“Bridge, focus. What do you mean Selma wouldn’t want the enforcers?”
“Look, Mum’s got ambitions. She tried to push them on me, but you know how that works.” Her grin was bright and wide. “No one puts anything on me that I don’t want, and I don’t want to be heir. Shitty fucking system as far as I can see, but Selma? No such luck there.” My cousin shook her head. “She…she’s always toed the line for Mum, even as a baby. Mum would shoosh her when she was crying and she just would stop. Most unnatural bloody thing I’ve ever seen. As a kid, she did and said whatever Mum said, in all ways but one.” She let out a long sigh. “It’s not my place to say, but I’m assuming you’ve put two and two together.”
“Selma’s gay,” I said.
“Yeah, and if I had to guess…” She looked around the room. “I think she might be like you, with the touch. These girls…they just…they go nuts for her in the same way the guys did for you at the town meeting. Not every girl, but damn, she must be able to go the growl like a goddamn demon, because they get crazy. Not here, not anywhere people will see. Whatever bullshit Mum has on her, she wouldn’t dare do that, but I’ve seen the emails, the texts, intercepted some of the calls.” She frowned slightly, shaking her head. “They sound desperate for her. But look, none of this shit matters. At some point, Mum’s gonna give up, and Selma will move out of here and settle down with a harem of her own.”
My eyes narrowed as Bridget sighed, both of us considering her words.
“Aunt Nance, she’s—”
“Never gonna give up,” Bridget finished with a sigh. “Seems kinda cruel in a way that she wanted to be heir and was born second, while your mum didn’t want to be and was forced to.”
“Mum didn’t want to be heir?”
My cousin scratched at her head. “I forget you probably don’t know this shit, seeing as no one wanted to bring it up around you. Your mum tried to step down, let mine take her place. Probably what put the hunger in her for the role. Mum thought she was a contender.” She snorted. “Granddad Spehr said no though, made Mum promise to support the heir no matter what. So what did you want to talk to Selma about? She’d be at work right now, but she’ll be back around seven.”
“Just needed to talk to her about the succession,” I lied. “I’m getting out of town as soon as Dad’s killer is dealt with. I need to see where her head’s at, though with what you’ve told me…”
“Shouldn’t make a difference, should it?” Bridget’s mouth thinned down. “Like, it’s always been the female next in line making her choice from the locals as to who she’s made alpha. No reason why it couldn’t be a female alpha, or even the heir becoming the alpha.” She shook her head. “It won’t though, will it? They’ll just skip past her to Jade or one of the other girls.”
“You’re not tempted?”
She laughed out loud at that.
“Mum’s been at me my whole life about that, trying to push me and coerce me into becoming the perfect alterna-heir.” Her smile grew wider. “Even tried outright dominance displays, thinking she can force me into it.” Her grin turned almost feral. “I’m a bloody null when it comes to dominance—no one can make me to do anything.”
“What?” I asked, looking my cousin over closer. How was I discovering all this shit now?
“This town, the whole system…” She paused, then charged on, “I’ve been to other towns, and it’s not like this there. You’ve got the right idea of it, getting out. Maybe it’s something I need to think about too. Let myself become something other than just the Spehr name.”
She went curiously still for a moment, just staring into space as if imagining that, but then shook her head, her mischievous grin returning.
“But then who would send Mum and Selma spare every day?” Her eyes flicked to the guys standing around in the lounge room. “Just promise to help me find a temporary harem if I ever come to visit you in the big smoke. Now, did you want a cup of tea or coffee?”
I didn’t and I was sure the guys didn’t either, but one didn’t turn down an offer of hospitality in Lupindorf. Saying no was akin to spitting on your mother’s grave, so we settled down around Bridget’s dining room table, and she piled up her university texts on one end before bringing out mugs of coffee and plates of biscuits. I filled her in on what had happened, the hospital, her mum’s antics. Mason stiffened at that, but right now, I was fairly convinced Bridget hadn’t played a role in that, especially when she rolled her eyes at what Nance had been up to.
“Don’t let the bastards in this town grind you down,” she said finally. “Reading between the lines, I think that’s what happened to your mum. I’m not sure you shouldn’t hightail it out of here now, let the cops sort out what happened with Uncle Adam.”
“I can’t,” I said, my fingers tightening around the warm mug. “They took him from me, Bridge. I can’t let that go.”
“Sorry, can I use your toilet?” Lorcan said, standing up. “All this coffee…”
Bridget smiled. “Just down the hall and second right.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, we probably better get going. You’ve been up and about for hours now. You must be getting tired,” Zack
