They all sat at the table and passed around platter after platter of food. The sheer variety and quantity was dizzying.
And delicious. Eggplant parmesan, marinated vegetables, fresh mozzarella in spiced olive oil, a salad of mixed peppers and onions, crusty bread that was chewy and delicious on the inside. Meatballs and pasta as well.
All was silent for several minutes as everyone chowed down.
“This is delicious. I can see where Ben gets his talent in the kitchen, Mrs. Stoner.”
“You’ll bring her to the restaurant soon, Ben,” Jillian said. “Everyone is dying to get a look at the girl who finally caught you.” She winked at them and Tegan laughed. At least one member of Ben’s family liked her. The father seemed to be waiting for his wife to give the okay. And from the looks of it, Bonita Stoner wasn’t an easy person to convert.
“Why so soon?” Bonita asked. “You just met the girl. Is she in a family way?”
Tegan choked on the bread she’d been chewing. Ben handed her a goblet of water before answering his mother.
“No, Tegan isn’t pregnant. If she was, we’d tell you. It’s not something we’d hide. I’m not trying to hide our relationship or how I feel about her.”
“How do you know anything? You just met the girl. You’re living together so obviously you’re not marrying to get her to have sex with you.”
Tegan continued to chew, trying to be understanding. After all, they didn’t know her. She also thought it was important Ben handle it. Her family had threatened to kill him so she could take a bit of unpleasant on his behalf.
“I’ve known Tegan’s family for some time now, nearly two years. I work with her brothers a lot. And I’m old enough to know the difference between wanting sex and being in love with a woman I want to be married to. I’ve been in enough relationships to know that.”
“Oh? Are your brothers cops then?” Jillian interrupted, trying to change the tone of the conversation. Little did she know.
“No. My brother Lex is an architect, although he does security consulting for my oldest brother, Cade. Cade runs several businesses, including a chain of coffee shops in the Seattle area.”
“Then how do you work with them, Ben? Are they snitches or criminals?” his mother demanded.
Tegan thought the woman was deliberately rude to see how much Tegan would take. Tegan wanted to pop Ben in the nose for leading up to what he was about to tell them with no prep at all.
“Oh, well.” He looked to her and Tegan narrowed her eyes at him and gulped her wine down in two swallows. May as well get it all out in the open.
“Go on. You knew this would happen.” She sat back, arms over her chest.
“I didn’t, not like this. Cripes. I’m sorry. This is my fault. Let’s change the subject.” He rolled his eyes and drew his thumb over her arm.
“Are you high? You can’t change the subject now! Whatever they’re imagining has to be worse than the truth. Ben, you’re going to have to buy her something shiny after this. Just spill it already.” Jillian threw up her hands
“Yes it’s your fault. This was totally predictable. But your sister is right that you need to just spill it. Although I doubt they’ve imagined this.”
“Don’t talk to my son that way!” Bonita interrupted. “You come into my house and this is how you act?”
Tegan took calming breaths and told herself the woman was just a momma bear protecting her son.
“Mrs. Stoner, your son has a few things he needs to tell you. I’ve been urging him to do it for a bit now. He and I have had words about it because it’s my concern this stuff he’s held back will create unpleasantness.”
“You were obviously raised by people who had no manners at all. How dare you speak to Ben in that tone, he’s better than the likes of you.”
The woman actually sniffed in Tegan’s direction and with that, she was done being accommodating. Ben held her shoulder and she shook him off to turn to face the tiny little beast.
“With all due respect, ma’am, I’m acting with way more restraint than you’d be shown in my house with your atrocious manners.” Whoops, well, okay, so her brothers wanted to pop Ben in the nose but they hadn’t and they respected the bond, damn it. Her family accepted Nina, Gabe and Nick as well as Sid. All the people who mated with her siblings had been welcomed into the Pack. Clearly this woman hadn’t the slightest idea of what that meant.
The beast’s penciled-in eyebrows rose as she wrinkled her nose and glared at Ben. “You’re going to marry this? Benjamin, she’s after your money. Her family is obviously part of the criminal element if you deal with them and won’t tell us why.”
She did not just say that. “I don’t need his money. I’ve got a trust with three million dollars in it. I also earn a salary that’s twice his. As for my family, why do you assume all this negative stuff about me? Yes, you don’t know me and yes, I’m sure it’s a shock to suddenly be told your son has a fiancée but what I don’t get is why you’re so all fired hostile from go when most families would be happy their son met someone he loved!” Tegan stood but pushed Ben to sit. “No. You sit and finish dinner. I’ve lost my appetite and I’m going to leave now.”
“I’m not going to stay here without you, honey. How are you going to get home?”
“My sister Megan just lives about three blocks over, actually. I’ll go to her place. Call me when you’re done and you can pick me up.”
He stood. “No. I said I’m not going to stay here without you. I won’t let you be insulted by my family. I’m sorry, I didn’t imagine this would happen.”
“Ben, may I speak to you privately?” Tegan asked.
He nodded and she drew him out front. “Look, there’s a whole lot of stuff not being said. I don’t know what’s going on in there but you need to hash it out without me. I don’t want you to have bad feelings with your mother. Just talk it through. Is this about your ex?”
Shoving a hand through his hair he sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her this way. Honestly, I don’t quite know what to think. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s unacceptable, I want you to know that. I’m going to make sure they know that too. You’re my woman, my mate and you’ll be my wife.”
Tegan smiled and kissed him. “I love you. Now go in and talk this out. You’re going to have to tell them about me now, you know that.”
He handed her the keys. “I know. That’s going to be really fun.” He laughed without mirth. “Take the car. I’ll get a ride from Jillian when I’m done here. Go home and I’ll be there in a bit.”
After he’d watched her drive away and had cooled off some, Ben went back inside the house.
He held a hand up and sat at the table. “Don’t. I’m serious about this. That woman means everything to me and I won’t have her here if you all can’t respect that. She’s done nothing to you and I’m so angry right now, so ashamed I don’t know how to put it other than that.”
“Who is this girl, Benjamin? She’s hiding something and you can’t expect us to just accept that,” his mother said.
“In the first place, what matters is that I know everything there is to know about Tegan. Your knowing and accepting whatever there is about her is not relevant, Mom. Now, I love you and she knows that. She came here tonight understanding you’d be wary because this is all sudden. But the way you acted means unless this gets resolved, I won’t be spending much time around here. I’m marrying her in a week.”
Chaos broke out as his mother shot up and began to pace, reeling off curses, half Spanish, half Italian. Wait until he told them the next part, she might even break out the Magyar.
“Wow.” Jillian sat back in her chair. “Okay. What can I do? Do you need help planning? Do you have a caterer?”
He laughed. His sister always was fabulous. “Tegan’s sisters are doing some of it.
I’ll have them get in contact with you. You’ll like them. Especially Nina. Thank you, Jillian, it means a lot to me.”
She blew him a kiss. “Congratulations, I mean that. I’m happy for you. You’ve been alone a long time. She’s gorgeous and clearly she can handle herself which means she won’t let you push her around. Now, you want to tell us the backstory? What does she do? How did you meet?”
“She’s a bodyguard. I met her at a nightclub but when we were having coffee we realized we had people in common. Her brothers. Her family is very well connected in her world.” He looked at his mother to drive that home. Tegan after his money indeed! Holy cow, she had millions?
“A bodyguard? She doesn’t look like a bodyguard at all. For what? Why?” his father asked.
“For her brothers. And,” he took a deep breath and plunged ahead, “she’s a werewolf. Her family is the ruling family of the Cascadia Pack. That’s how I know her brothers. I’m the liaison between the human authorities and the Packs, you know. Anyway, the Wardens are very influential and trust me when I tell you, Dad, she may not look it, but she’s a tough cookie. She can handle herself very well.”
Utter silence.
“Wow. Always tossing out the big ones, eh, Ben? Jeez, I guess I can do just about anything at this point. Join a biker gang, get a tat on my neck, get two boyfriends, can’t hold a candle to a werewolf.” Jillian laughed but his parents did not join her. His mother’s lips moved in what he knew all too well was a prayer for his salvation and his father’s mouth formed words but no sound came out.
“Ben, you...you can’t mean to do this! You brought that thing into my home without asking? Without telling us what it was? An animal!” The light in his mother’s eyes scared him nearly as much as hearing her say those things about Tegan hurt him.
“Let me make something very clear right now and please listen carefully because it’s very important. Tegan Warden is my woman. She’s the person I love and will spend my life with. She is not an animal or a thing. No one who wants me in their life will ever refer to her in such terms in my presence ever again. Moreover, she’s not just someone I love but she’s my mate. There exists between us a metaphysical bond. Even if I could change that, I would not. She has made me a better person and filled my life with something I needed so badly I can’t quite talk about it right now without wanting to cry. I was alone. For a very, very long time. My life was empty. I sought out meaningless encounters with women who meant nothing to me because I was afraid if they did mean something to me, they’d do me like Sarah did. Tegan Warden knows me in a way no one else does. I love her and, thank God above, she loves me.” His hands shook with emotion and Jillian moved to sit next to him, putting her head on his shoulder.
“I’m glad for you, Ben. I support you. I promise. Are you going to convert?”
“He will do no such thing!” His father’s fist hit the table, knocking over several glasses of wine. “If this woman loves you, she would not ask it.”
“She hasn’t and I have no plans to do it. Not because I loathe what she is, but because I’m fine with what I am.”
His father nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. I don’t know what to say, son. I’ve just never imagined this situation. I like it very much that this Tegan makes you happy but I’ve never met a werewolf before much less had one in my family. I’d be shocked if you married a Protestant girl, this is way out of my league.”
“Did you drink after her? Eat after her? Oh my God, do we need to get treated?” His mother stopped her prayers and looked to him expectantly.
“You can’t catch lycanthropy from drinking or eating after a werewolf. It’s very difficult to catch actually. Tegan was born a werewolf although her sister-in-law Nina was a human who was changed.”
“This is insanity! An abomination. They’re not even human, Benjamin. She’s done something to you to mess with your head.”
“Bonita, this isn’t helping,” his father murmured. “Ben is in love with this woman. He’s a strong man, it didn’t look like she’d bewitched him to me.”
“I know this is a surprise. She asked me to tell you first so don’t be angry at her for that. She’s not an abomination, Mom. She’s a good woman, strong. She fights for her family just like we do. Why don’t you just give her a chance? She’s not human, no. She’s something else, but no less good.”
“You are not marrying this...this thing! I forbid it, Benjamin. God says to honor your parents and your parents are telling you humans are not meant to mix with animals. It’s unholy.”
“Mom, knock this off. You’re out of control. Take a nap, take a pill, drink some wine or something. You’re talking like a freaking Nazi. You didn’t raise us to think this way.” Jillian’s voice was gentle but firm and Ben was so glad his sister was there to help. “You raised us to believe all people were equal until they proved themselves otherwise. This woman has made Ben happy. He loves her. What does that prove?”
“She’s not people. She’s—she’s a mistake of nature.”
The vileness of his mother’s accusations made Ben sick to his stomach. He loved his parents, respected them. They’d been a foundation of his life and he’d never hesitated to turn to them. This woman pacing around the kitchen was a stranger to him.
“Mom, come on, this is crazy talk. I know you’re upset and I know it’s scary because you don’t know a lot about werewolf culture. I can teach you. I’ve been working with them for nearly two years. They have families, live in houses, run businesses, they barbecue on the Fourth of July and go to movies and eat pizza. Tegan’s first husband was killed in action in Afghanistan four years ago. They serve their country and make your lattes too. Nina runs a big nursery, in fact a lot of the landscaping plants on my property came from her place. They’re just normal people who, through a different DNA sequence, can shapeshift into a wolf.
“You can’t catch it from being in the same room or even if her blood got on you or in you. Lycanthropy is transmitted through a bite when the werewolf is in wolf form. It’s a mixture of the saliva and the blood in an attack. It’s very rare. She doesn’t deserve all this hate from you for what she is. You know better than this. You and Dad raised us better. Please, Mom, for me, give Tegan a chance.”
“How can you expect me to do this? This is blasphemy.”
Where the hell was this coming from? His mother went to church, yes, but she had never used her faith like this, not to be harmful or hateful.
“Bonita, don’t. Please, don’t do this. You’re going to drive him away. Is that what you want? To be one of those parents who doesn’t speak to one of their children? When they have kids, don’t you want to be part of their lives?” He looked to Ben. “You can, right?”
“Yes. It’s complicated and I don’t know if they’d be like half wolf or not at all or what.” Something he’d have to ask her about after they dealt with this whole Pellini mess. “Anyway, kids are a ways off. I want to be married a while before we have kids.”
“Ben, she doesn’t even have a soul. If you mix with her, she’ll take yours. You’ll be damned!” His mother shook him by the shoulders and in his shock, Ben heard his father’s chair scrape back as he stood.
“Bonita! Are you ill? You’re not yourself right now. Calm down.” His father pulled her into his embrace and tried to calm her but she broke away.
She rushed to the drawer next to the fridge and rustled around, pulling out several brightly colored sheets of paper and slammed them on the table in front of Ben.
“They came by two weeks ago and I talked to them. Nice boys. Benjamin, you don’t know what these things get up to. They’re creatures of the devil.”
Ben looked at the papers and nausea boiled through his gut. Hate literature about werewolves. It couldn’t have been a coincidence either.
“Mom, have these men been back here? Have you seen them before?”
/> “I see them around here and there. They probably live nearby. They said they knew Father Joe so they probably go to St. Michael’s. Read it, Ben, it’s all there. All that scientific stuff. They control the media. It’s all lies. I can’t believe it and you bringing her here. Lucky thing I had this information.”
“Mom! I can’t believe you. This is the same kind of crap they say about Jews and black people. This is... I guess human supremacy. I’ve seen this stuff around about the werewolves but you’re the last person I’d have thought would buy into this. Mommy, this is crazy talk. Think about it.” Jillian rubbed a hand up and down their mother’s arm.
Ben scrubbed his hands over his face. “Did you let them in? Did they give you names? Do you have contact information?”
Bonita sat down. “Why?”
“Mom, a very bad man has been trying to harm Tegan’s family. He tried to kill Tegan’s brother Lex and his wife. He did kill Nina’s younger brother Gabriel. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”
“Do you think they’ll harm us? The werewolves?”
“Mom, knock it off. Not the werewolves, the Nazi bastards who came to the door with this stuff.”
“No. I was in the yard when they came by. They chatted. I offered them some tea and coffeecake but they had to go. I saw them at the grocery store and one of them near the gas station on 175th. They haven’t been back here though. What did she do to bring this on her head?”
He stood. “I can’t deal with this any longer. The pod people have made my mom into a Nazi and I don’t know what else to say. Wait, yes I do. Mom, you’re out of line and ugly. This is not you and I want you to think on the stuff you’ve said tonight. Jillian, go and help Mom pack a bag. I want you two to go stay above the restaurant. It’s a lot safer than here and it’s just a few blocks from the police station and I’m going to have them just keep a close eye on you. Jillian, your building is very safe but Mom is going to give a description to the police sketch artist so we can get some flyers out to keep these idiots away from anywhere you are. I’ll call now and have him meet you at the station tomorrow morning. These people are killers and they’re using you to harm Tegan and me because she’s mine.”