Free Charming (Exiled Book 3) by Victoria Danann Page B

selfish,” she said.
    “Ember. it’s not selfish to want to eat what I ordered.”
    “Here,” she replied, holding out a forkful of egg salad. “Eat this and we’ll be even.”
    “First you take one of my onion rings and now you want to punish me with that?” He wrinkled his nose and gently pushed away the hand that held out the bite of egg salad. “No thanks.”
    “Okay,” she said as she turned the other way and took one of Raze’s onion rings.
    “Ember!” he said. “You always do that. Why don’t you just get what you really want to eat in the first place?” She pursed her lips. “Never mind. I’ll tell you why. Because for some perverse reason you think it’s more fun to steal our food.”
    While his two siblings were having the usual exchange about food theft, Dread looked across the pub and saw a female emerge from the kitchen and make her way to a stool next to Charming. Judging by the smile on her face, it looked like the Leader had a girlfriend. She was cute. Very cute and very human. An involuntary growl rumbled low in his throat.
    “What’s wrong?” Dandelion asked.
    He looked up to see that his family had stopped eating and were staring at him. “What?”
    “You growled. Why?” Raze said.
    “Oh,” he smiled. “Just warning Ember that the next time she reaches for my plate she’s going to pull back a hand that’s been nipped instead of an onion ring.”
    “Grief, Dread. It’s just food. Don’t take it so personal.”
    “Personally,” Dandy said.
    “Yeah. Personally,” Ember repeated.
    Dandy turned toward Dread. “What about you, sweetheart? How’s biology going?”
    He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. It was Biological Engineering, but I switched to Criminal Justice a while ago.”
    “Criminal Justice!” Dandy couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d said doilies. “But our people don’t ever commit crimes. Will the humans accept hybrid police? I would have thought they’d find that, ah, threatening.”
    Dread shrugged. “They didn’t say no when I applied.”
    Dandy nodded. “Well. Alright then. If that’s what you want. I know you’ll be marvelous at whatever you set out to do. I’m kind of surprised that happened a while ago and I didn’t know about it.”
    “It’s okay. You have your hands full. It’s not like I’m the only one.”
    “You may not be the only one,” she admonished, “but I…” the three kids joined in and finished the sentence in unison, “love you all just the same.”
    Laughter broke out at the precise manner in which the recitation was delivered. Dandy saw Ember eyeing Raze’s onion rings and handed over one from her own plate before it could become an issue. Again.
    “Speaking of police work, I’ve heard there’s been some trouble down here in the city.”
    Dread huffed. “Understatement. You can feel the change. I mean it was bad before, but…”
    Dandy’s gaze jerked to Dread and zeroed in like a laser. “What do you mean it was bad before?” The three kids looked between each other like Dread had let a shared secret out of the bag. “Don’t do that.”
    “Do what?” Dread asked.
    “That thing you do,” she pointed at the three of them, “when you’re engaging in a conspiracy to get away with something.”
    “We don’t do that.” Ember looked innocent and shook her beautiful head.
    “The hell you don’t! Who do you think you’re talking to?”
    Ember dropped the guileless act. “Okay. Here’s the truth. The human boys try to start fights, knowing that we can’t fight back. There’s no point in telling you about it,” she gave Dread a pointed look, “because you can’t do anything.”
    Dandy’s own temper shot off the charts. She looked around the table imagining her kids being tormented by humans and not being able to stand up for themselves.
    When the hybrids had first begun moving to Farsuitwail and integrating they quickly realized that they had to make themselves untenable. So the first