Page 14 of Shifter Mates for the Single Mom

“You knew my dad?” It was Aidan on the stairs, still in his sleep shorts and a t-shirt that looked giant on him.

“Yeah, we were buddies. You get any sleep, kiddo?”

“Yeah, I slept some. I wanted to see what you guys were doing.” He finished padding down the stairs, stifling a yawn. I wondered if he was dealing with nightmares, too. I would have to ask him in private later. He seemed pretty concerned with impressing Nathan and the others.

“We’re putting up new cameras, lights, and sensors so we can see this Matthias guy coming.” He smiled at my son as Aidan plopped down on my other side and leaned on my shoulder. I could tell he was still upset by what had happened, but I also knew my little man was checking on me. He did that a lot these days.

"Do you think that he's gonna come back?" Aidan looked across at Nathan, who smiled tightly.

"Well, kiddo, the problem is, guys like Matthias don't know when to quit. You see, sometimes, when a person gets power of some kind, it goes straight to his head. He becomes selfish, mean, stops seeing other people as people. Matthias is a shifter, but he's not like us. His kind likes to hurt people. They've been causing problems for humans and other shifters for a long, long time."

"You said he can become a tiger? That would be so cool if he wasn't mean." He peered at Nathan. "Ulf says you guys can be Wolves. How come you're not Wolves now?"

Nathan wiggled the fingers of one hand. "No opposable thumbs as a Wolf, so we can't do fiddly stuff like putting up cameras. Besides, I couldn't talk to you if I was all fuzzy right now."

Aidan giggled, and I hid a small smile as I kept working.

"So, did Dad know you're a Werewolf?"

"Wolf shifter, honey," I corrected gently.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, Werewolves are under a curse, and as far as I know, they only exist in stories. We're born this way naturally, and our Wolf half is just part of us."

"Oh. Okay. So, did Dad know you're a Wolf shifter?" Not even a pause. A little pride tugged at my heart.

"Yeah, Ben did. He saw me change once. It was kinda dumb." He chuckled and shook his head.

Aidan perked up. "What happened?"

Nathan looked at me briefly. I nodded, and he cleared his throat. "Well, your dad and I were out in the desert back when we were both in the military, and we got cut off from the rest of our guys. We were up in these high, dry hills that were like a maze, and boom, some of the bad guys set off a bomb and caused a landslide. It blocked one end of the little canyon we were in. Made it so we couldn't go back."

His eyes got big. "Uh oh. How did you get out?"

"Well, your dad did some covering fire, which is when you make everybody duck so they can't shoot at you or move forward. Meanwhile, I was taking off my clothes because I didn't want to rip them."

He blinked. "You have to get naked before you turn into a wolf?" My son burst out laughing. "What happens if you don't?"

"Well, all of a sudden you have a four-legged person trying to wear clothes made for a two-legged person. You end up tearing them getting out. And that gets really tiring after a while. Like, imagine having your favorite shirt on. If you want to save it, you have to take it off first."

"Ohh. Okay. I get it." Aidan still giggled a little. "Except, didn’t all the bad guys see your butt?”

I choked laughing. “Oh my God, Aidan!” But I couldn’t sound stern enough when I was snickering that hard.

Aidan grinned, and Nathan squinted in amusement.

“Yep, I had both cheeks in the breeze for a few seconds there. The shooting actually slowed down because everyone was confused. Including your dad. He was all ‘What the hell are you doing, Nate?’ And I said, 'Changing!' And he said 'Now?'"

I coughed into my fist, the corners of my eyes tearing up. Actually, what Ben had said had been "What did you do, shit yourself?" But of course, until he was older, Aidan was getting the clean version.

“Oh. Oh! I get it! You meant changing into a Wolf and he thought you meant changing your pants!” Aidan looked proud of himself and laughed again. “That’s funny!”

Nate just grinned. The sight of it made me feel a deep warmth in my belly. “Yup,” he said cheerfully. “Anyway, there I was, out of my pants in a free fire zone, and then I changed. Now, I’m tougher as a Wolf––”

“Did the bad guys get scared?” Aidan was starting to bounce a little with excitement.

“Well, you see, a lot of people in that part of the world think all of us supernatural types are demons. Part of it is culture and religion, and the other part is that the Tigers are all from that region. South and East of there, too. So, the only shifters they’d ever known about or believed in were mean shifters.”

“But you’re not mean. You’re nice!”

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