Free Charming (Exiled Book 3) by Victoria Danann

that he meant Charming, she grinned.
    “And there it is right there,” Scar said under his breath.
    Ana took off her apron, washed her hands, said goodbye to the kitchen staff and the wait staff who had come on an hour before and hurried off toward the bar.
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    At supper time Dandelion had finished her errands and eagerly waited at a table for four in the back corner of A Far Scar. There wasn’t any place in the pub that could realistically be called ‘quiet’, but it would do.
    Raze held the door open for Dread and Ember, who spied Dandelion as soon as they walked in. She couldn’t contain her excitement when she saw her three cubs coming through the door. As she would have predicted, Ember was wearing a big beautiful smile while Dread and Raze looked more reserved.
    Dandy was looking at them like they were the most important thing in the universe and each of them knew that maybe to her they were. She treated them better than most are treated by their biological mothers and certainly none of them had any complaints in that department.
    Having not seen them for a couple of weeks, she was struck by the fact that she hadn’t remembered how grown up they’d become. The boys were handsome as could be, not in the same way that Exiled males were attractive. They really didn’t know what DNA Farsuitwailians had mixed with human DNA a hundred years before when they created the hybrids known as the Rautt. All records had been destroyed during the uprising that had destroyed technology and plunged their society into a sort of preindustrial culture of day to day survival. But most of the scientists strongly suspected their extranormal traits were lupine in origin.
    Looking at the three young hybrids with a warm maternal pride that shone from her eyes like lights from within, an onlooker wouldn’t guess Dandelion was their mother. Typically the Exiled had blondish hair and yellow-green eyes while Rautt had dark hair and eyes that were variations of blue or gray.
    Dread had fallen a little in love with Dandy right after the Rautt, all of them who were over the age of twelve, had been destroyed. When everything changed, Dread had only been twelve, but he knew from the beginning that she was special.
    She’d been assigned to be dorm mother to the oldest of the orphans. He’d been old enough to remember that life wasn’t good before the Exiled came. His own mother never treated him like Dandelion did. He often came across as sullen and seemed to have disquiet constantly simmering just under the surface.
    Raze was different. Either he wasn’t old enough to have vivid memories and had created some from imagination or he’d had an entirely different experience. Whatever the explanation, he was easy going, affable and unflappable. People liked him, hybrids and humans alike.
    Like most females, Ember was pragmatic, but she also carried the emotional vulnerability of most people drawn to social work, which was what she’d chosen as a focus track in school.
    Ember reached Dandelion first, going straight into her arms for a big hug and a bigger kiss on the cheek. The boys patiently waited their turn, pretending that they didn’t want the show of affection, but were willing to tolerate it for Dandy’s sake.
    After she’d made them pretend to suffer through the demonstrative greeting, Dandy said, “Sit. Sit. Let’s eat and hear all about what you’re doing.”
    Ember stepped into Raze so that Dread could pass behind her. They all knew that he felt most comfortable with the corner chair, back to the wall.
    When everybody was seated, Ember talked excitedly about her studies, her internship, and the projects she had coming up.
    River showed up at their table wearing a white apron over traditional Exiled dress and a big smile. They paused the family reunion long enough to say hello and ask how she was doing.
    “Is Scar treating you right?” Dandy asked.
    River rolled her eyes. “As right as he knows how