Page 229 of His Hungry Wolf

“Shall we go? Again, it was good to meet you, Lou. The next time I’m in town, we’ll all have to go out to dinner.”

“I look forward to it, Mr. Toro,” Lou said blushing.

Yea, I was sure he was.

Walking away, Dad put his arm around me. It felt good to feel him there. Though, he might have done it so that he could fix my hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you look in the mirror before you came outside?”

“Not everyone cares about looks as much as you do, Dad.”

The truth was that I had forgotten to. And although I had managed to get dressed, it had completely slipped my mind to brush my hair. Baby steps.

As he always did, Dad took me to the best restaurant he could find. Considering we were in East Tennessee it wasn’t like the ones in New York and Los Angeles, but it was nice. For some reason, I could barely taste the food, but that probably had more to do with Cage than the chef.

“So, tell me, what’s going on, Quin? Who’s this guy who broke your heart?”

Despite whatever faults he had, he always listened closely. As he did this time, he seemed to genuinely feel my pain. But, I wasn’t still the boy who thought that was enough. I had seen too many things. I now needed more.

“How did you create me, Dad?”

He froze.

“I told you that I don’t talk about that.”

“You don’t talk about it to others. And, that’s for the best. But, you can’t keep it from me anymore. I need to know.”

“Honey, I swore that I would take that to my grave. I can’t risk what happened to you happening to others,” he said with empathy. But I wasn’t going to accept that.

“When did you know there were others like me?”

“What?”

“When did you know? Was it when I was a kid? Was I still a baby?”

“Other’s like you how?”

“You know how, Dad,” I insisted not giving an inch.

“Quin, I’m telling you that I don’t.”

I stared into my father’s eyes. He really didn’t seem to know. Did that mean that I could still trust him? What if what Dr. Tom said was true? What if he has been experimenting on shifters this whole time?

“Son, did you find others like yourself?” He asked hesitantly.

I didn’t know what to say. Never had I doubted that I could trust my father. He had always been the only one I thought I could believe in. So, what had changed? Why was my faith in him so easily shaken by Dr. Tom’s words?

“Tell me how Mom died,” I said when it popped into my head.

“Your Mom?” He leaned away going on the defensive. “Why would you want to talk about that?”

“Because you don’t. You never do. All I know is that when I was a wolf, I attacked her and you found her covered in her blood. That’s all you’ve ever told me. I need to know more, Dad. You owe me that.”

“Quin, it’s my job as your father to protect you.”

“Well, I don’t need your protection now. What I need is your honesty. I’ve hated and resented my wolf my entire life fearing that at any moment it could attack someone I love. It’s been destroying me slowly. How could I trust anyone if I can’t even trust myself, Dad? I need to know whether or not I can trust myself.”