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Sitting in the chair, Micah picked up the phone. This was the part that he was dreading the most. He had to let his father know what had happened.
Micah explained the situation as succinctly as possible. At least the old man’s first thought was of his son’s welfare.
“Are you sure that you’re going to be okay?”
“The doctor gave me a clean bill of health,” Micah said. “I’m just moving a little bit slower than I was, but I feel great.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
There was a brief pause.
“How in the world could you get caught up in a situation like that?” his father demanded.
“Like I said. We were careful, just not careful enough,” Micah replied.
“You shouldn’t have been there in the first place. As soon as you heard about all of the drama and other bullshit that was going on down there, you should have left. There is too much at stake for you to be involved in that mess.”
“I didn’t plan on getting involved, Father,” Micah replied. “It just happened. There are hunters that move through Montana and kill shifters every year.”
“I realize that, but they are few and far between. It’s not like we’re infested with hunters like Ivy Springs is.”
Micah had to admit that his father was right about that.
“This is unacceptable. You need to get your ass back home now. You have the alpha ceremony to go through in a couple of weeks. You have duties to your clan.”
Micah took a deep breath. He had expected this reaction from his father.
“I’ll be home in a few days.”
“You’d better,” his father said.
Micah wanted to say, “or what,” but his father had already hung up the phone.
Rubbing his head, he tossed his phone on the table.
A light rap on his door and Lucy stepped in.
“You are able to get around, you have your meds, and instructions. I figure that I may as well go back to the café and help out,” Lucy said.
“You can’t stand sitting around doing nothing, either, can you?”
Lucy had the grace to look guilty.
“Call me if you need anything.”
Micah closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the chair. Groaning to himself, he wondered what he was still doing in Ivy Springs. He hadn’t seemed to be making any progress with Lucy.
She had taken care of him, but they were close friends. She would have done the same for Ginger, Dean, or any person she met on the street who needed it. It was true that they had made love several times and they were getting closer, but Lucy had even said that she would only go through the mating ceremony with someone she was in love with, and she had made a point that she wasn’t ready to go through the ceremony with him.
Part of him wondered if Lucy did have feelings for him, beyond friendship, but was just too stubborn to admit it. He knew that she loathed being forced into doing something that wasn’t a part of her life plan, especially when it came to an intimate part of her life.
He was in the same boat. His father and the elders had some woman lined up for him to go through the mating ceremony with. Of course, he had been with women in the past who he certainly wasn’t in love with. The idea of being with a woman he had absolutely no feelings for for the rest of his life made him nauseous. He wasn’t the kind of guy to mate with a woman, have sex with her once a year to get her knocked up, and then indulge in relationships with other women. That went against every moral fiber that he had.
This whole thing was giving him a headache.
“To hell with it. I’ll stay a bachelor my whole life. I’ll just find some worthy kid among the clan and make him my heir.”
The comment was hollow, because he did want a family someday. He wanted to have that special someone to share the good times and bad. He wanted sons and daughters to raise, take fishing, play ball with, and whatever else the kids were into.
