“It’s been hard for me to be without my mate,” Lily said to Jesse. “I’m only permitted to see him once a month—the physical distance is difficult to cope with. Shawn has been there for me every step of the way.” She turned back to Harley, teetering on heels way too high for anyone. “We’re leaving for the prison now. Are you coming?”
“Jesse and I will come, but we want to speak with Clive privately.”
Lily bristled. “What’s wrong with having a family visit? It’s hard enough that I see so little of my mate. I see even less of my daughter.” Tears welled in Lily’s eyes, but Harley steeled herself against the emotional manipulation. Her mother was a travel agent for guilt trips and had yet to figure out that they didn’t work on Harley.
“Jesse and I will see him after you and Shawn have talked with him,” Harley told her.
Displeased, Lily pressed her lips together. “You’re as stubborn as your father.”
Anger coursed through Harley and her cat. She was nothing like Clive Vincent. If Lily wanted to be blind to the reality of who and what he was, fine. But Harley had no intention of joining her in the city of denial.
Did Harley condemn him for killing the humans who’d attacked her brother? Not at all. But he didn’t do it out of soul-wrenching grief; he did it because he liked to dole out pain. Hell, he’d hurt Michael himself on a few occasions, even broke his arm once. Michael had hated him, and Clive had done nothing but ridicule him. The truth was that Clive got a kick out of hurting people, physically and emotionally . . . like they were toys put on the earth for his amusement.
He had never hurt Harley and, for some reason, seemed to find some strange sort of pride in her rejection of him. She’d never quite understood that. Maybe he just liked that she saw him as he was. In any case, Lily only saw in Clive what she wanted to see. Lily refused to remember the times when he had hit her, mocked her, and exerted control over her.
Sensing Harley’s mood darken, Jesse slid his hand around her nape. His wolf pushed against his skin, wanting to rub up against her. “Feel free to leave without us,” he told their visitors. “Harley and I will catch up.” The words were pleasant but the “fuck off” was clear in his tone.
Shawn looked about to argue, but then he took in the sight of all the Mercury wolves closing in and seemed to think better of it. He inclined his head. “Fine.” He urged a sullen Lily to a small and particularly shabby motor home. Within moments, they were gone.
No one spoke, as if at a loss for what to say. Then Roni whistled. “Wow. And I thought my mom was embarrassing.”
“We can go see Clive another day if you want,” Jesse told Harley.
She inhaled deeply. “I’d rather just get it over with.”
“All right.”
“Zander and Bracken will follow you there,” said Nick. “It’ll be better to have two vehicles in case someone tries to strike at you.”
Zander rubbed at his jaw. “Lily is more exhausting than I remember.”
Harley gave a wan smile. “Yeah, she’s actually more pleasant when she’s drunk. Go figure.”
“I don’t get the feeling that you’re as close to Shawn as he seems to think,” said Shaya.
“I’m not.” Never had been.
“Should we expect your family to show up soon?” Marcus asked Jesse.
“No.”
Ally’s brow furrowed. “You don’t think they’ll find out?”
“They’ll find out. But they won’t call me or visit me—they’ll give me the silent treatment as a passive-aggressive way of communicating their displeasure.”
Shaya rolled her eyes. “Families can be so dumb.”
As if to back her up on that, Bracken’s family drove past them. Nat gave a regal wave, and Kim pointedly ignored them all.
As everyone walked back to the main lodge, Harley dragged her heels a little so that she could speak to Jesse without being overheard. “You really think your parents will give you the silent treatment?”
“Yes, even though they know I don’t give a fuck if they approve or not,” he replied. “I never sought their approval for anything.”
Confused, she said, “They always seemed good to you.”
“They’re not bad parents or bad people. But my mother is every inch the demanding ‘I want things my way’ person that I am now. She considers herself the family matriarch and thinks all decisions should be run by her. Part of her respects me for not bowing down to her, but the other part of her is angry that I ‘defy’ her.”
“But you’re not defying her. You’re just being you.”
He smiled, liking just how well she got him. “You’re right. But in her mind, if I do something she doesn’t approve of I’ve done it to spite her or to punish her or to annoy her.” He was used to it at this point. “A side effect of being so dominant is that you can start to believe you know what’s best for everyone.” He was guilty of that sometimes.
“What about your father? Is he submissive?”
“No, but he might as well be.” Jesse sighed. “My mother is more much dominant than him, and that’s changed him. It’s not that she bullies him or uses it against him. In fact, she treated him as an equal right up until he stopped acting like one. He simply folded under the weight of all that dominance. When they argue, he backs down. When she wants something, he gives it to her. If she asks him to do something, he does it without question. Not because he wants to behave that way, but because he doesn’t have any fight in him.”