Her daughter dropped the leg and clapped her hands. “Jill, Jamie, Joy,” she called out one J name after another.
Jacque threw her head back and laughed, and the others joined in so that Jen got the effect in surround sound. Lovely.
“Touché.” She had no choice but to give the boy his props on this one. “Titus, maybe there’s hope for you yet.” The perpetual tightness that squeezed her heart eased a bit as her wolf soaked up the support of their pack. Even the teasing and playing helped, at least for now.
The door opened again, and Gavril entered. “Hey, love.” Rachel’s eyes went soft, the way they always did when her mate was around.
Jen stretched up so she could see Gavril. “Hey, G-Man.” She waved a doll head at him.
Gavril’s brow rose as he looked at Rachel. “Did you tell her, or did she find out on her own?”
Jen glanced back at the healer, who looked a tad sheepish with her pursed lips and rosy, red cheeks. Rachel looked at the ceiling when she spoke. “I sort of…”
“Had my kid tell me to come play ‘hell’ with her,” Jen pursed her lips. “And I thought hell was a bit of an odd name for a game. Did I think the game consisted of my sweet little angel learning her alphabet with dismembered doll limbs? No, no, I did not.”
Gavril lifted a large shoulder in a shrug. “Could be worse. She could be torturing animals and playing the drums with their bones.”
“Wow,” Crina blinked slowly “Just when I didn’t think things could get any darker than a two-year-old with a dismembering fetish.”
“Counseling,” Jacque muttered. “We need some serious counseling.”
Jen dropped the head and leaned over to kiss Thia. “Stick to the dolls, okay, mini-me?”
Thia banged two arms together and grinned, looking a little too much like the Joker from Batman.
Jen pushed herself to her feet and took a deep breath. “All right, Timbuktu.” She pointed at Titus. “You and me. We’re going to spar, and then I’m going to teach you how to really hunt.”
Gavril crossed his arms in front of his broad chest. “I’ve got it covered, Jen.”
She waved him off. “There’s nothing wrong with giving the kid some different perspectives. You’re old enough to know that.”
“He is old enough to know most anything,” Crina muttered. “He’s probably old enough to know which trees Noah cut down to build the Ark.”
Bethany grimaced. “Please don’t remind me how old my mate is. I can’t even think about it or I get a mental image of what he’s supposed to look like at his age. Not sexy. Not sexy at all.”
Sally grinned. “Not into silver foxes?”
Bethany shook her head. “He wouldn’t be a silver fox. He’d be dried-up parchment. It would be like stroking an old corn husk.”
Crina choked at the same time that Jen threw her head back, howling with laughter. Tears welled up in the blonde’s eyes, and her abdomen shook with the strength of it. “I did not need that mental image, but thank you for giving it to me, anyway.”
Bethany’s eyes widened until she looked like a cartoon. “I didn’t mean stroking his…” She sputtered. “I meant like … his arm … or face. I … freaking—”
“Yep, you’re freaky all right.” Jacque chuckled. “We just didn’t know how freaky.”
Bethany’s face reddened further, and she buried it in Hope’s small stomach. “Would it be too much to ask for you all not to mention this to my mate?”
“Doesn’t he already know?” Sally asked as she tapped her temple.
Bethany lifted her head. “He’s been a little preoccupied with things.” There was a sound of defeat in her voice.
Jen glanced at Jacque and could tell her redheaded friend was thinking the same thing she was. Bethany had been with the pack for some time, but she was still a newbie. She wasn’t accustomed to having a werewolf mate charged with protecting the supernatural and human worlds. No doubt he would be distracted with all that entailed. And considering she wasn’t exactly battle-trained and just had a new baby, she couldn’t be at his side. That was difficult for any Canis lupus, especially a new mother.
Jacque walked over to Bethany and sat on the arm of the chair, wrapping an arm around her. “I wish I could tell you it will get easier, but I won’t lie to you. This is who we are. It’s who our mates are. And sometimes, it really sucks.”
“On the flip side”—Jen grinned—“you would never be able to find their kind of stamina in a human male.”
“There it is.” Sally sighed and ran a hand through Titus’s hair. “She always comes back around to that.”
