“Oh my gosh,” she murmured, cheeks the color of cherries. She shoved her phone into her pocket and bolted for the front door. Dad was taking up the entire porch, with his back to her. Mom had to sidle the wall of the small porch to get past him and hug her, and now she could hear Dodger’s truck.
“Dad, please be nice.”
“I’ll be whatever he deserves.”
“I’m old, Dad!” she said, tugging at his arm. “And I like this one. Don’t chase him away.”
He was already headed to the truck that Dodger was parking across the street. Why was he walking so fast and so aggressively?
Dodger stepped out, and his eyes were glowing nearly white. His bone structure was sharper, and he curled his lips back from teeth that seemed sharper than she remembered.
“Dad, stop!”
She bolted ahead of him and stood in between them, her hands on Dad’s chest. “Please, stop.”
And oh, she hadn’t seen this on her dad’s face in a long time. His eyes were glowing yellow and his face looked monstrous.
“Sir,” Dodger said behind her.
Destiny glanced to the side and could see Dodger tilting his face to the side, exposing the side of his neck. His eyes were boring into her dad though.
Destiny backed up and wrapped her arms around Dodger’s arm. “Dad, this is Dodger Nause. Dodger, this is my dad. This is Behren.”
“You sure didn’t pick a submissive one, did you, Destiny?” her dad asked in a voice that was so snarly, she barely recognized it.
“Why would I want submissive? If I’m choosing a wolf, I want one that can protect me.”
“I don’t want a fight,” Dodger told him. “I’ve heard stories about you.”
“You might not want one, but your wolf sure does,” her dad gritted out. “I can feel it.”
“Honey,” Mom said from behind him. She slid her hand into the crook of his tense arm.
Some of the tension left him and he backed up a few paces, eyes never leaving Dodger’s. He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes as he looked from Dodger to Destiny, and back to Dodger. “What have you done?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“What are you talking about?” Mom asked.
Dodger held his hands out and shook his head slowly. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
The intensity was back in Dad’s gold eyes, but there was something more—realization.
“Destiny, what’s happening?” her mother asked, confusion swirling across her pretty face.
Destiny didn’t know how to just say it. She couldn’t find the right words.
“There’s a bond,” Dodger told her mother.
Mom’s mouth fell open and she gasped. She clapped her hand over her lips and looked at Destiny with such shock swimming in her eyes. “Really?”
Destiny nodded, worried at the tension in Dad. She didn’t want them to fight. She didn’t want their wolves going after each other.
“It’s too fast,” Dad said.
“We were fast too,” Mom whispered, and now her eyes were crinkling with a smile as she stepped forward and hugged Destiny and then moved to Dodger. Tears rimmed her eyes as she pulled him in for a hug.
Destiny could tell he was trying to be so gentle with her mom, and now her eyes were burning with tears. She didn’t know how she’d expected her mom to react to her bonding so quickly to a werewolf, but she was being so supportive. God, she appreciated it.
