Page 11 of Ethan

She didn’t answer him. He moved just enough, realizing once again how sore he was to see that she’d fallen asleep. It was a wonderful feeling, he realized to have someone feel so safe and secure that they could fall asleep with you holding them. He didn’t know that he’d ever had that feeling before.

Waking again sometime in the early morning, he noticed that she was gone once again. The side of the bed was chilled, so he knew that she’d been up for some time. Reaching out to her, figuring that she’d taken a shower without him, he asked her if she was all right.

“I have to go and see my son. I’m ashamed to say that he’s been a pain in my ass for far too long, and it’s time that I puthim in his place. I honestly don’t know how he was able to get by with the things that he has been saying to me.”He asked her if she needed him to come and stand by her.“No. Thank you for that, but I think I’m about as pissed off at him as I can be, and this will be good for me. Probably not him, but for sure me. I’m finished with his ass.”

Getting up when she turned him down, he was more than just a little happy that she wasn’t here to see how bad of shape he was in. Even the bottom of his feet felt like he’d been beaten. As soon as he was able to get the water hot enough, he let it run over him for a few minutes before he started to scrub himself up. Even that made him moan a couple of times.

Getting dressed helped once he was out of the shower. Going down the stairs seemed a little daunting, but he made it. After having a huge breakfast—thankful for having a cook in the house, he made his way to the office. He had a great many things to catch up on today and he wasn’t going sit around his bedroom waiting for his wife to return. First things first? He reached out to his brothers and told them where Shawn was in the event that he couldn’t get to her fast enough to help her.

He was nearly knee-deep, something that his grandda said a great deal in working, when he felt a surge of power roll over him. Dizzy with it, he sat very still and only noticed how tense he was when he broke the pencil that he’d been holding. It didn’t harm him, and he knew that whatever it had been, Shawn was safe, just angry. Asking her if she was all right, she laughed, though a little manically. She told him that she’d just had an idea on how to put her son in his place, and she was sure that he was going to need to go to the hospital when she was finished with his ass.

“And I find that I don’t really care one bit if he likes it or not. I’ve had enough.”She paused.“No, that’s not true. I do care but he brought this all onto himself. I’m finished with him asthe moment that I leave the jail. Where he is currently causing trouble as well. I have to do some things in town afterwards, then I’ll be home soon.”

“I’m here if you need me.” She told him that she knew that more than he might have known. “Just don’t kill him. Remember what you told me about being immortal and having to spend all that time in jail. Not to mention, we won’t have that mind-blowing sex again, either. Though now that I think on it, I might live a bit of a better life if we hold off on that for a little while.”

He wanted to go to her but decided that she’d ask him for help if she needed it. Ethan couldn’t help but think that she was a much stronger woman than he’d first thought. She was a woman that you didn’t fuck with.

Chapter 5

Shamus couldn’t understand why his mother, of all people, was treating him this way. The very fact that he was her son should have given him some kind of pass on her heart. But no, since they’d moved to this unforsaken place, she’d been acting differently. Like he wasn’t nearly as important as whatever she had going on in her mind at the moment.

He couldn’t even blame it on the man, Ethan. What kind of name was that? There was no strength in a name like that. However, he did look it up in the big book. It meant firm and enduring. Strong and long-lived. Nothing like his name, though he didn’t care for the name Shamus so much. It simply meant detective. That was a good name, he thought. It meant that he was destined to keep an eye on his mother’s things. But Finn stood for blessed. Like his mother should be blessed to be around him.

Standing up when someone came down the hall, he sat back down when he saw who it was. His mother. He had thought not to speak to her again until she got him out of this jail. There was no way that he’d done anything to warrant him being locked up like he was.

“Yes, there is.” He told her to stay out of his mind. “I thought you weren’t going to speak to me. In order for me to say what I need to say, it’s probably best that you don’t speak. I have a great deal to say to you. I’ve even taken Ethan’s advice and made notes on what it is I need to tell you.”

“Note? To talk to your only son? Good heavens, Mother. What has happened to you?” He looked at her then. Really stared at the face that he’d seen every day for all of his life. “What has happened to you?”

Her skin looked as if it glowed. She looked healthy, not justin body but in mind, too. As if she’d come to a major decision and, it suited her. The smile that he had only just realized that he missed was there. It, too, was brighter, like she was enjoying the feeling of it spreading across her. And it did, too. Spread over her entirety like she was happy all over. But that couldn’t be. She’d been angry since he’d moved…

“You’re not angry with me anymore. And if you are, you’re not nearly so. Good. Then you won’t mind getting me out of here and handing over the keys to the mansion. It will be mine someday and I have plans for it just as I do you. You’re going to start listening to me, Mother. I’m sick of being told that you know what you’re doing. If you did, then I’d not be here where your stupid man-friend put me.” Something occurred to him, and he eyed her. “You’ve had amorous congress with him.”

“If you mean that we’ve had sex, then yes, you’d be right about that. A great deal of it, as a matter of fact. We’ve bonded in the way that his kind does, and I’m in love with someone. For the first time in my life, I’m in love with a man that I even like.” She sat down in a chair that hadn’t been there previously. “My magic is stronger as well. His too. We are a mated and bonded pair, the two of us, and since he was a lion of considerable magic before, he’s more so now. So if I were you, Shamus, I’d behave myself, or you might get your ass handed to you in a way that you won’t recover from.”

“Did you just threaten me? Your own son? My goodness heavens, Mother, what has he done to you?” She didn’t answer which he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted her to. “You’re going to break this off with him immediately. I’ll not have my mother flittering around with an unmarried man that I don’t approve of. Do you even care what people will think of you? How they will look down upon me because I allowed you to—”

“Allowed me to? You can’t allow or disallow me to do anything, you young ass. I’m my own boss, the person whomakes her own rules. You have no say over anything that I do for any reason.” Shamus told her that he’d heard enough. “Well, that’s too fucking bad because I’m not nearly finished with you. You will stay away from us if you cannot learn to be nice. Yes, that’s what I said, nice. I don’t expect you to change your ways overnight, but you’d better be looking into some changes, or you’ll never see me again. Not allow me to…what were you going to say, Shamus? That you’re not going to allow me to be with a man that I love? That I couldn’t…you’ve been trying to get at my money since the moment that your grandparents died. You’ll not have any access to it either. And now that I think about it, you’ll be paying your own way from now on as well. Show me how you can take care of yourself and your own money. Or don’t. I could care less about anything you do right at the moment.” She growled and he thought her odder than ever before.

“Mother.” She told him that she wasn’t his mother but his mom. “Mother. You’ve clearly been hit in the head, or your heart has been hurt if you think that you need to speak to me like you have. I am the man of the house. I have always been the one who cared for you and our money. Now. I have a few rules of my own. You’ll…where are you going? I’m not nearly finished with you.”

She started back to him, and he was proud of himself for standing up to her. Standing just as she was near his cell, she raised her hand it was too late for him to move. The blast of power came at him so fast and so hard that he felt his head bounce against the wall of the cell twice before everything blacked out. His last thought was his mother must be royally pissed off at someone.

Waking, he found himself in a bright, overly bright, if someone would have asked him, room that smelled of cleaning fluids and old blood. When a man came to stand next to him, he could see that he was some sort of police. Something like a constable, he supposed. Trying to sit himself up better to findout what the man wanted, he was dismayed to find himself locked to the bed.

“Unchain me this moment before I have to do you bodily harm.” The man just laughed and told him his name was Joey. “That is a small kangaroo, not a person’s name. I demand that you release me before I have to make sure that you are never employed again. My mother has power now.”

“Your mom is the one that is pressing charges against you in the event that you’ve forgotten that. And I’m to tell you that as of this morning, about four hours ago, Ethan and your mom were married. You, it seems, have been messing with the wrong family.” He called him a liar. “Nope. I don’t lie when it is something that will piss people off. And you have pissed off a great many people in just the little bit of time that you’ve been here.”

“I shouldn’t have to do anything that you underlings tell me to do. You should be feeling…my name means blessed. You should be more relevant to me since I’m Shamus Farley.” His head was hurting now, and he was sure that he’d messed that up a bit, but the man only laughed at him. That pissed him off more. “How dare you treat me this way. My mother will have your balls in a jar before you know it.”

“Your mom, as I’ve told you already is the one that is pressing charges against you. Also, in the event that it slipped your busted head, she’s also the one that hurt you. I have to admit that most of the people at the station house have been wanting to do that for sometime now. You’re a royal pain in the ass. Were you aware of that?” Shamus told him that he should be remembering the royal part more. “Are you insinuating that you’re royalty? Good lord, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day. You are no more royalty than I am. You little pisser.”

When the man walked away it was all he could do not to call him back so that he could punch him. But his head wasbeginning to hurt him more, and he decided that he’d had enough shouting today.

“Just wait until my mother shows up. You’ll see.” But would she? The doubts started to mount in his mind about all the things that he’d presumed she’d be doing for him. And allowing for him to do for her. The very fact that she’d hit him made him think that he might have pissed her off more than he had before. “We’ll see. I’ll just make myself available still to go over her accounting. Surely, there was a place for himself to make sure that she knew that he only had her best interests at heart. When someone cleared their throat, Shamus realized that he wasn’t the only one in the room. Ignoring the woman, as he did most women, he turned his head from her.

“That will get you nowhere, little man. I’m here to tell you several things. Most of which I’m saying to you myself but there are a few tidbits from your mom as well. But first, I’d like to know why it is you think that you’re smarter than her? I mean, she was wealthy before you came into her life, and the very fact that she’s been maintaining her wealth well beyond you there not helping makes me wonder why you think like a Neanderthal.” He told her that women had no head for money and what it means. “And again, she was wealthy before you came along. I don’t really care whether you know this or not, but I do believe that your mom’s wealth makes her the wealthiest woman in the world. Second would be her friends. You don’t even have a job, nor do you have a place of your own to live in, but the one that your mother provides for you. Basically, you’re nothing but a blot on her otherwise perfect life.”