Page 22 of My Boyfriend Marks Trees
“Oh, that must have been difficult for her.” Charly nodded sympathetically as she nibbled on another bite of cookie. “I can understand wanting more. Kids are great. Greta was a surprise. I was in college at the time, and things were hard, but I managed. And she’s so worth it.”
He didn’t comment on the fact that some might think things were still hard for her. “You said her father left?”
“Yeah. It was only recently he decided he wanted Greta.”
He held her hands and murmured, “You’re safe here with me. I won’t let anyone take her away from you.”
Her lips twisted. “I wish I could believe that. But you don’t know him…” She paused. “Barry’s a got a dark side to him.”
“So do I when my family is threatened.” It had emerged recently when his sisters and Mom were kidnapped. To this day, he didn’t regret the deaths he’d caused when he’d gone to get them back.
Victory,huffed his wolf.
A victory earned with blood and violence. Had he just been a regular man it might have bothered him more, but half of him was a natural-born predator who saw the world more black and white.
“We should go rescue your mom and sister from my hyper kid,” she joked.
Actually, it was debatable who had more energy. They entered the living room to find the three playing Ring Around the Rosie with much laughter when they fell down.
A grinning Greta chirped, “Mama! Ares! Come play.”
They danced and sang and ate cookies for a bit before a wide yawn had Charlotte declaring, “Bedtime for little princesses.”
“But Mama…”
“The sooner to bed, the sooner you and I can bake some sugar cookies,” Ares’ mom declared. “After the pancake breakfast, of course.”
“Ooh.”
“And don’t forget we’ll be visiting the bunnies,” Selene stated, not to be outdone.
“Bah, everyone knows the goats are more awesome,” Ares interjected.
Greta beamed and, to his shock, held her arms out to him as she commanded, “Carry me.”
For the second night in a row, Ares read a bedtime story while the three of them snuggled—him on one side of the bed, Charly on the other, with Greta in between.
When Greta’s eyes drooped, Charly eyed him over her kid’s head with matching sleepy eyes. “Not the evening we had planned,” she softly murmured.
“Shit happens. We’ve got plenty of evenings ahead of us.” He’d make sure of it. “Why don’t you get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning?”
“Thank you, Ares.”
“Bah. It’s nothing.” He wished he could do more.
He headed downstairs to find Mom and Selene waiting for him.
“She go down okay?” his mom asked.
“Yup. Out like a light. Charly too.”
Selene was the one to glance at the ceiling before asking, “What are you going to do if they can’t get back into their house by Christmas Day?” Which also happened to be the next full moon when their change into a wolf would be unavoidable.
Whenever possible, he and his sisters ran through the woods in their wolf forms under the full moon. Although, on a few occasions, when they thought they might be watched, they’d spent the night in the windowless storage room in the basement. Not exactly something he could do with Charly in the house. At the same time, him leaving for the night would look suspicious.
“I don’t know. I’ll figure something out if it comes to that.” He raked fingers through his hair. “Hadn’t really thought of it.”
Selene would be on board the cruise ship when the full moon hit and would spend the evening in their room. Hopefully the staff wouldn’t wonder at the wolf hair she’d shed.