Page 49 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

Shift Happens

KESSILY LEWEL

Chapter

One

Jacob knew he should have let the call go to voicemail. He wasn’t psychic; he’d just recognized his mother’s number and knew exactly why she was calling. It was the same reason she’d called a few days before, and the week before that.

The Brood clan was having their biannual reunion, and his presence was requested—demanded really. He’d missed the last one, two years ago, and they were making sure he made it this time.

If he didn’t answer the phone, it would be his siblings calling next, and it would never stop. He sighed and hit the green circle. “Hi, Mom.”

“Oh, Jacob, good. I caught you. I think it was about to go to voicemail.” Gretchen Brood practically oozed motherly warmth through the phone.

He should be so lucky. “I was just on my way out the door, so I had to drop a bunch of stuff to get it.” He was currently sprawled on his comfy overstuffed couch, wearing nothing but boxers and socks, but she wouldn’t know that. Maybe guilt for inconveniencing him would put her on the defensive for a change.

“Great, good thing I caught you before you left then,” she said. No guilt there. “I wanted to remind you about the?—”

“Reunion, yes, I know. Mom this is the thirtieth call about it.”

“Don’t exaggerate. I’ve only called you three times,” she said with a sniff.

“You, yeah. But Dad, Grandma, Gavin and hell, pretty much everyone else in the family has also called.”

She laughed. “I guess that should show you how much we all want you to be there.”

“It’s just not a good time of year, Mom. There’s a lot going on and it’s not always easy to get the days off.” There was more to it than that, of course. But he didn’t like talking about his anxiety issues.

Their family was descended from three brothers who married three sisters, and all of them had been prolific, which meant the Brood family was huge. These reunions were practically mob scenes with five generations of people descending on the town like a flock of birds hitting Florida for the winter.

They took up every available hotel room, and every family member with a spare floor to sleep on crammed in as many as they could. It was too much. Especially since Jacob never really felt like he fit in with the rest of them.

As if sensing where his thoughts had gone, his mother suddenly spoke up, “Jacob… Is this about your little… issue? Because I can assure you, no one even thinks about that.”

“Mom. C’mon. Every time I go home, they push and push and push. I can’t make myself into something I’m not. They act like I’m broken, and they can fix me if they just push me enough.”

And it never ended. From the moment he showed up in town his siblings and cousins would be on him with suggestions. “Have you tried…” “What if you…” And the older generations were worse. They didn’t offer advice, they outright tried to forcehim into uncomfortable situations where he would have no choice but to react the way they wanted.

Only it never worked. It was exhausting and it made him a nervous wreck, but it never got the desired result.

Instead he ended up a shaky and uncoordinated mess, which wasn’t who he liked to be. It wasn’t who he was in California. Here he was in control of everything.

He managed his own distribution company. It was still small, but it was growing and in the black. He was on top of things and people looked to him for advice. They respected him.

Hell, he was even Dominant in the bedroom.

But back home, all of that confidence and self-assurance dropped away, and he was once again an awkward teenager waiting for puberty to sort him out. Well, he’d given up expecting to be sorted and it was time they did too.

After the last visit he’d decided to do everyone, including himself, a favor and just stay away. Except his family couldn’t accept that either.

A long sigh gusted over the phone speaker. “Honey, you know they just want to help. There’s no one else like this in our family history, so there’s no reason to think that you have to be likethis. Obviously, there’s an issue, so therehasto be a solution.”

“The solution is to just let me be who I am. I don’t have to be like everyone else in the family. I wish you’d all just… let it go.” There was a snap to his voice that he didn’t intend, and he winced. “Sorry, Mom.”

There was a long silence, and he began to wonder if she was going to say anything else. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I just… it doesn’t seem fair that you’re the only one who can’t…”

“I don’t mind. Not anymore. I admit it bothered me for years, but I’ve moved past it.”

---