“Yeah, no problem.” She walked into the small cabin, the bite mark on her neck pulsing. What had happened last night and well into the morning? Her body was sore in a pretty comfortable way, but she couldn’t grasp a thought. Her mate was taking this whole Alpha situation too far. Should she be pissed at Seth?
Probably. But she couldn’t drum up the energy right now to be angry.
She shook her head, feeling loose and relaxed, but her mind was spinning. There was too much happening at once, and really, she wanted to shoot somebody—quite possibly Seth. Maybe she’d go target practicing later and work on her aim with a couple of the trees in the area. She moved into the kitchen and stopped short. “Aunt Dotty.”
Dotty smiled from her seat by the back sliding door, where she cuddled an adorable black Lab puppy. “Hi, honey.”
“We adopted a dog?”
Dotty smiled widely in her round and pretty face. She had her wild gray hair in two braids today and wore a bright purple sweatshirt with a picture of Big Bird on it, along with red-and-blue-striped leggings. “Yes. Isn’t he cute? I figured we needed a pet around here.”
The dog yawned and turned lazy brown eyes toward Mia.
Her heart softened instantly. “Oh, he’s adorable. What’s his name?”
Dotty petted the sweet dog. “I thought I’d name him Wolf.”
Surprise bubbled through Mia, and she turned her head to cough. What in the world? “Wolf?”
“Sure,” Aunt Dotty said. “Your mom has a wolf that is always outside. I thought I should have one, too. Don’t you think it’s a cute name?”
It was a bizarre name, considering the circumstances, but Mia dutifully nodded. “Yeah, I guess we could call him Wolf.” Although the animal looked more like a Bernard to her. Even so, it was nice having an animal that was actually an animal around. What would Dotty say if she discovered that the wolf always hanging around was actually Erik?
Dotty tilted her head. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”
“I’m a bit tired,” Mia admitted. “I don’t think my cold is going away very quickly.”
“Maybe it’s time you went to a doctor,” Dotty urged. “You haven’t seemed like you’ve been feeling well for a while, Mia. When was the last time you had a checkup?”
Did seeing a wolf shifter healer count as a doctor’s appointment? Probably not. “It’s been a while. I’ll go ahead and schedule something,” she said. “Where’s Mom?”
“Oh, she had a headache and went to lie down for a nap. Maybe she’s fighting the same thing you are.”
That was highly doubtful. “Maybe.” Mia shrugged. “I’m going to run up and shower and change.”
Dotty looked around and then cleared her throat. “You know, maybe we should talk about that at some point. You seem to be living in two places right now, and it’d be nice to only have one home, don’t you think?”
Mia stilled and then winced. Dotty had been a nun before leaving her habit behind to help raise Mia when her mother had some difficulties. She’d known it was only a matter of time before Dotty would want to talk about Mia’s excursions into the evening with Seth. “I know, Aunt Dotty,” she murmured.
“I understand you’re an adult,” Dotty said. “But is this going somewhere? I mean, you and Seth. You’re planning a future, correct?”
Considering they’d mated and were tied for life, they were probably planning a future. Mia nodded. “Yes. He actually introduced me as his fiancée the other day.”
Dotty’s entire face lit up. “Fiancée? You’re getting married? We’re having a wedding?” She clapped her hands. The puppy jumped and then fell back down with a snort. “Oh, I can’t wait.”
“No, hold on. He hasn’t really asked me yet. Or I haven’t asked him.” She didn’t want to ask him right now. Her butt was still sore. She frowned. It would be hard to marry him if she killed him for that. But did she want to get married? This entire relationship had happened so quickly. She’d gone from being a woman on the hunt to mating a wolf shifter that somehow existed to now hunting another serial killer. She put a hand to her head.
“Oh, no. Are you getting a headache, too?” Dotty asked.
“Yes. I really am. Let’s talk about Seth later. I need to take a hot shower and see if I can get rid of this headache.” Perhaps a very long shower with tons of steam would get her back on track. She’d figure out what to do with Seth and his big hand that liked to leave prints on her ass at a later date.
Dotty petted her puppy. “Okay. We’ll talk about it more later, but don’t tell your mom you’re engaged until you really are, or we’ll be buying wedding dresses before you know it.”
“Agreed,” Mia said. She took a deep breath and walked upstairs to her bedroom, shedding her outerwear before pulling the package out of her purse. She couldn’t really be pregnant, could she? Itwaspossible, but there was only one way to find out. Luna’s warnings kept ticking through her head, as well as the weird interaction with Denny, the ancient shifter. He’d looked so shocked when he sniffed her.
Was she in danger because of that moment? She’d hunted enough killers in her life to know they didn’t think like she did. Sometimes, their logic or reality was completely contrived and made sense only to them. In addition, killers aside, wolf shifters definitely had their own moral code.
One thing at a time.
