Page 67 of Bewitching the Wolf

“You could have cooked at my place.”

“You never asked me to. Come to that, you’ve never invited me to meet your family, either. Why not?”

I sigh. “It’s complicated, Jax.”

He cocks his head. “Explain it to me.”

“Vixen shifters are wary of guys. We’ve been left high and dry by our own kind way too often. Our skills and abilities have been disrespected by fox shifters, and they’ve often left mothers alone to raise the cubs.” I pause, twirling pasta onto my fork. “These days, vixen shifters demand a lot of respect from the males they allow into our lairs.”

“And you thought I wouldn’t be respectful enough?”

“You’ve been pretty surly over the past few years.” Seeing the remorse etched all over his face, I reach for his hand and squeeze it. “I do understand why.”

He shakes his head. “I just didn’t know how to express what I felt, so I chose to be a rude bastard to you. It’s no excuse, but that’s the truth. I promise I’ll make it up to you, Tippy.”

He holds my hand tightly as he continues in a low voice. “I guess all the pain and trauma I went through affected me. I wasn’t like that before Mom disappeared. I was a happy, normal kid, y’know?”

“What was it like back then? In Sparkle?” I ask. I’ve always been curious about the glittering city that sits above the Labyrinth and denies us our freedom.

“It felt perfect. As a kid. You didn’t see the cracks, how dark and ugly everything was behind the facade. Sparkle was literally like living in a theme park. My family weren’t wealthy, but we had each other, we had a nice enough apartment, the streets were safe to play in and there was loads of free entertainment. But you want to know the highlight?” His eyes shine and I nod. “Mom made the most amazing apple pie, and the best custard.”

I laugh. “Right, that’s it, you are definitely baking me apple pie sometime.”

“You bet.” He grins, and now that he’s more relaxed, I dare to dig a little deeper.

“Your mom was a cleaner, right?”

“Yeah, she worked in the big office blocks in the city center, DeVines department store and the entertainment arena as well. She even got to clean Devine Tower. She met the mayor a couple times.” He snorts. “She saw right through him. I remember her saying how he’d fooled everyone into believing he was our great benefactor, when all he cared about was himself and the DeVine dynasty. She reckoned that was what power and money did to folks, made them into despots. She was wise, our mom, she had no time for fakery.”

His face starts to cloud with sadness, so I change tack.

“What about your dad? What did he do?”

“He maintained the roads and buildings, laboring. He was a man of hard work and few words. He totally adored Mom, and I guess he loved us too, but he was always a bit distant. When Mom disappeared, he just… gave up and smoked himself to death. Clem looked after him, angel that she is. I washed my hands of him, which I regret, but I was fucking angry that he’d done so little to find Mom.”

“Did he try?”

“Barely. Just said the authorities were doing their best to find her. That made me so freaking mad, because they were doing fuck all. That’s when I took it into my own hands and tried to hack through the dome walls to find her. It all went downhill from there. I got put in a school for delinquent teens. Me and Clem didn’t see each other for long periods, which was the saddest thing—we’d been inseparable as kids.”

I nod. “Clem told me how close you were. How much she looked up to you.”

“She said that?” His green eyes soften, then he pulls a rueful face. “So you had some idea I wasn’t a complete jerk, then.”

“I knew you weren’t a jerk from the moment I set eyes on you.”

“Even though I spent three years trying to persuade you otherwise?”

“Oh sure, you tried. But in my heart, I knew who you were, Jax.”

He gifts me the most beautiful smile, and then suddenly there are tears in his eyes, and I see my gentle, soft wolfman behind the hard shell he’s worn for so long.

He huffs a big sigh. “You really don’t need to know any more about my shitty past.”

“Yes, I do. It helps me to understand you, Jax. Tell me about the school they sent you to.”

“Remand school was shit, more like a prison for kids than a school. Discipline and cruelty, that’s all I remember, and terrible food. And running away… yeah, I did a fair bit of that. I was so angry, with everyone, the world, the fakeness and lies of Sparkle. And I was sure Mom was out there somewhere, I just had this sense inside me, like she was… imprisoned, or held against her will. Somewhere…” He trails off, staring at our joined hands.

“Do you think she’s still alive?”