Exiled Mate, Future Luna novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Thermos

Mom's face did not change.

"I don't know who you are," she said, "but you should step back from my daughter."

"I'm Rhys Huddleston," he said. "Alpha of the pack whose land you are standing on."

She went white.

Her eyes flicked from him to me and back, and I watched the arithmetic run behind her face.

"Huddleston," she said.

"Moonroot and wolfsbane," he said. "Steeped in a base of lavender to hide the smell. I'd know it anywhere, because my sister's healer used to brew it for wolves who were dying and needed to sleep."

Dani made a small noise.

"It's herbal," Mom said. "It's from a pack healer. For anxiety."

"Mom," I said. "Drink it."

She stared at me.

"I'll hold the cup. You drink what's left in the thermos, right now, in front of all of us. If it's only for my nerves, it won't hurt you."

Her hand tightened on the steel.

"That's absurd," she said. "I won't be treated like a criminal in a car park."

"It's a lawn," Dani said helpfully.

"Then drink it," I said.

Mom put the lid back on the thermos, very slowly, and screwed it tight.

Nobody spoke.

A truck engine rumbled across the visitor lot and cut off.

A door slammed.

My brother came across the grass in his pack work jacket with his hair sticking up, breathing hard.

"Mom," Blake said. "Tell her."

"Blake, go back to the car."

"Tell her about the tins."

"Be quiet."

"There's a man who comes to the kitchen door on the first of every month," Blake said, to me, not to her. "He's one of the Alpha's runners. He hands Mom a tin and she hands him an envelope back. I saw it when I was ten and I asked Dad and Dad said, don't ask."

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