Read Online Queen Bitch of the Callowwood Pack (Siren Publishing Classic) by Siobhan Muir - Free Book Online Page B

double doors. Confusion filtered through her awareness. Why does Sebrina seem so familiar? I only met her a few days ago.
    Mentally shaking her head, Julianna jumped in surprise to see Tawny nearly drop to her knees with reverence and love before the old Paiute woman. Sebrina smiled warmly and patted Tawny’s hand at the younger woman’s greeting.
    She wore a very plain but elegant charcoal gray dress with what looked like tiny quartz crystals sewn into the scoop neck and sleeve hems like sparkling stars in the night sky. A geometrically patterned shawl draped around her shoulders and hung off her arms with fringed ends. When she stepped, her soft-soled boots made no sound against the tiled floor. Her eyes twinkled in the lights of the foyer, and Julianna felt the weight and power of her gaze like a heavy cloak settling around her shoulders.
    “Well met, wayward daughter,” Sebrina said with a smile that crinkled the crow’s feet around her golden eyes. “I’m very pleased to see you here tonight. It’s an important night for the Lightfoots and for you, I should think, so it’s good you are here. Perhaps you would be willing to escort an old woman to her seat.”
    Julianna hesitated as she glanced at Tawny. “I’d be happy to, but I have promised to help Tawny welcome the guests, and I can’t just leave.”
    “Don’t be silly, Miss Julianna,” Tawny demurred. “The tide is ebbing, and I can handle it from here on. Please, take Ms. Westwind to her place.”
    Julianna heard Tawny’s reverence in the name, but she filed it away to think on later. “You’re sure?”
    “Of course,” Tawny insisted, making gentle shooing motions. “Go on, I’ll be fine.”
    “Very well, I’d be honored to escort you to your seat,” Julianna told Sebrina as she offered the older woman her arm. “Truth be told, you’re one of the few friendly faces I’ve seen coming through these doors, and I’m grateful to remain in your company.”
    Sebrina beamed with approval. “You’re a great flatterer, daughter.”
    “I can be if I try, but this time, I was speaking the honest truth.”
    Sebrina laughed softly with what sounded a little like sorrow. “Yes, I think you were. I said earlier this will be an important night for you, but I think it will also be trying. Have courage, daughter. Remember who you are, no matter the recent changes in your life, and you’ll make it through with your honor intact.”
    Julianna’s previous nervousness increased in volume. She remembered Tawny’s comments about a ceremony, and her stomach lurched. Was she going to be part of it? Was that what the “entrance interview” had been about? Her jaw clenched, but she tried to keep her expression serene as she escorted her companion into the garden tent.
    People milled everywhere, and the grounds were awash with all the colors of the rainbow, like a kaleidoscope had broken apart and the multicolored bits had scattered everywhere. Pockets of shadow stood beside the colored spots, the more somber color scheme of the males in the group highlighting the females. Sound beneath the tents combined into a muted roar as friends and neighbors caught up with the daily news.
    Sorrow gnawed at Julianna’s insides. She’d been gone so long and had missed out on the easy camaraderie of a small town’s residents. But after careful consideration, she realized there was a subtle hierarchy among the guests, some commanding instant respect and deferral, others backing down and treating everyone with obeisance. Disgust at their behavior surged through her, and Sebrina chuckled, jerking Julianna’s attention away from the crowd.
    “Do not be so hard on them, daughter,” the old woman remarked. “They know their places and perform them admirably.”
    “Sorry?”
    Sebrina gestured to an older man who quickly stepped aside to allow a younger man to serve himself punch, completely interrupting the older man’s task. “He is showing courtesy to the younger man.