Chapter 244 Total Acceptance
Valerie nodded and sipped her wine, forcing her smile to stay firmly nailed in place. But somewhere between the word soulbond and the toast to the werewolf girl, her appetite had quietly packed its bags and left.
Tan glanced at her. “Are you alright, Aunt Valerie? You look a little pale.”
Valerie laughed a touch too loudly. Loud enough that a few heads around the table turned towards her, and the family exchanged small, puzzled glances.
“I’m perfectly well,” she said, recovering. “I’m happy, that’s all! We’re having a wedding soon! Kai, you’re a true man. Knowing exactly what you want and going straight for it. That’s the mark of a real Mondragon.”
Kai lifted his glass to her in a toast. “Thank you, Aunt Valerie. I appreciate the enthusiasm.”
Valerie turned to Jessica, her smile sharpening at the edges. “You must be a very lucky girl.”
Kai reached over, wrapping his fingers securely around Jessica’s hand on the table. “Actually, Aunt Valerie, I am the lucky one here,” he said before Jessica could even open her mouth.
Valerie took another sip of wine to stop herself from snarling out loud, and at last began to eat. And despite everything, despite the bitter turn the evening had taken, the food was undeniably good. She savoured a mouthful, then another.
“Hmm,” she hummed in satisfaction and looked at Angelica with a tight grin. “My dear friend, you really must increase the salary of whoever prepared this meal. They’re clearly a treasure.”
Angelica smiled and raised her glass. “A toast, then. To my lovely daughter-in-law, who made this very delicious meal for me, with her own two hands, to welcome me back home.”
Valerie’s jaw dropped. She sat frozen, her fork hovering mid-air as she gaped at her friend.
“Jessica’s a wonderful cook,” Kai added proudly as he scooped another portion onto his plate.
Angelica gave a fond nod, patting Jessica’s shoulder affectionately. “I’m not the least bit worried about Kai’s stomach in this marriage,” Angelica went on. “I know he’s in very good hands.”
Valerie’s eyes flew back to Jessica, watching the young werewolf girl blush and smile sweetly at the compliments. She hadn’t meant to praise the girl’s cooking at all. She’d only reached for it as a safe subject, something ordinary to cling to while her mind reeled from the soulbond revelation.
And now she’d walked straight into a far worse blow, because Valerie knew their pack culture better than anyone. When a potential daughter-in-law cooked for her mother-in-law, and that mother-in-law openly enjoyed the meal and praised it at her own table, it meant one thing and one thing only.
Total acceptance.
The girl wasn’t just Kai’s soulbond. She was already, in every way that mattered, welcomed into the family.
This is completely unfair, Valerie thought fiercely, her chest heaving with silent rage. This nameless girl is getting everything handed to her on a silver platter far too easily. The status, the wealth, the family approval… all because of a stupid cosmic bond!
As Angelica carried on, chattering happily about Kai and Jessica and wedding preparations, Kai’s phone buzzed against the table. He picked it up and saw a text from Derek. He opened it to find an image, with a line of text beneath it.
If you have some time, I’d like you to look into this man. He’s claiming to be Kira’s private tutor, but I don’t trust the bastard one bit. Find out everything.
Kai smiled and shook his head, thumbing out a reply.
On it, Your Grace. Even though we both know this is jealousy talking.
Derek’s text came almost immediately: I am not jealous. I know this guy is off. You can come see for yourself!
Kai replied: Yes, sir. I guess that would be sometime within the week. Right now, I’m enjoying family time. Expect your details tomorrow.
When Derek didn’t reply again, he pocketed the phone and got right back into the happy family conversation going on around the dining table, just as his mother was describing the flowers she thought might suit a spring wedding.
***
After dinner, Angelica walked Valerie and Alicia out, thanking them warmly for coming.
At the door, Valerie turned and dredged up her most gracious smile. “Congratulations, my dear. On Kai’s behalf, and yours.”
She placed a hand briefly on Angelica’s arm. “Even though my sweet Alicia here has lost, I share in your joy at your son finding his soulbond. Truly. What more could a mother want?”
Angelica smiled warmly, nodding her head. “Thank you, Valerie. Drive safely.”
Once they finally parted ways and stepped out into the dark courtyard, the pleasant masks vanished. Valerie and Alicia got into their car and sat in a suffocating silence for a while.
Then, Valerie started the engine, aggressively shifting the gears as she drove away from the brightly lit driveway and out onto the quiet, dark pack roads. A few minutes down the road, she abruptly slammed her foot onto the brakes, pulling the car over roughly onto the side of the road. She shifted into park and hit the steering wheel with her fist, her breathing ragged.
Alicia looked over at her with raised brows.
She let out a frustrated, strangled shriek and gripped the leather wheel until her knuckles turned white.
“I will not,” she seethed, “let that werewolf girl waltz in and steal everything I’ve worked for. Everything. Years of it.”
Beside her, Alicia said nothing at all. She simply sat there, thumbs flying over her phone, scrolling through something as though her mother weren’t having a small breakdown eighteen inches away.
Valerie turned to look at her. “Aren’t you even slightly concerned or humiliated?” she demanded. “Kai is choosing some nameless, low-ranking werewolf girl over you? You are his father’s Beta’s daughter! You have the perfect lineage, the proper training, the look! How can you just sit there?”
“She’s his soulbond, Mum,” Alicia said flatly, not looking up. “You heard him. You can’t break a soulbond. It’s not a boyfriend you can charm away. The goddess herself picked her. Game over.”
Valerie was quiet for a moment. Then she said, very softly, “You can definitely break it.”
Alicia’s thumbs slowed, and she stopped typing entirely.
“Think about it,” Valerie went on, her voice dropping into something low and cold. “If the werewolf girl is no more… then there wouldn’t be any bond left to worry about at all, would there? No girl. No bond. And a grieving man is a man who needs comforting by someone familiar. Someone who was always there.”
Alicia’s head snapped up. She turned to stare at her mother, her eyes wide with bewildered disbelief.
“Mum!”