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slight tightening of her pretty face, but Mia saw it. “Well, now, Mr. Sparks, this might not be the fancy neighborhood you and Mia live in now, but I assure you, I’m quite safe.”
    Lucas looked horrified. Mia figured it was just because he realized what a mistake he had made… but she was wrong.
    “Please tell me you’re not serious,” Lucas said. “This neighborhood—”
    “This neighborhood,” her mom cut him off, rising quickly up from her chair. “This neighborhood, Mr. Sparks, is my home. Did you have something else you wanted to say about it?”
    Lucas pressed his lips tight.
    Mia rose up from the couch. “Mom, Lucas just wants what I want: to keep you safe.”
    “I’m perfectly safe here, Mia.” Her mom turned her narrow-eyed stare on Lucas. “What exactly are your intentions with regards to my daughter, Mr. Sparks?”
    His intentions? Oh no. Her mother was going to ask Lucas flat out about why they were living together but not married.
    Lucas rose up as well. “The only thing I care about is keeping Mia safe. I would give my life to protect her. And that goes for anyone in her family, too.”
    Mia’s heart swelled with those words, because they were true and so very real—Lucas had already laid down his life for her—but her mother didn’t know any of that. She didn’t know about the magic bond between them. To her, those words were shallow promises… empty because there wasn’t a ring on Mia’s finger.
    “Is that why you’ve moved her away from the university?” her mom asked, archly. “To keep her safe? ”
    “Mother!” Mia gaped.
    Lucas’s frown grew increasingly dark.
    Her mother matched his frown with a glare of her own, then said, “You can always come home, Mia. You will always have a place here.”
    The words were for Mia, but her mother’s intense stare was for Lucas. Mia could feel Lucas stiffen next to her—she could practically hear his inner wolf growl. Her mother was challenging him, threatening to somehow take Mia away. The two people she loved most in the world were fighting over her as if they couldn’t both have a place in her life… and that was shredding her heart to pieces.
    Mia brushed past Lucas’s rigid body and went to her mom. “Can I speak with you a moment privately?” she said harshly. Then she didn’t wait for her mom to answer, just grabbed her arm and spun her toward the kitchen. There wasn’t any privacy to be had except at the extreme back corner, next the refrigerator and the dirt-smudged window to the alley outside.
    “Mother, what are you doing?” Mia asked, her voice rough. She couldn’t believe her mom would say those things to Lucas’s face. As if he were some kind of enemy.
    “Why is he so protective of you?” her mom asked, her voice lowered as well. “There’s something wrong with that, don’t you see?”
    “There’s nothing wrong with caring about the people you love!” Her eyes were starting to prick. She hated this. Why couldn’t her mom and Lucas simply love each other the way she loved them?
    Her mom’s face softened. “Is that what he says to you, Mia? That he loves you? Because, honey, all men say whatever it takes to get you into bed. I’ve told you that a thousand times.”
    “Not all men,” Mia said, her anger rising. Her mother wasn’t just insulting the man Mia loved—she was insulting her alpha. “Not this man.”
    “Sweetheart.” Her mom’s thin, cool hand found Mia’s cheek. “I love you, you know that. But ever since you’ve met this guy, it’s like you’ve changed. He’s put you in some kind of haze. Don’t think I haven’t noticed what a tight leash he’s been keeping on my beautiful daughter. You work in his office, he’s moved you into his apartment, and now that’s not enough—he wants me to move out, too? There’s something very wrong with how controlling all of this is.”
    “It’s not controlling ,” Mia said, her voice hiking up. “It’s protective. It’s loving and