“You might be right. But what gives you the authority to speak to her family like this?” Shiori’s lawyerly tone was out in full force.

“I’m her mate.” Flint dropped his crossed arms.

And she felt it. Yes, some of his firefighter friends had said it. But they had both denied it.

“If she’ll have me. And if she won’t, that’s not going to stop me from making sure that all of you behave like the support system she deserves.”

“Now?” Mirabel asked Emma, unlocking the wheels.

“Now.” Emma’s heart thudded as Mirabel wheeled her forward.

Daphne gasped and started to cry. She waved her hand and removed the spell.

Emma had expected the full force of a fated mate to bowl her over, coming all at once with the spell dropped. But it didn’t. Her love for the male beside her had already filled her heart.

32

He’d known Emma was there. Her enticing scent couldn’t hide from him. Having her sneak up to the side of him wouldn’t change what he had to say to the room of their friends.

Emma wobbled a little as she stood from the wheelchair. She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Hey.” His hand landed in her hair.

She squeezed him carefully, avoiding both of their bandages. “Hey.” She blinked up at him.

“Emma.” Daphne charged at Emma, her arms out.

“Stop.” Flint’s wolf pushed against his skin. The beast in him saw Daphne as the enemy. Flint clenched his stomach muscles, squashing the wolf’s hold on him. Emma didn’t feel the same way about the incoming female, and that mattered more.

“I love you, Daphne. But Flint’s right. We can talk soon.” Emma held onto Flint’s arm.

Shiori ran interference, stepping up next to Emma. “I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll drive you home, Daphne.” Shiori kissed Emma on the cheek and wrapped Daphne’s hand around her arm, leading her to the elevator.

Carter nodded and followed the females out. Mirabel had snuck away when Shiori had taken Daphne.

The waiting room had gone from boisterous to silent. Only Flint’s mother sat in the corner. He’d heard the nurses kick Eloise out ten minutes ago when she’d tried to tackle Carter to the ground for insinuating that the incident could have been prevented by Flint.

Flint understood, but the male was the least of his worries.

Lara Stack-Larsen hadn’t moved when Vivianne took Eloise home. She hadn’t moved when Daphne had gone on her tirade.

“Mom, this is my mate, Emma.” He looked between Emma and his mother. “I suppose I should have asked you first.” He tilted his head to Emma.

Emma smiled with closed lips and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Larsen.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Emma. My daughters have told me some lovely things about you.”

He hadn’t looked at his mother in a long time. She looked like herself but not. There were more wrinkles on her face, and her normally perfect hair was wild and frizzy.

“That’s really sweet. I like them a lot. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone else. Since I’m going to be part of the . . . pack?” She turned her head up to Flint.

“Coven, too.” He brushed his lips against Emma’s, then turned to his mother. His magic was shockingly not flinging itself around his body. And for the first time in two and a half years, things didn’t seem out of sorts. More than that, when he looked into the eyes of the woman next to him, his wolf shouted Mate. His hand trembled. She was not only the female he wanted to spend his life with, she was the one fate had picked for him as well.

“We should talk later.” His mother’s blue eyes settled on him. “If you want to.”

“Yes.” His insides were shaking. He stared at his mother. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her in three years. The first year after his powers were unbound, he’d tried. And then one day he’d stopped. Stopped trying, stopped talking. He’d wrapped his anger and emotions up and tucked them inside his turndown gear. Work, building the cabin, taking in Vivianne’s dog—it was easy to slip a little further away each month.

“I’ll be in the room.” Emma put her hands on the wheels.

“No, you can stay.” He raised his chin at his mother in confirmation.

“You’re one now. Please.” His mother moved from the corner of the room to the first row of seats next to them.

Flint positioned Emma and took a seat next to her chair.

“We can wait until you’re both healed, if you want?” Lara played with the hem of her shirt. She’d always done that when she talked about his dad. When she brought up some little detail about his dad that Flint had forgotten.

“No. It can’t.” He let his breath out. “I’m furious. I might be furious for the rest of my life, but I’m going to try.”

“Flint.” His mother held her lips together. “I understand.”

“I don’t think you do. I’m furious. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, Mom. You did your best. I know you don’t think there is anything to forgive, but I do. And maybe sometime in the future I might be able to do that.”

“I would like that, Flint.”

“First I have to learn how to be this new version of me. Of us.”

“I like all versions of you, son. And I always will. But you’re wrong. I made a lot of mistakes. Protecting you and your siblings while you were little didn’t mean that I shouldn’t have told you once you were grown.”

Flint nodded. That was true.

“I don’t expect you to snap your fingers and put everything back to the way it used to be, Flint. But son, I’m thankful that you’re willing to even talk to me again.” Tears were gathering in his mother’s eyes. He needed to get the hell out of there before she started crying. He’d never seen his mother cry, not once. And he wasn’t sure he could take it.

She turned her head to the window, then looked back and nodded once at him. “Can I give you a hug?”

“I’d like that.”

They stood. His mother, tall by human standards, came up to his chin. She gave him a gentle hug, avoiding the gauze on his arms and shoulder. He squeezed her. Hard. Until she stepped back and gave Emma a gentle hug too.

“You be good to this precious female, Flint Lock Larsen.”

“Yes, Mom. I intend to be very good to her.” Flint kissed the top of Emma’s head.

His cabin smelled like a church basement after a funeral. The containers in the fridge were stacked three high with a few crammed in on their sides. He loaded up a tray of food and successfully avoided Penny’s counter-surfing nose on the way back to the bed.

“Thank you.” Emma moved the quilt out of the way.