Page 50 of Bite Marks

Actually, she was more beautiful. She had become radiant after having Alessandro. Motherhood had made something bloom inside her. And fatherhood had done the same to Nunzio, he knew. Upon seeing Alessandro’s face for the first time, he had experienced new emotions. Emotions he hadn’t known were possible.

“Okay, honey, Mama’s got to go to work now.” Vanessa stood, and Nunzio joined her. Together they cleared the breakfast table.

Nunzio would be home all day and would take care of Alessandro. His son was clearly excited. He gyrated in his chair as he waited for Nunzio.

But first, Nunzio had to load the dishwasher while Vanessa left for the gallery. After she left, he put a pot of coffee on. He also rooted through the vegetable drawer in the fridge. He wanted to make something special for dinner.

“Daddy, can we please go now?” Alessandro called. He stood in front of the glass sliding doors. The doors led to their large backyard. That was where Nunzio taught Alessandro to shift.

Alessandro’s patience was palpable, and Nunzio smiled ruefully. His son had learned how to open the sliding door. Even though the handle was several feet taller than his son.

However, he understood his son’s excitement. Nunzio had been around the same age when he had first learned to shift. His father had been instrumental in his growth as a shifter. And it was important for young shifters to learn how to control their abilities. And this had to happen as soon as possible.

Not learning how to shift properly caused problems. Most wolf shifter pups went through growth spurts around Alessandro’s age. These spurts caused muscle aches and pains. It also caused bursts of energy that generally created chaos.

Alessandro had already experienced the start of these growth spurts. He was handling the pain remarkably well. But now was the time to shift.

His son ran out into the garden, and Nunzio followed. His heart lifted to see the beauty of his son’s face. Luckily Alessandro looked more like Vanessa. But he had inherited Nunzio’s gray eyes.

Before they started that day’s shifting lesson, Nunzio and Alessandro kicked around a ball.

Alessandro had too much erratic energy to start the lesson. After they had run around the large backyard a few times, he was ready.

“Okay, my boy, come over here,” Nunzio called, and Alessandro came up to him.

Alessandro’s large gray eyes sparkled. His face mirrored the structured lines of Vanessa’s face. And dark lashes rimmed his gray eyes.

He was so perfect that Nunzio couldn’t believe that he had created this child.

“You know what Daddy has said in the past about shifting?” He leaned down, at eye level with Alessandro.

Alessandro nodded enthusiastically. Then he recited the list of rules that Nunzio had taught him.

“Always be safe before you shift. Make sure your clothes are comfortable.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “And make sure there aren’t any humans in sight.”

“Good boy.” Nunzio planted a kiss on Alessandro’s head.

“But, Daddy …” Alessandro hadn’t followed him to start the lesson. Instead, he stood, his small brow furrowed. “Isn’t Mama a human?”

Nunzio sighed inwardly. He and Vanessa had agreed not to bring up their son’s genetics until he was old enough. They weren’t sure he would understand yet.

They hadn’t even thought he’d notice that Vanessa wasn’t a shifter.

Had he noticed that he was half-human? It didn’t matter. Nunzio’s shifter DNA overrode Vanessa’s human DNA.

While Alessandro looked like his mother, he was a complete shifter. Nunzio sat cross-legged on the grass. After a second, Alessandro joined him.

“Mama and I love each other very much,” he began. “And when we met, we realized that it didn’t matter.”

Alessandro did not look at him. Instead, the five-year-old boy looked down at his small hands. He was pulling up errant weeds that had sprung up in the grass.

“But if Mama is human, then that means I’m not a full shifter like my cousins?” Alessandro’s voice was painfully small. His pale cheeks had gone slightly red. And Nunzio could smell the salt from tears.

He saw the tears when he reached to tilt his son’s chin upwards. They had welled in Alessandro’s eyes. But they hadn’t fallen yet.

“Il mio ragazzo,”Nunzio started, using the Italian endearment. He wasn’t quite sure how to approach Alessandro’s fears.

But then he hit upon something.

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