The door opened, and Linda appeared, looking like a woman who had reached the absolute limit of her patience with mysterious behavior. Her eyes swept the room.
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then Linda crossed her arms and fixed them all with a look that could have melted steel. "What the hell are you all up to?" she demanded, her voice carrying the particular tone that mothers everywhere perfected when they knew their children were up to something spectacularly stupid. "And why are you all covering your faces like you're playing some sort of demented game of peek-a-boo?"
The four mates froze like deer caught in headlights—or more accurately, like supernatural beings caught in the middle of a power malfunction.
But before any of them could attempt to formulate an explanation that didn't involve the words 'Hybrid,' 'werewolf,' or 'dragon,' Future Nova stepped forward with the kind of confident smile that suggested she had inherited her mother's ability to think on her feet.
