We were pulling up to her house, and though I wished Eva were here as a buffer between me and her, it was my saving grace no photographers were waiting outside the gate.

“Baby girl, you are going to chew through your lip at this rate.”

Avery took my hand in his and laced our fingers together. I hadn’t even realized I’d been biting it. “I’m nervous.”

“We know,” Luke said with a laugh. “And it’s going to be okay. No matter what your mother thinks of us, it’s not going to change what we think of you.”

“It might,” I muttered.

“Stop,” Avery commanded.

Ben met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. “I think I might be able to smooth some feathers with who my parents were. It shouldn’t have to come to that, but we’ve got that in our back pocket just in case.”

The gate closed behind us and he parked the car. “We can still get out of it,” I said as Avery was pulling me out of the car. “We can say I got food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning never works,” Rylan said. “Trust me.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What’s the story there?”

“I’ll tell you once we get through tonight.”

He laughed when I cursed under my breath. “Let’s get this over with.”

Kade caught my arm and Luke stepped in, back and front, just like they had before my heat. Overwhelming and Alpha. It wasn’t fair, the way the sudden purrs and scents made me calm against my will.

“That’s a dirty trick.”

“Is it?” Luke asked. “Or do Alphas have the ability for a reason?”

Kade’s hands were on my hips, gently squeezing and massaging, soothing me with his hands while he wasn’t with words.

Luke tilted my chin up. “Tell me why you’re so nervous.”

It wasn’t a request.

I blinked back emotion unexpectedly. “I just really want her to like you, and I don’t know if she will.”

“Are you still going to love your mom even if she doesn’t like us?”

“Yes.” Of course I would. Though I wasn’t going to pretend it would make our relationship easier.

His eyes crinkled with a smile. “Are you going to stop courting us if she doesn’t like us?”

“No.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about, because no matter how dinner goes, nothing is going to change.”

“So fucking reasonable,” I said quietly, and Kade burst out with a laugh.

“All right, fine. Let’s go.”

They let me free, and I led the way up the stairs to the door. I wasn’t even at the top of the stairs when the door opened and Mom stood there. She out dressed all of us in a deep blue pantsuit, but I knew she loved this color, and it felt like a nod to me. Wearing something she loved.