“Not at all.” She handed Evan over. The boy squealed in delight as he grabbed Silke’s hair and gave a hard tug. “Evan!”
“It’s all right.” She peppered his face with kisses. “Evan can do what he wants.”
“You’re already spoiling him rotten,” Hardy said.
“That’s what aunties are for,” she shot back.
“Since you already have him,” Isabelle began. “Would you mind keeping him while I go get another glass of wine?”
“Not at all, go ahead, sugar.” Silke turned back to Evan, who chortled with delight as she blew raspberries on his chubby cheeks. “Auntie Silke’ll take good care of you. Leave him here as long as you need. Forever if you want.”
Isabelle chuckled. It was very obvious Silke was in love with the boy. And after spending the day with her, Isabelle couldn’t help but respect her. Not only was Silke a sharp businesswoman, but she also cared a lot about the land and her employees. It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask her about the faint scar that extended from her right lip to the tip of her cheekbone, but she refrained. There had to have been a painful story there, but she didn’t want to pry.
“Thanks.” Walking over to the refreshment table, she inhaled the cool mountain air. Despite the fact that she was enjoying herself, there was something missing. And she hated that feeling because she knew what was missing. Or who.
Where was he? It had been hours since Ransom left, and he still hadn’t returned. She didn’t have her phone with her, and she didn’t want to bother Silke or anyone else just to ask where he was. If they weren’t worried, then she shouldn’t be. How did the meeting with the witches go? Hopefully, there were no problems.
As she was filling her glass from the box, the hairs at the back of her neck prickled. Her wolf flattened its ears as she felt a presence behind her. Slowly, she turned around.
“So, you’re the one.”
The question came out of nowhere and was so direct, Isabelle didn’t know what to say. The woman standing before her had her eyes narrowed and lips curled into a smirk. Her slim arms were crossed under suspiciously large and perky boobs barely covered in a pink tank top, while her spray-tanned legs were shown off thanks to jean shorts that rode high up her crotch.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Have we been introduced?”
“No, we haven’t.” The woman looked her up and down. “I just don’t see it.”
This was starting to get old. “If you’ll excuse me—”
“I don’t see what Ransom sees in you.”
Now that got her attention. “Excuse me?”
“You know the saying, ‘why go out for hamburgers, when you have steak at home’?” The woman’s mouth twisted cruelly. “I don’t know where you’ve been all this time, honey, but you can bet Ransom’s been getting his steak.”
Isabelle’s wolf growled and pressed at her skin, wanting to take a swipe at this audacious bitch. However, seeing as she was human, Isabelle was not prepared to spend time in the Lycan Siberian Prison for revealing their secret, not for this fake-ass and her bags of silicone.
“Isabelle!” It was Silke, coming up behind the woman, Evan in her arms. “Did you get—” She stopped short. “You.” Her pretty face scrunched up. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Silke, honey,” she drawled. “I seem to have misplaced my invitation to your little party.”
“That’s because I didn’t invite you, Sue May,” Silke shot back. “Or did you forget that time you got thrown off my property?”
“Tsk, tsk, that was months ago,” Sue May waved her away and chuckled. “Surely that’s water under the bridge now, right? See, when I heard through the grapevine—that is, my cousin who’s the hostess at your restaurant—that you had a special guest from out of town, why I had to come and see her for myself.”
Her eyes flickered over to Evan, and when her expression faltered for just a second, Isabelle couldn’t help but feel smug.
Sue May composed herself and spoke in a sickly-sweet tone. “My, my, haven’t you done well for yourself? Bless your heart.”
Isabelle’s patience was wearing thin. “Why don’t you cut the bullshit? Whatever you have to say, say it to my face, bitch.”
The other woman smiled smugly. “You’re certainly something. You know, honey, where I’m from, a lady doesn’t talk that way.”
“Oh, really?” Isabelle planted her hands on her hips. While she may have grown up in Manhattan, she was Italian and from Jersey on her mother’s side. “Well, honey, where I come from, we tell hoes like you to fuck off.”
Silke burst out into laughter, as did Sabrina, Arlene, and all the other people who had started gathering around them.
Sue May’s face turned fire-engine red as she let out a frustrated cry. “You slut—”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Isabelle’s wolf started at the familiar voice. It, however, did not whine or cry out happily as it usually did when he was near. No, it was furious. As was Isabelle, but she would never admit it.
Ransom stopped short when he saw Sue May, his expression suddenly turned stormy. “I told you never to come back here.”
“But, Ransom,” she whined. “We’ve always had so much fun together.”
“Had,” he said. “That was in the past. I told you a hundred times, it didn’t mean anything.”
Her face twisted up in fury. “You can’t possibly want her over me!” Her head snapped back to Isabelle. “She’s a fat, ugly cow.”
“And you’re the reason we have instructions on shampoo,” Isabelle retorted, which made everyone howl with laughter.
Sue May blew out an outraged scream. “You baby-trapping whore!”
Isabelle saw Ransom’s face turn furious, but she sent him a warning look not to interfere. This was woman’s business, and she intended to finish it. “Listen here, Trailer Trash Barbie,” she began. “No one wants you here, that’s
