My stomach twists again as Jasper babbles back to Ari.
Maybe. Maybe one day I’ll be “hungry” again, too.
And I wonder if this not-so-bad big wolf might be the one who devours this Red Riding Hood on the run.
Chapter Five: Jasper
Loretta nurses Ari while lying on her side on the bed, humming. Her short mini-dress made out of my shirt reveals the bottom of a cute, shapely rear and long legs, now bare, covered in bruises.
My wolf rages, and yet it settles and turns into something calm, a silent sentinel watching his pack, a peace in my heart I’ve never known.
Loretta and Ari are incredibly vulnerable, and I should give them privacy. I tried, but Loretta’s hand shot out, and desperate, slender fingers with pronounced knuckles latched around my wrist like a cuff, and I knew I would give her every control over me, eternally. A cuff, a collar, a leash... That thing about alpha wolves being all macho isn’t true. Alpha means you protect your pack, and your mate—oh, your mate owns you, and it’s the best sensation ever. Loretta grabbed me and branded me as her own, and she doesn’t even know it.
So I stand, cleaning up our large, mostly demolished meal, listening to Arianna slurping and gurgling milk, feeling so proud to protect the tiny little pup.
Human. But she’s a pup to me.
I turn to pick up a fallen napkin, and I realize that to nurse, Loretta has to pull up one side of my shirt. She started with the side on the bed, and the rumpled comforter hid her skin. Now, she slowly shifts and slides up the other side, the side that will be up, exposed. She pulls the blanket over her, and I hide a relieved sigh. I hurry out of the room, calling, “I’ll only be in the kitchen.”
“I h-hate to ask it, but do you have a shirt that’s old with buttons? I mean, I guess I don’t need it. I just—”
“We’ll order some clothes tonight. They’ll be here in the morning. Whatever you need.”
“I— When I get a job, it’s going to have to pay for rent, and lawyers, and—”
“Please don’t worry about money or paying me back. Not for a long, long time. What are a few outfits? A couple hundred bucks? I’m a guy. I wear suits, the same suits, over and over. I have some money to take care of my—my friends in need.”My pack. My mate. My pups. All the things I’ve been dreaming of and don’t have.
“My mother can bring me some clothes.”
I keep talking through the door. “That’s good. But in the meantime—I mean, I can run to the mall in the morning.”
Loretta is silent, and then her muffled voice comes from under the covers and through the door. “I don’t know what to do. Matt took care of so many things. I took care of the house. The baby. But it was his money. His budget. I’m no good on my own.”
“You would be. And you’re not alone. You have Ari. You have me. You have your parents.”
“What if he gets custody of Ari? Because I—I don’t have a job. No health insurance. No home...”
Her soft sobs break my heart. Shatter it like a sledgehammer hitting porcelain.
“Well...” I look at the dishes, empty and stained, that I’m carrying. “First of all—I know it’s hard to think of this, especially because you seem like a sweet and loving person. A loyal person.” My wolf can tell. It knows how hard she tried to make things work, and she was probably in a fog of fear, exhaustion, and first-time motherhood. Maybe she didn’t even recognize it.
“Hm?” Her tearful voice is curious.
Where am I going with this?
To stupid places, possibly.
“I think you should file a report, a police report, and ask for an order of protection. I think if you do it here, in Pine Ridge, it’ll be fast-tracked. It’ll work. I’m not saying the police are crooked or anything, but they’ll believe you and take action. They help first, do paperwork second.”
“Still, even if they do keep him away from me, that doesn’t mean they won’t give him Ari, since he’ll have his job, and his family is in town, and his mother is there, waiting to babysit. My parents still work. They’ll have to take off time to babysit me because of him. Because I’m a coward,” her brittle voice breaks.
“That’s not true! What’s scarier than running from everything you know with nothing but your baby? You were courageous! You escaped to safety. You did what you had to. That’s bravery. And... And if you wanted a job, you know, just temporarily, until you can move to Rochester, a job just so your husband can’t claim some advantage...” I swallow. I don’t know if I’m playing with fire or falling headlong into it. Either way, this is going to burn.
But I’d burn for the woman hiding behind me, making a little nest in my unused bed.
“You could be a housekeeper. You’re great at it. Room and board are included, so you could save pretty much everything you earn. It wouldn’t be a huge salary, but you could save on child care, right?”
The door creaks fully open behind me, and I turn, still holding a pile of dishes.
