All Bite, No Growl (6 page)

“It’s okay to cry. Your world just went upside down.” Her mother was in front of her and had her in her arms seconds later. “Shhh, it’s okay to feel out of control right now, but remember this has nothing to do with you. Your father and I still love you very much.” Her mom pulled away slightly, and stared down at Willow. “You’re going off to college, you’ll have your whole life ahead of you. Things sometimes work out this way.”

Willow shook her head. This was so out of the blue. Everything seemed fine, or at least it looked fine. But she reminded herself that this town smiled out the outside when really on the inside they were all kinds of fucked up.

“We can talk about all of this as a family tonight, if you want. Your father didn’t come home last night, hence why he’s not here. But we decided that I’d talk to you first.” Her mom smiled and brushed away the tears on Willow’s cheeks. “It’ll all be okay, honey,” her mom said and pulled her in for a hug.

Willow closed her eyes, knowing her mother would never lie to her, but feeling like nothing in this world would be okay, not with this news, and not with everything that happened with Devon and Case.

The family dinner was uncomfortable, to say the least. Willow’s phone vibrated for the millionth time today, and without looking at it she knew it was from either Devon or Case. They’d been trying to get hold of her all day, but she’d ignored them, not sure how to talk to them after last night, and especially not sure how to get herself right side up because of the bomb her mom dropped on her this morning.

Her mother and father were sitting across from her at the dining room table, the same worried expressions on their faces, and she hated that they felt bad for her. She saw it in their expressions, smelled it in the air.

“Honey, you’ve been looking at your phone all dinner, all day in fact. Maybe whoever is trying to call you needs to speak?” her mother said, maybe trying to break up the weirdness in the room, or divert attention? Either way it wasn’t working.

“It’s just Devon and Case, and I think they can wait. This is more important.” Although Willow had nothing to say about what was going on right now, or, at least, she didn’t know what to say. “I’m a big girl, eighteen now, how about we just do this and move on?” Willow didn’t want to sound like a snotty brat, didn’t want to seem like she was whining and complaining because her parents were splitting up. If they were unhappy together then they should find love elsewhere.

She looked at her father, who seemed overly uncomfortable, and Willow knew that the real reason she was mostly upset was because her father had decided to hook up with someone else while still married.

She shoved her cell in her front pocket, leaned back in the seat, and looked down at her food. Her mom had cooked Willow’s favorite for dinner, and although it was probably to soften the blow of tonight, she couldn’t even find the appetite to eat.

“I know you’re upset about your mom and I separating.”

“No, I’m not.”

Her father looked surprised, turned and looked at her mom, then faced Willow again.

“You’re not?” he asked with confusion.

“If you don’t love each other, then I would never expect you two to stay together.” She looked between her parents. “What upsets me,
Dad
, is that you decided that you weren’t unhappy, and instead of waiting for things to be final you went off with someone else.” Her voice was raising, and she knew that she needed to stop acting like this, to start rationalizing everything, and to not think about her father with another woman.

“Willow, it isn’t like I planned on falling in love again.”

Willow looked at her father as he spoke, and although she was angry when she looked at her mother she didn’t see hurt or even rage, as could have been expected. Instead she saw her mother looking like she wanted out of this conversation as well, like she wasn’t happy, and because of that and everything else she’d disconnected herself.

“Can you just tell me what the next step is?” Willow said, defeat in her voice.

“Willow, I want you to know that Meghan isn’t here to replace your mother.”

“Dad, please,” she held her hands up, closed her eyes, and didn’t even want to talk about the new woman in her father’s life. This was surreal on its own.

“Okay, I know your mother and I separating is a big thing all on its own, and I don’t want to push what I have outside of this...” her dad breathed roughly, and scrubbed a hand over his salt and pepper colored hair.

He watched her with the same brown eyes as Willow, she remembered the man that had helped her ride her bike, tucked her in bed, and did all the things a good father does for his child. Her dad was a good man, a great man in fact. He was successful at the law firm he worked at, helped out in the community, but right now, hearing him admit that he loved another woman while still married to her mom made him look like a totally different person.

“We still love you, Willow. It’s just something that happens between people, even after being married for as long as we have.” Her dad looked at her mom.

“And you don’t care that he was having an affair, Mom?” Willow asked her mother with shock in her voice.

“I didn’t do anything with Meghan romantically until I spoke with your mother, and she told me she wasn’t in love with me anymore either—”

“Too much information.” She closed her eyes again, felt like she needed to bleach out her ears, and even the images that had suddenly popped into her mind. “Listen, I’m trying to keep an open mind, and not think too hard on the fact my dad is having an affair, and that my parents are splitting up.” She tightened her hold on her napkin that sat in her lap, breathed through her emotions, and knew that she just needed to get this over with because she needed air desperately.

“I know we sprang this on you, and that you won’t be able to accept this easily,” her mom reached across the table and took her hand. “It’ll take time, but that’s why we decided to go this route and tell you this before you left.”

“That way you can have the time before school starts to get used to the idea of me moving out, maybe one day meeting Meghan—”

“I can’t talk about your girlfriend right now, Dad. I can’t even think about that, and I don’t think it’s right that you’re casually just talking about that woman like she’ll be a permanent fixture in our lives now when you’re still married to Mom.” She looked at her mom now. “And I can’t believe you can accept that he loves someone else when you’re still married and living together.” Willow stood, and before her parents could stop her she moved toward the front door.

“Willow, honey, please.”

She turned and faced her parents who were now standing. “You want me to accept this as easily as you just blurted it all out, but I need time and space.” She gripped the doorknob. “Just please, give me time to process this all.” She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and showed them. “I have my cell if you need me, and I’ll be home in a little while. I just need some air.” And then she headed out of the house, not sure where she was going to go, but just needing to leave.

****

“I still think we should just go to her house,” Devon said through his teeth, pissed that Willow had just left before they’d even woken up, and even more pissed that she wasn’t answering their calls or texts. It had been all day that they’d been trying to get hold of her, to talk to her about what happened. She hadn’t even given them one courtesy text that she was okay, even though he knew in his heart she was.

“Just give her some time and let her come back to us,” Case said. The basketball they were bouncing around in the driveway was just something that they needed to keep their minds off Willow.

“Don’t you want to talk to her, see her?” Devon asked. Case threw the ball at him, the way the sweat glistened off his mate’s chest, reflecting off the garage lights, should have made Devon harder than fuck. But right now all he could think about was Willow and if she was okay.

“Yeah, man, I do want to see her. But hell, what we did last night probably scared the shit out of her, not to mention the revelation that we’re mates,” Case said all of that softly, only Devon could hear.

“I want to just tell everyone about us, tell Willow that we love her, Case,” Devon said. He moved closer to his mate, not caring that they were standing in the middle of his driveway, his parents right inside and able to see out the window at what they were doing. Hell, he didn’t even care that any of the neighbors could see them.

He loved his mate, loved Willow, and he was tired of hiding what nature didn’t give them a choice to accept or deny. But he would never have denied or rejected Case, because although their community might not accept mating with the same sex, it didn’t mean he would embrace this with his whole fucking heart, body, and soul.

They could have easily stayed at Case’s place and not had to worry about what anyone said because his parents were gone for the weekend, but he didn’t want to be cooped up with his mate like what they did was wrong, or a dirty little secret.

Devon reached out, snagged Case around the back of the neck, and pulled him forward. Their sweaty hard chests slammed into each other, the air left them, and he found himself staring into his mate’s eyes, wanting to get lost in them. Yeah, they were young, but when a shifter found their mate everything changed… they changed.

“I want to go to the council, Case.” His mate watched him with wide, sincere eyes.

He breathed out, and a smile covered Case’s face. “I want that too, but was afraid to mention it in case you weren’t into going that route right now.”

Devon smoothed his free hand over Case’s cheek. He leaned in and kissed his mate on the mouth, not carrying about anything. “And I think we should tell Willow about how we feel after that, and see if she is willing to give us a chance.”

Case rested his forehead against Devon’s, and he saw the smile on his mate’s face grow. “I want that too, Dev.”

They didn’t know how the shifter council would react to them professing their mating and love for each other, but even if the governing sector of their kind refused to accept and acknowledge what they had, Devon and Case would leave and find their own way in the world. Their fathers were on that council, and Devon feared that would be the hardest part of this. He just hoped they could see that a shifter couldn’t help whom they mated with, or fell in love with, and accepted that.

Devon and Case stood before the council. Case felt his heart pounding fiercely, felt his lion rise up, wanting to protect his human side. He sensed Devon’s heart beating just as fiercely.

“You called a meeting, and so you males have the floor.”

Case looked at his father, Harold, who spoke deeply, with authority.

Case swallowed, licked his lips, and looked at Devon for a second. His mate was already watching him, and there was strength in the other male’s gaze. When Case turned back to the council members he stared at all of them.

Marcus, head of security for the shifters, stood on the left, standing beside the council members. Granger, the other security, was on the opposite side. There were security all round, because each council member present were high in the pride’s social and power status. Their deaths could rock the fragile balance of strength and power between their kind in this town.

“You have our attention,” Devon’s father, Joaquin, said.

Case took a deep breath, then reached out and took Devon’s hand in his. His mate gave his hand a squeeze. The council noticed the action right away, their backs stiffened, and their animals coming forward with concern and curiosity.

“What’s going on?” Case and Devon’s fathers seemed to say in unison.

“I’ve found my mate, father,” Devon said.

“And I’ve found my mate in Devon,” Case said.

The silence stretched out between them.

“I won’t argue this, and I won’t defend my actions,” Case stated directly to his father. “You know we can’t control who we mate, and I wouldn’t want to anyway. Devon’s my mate, I love him, and we’ve come here to either have your acceptance, or…”

“Or?” Joaquin asked, and slowly stood as well.

“We just want the chance to tell you that we care for each other; we have since we were little. It started out as friends, but as we grew older, realized what was happening, and saw that we were each other’s mates, that friendly love changed into something different,” Devon addressed his father.

Case pulled Devon closer to the side of his body. “I am not looking for anyone’s acceptance, neither of us are. But this is our town, our pride, and we want to let it be known. We don’t want to be a secret any longer, and just want our kind to accept what has happened.”

The council didn’t respond.

“It is what it is, and if anyone wants to challenge me on the fact, I am game.” Devon stated, his voice going hard, guttural as his lion rose.

“If you think we can accept this, then you know nothing of our culture,” one of the council members stated.

“This is the twenty-first century. We don’t live in the dark ages where homosexuals, or anyone else, should have to feel ashamed in loving someone, no matter the sex, race, or species.” Devon said.

“Devon, this is just a confusing time for you,” Devon’s father said.

Case sensed Devon’s lion rise higher and felt his own animal claw and scratch to get out. “This is our decision, and no one else’s. You’ll either accept and acknowledge that we’re mates, or we leave.”

“Lions do not mate with the same sex,” Case’s father stated, and Case felt his rage grow.

“Clearly not the case.” He held up his entwined hand with Devon’s. He gave everyone a predatory glare, hoping for a challenge because he wasn’t going to back down. Neither of them were on this. “Fuck anyone that wants to go against our chosen lifestyle, and who fate has chosen for us to mate with.”

“So, you’ve both found your mates, and in males no less,” Devon’s father said, stoic, hard, unrelenting.

“This is not something the council can just accept, and the town won’t be as accepting either, not most anyway,” one of the council members said.