Chapter 17 : Unbalanced Challenges

She snapped her fingers, silencing the shifters behind her. My shoulders stiffened. I didn't want to be left alone with her, especially with those shifters seemingly at her beck and call. Even if it was simply to talk—about what I couldn't even fathom.

"Absolutely not." Zaine stepped in front of me again, Kaius coming around to herd me over while staying in front of the shifter still on the floor. "What is going on, Mother? Why are you here? Where's Father?"

"This is a matter between women. Step aside."

The way she said it… there was a threat there, buried underneath. Over what, was the real question. Peering around Zaine, I could see she'd moved in from the entrance, stepping over a large pool of blood that had been left by one of the bodies nearest her.

She held her arms around herself in a relaxed hold, confidence and ease rolling off of her. There was no concern for what was in front of her at all. As if she'd seen this kind of scene a million times before. And