Page 1 of The Wolf's Bullied Mate
Chapter 1 - Pauline
“Mooom!” My son, Ray, pushed open the kindergarten classroom door with so much force that it banged against the wall. The loud thud echoed in the empty hallway.
Ray was a young wolf shifter, and, like many other shifters his age, he had trouble controlling his own strength.
The hour was far past the time parents usually picked up their children. As a waitress at a local diner, I worked long hours, so I was always the last to collect my child from kindergarten.
When Ray ran up to me, I could clearly see the tears streaming down his cheeks.
I kneeled on the floor, not caring about my jeans getting dirty. I opened my arms wide. My five-year-old fell into my embrace, crying out for me. I hugged him tightly and patted his back. With every sob, with every tremor that went through his small frame, my heart broke.
What happened at kindergarten today to make him so unsettled?
“Ray,” I said. “What happened to you?”
In response he only hugged me even more tightly and cried more loudly.
A small sigh escaped my lips. I would just have to wait for him to calm down.
I stole a glance at the open door to the classroom, but the kindergarten teacher wasn’t coming out. I had to talk to her.
First, though, I had to make sure my kid got all the comfort he needed from me.
A minute passed, and Ray’s shaking slowly ceased. He still hugged me tightly, hiding his face in my now-wet navy blouse. His tiny fists curled around the lapels of my light blue jean jacket. He held on to me fiercely, as if he were on a sinking ship and I were the only thing keeping him afloat.
I might as well have been his lifeline, given our life situation. I had been raising Ray alone all these years as a single mother. His father had abandoned us as soon as he found out I was pregnant with our son. He’d had no interest in having a child with me—so much for believing his sweet words about loving me. He had only slept with me because it had been convenient. Then, as soon as a child and the need for commitment came into the picture, he threw away both Ray and me.
He had dumped me five years ago—and I have had five long years to come to terms with the situation. I no longer dwelled on what could have been, focusing on the present instead; my life with my little Ray of sunshine. He was all I needed. My child was usually so bright and full of smiles, with a happy look in his eyes.
The fact that he was always so cheerful made seeing him cry all the more painful.
“Ray,” I repeated. “What happened? Has anybody done anything to hurt you?”
“Not me,” came my kid’s reply in a small voice. “You.”
“Me? What about me?” I raised my eyebrows.
I continued patting his back as I felt the tremors return. Whatever he was trying to tell me was painful to him.
“The other kids, they said…” Ray tried again.
I waited patiently for him to talk.
He continued. “They called me names, said I’m a child of a weak wolf, that’s why I’m going to grow up weak as well. T-They said my father didn’t want to mate with you because y-you’re weak a-and he’s strong.”
When the words finally fell from his lips, he couldn’t stop. It was like a dam of sorrow had opened. “He’s an e-e-enforcer—” he stumbled on the difficult word “—they said that means he defends the pack. So he couldn’t be with someone like you,Mom. And if someone like him didn’t want to be with you, y-you must be broken somehow.”
I stared at him, wide-eyed.
Ray raised his head, and I met his big green eyes. He had the same hair color as me—red. Like me, he also had freckles on his nose and cheeks, his skin was pale, and his lips were extra red. Truth be told, there was nothing of Jeffrey, Ray’s father, in him. My son was a spitting image of me.
Yet the identity of Ray’s father had spread around our pack anyway. The parents of the children in the kindergarten gossiped, and their kids must have heard their parents’ cruel words.
Being a single mother in our pack was like being an outcast. I wasn’t a Rogue, as I still had a place in the pack and did my part to contribute, but many would have liked nothing better than to exile me anyway. I was a blemish. I had laid with someone who had found me insufficient for mating.
I was thirty now and still had not found my fated mate. Maybe I didn’t have one at all. I couldn’t even imagine some sort of prince on a white horse who would march into my life, gather up Ray and me, and carry us to a faraway land full of happiness…if such a land even existed.
No, dreaming about being saved was a waste of time. I would have to take matters into my own hands, like I’d always done. I was strong inside. I really wanted to believe I was capable of defending my child’s happiness.
