Page 4 of Daddy Wolf's Secret Baby

During the next ten years, her parents visited often. They loved Jace, who was extremely intelligent and just a wee bit cheeky. He had a sense of adventure that kept Zahra and Ruthie, who looked after the boy, on their toes.

Zahra earned her degree in accounting and then earned a master’s degree in forensic accounting before getting a job with a great, local company. Life was perfect – almost.

Occasionally, late at night, after Jace was in bed, Zahra would pour herself a glass of wine and go outside to stare at the stars. She was reminded of that night that she and Josiah had sex and sometimes imagined that she could still feel his touch. The man had broken her heart by rejecting her, but Jace had mended it.

There had been several nice men who asked Zahra out on a date. She said that she was focused on raising Jace. That was true, but the biggest reason was that no one could compare to Josiah. His scent still lingered in her soul.

1

Zahra

Current day

“Ican’t believe how much he’s grown,” Ruthie said.

Jace ran by the three women and grinned at them, as though he knew they were talking about him.

“I know. He’s fast, too. When we go to the mountain to shift, he can run circles around me.” Zahra sighed. “He’s incredibly mature for a ten-year-old, though. Gentry told him that he was the man of the house and had to act like it. Jace took that talk to heart.”

Emma shook her head. “I can’t believe Gentry retired as our alpha. We all love him and no one is sure about Elias. He is very self-centered and a lot of us don’t think that he’s capable of having the pack’s best interest at heart. He has the mindset that he’s some kind of royalty and what Elias wants, Elias gets.”

“Gentry has faith in him and Elias is his son. Maybe Elias will step up to the plate and show us how wrong we all are,” Ruthie said.

“I hope so,” Emma said doubtfully.

Jace squealed and jumped up and down as one of the boys on his team made a point. He and a few of the neighborhood kidshad decided to play soccer, and Zahra’s backyard was the largest. She preferred having the children over at her place, anyway. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust other parents in the neighborhood, but Jace was her world.

“The tradition for our pack is that the alpha chooses his luna right after he accepts the title,” Emma said. “I think that half of the women in our pack are drooling over him and hoping that he picks them.”

Zahra nudged Emma gently with her elbow. “What about you? Don’t you want to be the next Luna?”

“Ah, hell to da naw, naw, naw.” Emma sang the key phrase to Bishop Bullwinkle’s song. “Elias is like a beautiful cake made of salt instead of sugar. It sure looks good on the outside but is nasty on the inside.”

Zahra and Ruthie laughed. Zahra had to agree. The few times she had encountered Elias, her body broke out in goosebumps, and the hairs on the back of her neck went up. She got the creeps every time she came in contact with him.

Finally, the group of kids called the soccer game. Jace’s team lost, but everyone congratulated the winners with huge smiles.

“I ordered pizza and ice cream for the soccer stars,” Zahra called out. “Wash your hands and I’ll bring the food out to you.”

The two picnic tables were instantly full of kids with huge appetites. She always ordered at least five large pizzas when Jace’s friends came over. A couple of them were shifters, but all of them could eat twice their weight in food.

Emma and Ruthie went inside with Zahra to help her carry out the food, drinks, and paper plates.

Ruthie shook her head. “You’re going to go broke if you keep feeding the neighborhood.”

“Maybe, but at least I have the peace of mind of knowing where my kid is. The other parents know their kids are here and are safe.”

“True enough,” Ruthie said. “In this dangerous world, that’s worth a lot.”

Everyone trickled back home after lunch. Zahra and Jace hung out together, playing card games and watching movies until it was time for bed.

Just like many nights before, she sat outside, with a glass of wine, staring at the stars, thinking about Josiah.

“Quit being such a ninny. That is way in the past and you are mooning over a man who rejected you. I was nothing more than a piece of ass for him, and even though I’m certain he’s my fated mate, I meant nothing to him.”

This was the same speech that she had given herself a million times, but that didn’t stop her heart from beating a little faster when she thought of him. The fact that Jace looked and acted so much like Josiah was a double-edged sword. At least she could have a little piece of Josiah, but at the same time, he was a constant reminder of the man Zahra couldn’t get over.

Even though Zahra always played true crime podcasts when she went to bed so she could try to focus on something else, her mind went straight to Josiah. She fell asleep remembering his touch.

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