“Do you mean how often a woman serves the man?” she asked. I was again taken aback by the choice of words.
“Are we talking about sex?” I asked. Sarah blushed and nodded. I asked the goddess to give me strength. I didn’t really want to have this conversation, but at the same time I felt she needed it. As Luna, I had responsibilities, even if Sarah wasn’t part of my pack. “First of all, sex shouldn’t be seen as servinganyone. Sex should be mutual and both should be enjoying it. We can leave it at that. But yes, that plays a part in your chances of becoming pregnant. There are other factors as well.”
“Yes, what time of the month it is,” she said. I nodded.
“True. Also, if you are in an unstable pack or if you don’t feel safe. You won’t become pregnant if your wolf isn’t happy for some reason. We are complicated creatures and the link we have with our wolf is profound. There are aspects of that relationship we don’t understand. We don’t know why some wolves come forth early, while others wait. We think it has to do with strength, but it’s not always the case. We don’t know why werewolves don’t get pregnant if the pack is in unrest, but it’s a fact. Did Ryder blame you because you didn’t have any pups?” I asked. She nodded.
“He told me it was the one thing I was good for and since I couldn’t even manage to do that, I was worthless.”
“Fucking weak, filthy scum!” I said with force. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, or to insult your mate,” I added as I saw her flinch. “It was Ryder who made the pack into what it became. It was he who didn’t treat you right. The fault was all his,” I told her. She looked at me and I knew she didn’t believe me. She had been mated to Ryder for years. One talk with me wouldn’t erase the years of conditioning he had put her through. The most I could hope for was to plant a seed. “What about your family?” I asked. “What do they say?”
“Oh I haven’t talked to them since I mated Ryder. He said they would be jealous of me being Luna as they are just regular wolves.” I shook my head.
“What pack are you from?”
“The Little Lake pack,” she told me. They weren’t our allies, but they had always seemed decent when we had interacted with them. I knew one of our allied packs lived near them.
“Would you like us to reach out to them and ask your family to contact you?” I asked. I could see the longing in Sarah’s eyes.
“I-I don’t know,” she said.
“I’m sure Tamara would agree to take the call with you. You don’t need to do it alone,” I suggested. Sarah hesitantly nodded.
“Yeah, okay, that sounds okay.” After that, we sat in silence as Sarah continued to work on her needlework. The silence wasn’t as uncomfortable as before. We had got a better understanding of each other. I still didn’t know what she thought about her mate’s death. If she mourned him or if it was a relief that he was gone. But I had stumbled into one too many conversations about uncomfortable subjects with her today. I was happy not to end up in another. It didn’t take long before Finlay and his mother came into the living room. I walked up to him. He looked better than he had done before their talk, even if they didn’t look to be any closer.
“How about a fruit cup and then a walk?” he asked me and fished up a cup with canned fruits and a spoon out of his pocket. I laughed. It was getting a little ridiculous, but I loved him for it.
“Deal,” I said. Taking the cup and spoon.
Chapter 96
Finlay
Iled my mother to our office and because my aunt had raised me well, I let her enter the room first. She stopped inside the room and looked at the double desk.
“Really?” she asked.
“What?”
“Isn’t that a bit much? The two of you couldn’t have separate desks?” she asked me. I indicated the visitor’s chair and walked around the desk to take my place. I looked at the empty place next to me and wished it wasn’t empty.
“It’s not too much. I ordered this desk when we built the pack house. I have always known what kind of relationship I wanted to have with my mate. With Amie by my side, that idea just makes even more sense,” I told her. She had taken a seat and looked tense.
“Well, your father and I never needed such a thing. The Alpha’s office was his domain. I didn’t need an office.”
“We do things differently. I value Amie’s advice and I enjoy having her close.”
“She does seem to have taken to her role as Luna, not even you objected when she sent us in here,” my mother remarked.
“Why would I? I know she did it for my sake, and that brings me to why we are here. We need to talk.” It had been years since my mother and I had sat down and talked with no one else present. It was sad that I couldn’t even remember when it was or what we had said.
“Please enlighten me. Is this where you ask me and Sarah to stay in the pack? I don’t think that would be in Sarah’s best interest,” she asked. She caught me off guard and I let a chuckle escape me.
“That wasn’t what I wanted to talk about. Luckily, you said no. If you had said yes to your own invitation, this would have been awkward,” I told her.
“Why wouldn’t you invite us to stay? We are your family. I have heard you had Amie’s parents stay for an entire month.”
“Well, that brings me to what I wanted to talk about. You say we are family, but you haven’t once asked how Amie is, despite knowing what she went through only days ago. You haven’t even mentioned we are having a pup, you haven’t congratulated us. It’s your first grand pup and you act like they don’t exist,” I told her. I sounded bitter, and it left a foul taste in my mouth. But I needed to come clean about how I felt.
