Page 370 of His Hungry Wolf

Not wanting to be here anymore, I headed for my truck and drove. Being a small town, I didn’t have a lot of places I could go. I could shift and run out to one of the falls, but I didn’t feel like being by myself.

Approaching Mike’s diner, I saw his truck parked in back. I thought about him and my mother. How long had things been going on between the two of them?

It wasn’t that Mike was that bad of a guy. When Nero was going through his asshole phase, Mike was the only one to give him a job. Considering my mother’s dating options, he was a catch. I guess my problem was everything that came with their relationship like potentially losing my childhood home.

Look, I get it. I’m not a kid anymore. And thanks to Quin’s boyfriend, Cage, who was becoming the town’s new alpha, I’m a wolf with a growing pack. I could find my way on my own.

But I had lost the guy I love. I was losing the only home I ever had. And somewhere out there was a brother I might never meet. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

Driving further down Main Street, I next approached Dr. Sonya’s Bed & Breakfast. Dr. Sonya was my new roommate’s human mother. Since Nero got drafted and Cali was coming to East Tennessee University as a freshman, us rooming together made sense.

The two of us were also the only ones at East Tennessee from here, a small town where supernaturals lived openly with humans. Considering the difference hiding your abilities made, we had to stick together. Besides, he was still a little new to shifting and a member of our pack.

Remembering Dr. Sonya’s new project, I pulled into her driveway and parked next to a truck I didn’t recognize. Following the path to the back of the beautiful two-story, craftsman home, I circled onto the large stone back porch finding three small two-tops.

“Titus! What brings you here?” Dr. Sonya said exiting the house’s back door to greet me.

“Cali told me you were doing this and since I was in town, I decided to check it out. How’s it been going?”

“Surprisingly good. Marcus is beyond thrilled,” she said showing a hint of her Jamaican accent. “He’s here every morning baking. It’s become a real adventure.”

“That’s great! Now if we can just get the rest of the town on board, we could put this town on the map.”

“Literally,” Dr. Sonya said touching my arm with a laugh.

She shared my frustration with the town’s desire to hide. Yeah, being attacked by a dragon shifter helped me understand why the town’s fae leader put up the protective barrier. But the world is dangerous no matter whether you’re supernatural or not. That’s not a reason to cut yourself off from life.

If there’s one thing I learned from attending East Tennessee, it’s that the outside world has a lot to offer. And this town has a lot to offer it. We could be the most popular destination in Tennessee for Eco tourism. We had more beautiful falls per square mile than any other part of the state. It would benefit everyone.

But there were people like my mother and the faes’ leader, Dr. Tom, who preferred to keep things the way they were. What they didn’t realize was that my generation needed a reason to stay.

Why would a wolf shifter live their life without their sense of smell? Why would we be content being only half of who we could be?

And it’s not just that. We need jobs past working at the local diner or stocking shelves at the grocery store. Shifter, fae, or human, we need opportunities to have a real life. If we can’t find it here, we’ll look for it somewhere else. And, how long would the town last when its only residents were over 50?

Dr. Sonya got it, though. It helped that she was born on an island that survived on tourism. That was probably why she opened her bed and breakfast. It was the only place in town a stranger could stay the night. Without her, the town would be a general store, a diner, and a crumbling high school.

“You don’t seem to be your usual jovial self. Something wrong?” Dr. Sonya asked.

I hadn’t expected her to pick up on it. I thought I had been hiding it pretty well. But could I tell her that the boy I’ve been secretly in love with got engaged before I had a chance to tell him how I felt? Could I tell her that I walked in on Mom and Mike and now they’re moving in together leaving me nowhere to live?

“I was just told that I have a brother.”

Dr. Sonya looked at me with as much shock as I felt when I found out.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Turns out I’ve had one for most of my life and my mother never bothered to mention it until now.”

“Did she tell you anything about him?”

I shook my head. “She said he was younger than me and that my father had him before he got deployed to Iraq.”

“Your father was deployed to Iraq?” She asked confused.

“You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t.”