The Mate Mistake(The Woolven Secret 3)(52)

"That's never been a concern of mine. This reproducing thing with tiny versions of myself." She shook her head. "But I'm pretty sure that when you're making a whole other living being inside of yourself, you're entitled to as many truffles as you want."

"I think it's a wolf thing. I'm actually not too big on chocolate. I like sour things, when I'm in the mood for a treat. But Noah?" She shook her head. "There's this cute little candy shop run by a sugar fairy down in the village and he actually crawled inside the display case."

Belle laughed. "Oh my gods. He's so adorable, though."

"The bigger versions aren't as cute. You should ask Parker about when Drew damn near lost his mind thinking Emmie had been hurt and that little sugar fairy was flinging chocolates at his snout to get him to cool off. Parker couldn't even tell the story without laughing so hard, I thought he was going to break something."

"That poor little sugar fairy! She must've been terrified."

"Gin is made of stern stuff, but I imagine so. I might've been a little afraid."

"The people in the village, are they all like...us?"

"Yeah. Woolven protects the village and gives nonviolent supes a place to live in relative safety. Hidden from human eyes."

"This attack that's coming, how do we protect them?"

"You're already Woolven to the core." Randi squeezed her hand. "They have their own defenses. The village will disappear from our world when the attack comes and it won't return until it's safe."

"That's some pretty serious defense."

"Westwood is kind of a genius. I adore her."

"Me, too. She calls me child. I'm probably older than she is and I still like it."

"I don't know that I'd ever ask that woman her age, but she might, actually, be older than you are. She was a witch when the world was new."

"I don't know. Most people who are as old as I am aren't..." She looked for a delicate way to phrase it. "Well, they're brown people, like me. Or darker."

She laughed. "Tirigan is awfully pale."

"Yeah, all the melanin he ever had died a screaming death." She grinned. "It would be interesting to know, though. It was always thought that Ur was the first city. But as long as I've lived, there's so much I don't know."

"I think Westwood is from another dimension. I'm pretty sure she committed some great sin to be sent here."

"I can hear you," Eleanor Westwood said as she appeared in a seat across from them with a teacup in hand.

Randi sniffed. "I never say anything about a person I wouldn't say to their face."

Eleanor cackled, sounding a bit like the cliché of a wicked witch and she obviously knew it. "I'm not telling you my age. There are some things a witch just doesn't share."

"What, is it like your true name and it gives us power over you?"

"No, I'll just have to listen to age jokes from the boys, and I'll be busy chasing them all over Aphelion with a newspaper smacking their snouts when I have more important matters on my plate." She took a sip of her tea. "Really, ladies. With these wolves, you can't let anything slide. Not even once. You give them a little lead on that leash and they end up ravaging the countryside."

"Okay, just tell me this one thing. I don't need exacts…are you older than me?"

Eleanor just smiled. "I will only say that there are many more dimensions than this one."

Belle nodded. "Okay, I can live with that."

"If it actually offends you, I'll try not to call you child."

"No, it's okay. It's kind of... nice. I never got to have a grandmother."

In place of the matronly woman who smelled like vanilla and sugar suddenly sat a seductress with long black hair and bright red lips. She was so beautiful, it hurt to look at her.

"Show off," Randi muttered.

"It's okay if Grandmama looks like this, isn't it?"

Belle laughed again. "You know, if I'd known you when I was a child, I'd have asked you to do that all the time. Switch back and forth. It's delightful."

"It upsets Drew and Blake. Which is why I like to do it."

"What about Parker?" Belle asked.

"Oh, he's positively unfazed. As long as I keep giving him those little sugar cookies. Here, ladies." She produced two cookies that looked like little gourmet wolves. "Eat up. Randi, yours has everything your pup needs. And you, well, there's nourishment in yours that I've made from Tirigan's blood. It's been scrubbed of memories, so you should be fine. But it's like taking your vitamins."

"A vampire on a vitamin regimen. Okay. Why not?" Belle shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."