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I wolfed down the food (pun intended) while I unblocked my parents’ phone numbers. “What time should I tell my mom and dad for dinner?” I asked Elliot, who was officially wearing the peaches he’d tried to get Ev to eat.
Ev was running around the kitchen at that point, whining and giving sad howl-cries about said peaches.
“Maybe we should just invite them for dessert?” Elliot checked. “We could do dinner at five with the pack so you can meet everyone, and then have your family over at six thirty, so we have an excuse to make it short if it’s miserable for you. Given the way they were apologizing yesterday, I don’t think they’d complain at the change of plans.”
He had a damn good point.
“That would be so much better,” I agreed, unblocking my parents’ phone numbers before typing out a quick message. I could’ve sat there overthinking the damn words for an hour, or two, but I didn’t let myself, and texted the information to both of them in a group chat to make it less personal for me.
“Whose house is it tonight?” I checked.
“Ours; Dax swapped with me yesterday. But I can change that easily, if you’d rather not have them in here.”
I hesitated for a moment, then shook my head. “It’s fine. Ev will be easier to deal with here, anyway. And we can put him to bed if things start getting heated with my parents.”
“If things start getting heated with your parents, I’ll throw them out of our house on their asses without a second thought. They treated you like shit before; I won’t let them do it again.”
My face warmed a bit, but I nodded. There wasn’t a chance Elliot was lying about that. If they made me uncomfortable, or hurt me in any way, Elliot would remove them from our house and our life. Period.
I trusted that, completely.
A glance at the clock told me I needed to hit the road, so I finished the text quickly.
Me: We’re going to do dessert instead of dinner, at my place at 6:30. Everyone there will be werewolves, if you’re not comfortable with that, don’t come.
I paused, and then sent a second text.
Me: My son shifts back and forth whenever he wants. If you so much as look at him wrong, my fiancé will escort you out. Say anything unkind about us or werewolves in general, and you’ll be dealing with a furious alpha wolf.
I’d played that one up a bit; they didn’t know that alpha werewolves weren’t dominant and cruel and violent. I was sure it took a hell of a lot to make Elliot furious—the only time I’d ever even seen him mad was after I told him about my past, and the worst he’d done was pace the room for a few minutes while asking me if I was absolutely positive SD was dead, because Elliot wanted to go back and kill him himself.
But my parents also had no idea what SD had done to me, so they didn’t know that a man with anger problems would be a hell no and a hard pass for me.
Their texts came through immediately—more apologies, and confirmation that they’d be there and be on their best behavior. I didn’t bother answering them, just sliding my phone into the side pocket on my leggings.
“I’ll do the dishes and pick up when I get back,” I told Elliot, as I carried my plate to the sink. “And make lunch. We could spend some time together during Ev’s nap, too.”
Elliot’s eyes brightened. “You know I can’t turn that down.”
My gaze turned a bit wicked. “You definitely won’t be down during it.”
He laughed as I crossed the room again, leaning over to press a kiss to his lips. He dragged me onto his lap, and the kiss deepened but didn’t grow steamy, because there was a little dude running around the room.
Evan padded up to my side in his wolf form, whining and looking down at the ground sadly as he licked at my ankle. I knew he wasn’t devastated about me leaving—he was just sad about not getting more bacon and eggs.
I slipped off Elliot’s lap and scooped Evan up with a grin.
“Fine, I’m getting the bacon,” Elliot grumbled at my little wolf, as I brushed my face against his furry little one and littered kisses on his head.
He brightened, licking my face a couple times before Elliot scooped him out of my arms with an apologetic grin. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for taking care of our kid.” I emphasized the “our” that he’d let drop earlier. I loved that “our”.
His lips caught mine for another moment before he let me go, and grabbed a strip of bacon off the counter for Evan.
Ev chomped it down, and I rubbed his head one last time. “Be good for your daddy, okay?” I teased him.
The little guy ignored me, but Elliot’s massive grin told me he sure as hell hadn’t.
“Drive safe,” Elliot called out behind me, as I slipped out of the house.
Something about the words felt a hell of a lot like an, “I love you”.
