Page 423 of His Hungry Wolf

“Hey, did you get the results back from your DNA test yet?” I asked needing to stop him from saying something that would break my heart.

Titus’s eyes brightened with my question.

“I did.”

I sat up excitedly.

“And?”

“Nothing.”

“At all? Wait, is it because you’re a…” I whispered the word wolf. “Do you all not show up on DNA tests like vampires don’t show up in mirrors? And, oh my God, are vampires real?”

Titus chuckled. “First of all, vampires aren’t real. At least I hope they’re not. I’m having a hard enough time forgetting the site of a dragon diving toward me.”

“You’ve been attacked by a dragon? You never told me that.”

“It’s a recent thing and I’ve been trying not to think about it. But, secondly, wolf shifters have DNA so we would show up on DNA tests. What I meant was that I didn’t have any relatives pop up.”

“No one at all?”

“No. It did say that my genetics came from East Tennessee, though. But, I already knew. Being born there kind of tells you that.”

I thought for a moment.

“Does it, though?”

“How could it not?”

“What if your mother and father were born in California and your mother moved here before you were born.”

“But she didn’t.”

“Right. But how did the test know that?”

Titus thought about it without a response.

“Titus, I think you have relatives in East Tennessee.”

“I thought we already covered this. I was born here. Of course I have relatives here.”

“No, I mean, I think you have relatives who already took the genetic test.”

“Then why didn’t they show up in my results?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they requested not to be shown to others. Maybe they did something where their results were added anonymously.”

“Or maybe there’s a completely other reason.”

“I mean, that could be. But since we don’t know which is true, shouldn’t we choose the one that offers the most hope.”

Titus took a deep breath.

“I might be over having hope for things,” he said staring at me.

Ouch!

“Quin told me that you were starting a business. You have to have hope for that.”