Belong To The Night. Cynthia Eden

what I do.” Tully grinned at the cat who was glaring at him while the cute little witch sat in his lap.

      “You just leave your brother alone, Tully Smith,” she laughed. “And nothing is wrong. But I did want to talk to you before I talk to your daddy.”

      “Talk to me about what?”

      “The call I got a little while ago. From your father.”

      All the humor flooded out of him and he asked, “What did he want?”

      “Now, pup, before you go gettin’ all upset, let me say he was ever so nice.” Tully knew it for fact. Knew his momma was the nicest woman on the planet. It was the Southern belle in her. The charming sweetness of her made more than one predatory female wonder how Millie MacClancy managed to live in a house with Tully, Kyle, and Jack without killing any of them. But that was her way and, on most, her innate kindness brought out the kindness in others. Even Jack Treharne. But Jack had proved himself to Tully a hundred times over. Buck had not. And Tully didn’t want that old bastard hanging around his momma until he did.

      “I’m sure he was, Momma, but I still want to know why he was calling you at all.”

      “He wants dinner.” Tully didn’t know he was snarling until he realized the witches at the table were all staring at him. Mac and Emma looked ready to bolt. Jamie just smirked. “Now calm down,” his mother went on. “He wants dinner with all of us. You, me, Jack, Kyle, Katie, Buck’s boys, and Wanda.”

      “Momma, I’ve got a lot going on right now. The Mayor’s Spring Dance is taking up a lot of my time and—”

      “Tully, I know you don’t want to do this. I know and understand that. Really I do. But…I just…I just want…”

      Hearing her struggle for words, Tully felt his heart break a little. “You don’t want it to seem like you tried to get between us.”

      She let out a grateful breath. “Yes. Exactly. I understand if you don’t want to get too close to Buck. And in the end that’s going to be your decision. But one dinner to make sure that’s what you want…?”

      Anyone else he’d turn them down flat. Anyone else, he’d laugh at them and tell them to go chase their tail. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was his momma. The woman who’d done everything to protect him. She loved him unconditionally and for that she deserved whatever she wanted. Especially when she rarely asked for anything except that high-powered vacuum for last Christmas and a half a pound of chocolates for Valentine’s Day because, to quote her, “I can’t eat a whole pound of chocolates! I have to watch my girlish figure.”

      Yeah. For Millie MacClancy Treharne, she deserved whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. “Of course, Momma. It’s just a little thing,” he said, using one of her favorite phrases. “I’ll definitely go have dinner with Buck. And so will Kyle and Katie. They can’t wait.”

      His siblings glared at him from across the table and he smiled and winked.

      He heard his mother let out a soft, relieved sigh. “Thank you, pup.”

      “Anything for you, Momma. You know that.”

      “And I appreciate that. But now I gotta get your daddy to agree.”

      “You’re on your own with that, darlin’.”

      “When it comes to Jack Treharne, I usually am.”

      They said their good-byes and Tully disconnected the call. He carefully returned his phone to his back pocket, moved his beer and the bowl of chips out of his way, and then slammed his head onto the table.

      The pain helped but not as much as he wanted it to.

      Jamie put her arm around Tully’s shoulders as she wondered how the wood table had survived being attacked by such a remarkably hard head. “Buck up, little—” Tully turned his head so he could glare at her. “Okay. Wrong word to use. How about ‘chin up’?”

      “Or I can kill him while he sleeps and avoid this dinner all together.”

      “You should have told Momma no,” Katie chastised.

      “Can you tell Momma no?” Kyle asked.

      She crossed her eyes and grudgingly admitted, “No.”

      “You should have the dinner at the hotel restaurant.” Jamie suggested.

      “Why?” Kyle asked.

      “If you guys meet Buck at the hotel he’s already staying at, you can leave whenever you want. If it’s going well, you can stay and enjoy Mac’s tolerable food.”

      “Tolerable?” Mac snapped.

      “If it’s going really well, you can enjoy my superb desserts.”

      “I hate you more and more every day,” Mac muttered.

      “But if it goes badly, you’re not stranding Buck anywhere. He and his sons are already there. You don’t have to worry about who’s carpooling with who or who needs directions back to the highway, yada yada. You wanna go, you go.”

      Tully sat up, his pained expression gone. “You know…that’s a really good idea.”

      She sipped her drink before admitting, “What can I say? I’ve had years of practice getting out of bad family dinners.”

      Tully walked Jamie and Mac home, swinging by Mac’s place first and then heading into the woods toward the coast. Less than a mile from her house, Jamie stopped. When Tully faced her, she smiled and for some crazy reason, he thought she was about to kiss him. And he really wanted her to. He wanted her to kiss him so bad, he could actually taste her on his lips.

      But instead she said, “Thanks for walking me.”

      “I can take you all the way home.”

      “That’s okay.”

      He stepped in closer. “You afraid to take me to your house, Jamie? Afraid I won’t leave until morning?”

      “The way this town works?” she laughed. “I know you won’t leave.

      “Wow. You are cocky.”

      “Not cocky. I just know how it works in Shifterville, USA. One night leads into another and into another until one day I look up and all your shit will be in my house and you’ll be wondering where your breakfast is.”

      “Oh, come on.”

      “I have seen this dance played out again and again for the last ten months I’ve been here, with couples who I wouldn’t in a million years imagine together. Sorry, handsome, but that won’t be me. I’ve done my time, paid my dues…” She patted his shoulder. “But thanks for thinking of me.”

      She stepped away from him and was several feet away when she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. “And don’t follow me to make sure I get home. That’s just creepy.”

      He hated that she knew him so well.

      Before walking the last stretch that led to her house, Jamie waited. She wanted to make sure Tully hadn’t followed her. She knew he’d do it just to protect her and while she appreciated it, she simply didn’t want to deal with the fallout from something like that. And the gods knew there’d be all sorts of fallout.

      Confident the wolf had headed on home, Jamie took a breath and raised her hands. She held them palms up, her fingers spread out. She began to chant as she slowly moved the last bit to her home. By the time she was fifty or sixty feet away, they all turned toward her. The power she’d raised between her palms flashed hot and bright and she unleashed it. It flew from her and ripped around the perimeter of her house. When it was done, all was quiet but she knew they’d be back. Knew she’d get no rest tonight, as she’d gotten very little rest in the last few weeks.

      Letting out an exhausted sigh, she walked into her