By Hook or by Wolf

“I was going to come by earlier in the evening, but I believe you were otherwise engaged,” she says with a smirk. “First off, congratulations.” She smiles at Natasha. “And welcome to the family. Believe me, I am so happy to have a daughter-in-law. You’re going to fit in just fine.”

Natasha blushes, but nods and smiles.

“Secondly,” our mom says. “I wanted to let you know that my doctor called earlier.”

My heart sinks.

A call from the doctor is never a good thing. At worst, he’s going to tell us that mother is going to be dying sooner than we thought, and I’m just not prepared for that. It may be selfish to want her to stay, but I love her so much. She’s always been there for us. She’s our Mom, for dragon’s sake. We need her.

“What did the doctor say?” Natasha asks, gently prodding. The rest of us are silent as my mother speaks.

“He says I’m fine,” Mom says, shaking her head. “The hospital lab performed the wrong test on my bloodwork. My labs are completely fine and there’s no cancer at all.”

“What do you mean, they mixed up the bloodwork?” Lee asks. “Does that actually happen in real life?”

“It’s actually pretty common,” Trevor says. “Shifter tests and human tests for illnesses are completely different, so really, all it takes is one tech not realizing that Mom is a shifter. They can perform all the normal tests, but get really skewed results. Sounds like that’s what happened here.”

Well, I guess in our case, a mistake is a good thing, but it doesn’t really make up for weeks of trauma for our poor mother. She thought she was dying. We all did. It’s a huge relief that she’s not. In fact, I feel suddenly like a weight is being lifted from my chest, like somehow, everything is falling into place just as it should.

“I hope you plan to sue the hospital,” Lee mutters.

“I do,” Mom winks. “But on a side note, this means that I’ll be around for a good long time and,” she claps her hands excitedly. “It means I get to help plan the mating ceremony. Eek!” She laughs and giggles and is just about to turn to leave when Natasha squeezes forward and hurries over to her.

“Dear?” Mom asks, surprised.

Natasha wraps her arms around her.

“Emily, this never could have happened without you,” Natasha says. “Thank you for believing in me.”

Mother smiles the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and she wraps her arms around Natasha.

“Anytime, dear,” she whispers. “Anytime.”

Epilogue

Six Months Later

Natasha

A little to the left.

A little to the right.

Perfect.

I heave, lifting the heavy furniture as we move it precisely into place. It’s going to look wonderful. The whole room is, actually. Lee, Trevor, Cody, and I have somehow managed to take an ordinary-looking, run-down place and turn it into something incredible. Something beautiful.

The gallery is going to look fantastic once we’re totally finished with it. In fact, our grand opening is slated for two weeks from now. I may not be a working jewel thief anymore, but I am something else.

Their fiancé.

Their mate.

The idea of falling in love with three different guys is a new one, at least for me. I never planned for my life to work that way. Still, knowing what I know now, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Life with my wolf shifter mates is never boring. That much is for sure. Today we’re tidying up the gallery and making sure it looks as fantastic as possible. This weekend, we’ll bring Rebecca and Emily over to see it for the first time in all of its glory. I can’t wait for our girls to see exactly how lovely the art gallery looks now that it’s really complete.

They’re both totally in love with art and totally in love with the gallery. To them, it’s going to be a wonderful treat. Despite Emily’s misdiagnosis and the fact that she’s actually completely healthy, she chose not to return to the pack as Alpha. Instead, she’s going to take some time to spend with Rebecca and with her sons. She’s going to do all of the things she’s always wanted to do, but that she’s been putt