Page 15 of Prayers for the Prickly

“Woman,” Pops said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I’ll take the stuff to the thrift store tomorrow as long as you agree to not be out there all night once you take it over. I don’t want to spend half the night flipping channels waiting for you to come in.”

Wait…

Whoa.

When I saw my mom turn toward him with the same bright-eyed, happy look she had as when one of us kids did something she was truly proud of, I was floored to find out that my old man still waited until my mother was ready to go to bed, no matter how early he had to get up in the morning.

Would that be me?

Did I want that to be me?

.

.

.

Holy shit.

I wanted that to be me.

I hoped that would be me.

My heart started pounding and my eyes went a little wonky until my father gripped my shoulder.

When had he moved?

When had Mom moved?

Her arms wrapped around me, as Pop’s hand on my shoulder squeezed again.

“Breathe, son. It just hit you, didn’t it?” Pops said.

“That I’d just found the person I wanted to wait up every night for?” I said. “Yeah. It did. August is my forever.”

“And that’s why you won’t ever have to worry about how him and his people will be treated,” Pops said. “Even if, heaven forbid, something was ever to happen to you, they are our family now, woven through time from here to eternity.”

It was a sacred oath, and one I’d heard proclaimed each time anyone in the family had found their mates. That tie bound the families, making us both predators and protectors.

That duality was something that I’d thought I’d grown up understanding, only I’d clearly interpreted it wrong when I’d expected a less than positive reaction to the mate the fates had chosen for me.

“We are beasts, but we are also men,” Pops said. “Those old prejudices, wrapped up in misconceptions about size and weaknesses, were disproved a long time ago. Anyone is capable of preying on another, in a myriad of different ways, and we are all, at one point or another in our lives, susceptible to falling victim to someone stronger than us. Not to sound cliché, but life is about cycles and every cycle of life has to include all phases of living. The ones who forget those old teachings will eventually die out and fade away. When that happens, it will be their loss, not ours. I’m proud that it was one of my sons who broadened the family tree.”

I could count on one hand the number of times my Pops had out and out told me that he was proud of me. Even at thirty, I had to take a moment to bask in it, it was so rare. It felt good knowing that I could go to August’s house for dinner tonight and tell them with all confidence that my family welcomed them with open arms.

Despite the snarly nature we displayed to much of the town, we enjoyed getting together, especially during hockey season. Quite a few of us had grown up playing, and impromptu matches still broke out on the pond that connected all of our houses. Pops liked to barbecue by the water’s edge because no way was everyone going to be allowed up on his lawn to eat. He was obsessive about that lawn. I was already starting to picture what it might be like to stand out back with August as our little ones played hide and seek in the reeds like I had when I was little.

Kinda cool to know that they’d get to have the same kind of upbringing I did, learning to live off what the land and the ocean gave you, while tending to your little slice of the earth. Oh shit, what would a litter of our whelps look like? How many hedgehogs? How many wolverines? If there’d been music playing in the background, I’d have banged my head to the tune, happily celebrating this unexpected twist in the course my life had been sailing.

Rock on, I’d have told myself.

Rock on, man, this is gonna be awesome!

Chapter 6

August

“Come on in,” I said, holding the door open for Gregor when he arrived.

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