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Chapter Three
I spent the entire night falling down one rabbit hole after another, none of which had anything to do with Nora’s family or her goddaughter. It started that way but quickly escalated into things such as human care, relationships between humans and wolves, and–
How on earth am I ever supposed to juggle something like that?
I could barely take care of myself as it was. And yet, hours later, while sitting on top of the grocer’s roof, I still couldn’t get the baker out of my head.
“Jesus Liv, watch what you’re doing,” Dustin snapped when I punched a nail too close to his shoe. “I might be a wolf but that doesn’t mean I want to limp around for the rest of the day.”
“Sorry,” I apologized, then moved so I wouldn’t be in his way.
“Look, I’m sorry I snapped. I just want this to go well. Luke’s been good to us.” Luke being the grocer. “He’s done a lot to help our family so I want to do the same for him.”
“I do too.” Doing a job for free cut into our expenses, but like Dustin said, Luke had been there for our family, so it was about time we did the same for him. “I guess I’m just a little distracted. That’s all.”
“For good reason.” He paused a moment, walked up to me, then in a voice so low I barely heard him, he said, “Are you going to see her again?”
“Dustin!” I resisted the urge to punch him in the shoulder but it was close.
“What? You’re still thinking about her, so why not?”
“I can’t.” I lined up the nail gun, then shot a nail into the roof. “And you know why not.”
“Because of the arranged mating?” He huffed, then pushed his mop of curls from in front of his eyes. “Come on. You know Dad isn’t going to hold you to that, right?”
“Says the younger sibling.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You’re second-born, which means you don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Like carrying on the family name?” He glanced at where my parents were talking to the grocer. “You know you can do that anyway, right?”
“But mating between packs is–”
“Stupid.” He lined up his nail gun, moved some of the shingles, then locked them into place. “Packs don’t own territories like they used to and it isn’t like we need those unions to keep the peace. The humans have that covered. There’s nothing left for us to worry about.”
“I wish Mom and Dad saw it that way.”
“They’re okay with it because they were high school sweethearts, but you’ve already told them you aren’t interested.”
“Well, until I have a place of my own, I need to play the part.”
“Why? Because they’ll kick you out? Are you even listening to yourself? Mom and Dad love you. Sure, they don’t understand you the way you’d like, but whose folks do? Hell, I’m bi, and they still can’t wrap their heads around it.”
“What ever happened to that guy you were seeing?”
“He caught the scent of an alpha and split.”
I winced on his behalf. “Damn, I’m sorry about that. You should’ve said something.”
“So you can feel sorry for me? I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Now you know how I feel.”
