“I’m sorry. I hate that your family is being—”
I block out the rest of her words as my fingers fly over the keyboard.
Me:When?
Jae:Tonight at sundown. Jo…
I wait.
Jae:Let me come get you. Help you pack. You can’t stay there. Not if the Seethe has free access.
Jordy nudges my shoulder and tilts his chin to my phone. “What’s going on, momma?”
I hesitate for only a second before forcing a smile. “Nothing. Just Jae filling me in on what’s going on.”
“Jae?” Jordy scrapes his teeth over his bottom lip. A muscle tics in his jaw, but whatever is bugging him he decides to keep to himself.
Me:Give me until the end of the day to think about it?
Jae:Can I at least go to your house and grab some of your things? Just in case.
Me:Yeah. That would be great. Thank you.
I shove my phone back in my pocket and try to enjoy the rest of lunch, but the mood at the table has drastically shifted. This is bad. Really bad. How could my mom be this reckless? She’s going to get us killed.
63
Jordy
The rumor mill is running rampant. I can see it eating at Joaninha. She’s not used to all of the attention. Personally, fuck what people here think. Let them look and whisper. I’m proud to be a dad. I know she is too—of being a mom. The way she is with César, there’s just something about it that makes my heart beat faster, my chest squeeze tighter, and my wolf howl with pride.
I don’t want to mess this up.
Everyone is acting like this is some big thing, what with me being a shifter and her not. But it’s not. César is mine. End of discussion. I don’t need to explain myself. They all want to know why they never heard of him before. Why we kept him a secret for so long. But that isn’t my problem.
It’s not my job to keep these fuckers informed, and I sure as shit am not going to throw my girl under the bus and tell everyone I didn’t know about him.
My girl.I like the sound of that.
I might be new to this relationship shit. I don’t know what she expects, how to court her properly, but I know that’s not the way to get off on the right foot.
People here should know by now the wolves don’t explain themselves. A few words in the halls shut most of the guys down, and the shifters on campus know better than to question any of us. But the girls—fuck, they’re the worst.
My phone is on silent and I swear it vibrates in my back pocket every other minute. I read the first three this morning before deciding to ignore it the rest of the day. I don’t have time for that shit. I thought if I ignored them, they’d eventually stop, but the ones who are bold like Kaitlyn Crisp have taken it upon themselves to just ask me about it in person.
She thought she was subtle, asking how things are going. If I like being a dad. Telling me how cute my boy is and then hinting that being a single dad must be so hard. Puh-leez. She’s angling to find out if Joaninha and I are a thing.Single dad.I roll my eyes.
I need to take a page out of Des’s playbook and be the broody, unapproachable asshole so I don’t have to deal with people and their bullshit. The bell rings and we all dump our trays in the trash. Zheng reluctantly passes César back to Joaninha and I walk her to her next class.
“See? This all worked out,” I tell her, placing my hand on the small of her back. She offers me a hesitant smile, shifting César’s weight to her other side.
“For now. What happens when César is sick or has a meltdown?”
I press my lips to her temple. “We deal with it. If he’s sick, I’ll stay home with him. We’ll watch cartoons and chill in my room. And if he has a meltdown,” I shrug. “Kids do that. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
She doesn’t look convinced, but she nods. “Okay.”
“Do you want me to take him for third?”
