“Well, that was a good first impression, Maddy,” I said to myself. I groaned and covered my eyes with my arm.
14
NICO
Maddy ran down the hall, turned the corner, and sprinted up the stairs. The thudding of her feet only stopped when the bedroom door slammed.
I closed my eyes and took two deep breaths, trying to release the anger I felt toward my mother for interrupting us. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. Once I finally opened my eyes, my mother stood in front of me, her arms crossed, an eyebrow raised.
She stepped closer, glancing over her shoulder to be sure everyone was still outside. “What are you doing, Nico?”
I huffed out an exasperated laugh. “I think that stopped being your business when I turned eighteen, Mom.”
“Oh, stop it. You know exactly what I mean. All this?” She gestured to the bathroom, where I’d only moments before been engaged in one of the most erotic moments of my life. It made my skin crawl thinking about my mom seeing any of it. “You need to be careful. This is dangerous. I’m in agreement that the girl needs to be protected, but that’s only so we can get to Javi. You need to remember that. You shouldn’t get too attached to this woman.”
I sighed and gritted my teeth. “Well, maybe things have changed.”
Mom frowned and looked at me suspiciously. “What is that supposed to mean, Nico? What’s changed? You can’t possibly be thinking about mating with a human. If you want to sow your wild oats or whatever, you’re an adult, and I can’t stop that. Anything more? That’s just crazy.”
I glared at her. I’d never been so angry with my mother. “What if that’s exactly what I do want? It’s my choice who I mate with.”
Mom gasped and again checked to make sure no one was around to hear. “Nico,” she hissed. “That’s taboo. It’s not done.”
I groaned and waved a hand at her. “Christ, Mom. You sound like those bigots who say interracial marriage is sacrilege, or that same-sex marriage is a one-way ticket to hell. Are we really having this conversation?”
I knew where this was coming from. Edemas. All the legends and stories shifters had been told for hundreds of years about the dangers of a hybrid human-shifter child. The very idea had turned into an almost religious terror, especially for the older generations. Mom had been raised on that ideology.
“We absolutelyarehaving this conversation. If my son is about to do something this stupid, then I?—”
“Enough, Mom. I’m not mating with a human. I just didn’t like your insinuation.”
Mom put a hand to her chest and let out a relieved breath. “Thank God. Maddy is a nice girl, really. Beautiful, but she isn’t right for you. You deserve better.”
I didn’t like that. Not one bit. The anger spiked again, making me clamp my jaws together. All I’d wanted was for her to calm down and drop it, then she had to say something like that. My wolf was even more angry and a low growl escaped my throat. Mom’s eyes went wide, and she took a step back.
“Mom, this is your one warning,” I said through gritted teeth. “You will not speak about Maddy like that in my presence. In fact, you won’t speak about her like that inanyone’spresence. Is that understood?”
“Nico? What’s gotten into you? Why?—”
“I am the alpha of the Lorenzo pack,” I said, barely managing to keep my voice below a shout. “Do you understand me?”
Mom nodded ever so faintly, a movement so slight, it was almost invisible. “What is going on here?”
“I’ll tell you everything once you stop behaving like a superstitious child,” I said as I pushed past her and headed toward the back door.
I burst out into the humid night air, everyone falling silent. My friends and brothers could all see I was in a pissy mood and left me alone as I stalked toward the scrub-pine forest behind my house. I needed to shift, needed it badly. It might be the only thing that would get rid of the tension inside me. My mind slipped back to those few moments with Maddy in the bathroom. Therewassomething else that would help my tension, but that wouldn’t happen now, thanks to my mother.
Dad was standing by the firepit with a beer in his hand. I walked over to him and nodded back at the house. “Can you keep an ear out for Maddy? She might need something while I’m gone.”
He chewed at his lip and leaned in close. “Your mother?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said as I stride toward the forest.
Behind me, he cursed under his breath and tossed his beer into the fire. I kicked off my shoes and stripped my shirt, tossing it to the side, shifting as I jogged into the woods. As soon as I changed, the anger and tension inside me dissipated. The freedom of shifting released all the pent-up frustrations and irritation. I heard crackling twigs and leaves behind me. A glanceover my shaggy shoulder showed me that the guys had joined me, the three of them in their wolf forms running after me into the woods.
We ran for what felt like hours. The rush of the wind across my fur, the sounds of the night, the feel of the earth beneath my paws always calmed me. Shifting always brought out the true feeling of life. We crested a hill and sat in a circle, howling at the moon for several minutes. We weren’t drawn to it, but we got a hilarious kick out of it.
I felt a thousand times better when I got back home. We must not have been gone as long as I thought because most of the crowd was still there. My father walked up to me as we stepped out of the woods and shifted back to our human forms. “Maddy?” I asked.
