through the trees and into the house where she’d grown up. Meenakshi waved her into a seat at the kitchen table and pulled out a skillet. She wasn’t the best cook on the planet, but she did a spiced omelet that Desiree loved, complete with sliced chilies, onions, a sprig of coriander . . . and lashings of love.
It was exactly that favorite that she made for Desiree today.
Putting it in front of Desiree along with a small bowl of steaming rice, her mother said, “You need carbs as well as protein. Eat.” She placed a platter of cut fruit on the table for afterward.
Sitting down with a toasted bagel that she spread with cream cheese for her own lunch, Meenakshi sighed. “Twenty-seven years and six months since I discovered this and it remains my delicious nemesis.” She took a big bite, made a blissful sound in her throat.
Desiree laughed. “I know. My fault.” Meenakshi had apparently started craving bagels with cream cheese during her first pregnancy, hadn’t been able to eat them during her second, then started again right afterward. “At least I didn’t make you eat pickles and strawberry ice cream. Together.”
Her mother’s eyes widened. “Who’s eating that?”
“Ria,” Desiree said, knowing Meenakshi hated missing out on any interpack gossip. “Annie told me Ria sent Emmett out in the middle of the night to find pickles. He bought a jumbo jar and she ate them inside of a day.” She shook her head. “Apparently, she dips the pickles in the ice cream.”
Meenakshi’s smile was affectionate. “I can’t wait for their cub to be born. And I bet you the baby grows up and either hates pickles or adores them. No middle ground. Just like you can’t stand cream cheese and your sister loves bananas more than is good for her.”
“Sonu call yesterday or today?” Her sister, Sonal, might be roaming the world, but she made sure to touch base regularly, aware Meenakshi worried about her “cublets.”
Her mother’s face lit up even as she groaned. “Look at this!” She thrust her phone at Desiree. “Your sister is jumping off perfectly good bridges, just like you did!”
Desiree laughed at the image of her younger sibling’s gleeful grin as she bungee jumped off a mist-shrouded bridge somewhere in South America. She decided not to tell her mom that Sonal had already jumped out of a plane. Twice. Those messages had come directly to Desiree. For a cat, her sister had an unusually strong taste for the air. No surprise then that Sonal intended to become a pilot once she’d satisfied her need to roam.
They spoke about Sonal and about other family things until Desiree was halfway through her meal. At which point, she told her mother everything, because that was what she’d always done—Meenakshi’s love was a fierce force of nature. It centered and comforted Desiree as much as her father’s calm, solid presence.
“Hmm,” Meenakshi said afterward. “He’s right, your Felix.”
“He’s not my Felix.” That was the problem.
“Stop sulking, cublet. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I only do it with you.”
Laughing softly, Meenakshi reached out to tweak one of Desiree’s braids. “My pretty, brilliant baby, you know what you’re like. Your cat fights chains tooth and nail. It’ll take a very strong man indeed to tie you down.”
“He’s strong,” Desiree said with a scowl. “Submissive doesn’t mean weak, you know that.” That was a mistake only outsiders ever made. Every changeling raised in a balanced pack knew that all submissives would fight to the death to protect the vulnerable under their care, their courage unflinching even under attack from dominants they could have no hope of defeating.
Meenakshi raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “I know that. But does your leopard know that?”
Desiree worried her lower lip with her teeth, the leopard prowling frustrated and confused inside her skin. “I want him more than I’ve ever wanted a man in my life,” she whispered. “And I can’t bear to hurt him.”
She met her mother’s intent gaze. “He’s so talented, Mom, so gifted. I swear he literally coaxes the trees to settle into the soil, to grow.” Rubbing a fisted hand against her heart, she swallowed. “I feel this hunger to know him, to find out all the pieces of him and hold those pieces close so nothing can ever harm him.”
Meenakshi set her cup on the table. “That’s more than want, sweetheart.”
“I know.” She folded her arms around her middle, hugging herself tight. “I just don’t know if it’s enough for Felix.”