She bit into her bread. “Besides, if Curran didn’t think you’re fit, he wouldn’t have made the offer. Yes, he’s obsessed with you, but he’s shrewd enough to take your ability into consideration. Alphas are typically attracted to other alphas. I wouldn’t mate with a weakling, and neither would he.”
“It’s not that simple,” I growled.
She laughed softly. “We know you have a history, dear. That much power doesn’t come without baggage and Curran isn’t an idiot. If he proposed to you, he must view your past as an acceptable risk.”
Had an answer for everything, did she? “Why do you care so much whether I become his mate? You didn’t come here out of the goodness of your heart.”
She paused. Her face turned mournful. “Raphael is my third child. The first two went loup at puberty. After him, I said I wouldn’t have any more. I couldn’t keep killing my babies. My boy is everything to me. I’d rip the world apart for him. You and I both know the name of his happiness.”
“Andrea.”
She nodded. The pain in her eyes melted into pride. “My Raphael could have any woman he wanted. If he wanted you, you wouldn’t be able to resist.”
“I don’t know about that . . .”
“Trust me. I’ve been courted by his father. Raphael had his pick, but he chose the girl who is beastkin. Because my life wasn’t complicated enough.”
“Andrea loves him. She’s smart, trained, and—”
She raised her hand. “You don’t have to sing her praises. I know more about her than you do. But the fact remains, she’s beastkin and she’s my son’s mate. She’s dominant, strong, and cunning. I have no doubt she can fight off any challengers, which means that when I step down, the reins of the bouda clan will pass to a child of an animal. The boudas will accept her. But the Pack may not.”
“Curran promised me she wouldn’t be persecuted.”
She pursed her lips. “It’s one thing to ignore the presence of a beastkin in the ranks. It’s another to have it rubbed in the alphas’ faces. Other clans don’t like us; they don’t like our unpredictability and they fear our rages. As the bouda alpha couple, Andrea and Raphael will sit on the Pack’s Council. That won’t go over well with some people. The wolves and Clan Heavy, in particular, will find her presence tough to swallow. There are four hundred wolves and only thirty-two of us. But the Bear is by far the biggest threat. He’s old-fashioned and he holds on to his prejudices. He practically raised Curran and he has a lot of influence with him. If I have any hope of safeguarding my son’s future, I have to counteract Mahon.”
Finally. It all became clear. “And you think that if I became Curran’s mate, I’d intercede on Andrea’s behalf?”
“Not only on her behalf, but on behalf of all boudas. There are six children in the clan now, four of whom are teenagers, all past puberty with no traces of loupism. If you think ordinary adolescents are wild, you’re in for a shock. The last time we had that many young ones, Curran was hammering the Pack together and he himself was rather young. He chose to be lenient when my kids stepped out of line. He’s secure in his power now and may not be as indulgent.”
Lenient Beast Lord. That would be the day.
Aunt B leaned in and fixed me with a stare. “Suppose you become the alpha. What is the minimum acceptable distance between a female shapeshifter and Curran?”
“I don’t know.”
“Three feet, unless it’s a battle. Any closer and she’s challenging you. You walk into a room at a formal gathering, do shapeshifters rise or stay down?”
“I don’t know.”
“The alphas rise to demonstrate that you acknowledge their power, the rest stay down, showing submission. If a shapeshifter shows you his teeth, is he smiling in greeting or is he trying to intimidate you?”
“I don’t know.” Broken record, that’s me.
“If his head is bowed, he’s smiling. If he’s holding himself erect, you need to be snarling.”
I’d had just about enough. “What is the point of all of this?”
“I have no doubt that you’ll become Curran’s mate. You love him, you nearly died for him, and you won’t be able to let him go. When that happens, you’ll be in over your head, dear. You must play by our rules and you don’t know them.” She smiled triumphantly. “Here is my offer to you: I’ll give you two of my kids. They’re very good, steady, and skilled. They won’t go crazy unless you give them permission. Their loyalty is to you alone and they’ll have your best interests at heart. They’ll keep you from making any big mistakes. You’ll still make small ones, but that can’t be helped. In return, you promise to hold the bouda clan in special regard. I won’t ask you to break the rules, but I may ask you to stretch them once in a while. It’s a very good offer, Kate.”
I met her gaze. “You don’t have to bribe me. I wouldn’t let anyone touch Andrea anyway.”
“You may think so now, but friendships end and wither, while business arrangements persist. I’m an old-fashioned alpha as well, and I’d prefer to make the bargain.”
Was there a downside to this? She was right, I knew nothing of the customs. If I chose to accept Curran’s offer . . . What the hell was I thinking?
“If I do end up being his mate, we have a deal,” I said. “That’s one colossal ‘if.’ ”
Aunt B’s eyes lit up. “Excellent, dear. Excellent.”
“I’ll tell him about this.”
“I expect you to.”
“You do realize that he could change his mind? We didn’t part on good terms.”
She pursed her lips. “Mating is a volatile time for our kind. Newly mated shapeshifters are jealous, possessive, and prone to violence. Their instincts are in overdrive. You want to hole up with your mate somewhere safe, and if anyone looks at him for longer than two seconds, you have to fight with yourself not to sink your claws into her throat. It’s not the most rational time in one’s life, which is why the Pack Law makes provisions for the mating frenzy.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out a small leather book with a clasp. She unlocked the clasp, revealing pages protected by clear plastic. A tiny photo album.
“These are all of my hooligans.” Aunt B flipped through the pages and held the album out to me. A young man smiled back at me from the photograph. Thin to the point of skinny, he had glossy dark hair and a kid’s grin: wide and happy.
“Alejandro,” she said. “We call him Mouse, because he was always so quiet, you wouldn’t know he is in the room. Five three, a hundred and twenty pounds wet. Arms like matches. Eats like a horse but nothing sticks to him. He’s a shy sweet kid. Look at that grin.” She smiled. “Not a mean bone in the boy. He got married last year to a very nice rat girl. Girls joked a bit: mouse got married to a rat. At his wedding, Curran remarked that his wife was very pretty. Alejandro jumped on the table and tried to cut Curran’s throat with his dinner knife.”
I blinked. “What happened?”
“Well, what do you think happened? Curran grabbed him by the neck and we had to go and get a loup cage to put the groom in until he calmed down. That’s how he spent his reception, in the loup cage in the other room, screaming curses. His bride sat by the cage until he cooled off enough to be reasoned with and then got in there with him. He didn’t scream after that.” Aunt B rubbed the photo with her thumb. Her eyes were warm. “He’s very embarrassed by it all now.”
I didn’t know the Pack law well, but I knew enough to recognize a challenge. “Curran could’ve killed him.”
“Oh, yes. Would’ve been well within his rights, too. The Pack law is very careful. It doesn’t say you can’t punish a shapeshifter during the mating frenzy. It just says that you don’t have to punish him. If you want to overlook his infraction, it won’t be seen as a sign of weakness on your part. Mind you, Curran wasn’t trying to rile Mouse up. He has to come to every wedding, because they always invite him, and he hates it. He’s usually very careful with what he says, but he was tired that day and he said the first polite congratulatory thing that popped into his head. ‘You have a beautiful wife, Alejandro.’ ”