Free Lions and Tigers and Bears by Kit Tunstall, Kate Steele, Jodi Lynn Copeland

she and Kevin were together, regardless of skin color.
    Satisfied the marks were covered, Liddy gestured to the seat across the desk from her, struggling to maintain a casual air. “Sorry. I just wanted to straighten up a bit first.”
    Annette ignored the gesture and pinned her with a disappointed glare. “If there’s one thing you’ve always been, it’s neat. I had believed you were sensible, too, but now I wonder. What is this I’m hearing about you being seen with Kevin Montcalm? He’s a nice man, baby. Well off and respected in this city, but he’s not for you.”
    Liddy’s tension threatened to turn to temper with her mama’s expression. She forced her voice to remain even. If she was to convince Mama of anything, she needed to be level-headed. “You don’t even know him, Mama. You’re basing your opinion on the color of his skin. It’s not the twentieth century any longer. People of mixed color date all the time. They even get married and have babies together.”
    Annette bristled. “Not in this city, they don’t.”
    Oh God! How was she supposed to stay calm, when her mama was tossing out such idiotic remarks? “Because you make it seem like a crime,” Liddy managed just a little hotly. “It’s a free country, Mama. For everyone, including shifters.”
    Her nose went up. “This isn’t about those…things.”
    So much for her temper. It was far too combustible to keep in check when she could guess damn well that Mama’s next accusation would be about shifters being freaks.
    Liddy pounded her fist down on her desk. “They are not things and it should be about them. You would react the same way if I was dating a shifter or a white man.”
    “You will not date a shifter! The thought of you letting one of those animals touch you…” Annette shuddered. “Oh Liddy, how can you even say something so awful? You’re not in your right mind, baby. All the time you spend around this place has gotten to you. You need a vacation, somewhere you can meet a nice black man.”
    “I don’t want a vacation or a nice black man! I want Kevin!” Liddy winced at the knowledge she was both acting like a child and yelling loudly enough for the entire office and most of the sanctuary to hear. Why couldn’t Mama just understand?
    “I can’t stop you from seeing him, but you won’t bring him by my house. So long as you’re with that man, you won’t come by the house, either. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, Liddy. I won’t jeopardize it over your wild behavior.”
    The air pushed out of Liddy’s lungs in a hard wheeze. She’d known dating Kevin would come to this, her mama not speaking to her until the truth of how right Liddy and Kevin were together finally sank in. Still, Annette’s answer to her unspoken question hit her like a physical blow.
    The last threads of Liddy’s control snapped. She rounded the desk, ready to throw her mama out of the office. “You have no idea about my wild behavior, Mama. If—”
    “Sorry to interrupt,” Ann cut her off loudly, “but Detective Riggs is here and demanding to see you, Liddy.”
    Great. Just great. As if this morning needed to get any worse.
    “Send him in,” Liddy growled to the receptionist.
    The cop appeared in the office seconds later, his mouth set in a hard line and his aura giving off enough blackness to tighten Liddy’s belly in knots. Ignoring her mama, she forced a smile for Tanner. “What can I help you with this wonderful morning, Detective?”
    “We caught the shifter responsible for the attacks.”
    The knotting sensation turned to painful burning with the accusing way the cop looked at her as he spoke. Before Liddy could question him, Annette said severely, “Not possible. You cannot tell me that you have proof the attacker is a shifter?”
    “We have proof, Mayor Freeman.” Tanner’s eyes never left Liddy’s face as he responded to her mama. “We also have reason to believe your daughter’s known the attacker’s identity