When I woke, it felt like I hadn’t slept at all. The night before, Maddy had roused me from sleep by tugging on my hand and pushing it between her legs. My sixteen-year-old self would have rejoiced if he’d known he’d live to experience the last three days.
At no point in my life had I ever been so tired. I’d stopped counting at the nineteenth time Maddy pounced on me. So, it had probably been at least twenty-five times. Everything hurt. My legs hurt from holding her against the wall on the second night, and my feet were raw from bracing against the tile to keep us steady while we fucked three different times in the shower. My balls actually ached. I hadn’t known that could even happen just from sex, but here I was. I wasn’t sure I could get it up again for at least a couple of hours. Even my tongue was sore from the slightest movement.
Rolling over, I found Maddy sound asleep. Giving the air a cursory sniff, I sighed with relief. Her pheromones had dropped like mad since the previous night. She smelled like her old self. The heat had subsided. As exciting and fun as it had been, I was more than ready to recuperate for a few days.
I’d surprised myself with how well I’d kept pace with her. It was shocking that I had any little swimmers left after the first day. The trash can beside the bed was overflowing with used condoms and two bottles of empty lube. I wrinkled my nose in disgust as I crawled out of bed. Pulling on a shirt and pajama bottoms and slipping my feet into a pair of flip-flops, I quietly took care of the trash.
Three condoms littered the shower floor, and six dirty towels were flung about the bathroom from when we’d cleaned up after our little romps. It took about ten minutes, but I managed to clean the house of all sexual paraphernalia. At least, I really hoped so. The last thing I wanted was for my mother to open the pantry the next day and find a gross, flaccid condom on the floor.
As though Fate heard my thoughts, I glanced out the front window and saw my dad walking up the sidewalk toward my house. Maddy’s dad was beside him. A blush rose to my cheeks. I couldn’t help it. All the dirty things I’d done to his daughter over the last couple of days flashed through my mind. I was an adult, and so was Maddy, but that didn’t change the whole father-boyfriend dynamic.
Not wanting them to come in until I’d had a chance toreallyclean up, I tied the trash bag and tossed it into the laundry room before jogging over to the front door to meet them outside.
Dad smiled when he saw me and reached out to pat me on the shoulder. “Glad to see you survived Maddy’s first heat.”
“Is she okay?” Maddy’s father asked, his voice tinged with rage.
“Uh, yeah, she’s fine. Sleeping it off,” I said.
“Why did none of you know this was coming?” he growled. “Shouldn’t you all have done something to stop this? I know they make drugs for it, for Christ’s sake.”
I held my hands up, surprised by the fury in his eyes. “Mr. Sutton, I’m sorry, but we had a lot going on. I’ll be totally honest, but it was the last thing any of us were thinking about.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Gabriella walking up an opposite path, my mother beside her. Dear God, was I going to have to talk about my sex life in front of every goddamned parent in the pack lands?
Maddy’s father shoved a finger at my chest. “That’s not good enough. You’re her mate. You’re supposed to take care of her and make sure she’s okay.”
“That’s enough,” Gabriella said. “Maddy is a wolf now. This is totally natural. You’re acting like it was something dangerous or something to be ashamed of.”
“You told us to suppress her wolf!” Maddy’s father barked at her.
“Yes, I did, but that was a long time ago, and it was for her own protection. Those days are over. It’s time for her to live her life the way she was meant to. You have to embrace her for who she is now.”
Maddy’s father scoffed. “I’m supposed to embrace my little girl being used like some sex doll every eight or nine months?”
“Stop it!”
We all spun to see Maddy standing on the front porch, tying her robe around her waist. I looked back and saw the color drain from her father’s face.
“Maddy, I didn’t?— ”
“No.” She cut him off. “I don’t care what youmeant. All I know is what I heard.”
He lowered his head in shame. I was having a hard time not lowering my own head. Maddy was furious. It wasn’t that she was mad at me, but she was still terrifying when she got mad like this.
She stomped forward on bare feet. “I understand that you’re viewing things from a human perspective, but that isn’t what this is about. Apart from that, Nico is my mate. That’s the same as a human spouse. Whatever we do in our bedroom is our business, not yours.” Her face softened, and she lowered her tone. “Nico loves me. He locked himself in the house for three days to attend to my needs. If he hadn’t, I would have been under an extreme amount of discomfort. If you think he wasusingme, you have it backward. I was the one using him.”
My parents chuckled, and I could have lit a match on my face. I’d never had a more uncomfortable conversation in my life. I stared intently at the ground, but a sideways glance showed me Maddy’s father was still scowling but looking chastised. Gabriella ignored him and stepped closer to Maddy, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“How do you feel, sweetie?”
Maddy gave her a small smile. “I feel fine. Thank you foryourconcern.”
Maddy’s father sucked in a breath. Realizing, too late, that he hadn’t even asked about her well-being, he looked up and opened his mouth to say something, but Maddy cut him off with a disappointed shake of her head.
“Dad, you and Mom need to realize things have changed. I’m a wolf now. I am, and always will be, your daughter. That will never change, but you have to come to terms with the fact that I’ve changed. I’m not your helpless little girl anymore. You can’t look at me from a human’s perspective anymore. Those days are gone.”
She turned on her heel and went back inside without sparing a glance back at her father. Her dad stood there, looking crestfallen, heartbroken, and embarrassed. I nodded at my parents and Gabriella to give us a minute. The three ofthem strolled around to my backyard, leaving me standing with Maddy’s father.
