She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot in annoyance before asking, “Blake will be there?”
“Of course, he’s the alpha. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“He’s a newly mated male, so I thought he’d be over the moon runs by now. I doubt his mate would enjoy what they do there.”
Justin felt his grin fall away as his lips puckered in annoyance. “What is it you think they do there?”
Now she was smiling, taunting him and he wanted to be annoyed, but he was secretly glad she was engaging him. “Well…They’re wolves. You know what they do.”
“Yes, we’re wolves. What are you trying to say about your own people?”
“Oh Mama’s not-“
Carter was cut off by his mother’s icy stare, “Go on, I’ll sit this one out if you don’t mind. I trust that you’ll get Carter back in one piece.”
It was Justin’s turn to shoot her a frustrated look, “I think I’ve proven to you and everyone in this pack that I will protect him with my life. In addition, you would have known of our plans if you’d spoken to me on the phone even once.”
He picked Carter up and walked out the door, shutting it quietly.
She almost wished he would have stormed out of the house in annoyance. Lord knows she would have. Honestly, he was right. There was a point that she felt Justin was going behind her back, but truly he was as open and honest as he’d always been. It was her distressing attraction to him that got in the way. Not to mention Carter’s clever trick of using Justin against her. The kid was too smart, so she’d have to be smarter.
After taking the devil puppy out she, once again, locked him back in the bathroom. It’s not like he could get into any more trouble. She washed quickly, making sure to get all the disgusting perfume off in anticipation of being in her natural form.
She felt her pulse quicken as she thought about running as her lynx. It’d been too long and if she kept to the boarders she’d be able to watch Carter while he experienced his first moon run.
Her pulse was not speeding up at the thought of seeing Justin in the nude before the run, or of seeing his powerful wolf form as his muscles bunched and flexed. Attempting to convince herself that Justin was off the market because she didn’t date, especially not a wolf, she went into her yard and allowed the change to take over her body.
Her lynx came out to play in record speed: it had been denied too long. Her fur was a golden color with light brown spots on her limbs and a lighter color on her chest. Her body mass stayed the same, which meant she was a large lynx. Normally a non-shifter lynx was a maximum of forty pounds. She knew what she looked like, black tufts of hair jutting out from the tip of her ears, a beard like ruff of fur at her neck, and huge paws which helped when walking on the snow. Her tail was short, but she didn’t need a long tail to get in her way. She was the size of a female wolf and just as deadly.
Running the entire way to the clearing, stopping only long enough to chase away a hungry fox, she made it in record time. Hanging back to watch would be easy, as long as she didn’t allow anyone to pick up her scent. She didn’t want to become the prey during the run, although it would be fun to let the wolves chase their tails looking for her a while.
Ultimately, this was risky. She wished Carter understood that lynx were solitary creatures. A sudden thought brought her to a screeching halt: Yes, lynx were loners, but wolves belong in a pack. Her son was a pack creature by nature and she’d been denying him his nature.
Well…just another thing to chuck into her fuck-it bucket. She wouldn’t be getting the award for mother of the year any time soon.
Chapter 4
Watching Carter jump up and down in his seat on the way over to the moon run was awesome, but seeing his apprehension when they arrived was not. “What’s wrong, lil’ buddy?”
Carter peered into his eyes looking miserable. “I think I shoulda listened to Mama. I made her sad and she should be happy. I wanna have fun, but Mama’s at home sad. What if she’s cryin’? I don’t want my Mama to cry.”
The little guy was taking on too much responsibility. Reaching down to rub his hair Justin smiled down at him. “Your mom will be fine. She could have come with us, but for some reason I don’t think she likes the moon runs. It’ll be fine; have a good time and then you can go tell your mom how fun it was and she may come to the next one with us.”
Carter turned his eyes to the ground where he was shuffling his feet. “Mama says she’ll never go to a moon run. ”Cheerless eyes looked at him, “Will you be here, Mister Justin? Next time I mean?”