Page 75 of Her Big Bad Wolf
The boys were there when I arrived. Kyle picked them up at the end of the day.
I felt like I was trapped in some horrible retelling of Groundhog Day.
But on the third day, something changed.
It started off the same and I was walking through the motions feeling much like a zombie when Kelsey showed up just before lunch.
“Emma and Mary are going to handle the rest of the day. You’re coming with me.”
“I can’t just leave work in the middle of the day, Kels.”
“You can, and you will,” she said.
I scowled when her Alpha powers punched me.
“There’s no need for that.”
“Whoops, sorry. You know you bring them out the strongest. Always have and I guess you always will. So, are you coming?”
“You aren’t exactly giving me a choice.”
“No, I’m not.”
She wouldn’t even let me drive myself, instead we got into her car and she drove us to her house. Along the way we passed by the road that I knew would take me to Isaac.
Mate, my wolf mourned.
When we got to the house Kelsey had lunch ready and waiting for us. She made me a hot cup of tea and shoved it into my hands.
“Drink up. You look like shit.”
I frowned. “Thanks a lot. I can’t imagine why we don’t spend more time together,” I muttered under my breath.
“You and I have always had a special sort of relationship and that includes being brutally honest.”
I snorted. She wasn’t wrong about that. Though it certainly felt more like she was the one always be brutally honest.
That wasn’t entirely true. I had once told her she looked like a beached whale while she was pregnant with her youngest. We did have that sort of friendship.
It was weird because I did consider Kelsey a friend, maybe even my closest friend. Yet we didn’t talk all that often. I wouldn’t really think to pick up the phone and call her until I really needed help. But I did know that if I did, she would give solid advice, or bail me out of jail.
She was Pack Mother and that came with duties and responsibilities that I respected. I didn’t want to be a bother.
And if I couldn’t feel comfortable enough to just call Kelsey and say, “Hey, I found my true mate. He’s pissing me off right now and I don’t know what to do,” then who the hell could I talk to?
A sinking reality hit me hard.
Was I really that different from Isaac?
I had no family left to speak of. I’d alienated all of my friends. Sure, I was friendly and talked to people all the time, but I wasn’t great about letting them in. I gave my all to my kids and my job. At the end of the day, I just wanted to hole up at home for a quiet, uneventful evening.
That hadn’t always been who I was, but it was me now. And the thing was, I really didn’t feel like I was missing out. I loved my life and I was fine with living a quiet life, so why was I so adverse to Isaac’s requests?
Because it made me feel uncomfortable.
I didn’t want to keep him a secret. I wanted to shout it out to the universe that I had a mate, my true mate. He might not beperfect. He was stubborn and prideful. He was snarky and could be funny. He was kind, even if he didn’t always appear so.
I’d seen how he interacted with the boys. These were kids who had stolen from him, pissed him off, trespassed in his home, and yet he was allowing them to stay there, teaching them new things like how to bake bread and feed farm animals. He didn’t have to do any of that, and that showed more to me than his sometimes gruff words said.
