Page 8 of Raw

“You’re really sure about this, huh?” she said, her voice soft.

“Yes, but I promise to come visit you whenever Jason drives back to town.”

I would miss her, but having Papa and Fennec with me would take my mind off it.

I didn’t wanna spend my days missing her, because I knew she’d be okay on her own.

Well, she wasn’t all alone.

She had her friends, and without her kids at home, she could finally do all the things she liked doing like in the olden days.

Mama liked to go out and party, to drink wine and be careless.

“Think of it as me going off to college. You’d be alone then too,” I told her.

“That’s true. But this is different. You’ll be out in the wild with no protection—”

“Papa and Fen will protect me. And I can protect myself too, you know?”

She let out a soft chuckle and nodded. “You’re right. You’ll be fine.”

I heard a car pull up outside, and I quickly took another bite of the wing before getting up and washing my hands in the sink, grinning widely as I looked outside the kitchen window to see Jason’s truck parked right behind Mama’s.

“He’s here!” I announced, and sure enough, Jason got out of the car to walk toward our front door, leaving Sitka in the car.

I ran to the door and grabbed my duffle bag from the floor, then I pulled the door open to see Jason already standing there, lighting a cigarette.

“Ready?” he asked in a low growl, and I quickly nodded my head with a bright smile on my face.

Mama came over to us and smiled at Jason, saying hello and then looking at me with a concerned look.

“Take good care of yourself. Stay warm and eat enough, okay?”

“I will. You know I will,” I told her, letting the bag fall back down to my feet before hugging her tight.

Her arms wrapped around my body, rubbing my back gently and letting out a heavy sigh.

“Turn that phone on every once in a while, okay? I need to have some type of reassurance that you’re all okay.”

Unlike me, Fennec never had to turn his phone on in the wild. It was only for emergencies, and ever since he moved up there, we got exactly three calls from him and Papa.

One on my birthday, the second on Mama’s, and the third on Christmas.

When we tried to call them on either Fen’s or Papa’s birthday, they kept the phone turned off.

Birthdays weren’t that important anyway, right?

“I’ll send you a message whenever something fun happens. I love you, Mama,” I whispered, leaning back to look her in the eyes.

“Love you too, Ves. And tell Fen I love him too.”

I nodded, then kissed her cheek before turning to Jason who had picked up my bag and already smoked the whole cigarette.

“She’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about her.”

I squeezed Mama’s hand one more time before running to the truck and getting inside, making Sitka scoot over into the middle of the bench.

“Hi, big girl,” I said, rubbing her belly and letting her lick my face with her rough tongue.

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