Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Mine, my wolf snarled.
No, I told him. No, she’s not.
I flopped down on my back to stare at the setting sun.
Clio wasn’t mine. And I didn’t know if she ever would be.
27
CLIO
* * *
I shook all over for most of the ride home, but I held it together pretty well through JT’s bath and bedtime story. Once he was asleep, I could let down and cry.
“Mommy, I don’t want to move again.” Tears filled JT’s eyes as I kissed him goodnight. He was tucked under his blanket in his favorite dinosaur PJs.
All the emotion I’d been swallowing down slammed to my throat, choking me. I blinked back the tears. Oh God, my poor son.
“Who said anything about moving?” I tried and failed to keep the wobble from my voice.
I didn’t want to move again, either. I hadn’t even contemplated that we might need to. My brain had been too focused on the look in Sam’s eyes when I took his keys.
He’d looked…devastated.
As devastated as I now felt.
But was this situation bad enough that we had to move?
“I only showed Remy how fast I can run because Sam said I could with other wolves. Everyone smelled like a wolf.” His face crumpled.
“Oh, sweetheart.” I wrapped him up in a fierce hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was safe to show Remy and the other wolves how fast you are.”
He frowned. “But you said we’re not going to be a part of their pack.”
I shivered, the nausea returned full force because their alpha had been asking about JT. I had totally freaked over what Sam had said–Rob is JT’s alpha now. He belongs to our pack.
I wanted no part of alphas who thought they had the authority and right to rule their pack members’ lives. Ted had to bow to his alpha’s demands to break up with me and find a she-wolf instead. His life hadn’t been his own, and it had ruined mine. His alpha had even ordered my memory that he was a shifter to be wiped.
Thank God Ted had disobeyed him on that.
Now I had another alpha thinking he had a say in my son’s life.
Hell no.
And the fact that a little kid like JT might start a war between two packs?
Not happening.
That was easy to solve. We weren’t joining any wolf pack. My son may be part wolf, but that didn’t mean anyone owned him. He was innocent, and I didn’t want him involved in anything.
“I don’t want to be part of any pack,” I told JT.
“Because you’re human?”
Ouch. Why did that hurt so much?
Oh right. Because I was always going to be the outsider with these wolves. I’d been the outsider with Ted and his pack, and now I was an outsider, even with my own son!
“Because–” I stopped. How did I explain any of this to a five-year-old when it didn’t even make sense to me? All I knew was this was a no-go for me. “Yeah, I guess because I’m human.”
He reached out and took my hand. “Are you scared of them, Mommy?”
Another shiver ran through me. I wanted to say no. I wasn’t scared. I was angry. Maybe at the heart of it, I was scared. Wolf shifters were powerful–far more powerful than humans. It was part of what made Sam so damn attractive. Plus, they were organized into packs–which made them practically undefeatable. So, yeah. I was scared of what they could do.
“No, Mommy’s not scared,” I lied and faked a smile.
“You smell scared,” he added.
Shit.
“Are you scared of Sam?”
Hot tears pricked my eyes. Sam. My chest constricted with pain.
My hot, generous lover. The man who believed I was his mate. Who wanted to go all in with me. Said he wanted to build a house for us on his land. Had he meant it all? Or had it all been a farce to get to my kid?
His alpha had put him on seduction duty with me. To find out about JT.
I couldn’t forgive him for that.
Except…it didn’t burn quite so much this time when I remembered it. Sam’s explanation might have been true. He had said he’s the butt of all sex jokes with his pack. His reputation as a player was well-discussed.
And he’d seemed genuinely upset.
I care about understanding why you are running away from a good thing.
I sniffed back the tears. “No. I’m not scared of Sam. I think… he’s a good guy.”
As I spoke the words, the cloud of betrayal and doubt started to lift. I still wasn’t sure what to believe, but I had a deep sense that Sam would never let any harm come to us.
But… he was a part of a pack. I didn’t trust them.
“Can Remy still be my best friend?”
My heart pinched. Could she? If I wanted nothing to do with the pack, would Remy’s dad still let her be friends with JT?