Page 57 of The Forbidden Wolf

“You still have time!” Jayla waved my left hand in my face. “I don’t see a ring on it!”

“We don’t really do rings,” I mumbled, leaving out the part where they could cut our front paw toes off if we shifted in them. I couldn’t tell them we were shifters. Charlie might understand, but Evan didn’t believe in us, and Jayla was afraid of us. That was too much to unload on them in a single night. Plus, I didn’t really have time. Sebastian and I needed to get back to the Plaza before Kenzo administered the truth serum to Damian. If it wore off, we’d have to wait days for another batch to be ready.

“No rings? No books? No movies? No sexual autonomy? But lots and lots of money.” Jayla shook her head. “Tell me the name of a legitimate religion, and I’ll try to listen, but this sounds hella shady.”

Evan grasped her arm and whispered, “I think they’re Illuminati.”

Sebastian heaved a loud sigh. “We are not Illuminati. We’re just… very secretive.”

“Riiiight.” Evan gripped my face. “Honey, listen to me. I understand that is a very beautiful man over there. Truly an exquisite work of art. If my daddy told me I had to marry him, I wouldn’t argue. I can’t even look at him without tasting the wine and cheese from our honeymoon—”

“Evan.” I grabbed his face, smushing his lips shut. “Keep your fantasies about my future husband to yourself. He’s not the same as Jayla’s. He’s a real person. He can hear you.”

“You know why my future husband is imaginary?” Jayla asked. “Because I’m twenty-two! I’ve got the rest of my life to find a real one, and so do you! This is crazy!”

“Maybe I don’t want that,” I said, letting go of Evan. “Maybe I don’t want to spend the next decade checking the apps and grabbing drinks with strangers and acting surprised when we don’t want the same things in life! It’s not like it is in the movies for anyone anymore. I could settle the hard way or the easy way, and I just…” My lip unexpectedly began to tremble, and I ducked my head so the tears splatted on the pavement. “I’m tired of hard. I’m tired of people making things hard for me on purpose. You’ve always made things easy. Please don’t switch teams.”

Charlie enveloped me in a ferocious hug. My shoulders began to shake, and an ugly sob exploded from my lungs. A moment later, I felt Evan’s strong arms wrap around both of us, and then finally Jayla joined in, resting her forehead against mine.

“We’re always Team Elyse, okay?” she said through gritted teeth. “Always.”

“This is just a lot,” Evan said. “He’s a lot. I mean, what size are his shoes even? They must be at least a thirteen—oww!” Jayla had stomped on his own average-sized foot.

“It is a lot,” Charlie said, pushing me away a little to look me in the eye. “But it’s a lot more for you. So as long as you can promise us that you feel safe and respected where you are now, we’re going to keep our minds open.”

Safe and respected were extremely relative terms in the life of a female shifter, but if I removed my family of origin from the equation…

I nodded, sniffling. “His family is really nice.”

“What about him?” Charlie cast a skeptical glance at Sebastian.

“He’s, um… well, he’s not mean,” I answered honestly. Nice was an extremely relative term in the life of a male shifter.

“Hmm. Okay.” Charlie untangled herself from the group hug and marched over to my mate. He flashed his charming smile and offered his hand, but she jumped straight to poking him in the chest instead. “Listen up. I don’t care how hot you are, or how much money you have, or how great your family is. Elyse is the little sister I never had, and the next time I ask if you’re nice, the answer had better be that Tom Hanks only wishes and Keanu Reeves only dreams, okay? And I’m going to ask for three to five concrete examples. One or two won’t cut it. Understand?”

Sebastian pouted his full lips and made his brown eyes extra big. “Does buying her a movie theater count?”

“No!” Charlie roared, poking him again for good measure.

He took a step back, head bowed. “Understood.”

“Alright then.” She held out her hand. “I’m Charlie.”

“Sebastian.” He shook her hand brusquely as if meeting another Alpha.

“Sebastian what?” Charlie held onto his hand. “In case I need to look you up.”

“We keep a low profile,” Sebastian said. “You won’t find much.”

Charlie smiled sweetly. “But I sure can try.”

“Bucks,” Sebastian lied. We didn’t have last names.

Jayla snorted. “Of course. Why not?”

Evan scratched his head. “Sebastian Bucks. Where have I heard that?”

“You haven’t,” Sebastian said quickly. “Now, it has been very nice meeting all of you, but I’m afraid Elyse and I were on our way to handle a small family emergency, and—”

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