Page 18 of Stolen Choices

“Good morning, Molly,” Jane announced as she entered the older puma shifter’s cave.

She was carrying a delicious smelling roast leg of venison from Tyler. The wolf shifter chef had a magical way with his spicing. Jane’s tummy was already rumbling. Unlike the other members of the Glacial Blood pack, she needed to use a jeep to get higher up in the mountains. The shifters of the pack normally just ran and jumped over and around the slopes, but being human meant it wasn’t possible for her to do the same, even though she was fit for her age. It was something she was feeling a lot more lately, especially with a grandchild on the way. She still saw Brayden as her little boy in diapers, and now he was having his own child. How had so much time passed with her living in the void of widowhood?

“Come in,” Molly called back and pulled Jane out of her contemplative reflection.

“I have food for you.” Jane placed the roasted leg down on the counter in Molly’s kitchen.

It always amazed her how beautiful the cave was. It was a proper home on the inside, filled with working amenities, thanks to magic. However, from the outside…well, it looked just like a cave. Sometimes she wished she had something like this. An escape from the mansion and all the people in it. She missed her cafe in Death Valley. It had given her a purpose, but she understood why Kas wanted her close.

“This smells delicious.” Molly pulled off a chunk of the meat from the leg and devoured it in a matter of seconds. The puma shifter handed the bone back to Jane in order for her to take a mouthful. “Sorry I forget.” Molly chuckled and placed the bone down on the counter before cutting a couple of slices off with a knife. “Can’t help the animal inside me sometimes.”

“It’s ok. Don’t worry. I live with enough shifters. It’s natural, and I love to see you all happy and enjoying your food.”

They both took a seat at the table.

“I wish others would see it the same way. Nuka was a troublemaker even as a boy. I remember him always being in charge of the pranks with the other students, and Kas always took the blame to protect his younger twin brother. It was frustrating. Sometimes I just wanted to smack some sense into Nuka, but with his grandfather around, it wasn’t possible.”

“The brothers are very different. I can see the frustration.”

Molly got up from the table and poured Jane a cup of tea from an already boiled kettle. The puma shifter was perfectly able to look after herself despite missing a leg.

“Are you ok, Jane?” she questioned as she sat back down and took another big bite of the venison bone.

“I am. It’s just…” Jane paused.

“You miss Heath?” Molly reached out and took her hand.

Jane’s husband, Heath, had been the beta of the Glacial Blood pack. He’d died young…so very young, in fact, Brayden had never really gotten to know his father.

“It would have been our twenty-fifth anniversary last week. I only had such a little time with him. It seems strange that if he’d lived, we’d have been married for so long.”

“You were very young when you started courting.” Molly squeezed her hand again. “It’s hard losing the person you love and not finding another.”

Molly looked down at her own tea this time, a quiet contemplation on her face.

“You sound as though you’re speaking from experience.”

Molly nodded.

“It would have been even longer if I’d married the man I loved. I was just as young as you when I met him. Times were different then. We couldn’t marry with all the strife in the world. Vietnam was no place to be in love. The horrors will stay with me forever.”

“You lost the man you loved there?” Jane questioned. She knew Molly had found someone, and he’d died, but she didn’t know much else.

“I did. It was horrible. But there was nothing I could do after it happened. I returned to the pack and have lived this way ever since.”

“You’ve never found anyone else you wanted to be with?”

“Have you?” Molly retorted quickly.

“I focused all my attention on Brayden.”

“He’s a grown man now with his own child on the way.”

“Selene is young and still finding her own way in the world. She’ll need a lot of help with the baby.”

“Sacrificing your own happiness again while helping others. You always were the same, Jane. I know I’ll never persuade you that Brayden and Selene will be just fine if you choose to follow your heart and find someone else to be with.”

They would never see eye to eye on this matter. Both women were stubborn and, more importantly, scared of getting hurt again. They’d both lost the men they loved and had chosen to hide away rather than step out into the world. At least Jane had chosen to hide in plain sight. Molly had virtually disappeared off the face of the earth, hiding away in her cave.

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