RAFF

Mom. Raff almost dropped the plate he'd just picked up. He buzzed about the dining nook and set things back to rights, though he knew if it was Meribella's mother, her heightened senses wouldn't need a mess to tell her what had been going on just a few minutes before her arrival. He ran a critical eye over the area and sighed.

Aurora lifted her head from the sofa she'd curled up on, her tail thumping against the cushion in a steady rhythm. He read it as a question instead of excitement, and he shook his head. "It's okay girl. Go back to sleep." She dropped her head back down, but the blue eyes that had yet to change to amber remained fixed on the top of the stairs.

"How?" he heard Meribella asking as they made their way up the stairs.

"I'll answer all your questions once you lead me to somewhere I can sit and you put a cold ice water in my hands."

Raff tensed as Dorea's voice washed over him. The haunting echoes of centuries of seafolk swimming through salty waters saturated her words. Waves crashed against pebbled beaches in one syllable, while in the next, the waters were calm beneath satin and stars. Meribella might have the powers of the Star Blessed, but her mother's blood was thicker with selkie genes. Caspian had never had that effect on him (thank the gods), and he wondered if it was something unique to the females of their species. He shuddered to think of how difficult it would be to fight against the hypnotizing force of a full selkie woman if that was the case.

"Raff, I'd like you to meet my mother," Meribella said, coming into his line of sight. The serenity that had settled in her turquoise eyes over the last few months of calm had fled. Once more, storms brewed beneath the surface, and he braced himself for a fight. The woman might be her mother, but he would not tolerate her presence if it brought Meribella pain.

"Well, damn girl," Dorea gasped, coming to a stop at the top of the stairs and staring at the Alpha. "When you decided to get you a man, you went straight to the top."

"Thank you?" he responded, doing his best to keep from gaping. Aging was a process that was nonexistent or extremely slow amongst the supernatural community, so he wasn't sure why he'd expected an older version of the woman he loved.

Dorea was in her prime. She stood, perhaps an inch or two taller than her daughter, her skin a shade darker, and her eyes teal instead of turquoise. Her chin was sharper, her ears pointed slightly at the top, and when she smiled at him, he caught sight of canines that belonged on a predator and not a human.

She stepped forward, and his eyes slid past her face, over the cleavage she had on display, and rested on the gentle swelling of her stomach. His eyes widened, but he kept his mouth shut. Those were questions for Meribella to ask. Not him.

"Mom, sit down. I'll get your drink."

Dorea shuffled by him, and stopped at the couch with an amused look on her face. "Is this a member of the pack or a pet?"

Aurora snorted as if offended, but she relaxed her ears as their guest scratched the top of her head. She hopped of to make room for Dorea, but jumped back up and curled up at her hip.

"Your mouth is going to get stuck that way," Meribella hissed at him as she ran water into a cup.

"She growls and bites at everyone but us, and your mother walks in and is best friends in two minutes?"

"I can hear you, you know. Besides, this girl looks rather intelligent. Did your Mam ever tell you the story of the wolf Kai saved when she was just a babe?"

"No," Meribella answered, handing the glass to her mother and sitting in the recliner across from her. Raff sat in the matching chair and reached across to grab her hand. "I would've thought Kai would put something like that in her diary."

Dorea guzzled the water before speaking. "She stopped keeping that thing after your grandmother was born. She gave up hope until her child was old enough to help her search, but you know all that. No, your grandmother was very ill at birth, so sickly that Kai spent most of those first few weeks thinking about how to bury her child with the earth so frozen. She was scared to toss her out to sea as her people would've done- she didn't want the corpse to be found because the neighbors wouldn't understand."

"Well, this is a pleasant conversation for a first meeting," Meribella grumbled.

"It's fine. I'm intrigued," Raff said and he meant it. Such stories reminded him of the truth of his people. Before they were wolf slayers, they were saviors.

"Charles was gone during this time, and it was on one of her scavenging trips that she came across the she-wolf and her litter. The mother was injured, and she let Kai tend to her wounds and care for her pups. That first night, she shared the meat Charles had left behind- meat she couldn't eat- with the wolf. When she woke up in the morning, the wolf and her pups were curled up around your Mam, keeping her warm. She got better after that, and the wolf family left once the she-wolf was healed."

Raff kept his gaze locked on Meribella, who was watching Aurora with a strange look on her face. "Guess you ladies have always had a thing for wolves," he said, trying to ease the odd silence that settled over the room after she finished the story.

"I like him Bella," Dorea replied, rubbing her stomach.

"He's something else," Meribella responded, rolling her eyes at him. He grinned. She might refuse to stroke his ego, but he wouldn't stop someone if they wanted to.

"Mother, not that I'm not glad to see you, but why are you here? The journey by boat couldn't be easy in your condition, and speaking of your condition- did the potion not hurt the baby?"

There was something unreadable in her face, but her words made his heart jump. Would it be possible for her to get pregnant and take the potion to save her life? For a moment, he fully understood the paper butterflies Meribella talked about- the fragile fluttering stirring in his gut as he waited for Dorea to explain.

"I didn't take it."

"Mother, why not? Don't you understand that you'll die?"

Dorea reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out the glittering vial that haunted his dreams. "I won't take the chance that this baby will be harmed. I wasn't the best mother to you, and I know that now. Hell, I knew that when I was raising you. I was bitter. You only got a small taste of what it was like to grow up with Kai. She was gone by the time you were a teenager, but she never let us be happy. To find contentment in this life.

"That's why I started sleeping around. I knew it would piss them off, but I also hoped I could find someone who would help me not feel so lonely. When I found out I was pregnant with you, your father ran off before the words were out of my mouth. Everything they ever told me turned out to be true, and they made sure I knew that when I came crawling back."

"Mom," Meribella breathed, pulling away from Raff and reaching out to the woman crying on the sofa. Her tears sparkled against her tan cheeks, the rainbow hue different than her daughter's violet and indigo shimmerings.

"Perhaps I should step out? Give you two a moment alone."

"No, please stay. What I'm about to say affects you both."

He settled back into his seat and waited as Dorea gathered herself. "When I found out about this baby, I thought I was getting a second chance, but then you told me about the curse. At first, I was upset- I'm not a saint, but I realized it was still my second chance."

She leaned forward and put the vial into Meribella's hands. "Take this. Be with your man in every way possible. And when I die, I want you to raise this child together. You deserve to be a mother, Meribella. You'll be so much better than I ever was."

"Dorea, please think this through," he said, jumping to his feet to help her from the couch. His heart thrummed in his ears- the sound one of a million wings rising up.

"I have. Now where's the bathroom? This kid makes me have to pee all the damn time."

When the door shut, he turned to face Meribella who was staring at the potion like it might come alive and eat her. Aurora was at her side, whimpering softly as she rested her head on her knee. He crouched in front of her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked. He wasn't. She couldn't be.

"Raff. What do we do?"

He pulled her into a hug, offering her the same comfort she'd given him just a few moments before, though it felt like years ago now. "I don't know. But we'll figure it out. We always do."