Page 57 of Legally Mated
“Yep!” Holland kissed them both. “Why don’t you two take the plate of cookies with you and go put a movie on in Cale’s apartment? I think he still has somesodaleft.”
“My stash!” Cale complained gently, but held his hands out to the pups. “I happen to know Holland has chocolate chip cookies in the cupboard above thefridge.”
“My stash!” Holland cried, in near perfect mimicry of Cale’s expression of dismay. “No, helpyourself.”
“Are you going to yell at Veronica?” Dorian asked as he slid offHolland’slap.
“Oh, I don’t think we’ll yell. That’s not how adults do things. But this isn’t going to happen again.” He kissed them both, then looked at me. “Stick around, okay? I need to go talktoQuin.”
“I’m here,” Quin said from the doorway, a thumb stuck in the baby’s mouth. “What do you want metodo?”
Holland shook his head and walked over to tickle the baby’s cheek. “I’ll deal with her. Thisendsnow.”
Chapter47
The door openedbefore Cale could escape and Quin’s mother let herself in. “Holland, did the pups come in here? Oh, theretheyare.”
“Did you lose them, Veronica?” Holland askedsweetly.
“They ran off. That was very bad of you,” she said, pointing a finger at the two pups trying to hide behind theirUncleCale.
Holland put a hand on Cale’s shoulder. “You guys go, I’vegotthis.”
Cale nodded. “Damn, you’re going to make memissit?”
“I’ll fill you in later,” Holland promised, his tone distracted. He waited for the door to close behind Cale and the pups, then walked over to stand in front of Veronica with his arms crossed over his chest. “Get out of my home. Pack your things and go home toSalmaWood.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “Are we doing this now?” She looked over at Quin. “Are you going to let him talk to melikethat?”
Quin shrugged and a hint of a smile appeared on his face. “This is his show. I’m just theaudience.”
She huffed and turned back to Holland. “You have no idea the job you ended up with when my boy took you to mate. It takes more than cleaning a house—which as far as I can tell you don’t even do—and getting pregnant to be anAlpha’sMate.”
“You’re right, it does,” Holland said agreeably. “And I’m doing all that, which is why the house doesn’t getcleaned.”
“You know, I clean things too,” Quin said mildly, but when I looked over at him, his eyes were dancing. Holland gave a dirty look, like he knew that Quin was enjoying poking thealphawolf.
Veronica made a noise of disgust. “And what happens if another Alpha comes to confer with your mate? Will you let him see this place, this…sty?” She threw her hands in the air and stalked past him to do a turn in the middle of the room that seemed to take in all the dirty dishes, the unfolded laundry and the scatter of shoes by the front door. “Are you even capable of seeing what a mess this is? I know your family was poor, but surely their standards weren’tthatlow.”
I saw Holland stiffen, then he turned and sent a look Quin’s way that I couldn’t decipher. Quin tilted his head to the side, ceding the decision to Holland. Holland nodded slowly, then he walked across the room to kiss Quin on the mouth, for no reason that I could see. I was starting to get a hint that something was going to happen, even the barest whiff of what it might be. It was tempting to go hide behind the furniture, maybe even try to slip through the door into the Alpha’s office. But Holland had said to stay and he was myAlpha’sMate.
Maybe he just wanted a friend, a witness who wasn’t emotionally involved in the problem. So Istayed.
“What are you up to?” I heard Quin whisper, but all Holland did was give him an inscrutable look and walk off to the bedrooms as if entirelydefeated.
“Well, if you’re not planning to mate elsewhere, at least he’s fertile. Maybe he’ll give you an alphanexttime.”
Quin turned and gave his mother alook. I quickly backed out of the way, fascinated and at the same time, absolutely certain that there was going to be shrapnel of some sort, and I didn’t want to get hit. “I didn’t think you were stuck so hard in the last century, Mom. Are you saying that our baby, my son, is somehow less in your eyes because he’ll be able to carry a pup someday if he wants to?” There was a dangerous undertone to his voice, and I thought it was only the fact that this was his mother and she was an alpha too that had kept things this calm so far. And I was right. Quin continued. “Holland told me to back off and let you two sort out your relationship and I trust him, so I did as he asked. But you do not take that tone, or that attitude, with a pup that hasn’t even had his first change yet. With any pup, do youunderstandme?”
Still, she held firm, the straightness of her spine echoing that of her son’s. “You’re Alpha here. You were always going to be Alpha, I knew that from the moment I gave birth to you. You should have married someone strong, who would give you strong pups. I had a couple of lovely Salma Wood girls picked out who would have made excellent Mates. Weak fields grow weak crops, no matter the strength of the seed sown in them. If you insist on keeping him, I will do my best to teach that omega of yours how to be a proper mate, to support you, instead of running off all the time and leaving you to look after the pups when you have more important things to do, but you have to let me do what I know how to do. I’ve done this job for two Alphas now—I know more thanyoudo.”
“Mom, shut up right now, before you did a bigger hole than you can jumpoutof.”
“Oh,” came Holland’s voice from the direction of the bedrooms. “Love, it’s far too late for that now.” He walked back into the living room, carrying a suitcase ineachhand.
I didn’t recognize them and wondered for a stunned moment if he’d bought himself new ones so he couldmoveout.
Quin gazed at him for a moment with his mouth hanging open, then it snapped shut and he grinned. “What are youdoing?”
