The Sea Wolf's Mate (Hideaway Cove 2)

“That we are.” Arlo sent them all a wave of support. Eric blinked, taken aback. Of course. I’ve only been doing that with the younger kids.

Then, to his surprise, he felt a tentative telepathic nudge from the teen.

*Thanks,* Eric said into his mind. *That means a lot. And… I guess Kenna was right about you. She said you’d come back.*

Tess was fussing behind the counter, which left the fourth side of the table free. Arlo pulled out a chair for Jacqueline, feeling Ma Sweets’ eyes on him, as he sat down.

“Morning, everyone,” Jacqueline said, bright and chirpy. “Did you four sleep okay?”

“Wee-e-e-e-ell—” Dylan began, stretching out the word.

“Did Tally have another nightmare?” Jacqueline reached across the Franken-table and Tally cooed and grabbed her finger.

“Not the same nightmare…” Kenna’s expression was drifting back towards sullen. Her eyes flicked towards the Sweets.

“What’s everyone doing here, anyway?”

Tess stormed out from behind the counter and plonked a tray of hot drinks on the table. “Coffee,” she said, at the same moment Lainie muttered: “Neutral ground?”

Arlo met Tess’s eyes. *All right, sis?*

She tugged on the cuffs of her long-sleeved shirt. *The usual.*

The problem was, Arlo didn’t know what Tess’s usual was anymore. Like him, she’d always been proud of Ma and Pa Sweets’ strong line on keeping Hideaway Cove safe. But ever since they’d discovered exactly how the Sweets had gone about keeping Hideaway “safe”, Tess’s relationship with their parents had become strained.

And now Lainie was calling her parlor neutral ground?

He raised one eyebrow at Tess, thinking, but not mindspeaking, Whose side are you on? She glared at him and stalked back behind the counter.

“Waffles?” she called out, and everyone in the room under the age of twenty called out some variant of “Yes, please, I’m starving.”

Tally’s version was more of a high-pitched eagle-screech. Ma Sweets took advantage of the noise to pretend she was brushing a mote of dust off her sleeve, and speak telepathically with Arlo.

*I’m glad you’re here. You know these children, and you of everyone knows what they need right now. Please, help me talk some sense into your poor friends.*

“Why don’t you talk out loud, Ma?” Arlo kept his voice light. “There’s two of us can’t hear a word you’re saying if you stick to telepathy.”

Ma Sweets frowned. “That was meant only for you, Arlo,” she said, pursing her lips.

“We’re talking about the kids.” Arlo nodded to them. “Seems rude to exclude them from the conversation, too.”

“Very well.” Ma Sweets sniffed. “Dear?”

Pa Sweets shuffled slightly in his seat. “My thoughts exactly, dear,” he mumbled, and appeared to fall back asleep. Ma Sweets frowned.

“What Dorothy is failing to say—sorry, Mrs. Sweets, I’m sure you were going to get to it in a minute—is that we caught them this morning convincing the kids they were being sent to live with them.” Harrison sounded all good manners and one hundred percent pissed off at the same time.

Arlo exchanged a look with Jacqueline. “I’m glad we didn’t leave any later,” Jacqueline murmured. Arlo squeezed her hand.

Ma opened her eyes wide. “Well, I don’t see what’s so bad about—”

“Kidnapping?” Lainie suggested, quick as a whip.

“Now I’m confused.” Ma Sweets tapped her pursed lips with one fingertip. “Surely you’re not complaining that we’re taking children in, now? It’s not like we’re sending them away. Isn’t that what you’ve had a bee in your bonnet about until now?”

“Grandma!”

Tess slammed down a plate on the counter. It cracked in two.