Page 13 of Prayers for the Prickly

“Certainly. I just meant that we have badgers, honey badgers and a Martin in the family, as well as both European and American Wolverines. We do not believe in rejecting mates, I just don’t have a basis for comparison to know what type of reaction there will be to a non-predatory mate.”

She nodded at that, while I sat there feeling nervous about the uncertainty of meeting a group of people who might see me, and any children produced by our union, as being less than, simply because I wasn’t a member of a species that hunted others.

“I know that you two haven’t had the chance to even begin discussing things yet, but I’m going to put you on the spot and ask how you intend to broach the subject with them?” she asked.

Gregor sighed and stroked his chin, looking grim, while I sat there wondering if his answer was going to be to put it off until he was backed into a corner and outright confronted with questions about me.

“Alone,” Gregor said. “I’d want to sit down with my mom and my old man and just lay it out for them, without telling them who August is until I’ve had a chance to gage their reactions. My pops can be a bit of a hot-headed grouch, not that I have much grounds to stand on considering I’ve inherited his temperament. The last thing I’d want was him running off and trying to meet August on his own, or to start asking around about him, before I have the opportunity to set up a proper meeting. I know he wouldn’t harm him, but he’s got a brusque demeanor that can sometimes come off as aggressive, and once he’s got it in his head to do something, he doesn’t always think things through, and that includes giving consideration to how someone else might take it, or if he’d be scaring the socks off of them in the process.”

“Are you ashamed of having a hedgehog for a mate?” she asked.

“Aunty!” I yelped, coming half up out of my seat, even as Gregor calmly responded, “Hell no!”

“Right answer,” Aunty Clara said. “And right approach, in my opinion. Thank you for not dragging August in there and blindly hoping for the best. That right there, and your answer to my question, is all I need to know to be able to welcome you to our table tonight. I’ll let everyone know that mum is the word until you and August arrive and he has the chance to make the announcement himself.”

“Thank you, Aunty,” I said, feeling a lot calmer and much more at ease.

His scent had gone back to normal over the course of the conversation, which meant that there was no longer the undercurrent of sexual tension soaking into every word that was said between us. As easy as it would have been to finally end the long drought I’d been in, and give in to the desire and all the pheromones, Aunty Clara had brought up some fundamental issues that we’d need to address before one of us plunged headlong into heat or rut. Judging from the hot and heavy scents that still lingered on his leather jacket, it was going to be him.

Yeah. I really needed to get conversation and some bonding out of the way before he decided that dragging me back to the beach and pinning me to the sand would be a much better option than breakfast.

“All right, you two, I’ve picked on you enough, what would you like to eat this morning?”

“August informed me that you make a trio of new breakfast sandwiches each morning and I can’t think of a better introduction to the food here than to get one of each, as well as a strawberry cream cheese Danish and whichever of the long list of iced coffees going up the wall that you think would go best with all of that.”

“Oh, honey, these aren’t small sandwiches,” Aunty replied.

“And I am not a small man,” he replied, grinning and gesturing down to his slightly rounded middle.

He was thick and imposing, fierce in a way that sent a shiver down my spine.

“I assure you that anything I can’t finish now will be resting in my belly before lunch time, so please hit me with the thickest, juiciest creations you’ve got.”

I slapped a hand over my eyes because damn, now that the seriousness was out of the way, the man was right back to the innuendos, and what the hell? Was that a little smirk, too? He still looked intense and lowkey terrifying, but seeing this playful, sexy side of him so eager to come out and play gave me a sense of power.

I’d already asked around about him. I already knew what others said. Growly, grumpy, not a man to be trifled with. Snarky as hell and twice as mean had been the way one man described him while a friend of my sister’s had out and out called him a rude bastard and borderline mean. Knowing her, though, something told me she’d had it coming so I hadn’t put too much stock in her words.

All of them had painted the picture of a proud, grumpy man who ran around looking perpetually pissed off, and yet every time he looked at me, all he did was smile a little brighter, like I was the only one he was capable of doing that for.

Damn did that make me feel like the most powerful hedgehog in the world.

Chapter 5

Gregor

“Hey, Pops, I need to talk to you and Mom for a minute.”

“Is this going to be one of those times when I listen to whatever bullshit happened and immediately feel the urge to both remind you that I told you it was going to happen and want to smack you on the back of the head?” my old man asked as he got up from his easy chair, a car magazine in one hand and his beer in the other.

You see, the thing about Pops was that he was predictable, and his bark was always worse than his bite. He’d never have smacked me on the back of the head, though my ass felt the sting of his belt after more than one stupid stunt when I was growing up.

“No, Pops, this is completely uncharted territory,” I told him.

“Of course it is. Sounds to me like you’re gonna need longer than a minute.”

“That’s all going to depend on your reaction to what I have to say,” I told him, locked in a stare down with those intense gray eyes that mirrored my own, right until my mother walked into the room and smacked him on the arm.

“Will you stop giving the boy a hard time and wait to see if it’s bad news or not,” she grumbled, tsking at him.

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