As Selena ate her breakfast, she felt her mother's eyes boring into her. She tried not to look at her as she scarfed down bacon; she had a few theories on what Artemis was so mad about, and none of them were good.
Diana tried to break the ice. "Wow, check out how much Selena's body hair's grown! She's starting to look a bit like you, Mom. I bet she'll have her first shift any day now."
Artemis shot Diana an icy look. "Diana, I think you and Luna should go into the next room. I want to talk to Selena alone."
Diana and Luna nodded before leaving. Just as she slipped out the door, Diana shot Selena a sympathetic look.
Once she was alone, Artemis's glare intensified. "I assume you know what this is about, Selena?"
"Uhhh..." Selena mumbled nervously, "you tell me."
"Don't be snarky with me!" Artemis growled. "You KNOW this is about the leech girl, Tatiana!"
"What about her?!" Selena shot back, her voice defensive.
"You've befriended her, let her into your room, even slept with her!" Artemis shouted. "You know our relationship with the walking corpses is, Selena Lyall! Mortal enmity!"
"But why?" Selena wailed.
"It needs no justification!" Artemis spat. "Vampires are evil by nature! The mockery they make of life has no place in the natural world!"
"That's bullshit," Selena muttered.
Artemis leaped across the kitchen table and grabbed Selena by the shoulders. She willed herself to shift into her wolfwoman form. Selena watched her mother's copious body hair thicken into fur and her face push out into a lupine muzzle as her growing claws dug uncomfortably into Selena's shoulders, drawing beads of blood. "You will NOT speak to me that way, Selena! I'm going to make this simple. Will you stop talking to that undead whore or not?"
"Never!" Selena shouted.
Artemis hoisted Selena over her head and threw her daughter across the room. Selena bashed her head against a kitchen cabinet. Struggling to stay conscious, she saw her mother towering over her. "I'll ask you again," Artemis said threateningly. "Will you kick that conniving fang out of your miserable life or not?"
"N-no..." Selena managed to choke out.
"You're not making this easy!" Artemis growled as she hoisted Selena over her furry head again, her werewolf muscles bulging.
"ARTEMIS!!!" a voice from the door suddenly cried. "PUT OUR DAUGHTER DOWN!!! NOW!!!"
Selena looked to the door and saw her father Alpha Caleb Lyall bounding into the room. He shifted into his wolfman form to back up his demand. Fully transformed, Caleb Lyall stood at eight and a half feet tall, a giant slab of steely muscle. He bared his sharp teeth at his mate and snarled menacingly.
Artemis slowly lowered Selena to the floor and shifted back into her human form. Caleb likewise returned to human shape and confronted his mate. "What the actual fuck, Artemis?!" Caleb shouted. "First you put us all in danger by assaulting the vampire matriarch, and now this?! You would harm our daughter? I know you have a temper, but I'm beginning to worry you're growing dangerously unstable! You surely know this isn't how to get your rank restored!"
"She refused to stop seeing the leech girl!" Artemis protested, puffing out her bare breasts indignantly. "She even cursed at me!"
"If this is the way you treat her when my back is turned, I'm not surprised!" Caleb shouted. "You're going to have to get a better grip on your anger if you don't want to be exiled from the pack. Let me make this fucking clear, Artemis. You will never do something like this to Selena again. EVER!"
"Fine, Caleb, I promise," Artemis sighed. "But what about the von Karnstein girl?"
"Selena will make it clear to Tatiana von Karnstein that she cannot enter our territory," said Caleb. "The rest is up to Selena." He turned to face his daughter, extending her a hand to help her up. "I would prefer it if you cut ties with Tatiana," he advised her, "but what she and you do off of pack land is your own concern at the end of the day. Even if I don't like it, you are free to pursue a relationship with Tatiana. Just be prepared to live with the consequences when the fangs show their true colors."
"Thanks, Dad," Selena smiled. "But I promise you, it'll work out. You'll see."
Caleb shrugged. "If you say so. I doubt it, though. Vampires were always a conniving bunch. Now you'd better go get a cold compress for your head before school."