Dimitri’s POV
I took a deep breath as soon as I entered my mother’s house. A huge smile spread across my face. Her scent was so strong in here and it made me so fucking happy.
I missed her and I wanted to see her.
“Dimitri?” I heard my mother call me.
I could hear the confusion in her voice. She walked into the living room and furrowed her eyebrows.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I thought I join you for dinner,” I said as I looked toward the stairs. “Is Madeline here?”
My mother tightened her jaw. I ignored it. She would have to learn to love Madeline.
“She is upstairs,” my mother mumbled. “You never come to dinner. Why now?”
She narrowed her eyes a little.
“I was here a few days ago, mother,” I sighed, glancing at the stairs again.
I wished that she would come downstairs soon.
“After I spent days begging you to come,” my mother said angrily. “And here you are now, coming to dinner of your own free will.”
I looked at her and furrowed my eyebrows. Why the hell did she sound so angry?
“Is it because of that girl upstairs?” my mother continued. “I don’t want her near you, Dimitri. When I told you to find a chosen mate, I didn’t mean someone like her.”
I had to hold back a growl.
‘I know that she is our mother, but she can’t talk about Maddie like that,’ Skol said angrily.
He was right. I couldn’t let her disrespect my mate.
“Do not disrespect her like that, mother,” I said, trying so fucking hard to keep the anger out of my voice. “She is Mike’s daughter. Don’t forget that.”
Madeline was her Luna as well, but I couldn’t let my mother know that yet. I had to keep it for myself.
“I am not disrespecting her,” my mother argued. “I just don’t want you falling for a regular wolf. You are the Lycan King, Dimitri. You can’t mate with someone who isn’t a Lycan. We are going to lose the throne and impure our bloodline.”
My eyes widened. My heart raced.
That thought didn’t even occur to me.
I wanted her so fucking much that I didn’t even think about that.
But she had to be a Lycan. The Goddess wouldn’t have bonded her to me if she was a regular wolf. Her father had Lycan genes and they must have woken up in Maddie.
Yes. That had to be it. She couldn’t be a regular wolf.
“She could be a Lycan, mother,” I sighed as I forced my body to move. “Mike has Lycan genes.”
I walked to the kitchen. I had to get out of there before I ran upstairs to find her.
“Mike’s grandfather was the last Lycan in his family,” my mother reminded me of something I knew all too well. “He impured his bloodline by mating with a regular wolf. If the genes didn’t activate in Mike, why would you think they would activate inside his daughter? Her mother was a regular wolf.”
I turned around to look at my mother. She was pissed as fuck. What the hell was her problem?
“I don’t know, mother,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her. “Why does it bother you so much anyway? I never said that I liked her.”
I didn’t like her. I fucking adored her.
But there was no way in hell I would tell my mother that. Not yet. Not until Maddie turned 18 and figured out who I was to her.
My mother wanted to say something, but she was interrupted when Mike walked inside the kitchen.
“What smells so good?” he asked as he approached my mother and wrapped his arms around her waist.
He kissed her cheek and looked up at me.
“Did you know that Maddie got a job?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my pissed-off mother.
Mike sighed and walked away from my mother. I heard him opening the fridge.
My mother and I were still staring at each other. I was trying to figure out what the hell her problem was. She was staring at me with narrowed eyes. Her breaths were short and her jaw kept twitching.
“Your mom told me,” Mike sighed, making me look away from my mother and turn to him. “I kind of knew that she wasn’t going to listen to us. She was always stubborn like that.”
Mike shook his head and chuckled a little.
“She got that from her mom,” he said as he rummaged through the fridge. “Leah was a very stubborn woman.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I asked him.
Mike turned his head to look at me. “I didn’t want to piss her off even more. I want her to like me.”
“So you will let her do whatever she wants?” my mother asked angrily.
She approached Mike and snatched a pudding cup out of his arms.
“Dinner is almost ready,” my mother mumbled as she put the pudding cup back in the fridge and closed it.
“I won’t let her do whatever she wants,” Mike mumbled. “She got a job. That’s not harmful to anybody.”
Oh, it would be harmful to Seth if he kept smiling like that around her.
My mother approached the kitchen island and continued cutting the carrots a little bit too aggressively.
What the fuck was going on with her? Why did Maddie bother her so much?
What the fuck is going on with you? I mind-linked her.
She glanced up at me but ignored my question.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Mike asked my mother.
“Nothing, Mike,” my mother responded coldly. “I’m worried that you will spoil the girl if you keep letting her do whatever the hell she wants.”
Mike looked at me with a confused expression on his face. I tightened my jaw and looked at my mother.
“She got a job, mother,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be happy that she is independent and wants to work?”
My mother didn’t respond. She just kept cutting the carrot with even more force than before.
Mike sighed and approached her. He stopped what she was doing and pulled her into a hug.
“I know it’s hard, honey,” Mike said. “We didn’t count on having a child when we got together and I know that this isn’t easy for you. But Maddie is a good kid. Stop worrying, please.”
My mother gulped and kept her eyes down.
Mike kissed her temple and let her go.
“I will go get Maddie,” Mike said as he walked away from us.
My heart raced and heat rushed through my body.
I would finally get to see her.
My mother looked up at me. She took a deep breath and continued cutting the carrot.
“She is really nice, mother,” I said. “Give her a chance.”
“Just stay away from her, Dimitri,” my mother said coldly. “I don’t want her to stay in our pack.”
I held back another growl.
Well, that wouldn’t happen. Maddie was the Luna and this was her pack. She would stay and she would rule the kingdom with me.
My mother would have to find a way to deal with it.
