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My daughter stood in the arched doorway of the living room, her hands over her face. She turned away quickly, shielding her eyes. “Oh fuck, I’m sorry, Dad! I didn’t know you had company!”

“It’s not what it looks like,” Connor said. He was at least wearing clothes. I was not sure if that made things more or less weird.

The sun was shining through the window, which meant it had to be late morning. Which was crazy because I never slept so late. Especially recently.

Last night I not only slept, but I slept comfortably.

I hadn’t slept so much in weeks, maybe even longer. How long had Connor and I stayed outside? The last thing I remembered was him petting me while in my wolf form. His hands had moved over my fur in a rhythmic motion, lulling with his calm. My eyes had drifted closed, and I’d felt safe with him. Happy.

At what point had I changed back into a human? And how did we get inside?

“It really isn’t what it looks like,” I said.

Unfortunately, the truth was so incredibly unbelievable I would rather she think I had some weird wild night with a guy, except that he was fully clothed.

“I’m going to give you a moment. I’ll be in the kitchen, or maybe I should go back to my house,” she said.

“No, stay. Make some coffee, please,” I said.

She left the room, calling over her shoulder. “Okay!” She’d tried to sound normal, but I could tell she was off kilter. I was off kilter.

I stood up, grabbing the pillow and holding it over the front of me.

“Good morning,” I said, facing Connor.

Connor’s eyes were wide, his cheeks stained red. His hair was tousled from sleep and there were lines on his face where he’d rested it on the arm of the couch. He had to be sore. That couch was not for sleeping, and it definitely wasn’t meant for two grown men. And at our age, the only safe place to sleep was a bed. One side of the collar of his polo was folded into the neck of his shirt. The sight of his neck gave me flashbacks to the night before. I’d nuzzled against him there, licking his skin when I’d been in my wolf form. It had felt so good to bask in his warmth and let him hold me. He had laughed like I was tickling him. I couldn’t get enough of him.

“Hi,” he said. “I can just—”

“Stay, please. I... I don’t have any right to ask. You’ve been amazing, and I’m sure you have a lot of questions. Let’s just… I should probably tell her what’s going on, and I want you to meet her.”

His shoulders relaxed. “Of course. I’ll be here for however long you need. I don’t work today, so I don’t have to go anywhere. And I am very curious about… well… you know.”

“Me turning into a beast?” I tried to keep the disdain from my voice. I knew what I was. The teeth, the claws, the growls that I couldn’t stop from rolling out of me even when I was in my human form. It had to be terrifying. It was a miracle he wasn’t running for the hills right now or gathering the villagers with torches and pitchforks to run me out of town.

“Hey.” He stepped closer to me and gripped my chin with one hand. “You’re not a beast. You were beautiful.”

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t get enough of his touch. I wanted to bask in it. I gave myself one long moment to savor his skin against mine. No matter what happened, I would make sure I got more of his touches. But first, we needed to let my daughter know that there were some changes taking place. Oh, and she would also be a wolf someday.

“Great. I’m going to go get dressed.” I jerked my thumb toward the hallway, still holding the pillow over my groin.

“I’m going to wait here,” he said, as if he was hesitant to go to the kitchen and meet Maya on his own.

“Just give me a moment. It won’t take me long.”

I backed out of the room. Not that I was ashamed of my body. I was actually quite proud of it. At my age, the biggest complaint I had was that my middle was going soft, but that didn’t mean I was ready to turn and bare my ass to the man this early in the morning. Then again, he had seen me in my wolf form, and if he could accept that, then I doubted my old ass would bother him. Also, I had slept naked with him for at least some of the night.

Once I was safely in my bathroom, I splashed some water on my face, brushed my teeth as quickly as I could, and threw on a set of clothes.

When I made it back into the living room, I found it empty. Maya and Connor were in the kitchen, Maya holding a steaming mug of coffee eyeing Connor like the cat that ate the canary. Her eyes sparkled with mischief, like she’d caught me on some romantic outing and couldn’t wait to get all the tea.

Joke’s on her, the tea that I was about to spill didn’t have anything to do with my budding romance with Connor. Or maybe it did, but I couldn’t think that far into it yet. Mason’s warning about finding my mate was on my mind, but it was hardly a high priority. I supposed it should’ve been, since having my mate was what would anchor me to my human side.

“So, I see things are going well here.” Her eyes were lit with mischief.

Of course, for years she had been telling me to find someone to go out on dates. She hated that I was alone all the time. She thought that I was lonely. Never mind the fact that she was right. She had to be ecstatic that it appeared like I’d found someone.

“Play nice,” I said. “Connor, this is my daughter Maya. Maya, this is Connor.”