pink!” Jett shouted and ran towards Quinn, her new favorite person since she had pink lip gloss.

Cassie stuck her tongue out at her daughter. “Traitor.” Then gave her a wink. Jett stuck her tongue back out at her momma and climbed up into Quinn’s lap.

“Go, get your mate. We’ll be on our best behavior. Scout’s honor,” Rainier said.

“Hah, why do I doubt that?”

“Because we’re family and your girl’s now family. She might as well figure that out right away. Go get her. We’ll be here getting sloshed,” his dad joked.

Fin knew they wouldn’t be getting sloshed. He and Rain, and of course the humans, were the only ones that could still get drunk and even then it took him some effort. With their mature shifter metabolisms, Cash and his father could drink Fin under the table and barely look buzzed.

Waving, he left and sped off to pick up Zara. They had argued over him picking her up. She had even tried to negotiate by giving him a mind shattering blow job in his dorm room the previous day. In his dazed and confused state he had almost agreed, but his bear reminded him that just because she was willing to suck on his cock, didn’t mean she was right about meeting her parents.

Pulling up to the house he had dropped her off at just a few nights before, he grabbed the two bouquets of flowers from the front seat of his rental car. He realized he needed to get a car but it wasn’t as high on his list at the moment. His mother had leased a two-bedroom loft in an industrial building in Wallingford not far from school. His sister was in full remodel decoration mode. She negotiated with the building to replace the kitchen at his expense and they were happy to let her destroy the outdated set up.

Fin couldn’t care less how his sister spent his money. Money could be made and in his family it was always shared. It didn’t have the same value as in the human world. Besides, Fin could afford it.

Walking up to the front door, he knocked and waited. He could hear voices inside, and he paused, trying to hear if it was an argument or not. His shifter ears heard Zara wanting to answer the door, and her father reminding her it was his house.

The door swung open and Fin plastered on an appropriate smile. “Mr. Chadha, I’m Finley Rochon, I’m here to pick up Zara.”

“I know who you are. Believe me. Come on in.”

As Fin stepped through the door, Mr. Chadha leaned down and whispered, “Hope you’ve got a thick skin.”

Finley was surprised at this, but also understood that he wasn’t going to get much abuse from Zara’s dad.

At the top of the stairs that led to the upper floor he saw Zara with her beautiful long hair hanging loose to reach to the middle of her back. She was wearing a metallic silver dress that was cute and spacey looking. As she descended the stairs in a pair of matching sandals he admired her long legs. As she made it to the bottom of the stairs he saw the Star Fleet symbol on the upper corner of the dress. Leave it to his mate to be a Trekkie.

“You look beautiful,” he said handing her the smaller bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“Thank you, so do you,” she said, her eyes darting between his and her father’s. She was nervous and his bear wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe.

“Let’s get this over with, princess,” her father said, leading them into what appeared to be a formal living room that had never been used. It was decorated in chintz and brass and everything was shockingly pristine even though the furnishings must be twenty years old. Mrs. Chadha kept a tidy home.

“Mama, this is Finley Rochon. Fin, this is my mother, Mrs. Chadha.”

Seeing how the formality was going to go, Finley offered the large bouquet of flowers to Zara’s mother. She was standing with her arms crossed and her stern look on her face. Her pale pink sari and trousers were practically shimmering with the vibrations coming off of her.

Her mother looked at the flowers and had to accept them without throwing the etiquette rules out the window.

“I’m glad I finally get to meet you. Zara has told me so much about you.”

“Really? Because we know very little about you,” her mother’s curt response snapped in the room.

“I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. I have nothing to hide,” he offered. Then he heard a squeaking laugh from Zara. He turned and saw she had slapped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were big and teary from trying not to laugh.

“Why don’t we sit down?” Mr. Chadha suggested.

Everyone took a seat and then waited for Zara’s mother to sit in a wingback chair, perched stiffly on the edge of the cushion. She couldn’t look more uncomfortable if she tried.

Once they all sat, there was a short silence while glances were exchanged. Finley cleared his throat. “I don’t know if Zara told you, but she’s meeting my parents tonight. They’re excited to meet her. I’d love if we could arrange brunch tomorrow and I’d love to host. I don’t know if Zara’s brother might be able to join us?”

“My son is unavailable. He often works on the weekends. He is very important at his job. He designs buildings you know,” Mrs. Chadha announced with great pride.

“I did know that. What a great talent to have in the family. A doctor and an architect, you must be very proud.”

“Zara isn’t a doctor yet and she won’t be if she allows things to distract her.” Mrs. Chadha was still teetering on the edge of the chair, as though she might jump up at any moment and lunge for Fin’s throat.

“As long as Zara wants to be a doctor, I’m here to support her. I know how hard classes and then her residency is going to be. I’m happy I will be able to support her through those times.”

“And you think you can provide support? What does that even mean? Have you ever been with someone going through medical school? I have. I know how tired and cranky they can be,” her mother said.

“I wasn’t that bad, my love,” Zara’s father remarked.

“You were a lion with a thorn in his paw… for years! You think this boy is going to stand by our daughter when times are tough? We will be paying for her education; we will be supporting her, not him. He can say the words all he wants, but they are just words, not real… anything,” her mother said waving her hand in the air.

“Actually, I was going to wait until tomorrow to speak with both of you. I know how expensive Zara’s education has been to this point, and medical school will only further that debt. I’d be honored if you’d let me finish paying for her schooling.”

Zara’s mother made a coughing sound. “Tsk tsk, you have so much money to throw around? You just met my daughter. You say you will pay for her school and then what? You change your mind?”

“I figure if I pay for it in advance or set up a trust in her name to cover the costs, then there is no turning back.”

Zara was staring at him wide eyed, and not in a good way. More in a ‘how dare you say such a thing without talking to me first?’ kind of way.

“You are being unreasonable,” Mrs. Chadha said, her finger pointing at him then moving to her husband and daughter.

“What did I do?” Mr. Chadha exclaimed.

“Mama, really. Fin is being incredibly generous. You shouldn’t act that way.”

“Don’t you tell me how to act in my home. I’m the only one thinking clearly here. You all think this is a game. It’s not. This boy doesn’t know you, he doesn’t know us.”

“I’d like to get to know you, Mrs. Chadha. I plan on us being family. I would like us to all get along.”

“Argh!” her mother exclaimed then stood up and stomped through the doorway to the kitchen, then they all heard another door slam closed.

“Well, she’s on the porch, talking to Saraswati. She’s so used to praying for your education, I think she just starts there and moves on to whomever else will listen. You two might as well go have a nice evening. I’ll work on your mother.”

“I’m sorry, Baba. You know I’m not trying to upset her.”

“Your mother is a passionate woman. It takes her time to come to terms with things. Text me the information for brunch tomorrow. I’ll see if I can convince your mother to come along.”

“Thank you, Baba.” Zara gave her father a kiss on the cheek then turned to Finley.

“Well, that was fun; let’s go see if I can make your mom storm out too!”

Her father chuckled as he reached to shake Finley’s hand. “You know, passionate women are a burden that comes with great gifts.”

Finley nodded and waited until her father had followed the path her mother had just taken.

“Shall we?” He wasn’t fazed by Zara’s mother at all. He was bulldozing into their pre-planned lives. It was a lot to take and he didn’t mind having to work on her mother to get what he wanted. Eventually she would see he was serious about Zara and her future, and if that meant time and money, well, he had plenty of both.