ROMANCE: Meet the Parents (Alpha Male Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance) (New Adult Shifter Romantic Comedy Short Stories) (2 page)

“What’s more important?” Jared
asked, knowing that he’d hate the answer.

“Just catching up with my
son-in-law is all” he smiled, sharp eyes betraying his innocent words.

“Well, I’m doing very well. Work
is good, the weather was nice, I’m hungry and dinner smells fantastic.”

Giovanni nodded, “Yes, I’m aware
of how excellent my wife is in the kitchen; that’s why I married her,” he said.

“Really?”

“No” Giovanni barked out a
laugh, “I married her because she’s the love of my life. And when I proposed
she was two months pregnant with Elena’s brother.”

Jared wasn’t sure if Mr.
Lucciani was serious or not, but he smiled politely just in case.

“Anyways, as I’m sure you know,
I don’t merely just want to shoot the breeze,” he said, sitting up straighter in
his chair.

Jared was all too aware that
their conversation was more than pleasant niceties. He nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Well, let’s just get right to
it then,” he said, face solemn. “I’ll be blunt Jared, I don’t like you.”

 
“I’m aware sir” Jared sighed.

“I just don’t think that you’re
good enough for my daughter. You can’t provide for her on your salary. Heck, I
don’t even know what you do.”

“Well” Jared began, “I work at a
wildlife preserve; I work with the wolves.”

“Mhmm” Geo grunted, “and how’s
the pay.”

Jared chuckled, rubbing the back
of his neck sheepishly. “Well I am just an assistant so far, but I hope to move
up the ranks so I’ll eventually be supervising the whole preserve, in a year or
two, or three, I’ll be making some decent money.”

“And in the meantime?” Giovanni
challenged.

“Well, in the meantime Elena and
I are doing just fine, we’re great actually. She likes her job and I like
mine.”

“But she’s the breadwinner, the
one bringing home the bacon?”

“She’s a vegan sir.”

Giovanni scoffed, “Right, I forgot
about that latest development. My wife’s been experimenting with her vegan
lasagna and I tried it, not good. I expect I have you to thank for that.”

Jared laughed uproariously. Him?
A vegan? He was the king of the forest, he was the top predator and the beta of
his pack. If only Geo knew. . . .

He sobered up at the unamused
look he received. “No sir, it was not my doing. I love meat, eat it every day.
Meat, meat, meat; can’t get enough of it.”

Giovanni's eyes widened, “Now
you listen here Gerald-”

“Jared”

“Geronimo, my daughter is a
peach. And if what you’re telling me is that you’re taking some meat in
addition to good old sweet fruit, you and I are going to have a problem.
Understand?”

“Oh, oh no sir! Not that kind of
meat, that’s not what I meant, at all. I’m an exclusive fruit man.”

“So you are one of them
vegetarians?” Giovanni challenged.

“No!” Jared said, exasperated.
“I just don’t like that type of meat, not that there’s anything wrong with
people who do. I mean, I know Elena’s brother exclusively likes meat and that’s
great!”

“Is it now?”

“Yes! I mean, it is to me. Is it
not to you?” Jared asked hesitantly.

“Of course it is” Giovanni
growled, “and if anyone’s got a problem with it than they’ve got to deal with
me, understand Geraldo?”

“Very much” Jared said.

“So, you’re sure you’re not one
of them vegans like my daughter?” Giovanni asked once again.

“I’m sure” Jared said, not quite
sure if he knew if Giovanni was referring to actual food or people this time,
but sure his answer would be the same either way. For his marriage’s sake, he
hoped they were referring to food once again, or else he’d have some concerning
questions to bring up to his wife.

“Sir, when you say Elena’s a
vegan, you mean-”

“I mean that she’s one of these
people that don’t eat meat or other animal products. You know like cheese and
milk. You’re the one that married her, are you telling me with that fancy pants
degree of yours and how long you’ve known her that you don’t know what a vegan
is?”

Jared let out a sigh of relief,
chuckling in spite of himself at the sheer ridiculousness of the conversation.

At that moment, about ten
minutes later than Jared had needed, Elena’s voice came from downstairs calling
them both down to dinner.

After apprehensively glancing at
Mr. Lucciani and receiving a curt nod as an okay, Jared sprang up from his seat
on the bed as if he’d been stuck by a tack and bolted down the stairs, relieved
to be done with the interrogation.

-x-x-x-

The dinner was nice if not a bit
tense. Elena noticed an unsettled air about her husband and a self-satisfied
look on her father’s face and could only guess at what her dad had done to
frighten her husband so. Jared noticed Elena anxiously peering out the kitchen
window at the night sky and the backyard cloaked in moonlight and wondered if
she had come to her senses and wanted to get out of this visit as much as he
did.

While Jared could admit that the
vegan lasagna wasn’t bad, it did not satisfy the carnivorous appetite the wolf
inside of him possessed, and he wondered when he’d get the chance to sneak away
and get some ‘real food’.

There was about five minutes of
uncomfortable but tolerable silence at the table as everyone busied themselves
with eating before Rosa spoke up to break the quiet.

“So, Jared, have you ever heard
that professional swimmers, you know like those in the Olympics and what not,
shave their bodies to swim faster? Something about water resistance or some
other science I didn’t bother to read about, but all the professionals do it.”

Jared shot Elena a puzzled look
but said around a mouthful of lasagna that yes, he had in fact heard of
swimmers doing that.

“Well,” Rosa continued, “I
remember that time you and Elena came to our hotel to take a swim a few days
before the wedding, in fact, I had just been talking to Elena about it when you
and Geo were upstairs packing. Anyways, I was just thinking, with how much I
assumed you like to swim that maybe you should give it a try.”

“Give what a try?” Jared asked,
hoping that Mrs. Lucciani would take pity on him and drop the subject.

He had no such luck.

“Why, shaving of course” she
said primly, wiping her mouth daintily with the napkin she had neatly folded in
her lap. “That is, shaving your whole body. Now, I don’t know if they
necessarily shave their privates, I assume that that’s a personal matter, but
every other inch of them but their heads are as bald as a baby’s behind. So,
you wouldn’t have to worry about nipping your Johnson or anything like that, as
long as you don’t plan on wearing any g-strings-”

“Mama!”

“-but, I did take the liberty of
buying you some nice new razors from the supermarket, just so you could give it
a try if you like.”

“Oh, Mrs. Lucciani-”

“Call me Rosa”

“Mrs. Rosa” Jared said, adding
the prefix to ease some of his discomfort with using his mother-in-law’s first
name. “Thank you for the offer, but you really didn’t have to go through all of
the trouble on my account and spend money on razors; I have my own.”

“Well you don’t use them so I
figure they aren’t very good. It wasn’t any trouble, just try these, the man I
ran into in the shaving aisle said that they were great. And I know he had to
be telling the truth because he said he used them every day and he was very
clean shaven.”

Jared sent a pleading look to
his wife that again went ignored as she hid her giggles behind her napkin under
the pretense of wiping her mouth.

“My razors are just fine
actually, I just use them a bit less frequently than the average man.”

“And why is that?” Giovanni
piped up. “Now, most of the men I know don’t let their facial hair grow out
that long unless they’re trying to go unrecognized. Is that what you’re doing,
trying to disguise yourself? Are you on the run Jeremy?”

“Jared Papa”

“No, of course I’m not on the
run” Jared said indignantly, shaking his head at the ludicrousness of such an
idea.

“Are you certain; do you have
something to hide?” Geo pressed.

“Papa, of course he doesn’t;
he’s an open book; I know all his secrets.”

Giovanni let out a hearty laugh,
“Now I know he’s hiding something; no man tells a woman all his secrets.”

“He does if he loves her” Elena
argued.

“Especially if he loves her”
Giovanni chortled, “to preserve the marriage.”

“And just what do you think
you’re hiding Gio?” Rosa said dangerously, pointing her fork at her husband in
accusation.

Giovanni flushed, drawing in on
himself slightly. “Nothing dearest. I was referring to most men, but not me of
course, you’re strong enough to handle everything, and besides, I couldn’t keep
anything from you even if I wanted to.”

“You bet your ass you couldn’t”
Rosa nodded, satisfied with her husband’s nervous backpedaling. “You know
Jared,” she said, “my father was the best detective in all of Pisa in his day.
I have his instinct. If there’s something fishy, you can bet I’ll sniff it
out.”

Jared smiled, sharing a covert
look with Elena. Jared hoped that his slight hairiness was the only fishy thing
Rosa sniffed out around him. He could only imagine the havoc Rosa and Giovanni
Lucciani would wreak on him if they knew the truth.

-x-x-x-

Jared and Elena were exhausted.
After more attempts by Rosa to uncover why Jared insisted on allowing his
‘Rapunzel like hair’ to continue to grow, and then attempting to get her
daughter to consider cutting it in his sleep when Jared said he had no plans of
getting a trim soon, they had finally retired into the living room to watch a
game of soccer on the television while they ate Mrs. Lucciani’s surprisingly
delicious vegan cannoli.

After another bout of
uncomfortable and accusatory questions from Giovanni when Elena and Rosa had
gone into the kitchen to discuss Jared’s ‘hair problem’ and put away the
dishes, Elena had finally come back to rescue him and they had retired upstairs
to their room for the night.

“You know babe” Elena began,
putting her hair up in a loose bun for bed, “my mom said that this weekend is a
full moon.”

Jared paused, one leg in his
pajama pants and one leg out as he looked up at his wife. “No, we checked, it’s
the day after we get back.”

“Apparently not” Elena said,
shaking her head as she lifted up the comforter to climb under the covers. “We
forgot about the time zone thing I guess. The full moon happens here and the
next day happens back home.”

“Oh, darn” Jared said, faking
disappointment as he landed forlornly on the bed next to Elena, the back of his
hand placed to his forehead dramatically. “I guess now we’ll just have to cut
our wonderful visit to your parents’ short a day.”

“Not so fast,” Elena chuckled,
placing a quick peck on his lips. “It would cost at least $180 per ticket to
switch, and I’m not prepared to shell out that much money just so you can go
all big bad wolf in the woods behind our house. There are plenty of woods in
Italy, we can ask the locals and you can wolf out here.”

“It’s already a risk for me to
be around them this long away from the pack without them catching on. When your
father was talking to me last night in the living room, I could feel the wolf
just under the surface trying to take charge.”

“Well then, remind wolfy there
who’s boss. Besides, what’s the worst thing that could happen if they happened
to catch a glimpse of furry Jared.”

“I’m not a puppy. I’m a beast, a
predator; I’m not cute and fluffy, I’m wild and scruffy. You can say furry, but
definitely not fluffy.”

“But you are cute and cuddly”
Elena insisted, nuzzling her face into his neck. And your fur is so soft, face
it babe, you are the fluff master.”

“Yeah, well I doubt your father
will agree with you, especially when he calls the dog-catchers and tries to get
me thrown in the pound.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic” Elena
said, snuggling into his chest and preparing to sleep. “Stop worrying; it will
all be fine. We’ll just have to be a bit more cautious with your canine
instincts.”

“You make it sound like I’m a
dog babe” Jared whined, groaning in happiness as Elena began scratching his
stomach. “That’s not going to work.”

“Hey, just be happy that I
didn’t get you that collar for Christmas like I wanted. Now get some rest;
tomorrow’s going to be a long day and we’ve got lots to do.”

“Like what?” Jared asked,
yawning as he settled back into the pillows, ready to sleep.

Elena laughed, “Now if I told
you that, it would ruin the surprise.”

Jared groaned, closing his eyes
and resigning himself to the fact that it was going to be a very long, very
stressful and very interesting week.