Well, thank you. We’re still in the process of getting comfortable since we moved here and some of our items have gotten lost in the shipment, so we’re having some trouble tracking them down, she tells me.
Where did you move from, if you don’t mind me asking ?
Kenya, Imara says and I realize how much I didn’t understand when Tyler told me that she was new here because she was genuinely new to the U. S. from what I was understanding.
Tyler notices my surprise and sets her hand on my shoulder with a giggle. Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that. My mom got her green card a few months ago to come to the United States because she was married to a U. S. Citizen, so we decided that it would be best to come here.
I look at Tyler. Were you born in Kenya ?
Imara shakes her head. No, my Tyler was born in Ohio where my husband is from, but when my mama got sick back in 1998, we decided to go to my home to help take care of her. She unfortunately passed about two years ago and she was the only family member we had over there, so my husband suggested we come here where we could experience more of the pack life since it was forbidden to shift into a werewolf where I’m from.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mother, I tell her, reaching out to set my hand on her arm before giving her a confused look at her last statement. also, they can ban shifting ? I didn’t know that was allowed.
It’s very different over there, you can get a fine from an elder if you shift. Werewolves weren’t something we were allowed to openly talk about and we had to hide it the entire time we were there, so this is completely different for us. I’m just happy that my daughter is able to experience this life because this is definitely how it should be everywhere.
I try to find any way to figure out if she was a wolf, but realize that there’s no telltale signs to figure it out. If you don’t mind me asking, are you a wolf ?
Imara shakes her head. No, my husband is though and that’s how I figured all of this out. When I found out that we were ‘mates’ as he says, it was a genuine shock to me, but I feel like it’s easier to know that you had found the person that you were destined to spend the rest of your life with.
I notice the look Tyler gives me as flashes of the night that Joey told me that he was a wolf runs through my mind. I remember how he shifted into his beautiful wolf and how happy he was when I told him that I accepted him and now… here I was, telling him that I wasn’t interested in moving forward with the relationship just because my dad made me make a very selfish choice to help protect him, not me.
Mama, we’re going to go practice our dance routine, Tyler says, grabbing my hand to pull me up to an empty room with a bunch of mirrors hung up and I assumed that this was an extra room that they used for her to use to practice dancing and I was jealous of how big it was.
After practicing for a few hours and eating dinner with Imara and Tyler while her father was stuck on a work trip, I made my way home to ignore my mom and dad who had fallen asleep on the couch while Emilie seemed to be in her room by the music playing inside of it. I just make my way to my room to take a shower and go to sleep because I know if I continue to think about Joey that everything will get so much worse.
Kade’s POV
The next day, the same thing happens, I make my way through a terrible school day where various members of the pack seem to be staring at me and possibly gossiping about what they think is happening between Joey and I. I’m forced to see Joey during the classes we have together, but thankfully, I have Tyler in some of them to keep me distracted as we continue to get to know each other and discuss the dance routine.
At lunch, I take a seat next to her as she types something on her phone before hitting ‘send’ and setting it down. I feel the tired feeling getting worse in my whole body and I assume that it’s from the ‘rejecting my mate’ portion of my life at the moment. Every time I’ve seen Joey today, he had dark circles under his eyes while he stayed close to his friends as he was probably trying to come up with things that would help him understand what could possibly be going on with my life.
Are you okay ? Tyler asks me, lightly hitting my shoulder to get my attention since I seemed to be zoning out on the table that we were sitting at. I look over at her to notice the worried expression that she was wearing while holding a water bottle in her hand that she had gotten from the vending machine earlier in the day.
I’m alright, just a bit tired, I say.
She clears her throat, turning in her chair to look at me and I notice the way her eyes move to look at me to notice all the things wrong. Can you tell me what happened between you and Joey ? It’s starting to affect you and I know that it’s definitely affecting him, so I feel like there should be something you can do to fix it.
I sigh, turning to look at her. Okay, look, ever since I came out to my father, it’s been rough.
Rough how ? She asks, giving me a confused look.
Let’s just say that when I came out, he wasn’t too happy to hear that his son was interested in dudes. He’s a very masculine man that was hoping that his son would end up with a woman and have biological babies and live the life that he has now.
But that’s not something you can control, she tells me.
I nod my head. I know and he knows that now. Joey and I sat down with him and my mom and we told them that Joey was a werewolf because apparently, that was something the alphas had to do if one of them was human.
Oh, yeah, it’s basically an insurance policy for them if anything was to happen, she tells me and I give her a confused look because did everyone just know about this whole thing and I didn’t ? Because no one ever told me that at one point or another, I would have to tell my parents that I was dating a wolf.
Yeah, I guess. Well, when we told my father, he got super angry because on top of me dating a man, I was also dating someone that had easy access to hurt me, I guess. I know that Joey would never hurt me, but my father doesn’t understand that, so he basically gave me a choice.
A choice ?
If I decide to move forward with the relationship with Joey, then I would have to move out of the house and the relationship I had with my dad would be ruined. But if I broke up with Joey, we could start to work on becoming a real family again, so I chose my family first, I tell her and her eyes widen before her face turns into a look of anger. I notice the way her blue eyes flash to a gray color before she recovers and her eyes shift back.
That’s a shitty thing for a parent to do to their kid, Kade, and you have to notice that, she tells me, reaching forward to grip my hand as hard as she can to not hurt me in any way.
I nod my head. Of course I see it, but my family is my everything, Tyler. Emilie and my mom are the people that have helped me get to the spot that I’m in today and I don’t know what I would do without them.
She gives me another confused look. The choice had nothing to do with your mom or your sister.