“Enough,” said Nick quietly, his voice still filled with authority. Gabrielle’s eyes widened. “No one speaks to my mate like that. Not even her mother. In my opinion, though, I shouldn’t have to order her mother not to do so.”
“You don’t know what it’s been like for me,” claimed Gabrielle. “You don’t know how hard it is to lose one child and then find that the other is selfish and—”
“One more insult,” rumbled Nick, “and you leave.”
Shaya rubbed her jaw against his upper arm, hoping to calm him. “I’ve never asked you for anything, Mom. But I’m asking you now…if you can’t be happy for me, if you can’t be part of my life without trying to hurt me, leave me alone.”
“Trying to hurt you?” echoed Gabrielle, her tone incredulous, but Nick was aware the female knew what Shaya meant.
“You displaced your guilt onto Shaya.”
Gabrielle gawked at Nick. “Excuse me?”
“You were heartbroken when your other daughter died in the womb—of course you were. You felt responsible, felt guilty. But you couldn’t handle the weight of that guilt, so you transferred it onto Shaya. And she’s carried it all her life, and you let her. The times you left her alone in the house…you did that because that was what your mate did to you, left you alone. You wanted someone else to suffer. All your life you’ve escaped your own pain by dumping it on Shaya. No more. As she said, if you can’t be in her life without hurting her, you need to leave it.”
Gabrielle spluttered again and looked at her mate, expecting him to defend her. He didn’t. Nick knew it wasn’t because the guy feared him; it was most likely that he knew Nick was right and that Shaya deserved better than what Gabrielle had to give.
“Well, what will it be?” Shaya asked, her voice strong.
Gabrielle averted her gaze, concentrating on a spot on the wall. She was quiet for a minute. “When is your mating ceremony?”
“In a couple of days.”
Without looking at Shaya, she said, “We’ll be there.”
Shaya knew that was the equivalent of Gabrielle saying she was backing down and wished to stay in her life, but it wasn’t the “sorry and I love you” that she would have preferred—not that she had expected, or would ever expect, to hear that, but a girl could dream.
Abruptly, Gabrielle rose to her feet and headed for the doorway, where she waited as Stone said his good-byes to Shaya and Nick.
Just as she was about to leave, Nick called out, “If you hurt her again, Gabrielle, the choice of whether or not you remain in Shaya’s life will be taken out of your hands.”
Again Gabrielle looked to Stone for support. Again, she got none. Still, she claimed haughtily, “Her father would never allow that.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Like me, he has Shaya’s best interests at heart. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Swallowing hard, the woman left with her mate following behind her, who was shaking his head at the woman—looking exasperated.
Nick turned back to Shaya, pulling her into the cradle of his shoulder. “Okay, baby?” When she nodded, he nipped her earlobe. She gave a cute little yelp. “Don’t lie.”
She sighed, shrugging. “What do you want me to say? Sure, I wish things could be easier between my mother and me, but they’re not. At least she’s willing to try. That was more than I would have expected. It’s a relief my father seems to like you.”
“I’m not so sure he likes me, but he’s reconsidering the idea of shooting me with the Glock he’s carrying, which is good enough.”
Shaya smiled. “I wondered if you’d notice. He carries it everywhere.” She waved a hand. “No more about them. We have more important things to worry about.”
“Yes, unfortunately, we do.”
As it was important that Nick knew every inch of pack territory in preparation for the attack, Shaya took him on a thorough tour of the land while they were in their wolf forms after breakfast. She showed him every lake, every clearing, every hidden entrance to the caves. She even showed him the “hut”—the small building where trespassers were taken to be interrogated by Dante.
When they stopped at a particular lake, she shifted back to her human form. “This is my favorite spot on Phoenix land. Come on, I want to swim.”
Back in his human form, Nick glanced around, taking in his surroundings. Instantly, he understood. “You used to come here to be alone, didn’t you?” he asked, smiling. It was almost funny, considering she was so sociable.
“Yes,” she admitted, slowly going deeper and deeper into the lake. “Sometimes a girl likes a little alone time.”
He gasped in mock outrage. “All this time you’ve been poking fun at me for preferring solitude, and you actually have your own secret spot. I feel so betrayed.”
She laughed. “The main reason I used to come here a lot is that it reminds me of a spot in the land my dad and I used to go hunting on.”
Nick joined her in the water and pulled her against him, wanting her skin against his. “Tell me about these hunting trips.”
“Well, you know all shifters take their kids hunting; they shift into their animal forms and teach their kids how to hunt rabbits and other animals. Of course Stone couldn’t do that because he’s human. So he took me hunting with him in my human form. We used different weapons, eventually working up to shotguns and rifles. I like rifles best.”
“Your Alphas let you do that? Most shifters hate the use of weapons.”
“No, we weren’t allowed to hunt on pack territory. Occasionally, my dad would take me to a place called Oakdon Creek and rent the private hunting lodge there for a week. Well, ‘lodge’ isn’t really the right word. It was more like a huge rustic mansion. I used to love it—it was literally my favorite place in the world. It was peaceful and relaxing, yet wild and untamed. And it was my refuge too—or, at least, that was how it felt because they were the times when I wasn’t required to run around after my mother.”
“She had you doing that even as a kid?” Nick barely held back a growl.
Shaya shrugged, sliding her arms around his neck. “I was just a supply of attention to her.”
He rubbed a soothing hand up and down her upper back. “Do you and your dad still go on these trips?”
“No. When I was seventeen, the place was bought by a human company that hated shifters. They knew my dad belonged to a wolf pack and that I had to therefore be a half-shifter, so they saw him as a traitor and refused to let us rent the lodge anymore.”
Assholes. “How often did you used to come out here for some alone time?”
“I didn’t always come alone. Sometimes I’d bring Taryn. I also came here a lot with Marcus.” At Nick’s low growl, she quickly added, rolling her eyes, “We didn’t go swimming together. We just came and sat on that fallen tree over there whenever I needed to talk.”
“About what?” He found he didn’t like the idea of her confiding in another male.
“You. See, I never told anybody in the beginning. It was for two reasons, really. One, I was embarrassed and ashamed that my own mate didn’t appear to want me. Two, I knew that Taryn would break your nose and then the pack would force the claiming—I wanted you to come for me because you wanted me, no other reason. So I kept it to myself. But Marcus…He’d guessed I was upset about something, and he hounded me until I told him. Not out of nosiness; Marcus just has a very protective streak. He’s so easy to talk to that I found myself telling him about you being my true mate and stuff. Despite being an enforcer and very close to Trey, he kept the secret for me from even them.”