FIVE MONTHS AGO

"How do I look?" I twirled around for my grandparents' benefit, and then did another twirl as I watched myself in the mirror, loving the way the dress' long, flowing skirt danced around my legs. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever owned, and the fact that it was a gift from my mother made it even more precious.

"You look like a princess," my grandfather Chris said loyally.

I laughed. "Oh, Gramps." I turned to Kate, asking shyly, "Gran?"

"It's one of those rare instances that I'll have to agree with your grandfather," Kate answered.

There were tears in her eyes, but there was also sadness, and my smile faded. "What's wrong?"

Kate shook her head. "It's nothing. Just an old woman getting sentimental." She wiped her eyes as she spoke. Looking up again, she seemed to hesitate before saying, "You understand this won't be permanent, don't you?"

Her words made me realize what she was worried about, and I sighed. "Oh, Gran." Taking a seat next to her on the couch, I hugged Kate tightly, touched by her concern. "I know what you're thinking, and it won't be like that."

Kate was normally tough, like an army sergeant

but then, she and Gramps had been in the Marines

, but she was also the one who had raised me since I was a baby. The years I had spent in her care had taught me things only few people know about, and one was that Kate's greatest pain came from seeing her loved ones getting hurt.

"You've explained to me about this before. My mother lost her head in love but when my biological father left her, she wasn't ever the same again. The moment she gave birth, she left me in your care, knowing she wouldn't be able to take care of me. But now she's back and she wants to start anew. I'm not to expect anything from it, but I shouldn't hate her for what she did."

Hugging her again, I said simply, "And I don't. It's impossible to hate when you and Gramps raised me to be so dreadfully nice."

Before Kate could answer, we heard the unmistakable sound of a car coming up our farm's driveway.

She was here.

Kimberley Dresden.

My mother.

We all stiffened, and for a moment all we could do was look at each other, as if not knowing what to do. If it had been happening to someone else, I would probably think it was funny. We were acting like it was the U.S. President coming to visit us when it was just their daughter. My mother.

Chris broke the silence, saying gruffly, "Let's go and meet our prodigal daughter then." Standing up, he went to the door, telling us to stay behind. My heartbeat began to race as I watched my grandfather open the door and speak in a low, undecipherable murmur.

Was this how it felt to be in love? I wondered giddily. This excitement of seeing my mother, of finally being able to see her and talk to her in the flesh – I really had a feeling it would be no different from how it would be if and when I fell in love for the first time.

Finally, Chris came walking back and I saw the silhouette of two women walking behind him.

Chris' face was bland, and his tone was equally impersonal as he said, "Kassia, I'd like to introduce you to your mother." He stepped aside.

I caught my breath.

My mother was beautiful. Like an actress, or any one of those women who starred in reality shows featuring rich men's housewives. She was beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated. Like Kate and me, she was also a strawberry blonde, and her eyes were also the same shade of brown. I looked so much like her, it was uncanny, and my heartbeat raced even faster.

My mother. This was my mother. My mother———

"Hello, Kassia. You've grown into a beautiful woman."

Her voice was…odd. I didn't know how to explain why, only that I knew I hadn't heard a voice like it in my entire life. Ignoring it, I rose to my feet and said shyly, "Hello, ma'am." I waited for her to tell me I shouldn't call her that. That I should call her Kimberley or even Mom.

But she didn't.

"I'm glad the dress fits you perfectly. I knew you'd be the same size as me and your grandmother." Her gaze moved to Kate, who had risen to her feet as well.

I turned to look at my grandmother and found her unsmiling.

"Should I leave the two of you alone?" Kate asked. "I'm sure you and Kassia have a lot to talk about———"

Kimberley's laugh cut her off. "Oh, dear heavens, no. There's no need for that. I'm sure you've told her all about me?"

That was odd, too, I couldn't help thinking. The way she smiled. It wasn't something I had ever seen before.

"Not all," Kate answered. "I'm hoping you'd surprise me and show us you've changed."

My mother laughed again. "Well, then, I guess you're in for disappointment." Turning to look at me, she asked, "Shall we sit?" She didn't wait for an answer, leaving Kate and me to take our seats as well.

The woman behind her remained on her feet, and when my mother saw where I was looking, she said dismissively, "Don't mind her. We'll get to her later."

My mouth opened and closed, unable to figure out the best way to answer. Be polite to guests and offer a seat or be respectful of my mother's wishes?

Everything was just so odd, nothing happening like I had imagined it would.

"Kassia, I need you to sign something."

My heart leapt in my throat as Kimberley handed me a sheaf of documents. Adoption papers, I thought dazedly. I was pretty sure someone as beautiful as my mother wouldn't have remained single. She was married now, and the nice man she had married wanted to adopt me so we could be a family.

I was just about to read the contract when Kate asked, "What's it for?"

"Oh, just a trust fund for her, in exchange for a confidentiality agreement."

The last words threw me off, and I lowered the contract back to my lap. "A confidentiality agreement about what?" I couldn't think of anything I know that was worth hiding except, maybe, for the Fifty Shades of Grey DVD I had hidden under my bed.

"It's all in there," my mother answered, still smiling her odd smile.

"Just spell it out, Kimberley. What is in it?"

"Can't you just read———"

"Kimberley!"

My mother's face whitened.

I was shocked, too. I had never heard Kate raise her voice before.

The odd smile disappeared from Kimberley's face. "This is how you want to play it?" She didn't wait for Kate to answer. "Fine, then. The contract is for Kassia to receive a hundred thousand dollars in exchange for promising she will never contact me after this and never tell a living soul about the relationship between us. Once she's signed this, we can all be dead to each other." Her gaze never waved from Kate as she spoke, and this time I realized what the oddness was about.

In fact, it wasn't oddness at all.

Her smile, her tone, everything that made her seem odd was all because she was empty.

Kimberley Dresden was completely devoid of love, and I hadn't ever met someone like her until now.

"For God's sake, Kimmy, don't speak like that." It was Chris, coming to us from behind, and I had never seen such despair on my grandfather's face. Beside me, Kate drew in her breath sharply, and I knew she had seen the same thing, too.

All of us were hurting, but my mother remained…odd. An odd stranger, able to look at Kate and Chris like they weren't the parents who made her, raised her, loved her. In fact, my mother acted like they didn't even exist at all, looking at me with one arched eyebrow as she asked, "Are you going to sign it or not?"

I remembered all the days that I had dreamt about meeting her, remembered how I would imagine all sorts of things we'd be doing together as mother and daughter. I remembered telling all of it to Kate and Chris, and I wondered if that was the reason why they had allowed this meeting, why they had allowed themselves to be hurt again.

Picking up the pen, I scrawled my name on the lines, over and over, until all twenty pages of the contract were signed. "Please don't send us any money. We don't need it."

She laughed, oddly. "You're just like them." She threw a disgusted look at her surroundings. "And how can you seriously say that when you're living in this dump?"

Chris flinched, and I knew that the insult hit him raw. My grandfather was a very traditional man, someone who thought it was his duty to be the breadwinner of the family simply because he was the man and Kate and I were women.

"We don't see it as a dump." My voice drew her attention back to me. "We're happy here, so thank you for your concern, but we really don't need anything else." I stood up, and Kimberley stood up as well. "Thank you for coming. Rest assured none of us will ever bother you again. But if you ever make the mistake of sending us the money, I'll just ask the bank to give it back to my mother."

Her lips tightened at the threat. "Bitch."

"Kimberley," Kate cried out.

I didn't even flinch. It seemed her oddness was rubbing off on me. Like mother, like daughter, and all that crap.

"Is that all?" I asked quietly.

"No. Not quite." She turned to her companion. "I'd like you to take a photo with her. Make sure you look happy, too. I'm going to show it to my husband, let him know that my love child's in a good place and we'd only be guilty of ruining her life if we let her know about the truth."

Without a word, I took the phone she had in her hand and came to stand beside her companion. "Please smile, ma'am." I lifted the phone up, smiled, and took a selfie. It was pretty easy, thanks to the oddness spreading inside of me.

And just like that, she was gone, leaving nothing but oddness behind her.

I watched my mother drive away, in an obviously expensive car, and I felt odder and odder———

Behind me, I heard my grandmother speak.

"Oh, Chris."

I whirled around, alarmed by the tremor in Kate's voice. My grandmother wasn't crying, but my grandfather was, and the sight crushed me.

I saw it all in his face, saw that he blamed himself for the way my mother turned out, saw the way he couldn't understand why his own flesh and blood could be like that to them.

And Kate, my lovely, strong grandmother…

I could see it in the way she was hugging her husband, the way she wished she could take all his pain and absorb it inside of her.

All of this because of my mother and how odd she was.

Rushing to them, I wrapped my arms around Kate and Chris. "I'm sorry." The tears started to fall, and the oddness started to disappear. "I'm so sorry you had to meet her again because of me." The more I spoke, the harder I cried. But I didn't stop because it also made the oddness go away, and I wanted that. I needed that.

"I love you, Gran, love you, Gramps, always." Closing my eyes, I hugged them more tightly, destroying the oddness by allowing the pain of love to fill me.

My mother was odd because she only wanted love without the pain.

But I wasn't going to be like her, I promised myself fiercely. I wasn't going to be odd. I wasn't going to hate. Instead, I was going to fall in love, find a man who would love me back, and with him, I'd give Kate and Chris a son, and we'd be a family.

Together, we wouldn't ever be odd.

"We can't always play this game," the council member warned Alessandro from behind. "If you persist in continuing with such actions, a fine will no longer be sufficient. You need to remember, Alessandro: being a prince won't protect you forever."

The words continued to echo like a taunt in Alessandro Moretti's mind even after he was already home.

Fucking Lyccan Council, he thought grimly as he reached for a fresh strip of gauze. All they wanted were peace talks and mediations, like that would really stop those stupid pups from talking shit about his family.

A knock sounded on the door then, and Alessandro said immediately, "Come in." He didn't need to ask who it was, the scent tingeing the air letting him know who it was without turning around.

Domenico Moretti walked in. Taller than the twins, Alessandro and Alejandro, by a few inches, he was also more powerfully built, as befitting the heir apparent to the Moretti clan. He also used to be considered the strongest and most respected member of their race, someone whose mere glance would have Lyccans quivering in fear.

But that was then.

Now, Domenico Moretti was a mere shell of who he once was. Now, he was a laughingstock, someone almost the entire race loved to ridicule because of the way he had allowed love to make a fool out of him.

Seeing Alessandro seated on one of the bar stools, applying a special salve to his wounds, Domenico came to a stop. Since most wounds, even those considered mortally fatal by humans, would have healed in mere seconds for Lyccans like them, Domenico knew there were only a few reasons to explain why there were still red gashes on his brother's chest.

"How bad is the poison?" Domenico asked, his face and tone equally impassive.

"Nothing strong," Alessandro answered dismissively as he finished applying the salve and started bandaging his lower chest. "It's just what I'd expect from cowards like them." His lip curled as his spoke, his disgust evident as he recalled the way the pups had ganged up on him, thinking they'd win because they had the numbers on their side.

Idiots. Goddamn idiots, thinking that they could beat him just like that.

"As they were obviously cowards…" Domenico's mildly spoken words drew Alessandro's attention back to him. "There shouldn't have been any point in beating them up, don't you think?" His older brother paused. "And all eight of them, too?"

Another shrug. "You and I both know they deserved it."

"Well, both of us also know it wasn't truly you they were trying to offend."

Teeth gnashing at the way Domenico was still able to stay calm after everything, Alessandro threw away the used gauze into the waste bin as he asked violently, "What the fuck do you want me to do then? Do nothing even if I hear them call you a fucking dog? Or maybe you want me to do it Alejandro's way and get revenge by fucking their girlfriends?"

"Not quite." Domenico's voice remained even despite the fury displayed by his younger brother. "But yes, I would appreciate it if you do find a woman to regularly fuck."

Alessandro's head shot up.

Domenico's gaze remained inscrutable.

His jaw dropped. So he hadn't been wrong then. That odd note in his brother's voice wasn't something he had imagined, making him demand incredulously, "Are you threatening me?"

Domenico was unsurprised by the way Alessandro chose to interpret his words. For a moment, he debated with himself, knowing the risk he was taking. Once he gave Alessandro his word, there wouldn't be any way he could take it back.

It was a huge risk, but if there was something he had learned since his wife had disappeared, it was how much power love could wield over a person.

Making his decision, Domenico looked at his brother. "I'm not threatening you. Rather, I'm offering you a deal."

"A deal?" Alessandro fought to keep his wariness in check. Making deals up front wasn't something Domenico was known for. His oldest brother tended to be a manipulative bastard, one who liked to pull everyone's strings without anyone knowing it, not even the person whose limbs were under his control.

Domenico clasped his hands behind his back. "Yes. A deal. I want you to find a woman you can fuck regularly – just one woman, be able to fuck her every day for thirty days, and upon finding that woman, if you still want to kill everyone who throws insults at us, I give you my word. You will not have to defend me again."

Only a moment of silence followed before his younger brother said disbelievingly, "You're serious? You just want me to fuck someone for thirty days straight———"

"One woman," Domenico emphasized.

"And that's it?" Alessandro's eyebrows shot up. "You'll go back to being normal if I do that?"

"I have given you my word, haven't I?"

Alessandro slowly shook his head. "What the hell is this about, Domenico?"

The fact that you have to ask only means I have done the right thing, Domenico thought.

"My reasons for it are immaterial." Domenico started for the door, saying over his shoulder, "Just let me know when you've found her and we'll start counting the days."