by M. L. Briers
“Well, he doesn’t live here,” she answered, sounding a little sorry for herself. Meredith knew that tone well.
“No, this is the alpha’s home … But I’m sure you’ll still have the same sort of you from Jared’s cabin.” Meredith offered back. She felt like sniggering, oh boy, did she! Her mother’s face was a picture of pure misery mixed with annoyance … and it was as funny as hell.
“And if he mates with you you’ll get to see this view every day,” Jasmine offered; sounding a little too happy about that for her grandmother’s liking.
“Mate … with him!” Caroline’s head snapped around on her neck a little too fast and she felt the pang of pain. Without thinking she reached up and cupped her neck rubbing the sore spot, even though there was no longer a sore spot.
Age! How am I supposed to mate with a man when I can’t even turn my damn neck without something grating?
“It’s what mates do,” Jasmine offered back as if she was talking to a five-year-old and with innocent enough eyes that she thought her Gran wouldn’t see the mischief there.
“I know what mates do. I’m old – not dead.” Caroline said gruffly, looking at little wide eyed and startled at the thought.
“There you go then,” Jasmine offered back happily.
“It’s not that simple,” Caroline said; somewhat aghast by her granddaughter’s attitude and her devil may care need to throw her to the wolves – or one wolf – without any real thought as to what that entailed.
Sex! Oh my word – how many years has it been since I last tangoed with a man? With myself? With …
“If it’s a problem with dryness down there,” Meredith motioned to her groin, and watched her mother’s lower jaw sag downwards as she stared back at her daughter.
“I’m not talking about down there with you!” Caroline hissed back.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Gran, we all have one,” Jasmine said with a small quirk to the corners of her lips and a smile in her eyes.
“It’s not something you talk about either!” Caroline bit out in disbelief. If Jasmine didn’t know better from the look that her grandmother gave her she would have thought that she’d just grown another head.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“I do.” Jasmine shrugged.
“Me too,” Meredith offered, and her mother turned her head so slowly towards her that she quite expected her to open her mouth and speak in tongues.
“Well, my generation…”
“Weren’t you a hippie, Gran?” Jasmine asked.
“Not so that you’d noticed, no.” Caroline looked back to her granddaughter. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Did you never talk about things like this with your friends? Surely at least one of them must have been having sex…”
Caroline jumped in her seat and hushed her granddaughter.
“I’m not talking about sex either!” She hissed back on a whispered tone that the others could barely hear.
“But, Gran, it’s natural…” Jasmine started, but her grandmother tossed up her hands in irate frustration.
“Can we please change the subject?” Caroline groaned.
“Is that what you’re going to say to your mate?” Meredith couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped her lips. When her mother gave her a fiery version of the evil eye; she still didn’t regret one word of it.
“I suppose you think that’s funny?” Caroline folded her arms across her chest and sat back against the cushion on the soft sofa, unimpressed by either of her kin.
Sex is no laughing matter!
Sex at my age is definitely no laughing matter!
“You know they make gels for dryness down there now?” Meredith grinned.
“Still not funny!” Caroline bit out.
“But, Gran, he’s your mate, he’s going to want to…”
“Don’t…!” Caroline almost begged her granddaughter to stop.
She was sure that her heart was trying to batter its way out of her chest. It missed a beat here and there, but she was used to that.
Ever since she’d hit her forties her body had started to do weird and wonderful things. Not so wonderful when you didn’t know what they meant, or what they might lead to … But she’d learned to live with all of the new things over the years, coming to terms with the fact that you just couldn’t hold back the progression of time.
Some things you just didn’t speak about. Not to family, not to friends, not even to the family doctor. They were private and personal, and downright embarrassing…
It was different for men. Sure, they aged too, but not the way that a woman’s body did.
When a part of you started down the slippery slope, whether it be your breasts, your backside, your stomach, or even your face … It was like saying goodbye to an old friend and welcoming in the enemy. The devil. But better the devil you know … than going under the knife and waking up looking as if you were going mach speed in a jet with the G-Force yanking your skin backwards and pinning your ears at the back of your head.
At least – that’s the way that she’d always thought about it.
“Come on, mum, you know after certain age women have issues…”
“Don’t you mean menopause, Meredith? That thing that’s speeding towards you like a blazing comet of fiery hot flushes, lost sexual desire, mood swings, bat-craziness, and the landscape of your body heading south.” Caroline hissed out in hushed whispers.
“My … Doesn’t that paint a pretty picture?” Jared’s gruff voice boomed out into the silence of the room.
Caroline’s face was a picture – caught somewhere between mortification and shock. Her wide eyes glared at Meredith as her jaw slowly moved downwards, and a wheezing sound escaped her lips.
Meredith grimaced. She wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to burst out laughing or rush to give her mother CPR.
“It’s not something I want to dwell on,” Wade said as he stalked into the room behind the elder and his amused eyes locked with Meredith’s.
“Way to keep the conversation lively, Gran,” Jasmine couldn’t help but snigger. “Guess we’re talking about it now.”
Caroline felt the need to retreat to her bed, pull the covers over her head, and stay there until the day that she died. It would be a blessed death. One that she would welcome with open arms, just so that she would never have to speak of this moment ever, ever, ever again.
If only the floor would open up and take me right now…
I think I’d go willingly down into the deepest, darkest, pit in hell.
I think I’m already there.
I should have known … This is why you don’t talk about it!
What is that man going to think of me?
It can’t be worse than I think of myself right now…
Oh, I walked into that one of my eyes wide open.
Vaginal dryness indeed!
It certainly does paint a pretty picture … And now he’s thinking about my…
“Y-yes,” Caroline swallowed down the large lump in the back of her throat. “Well,” she made another wheezing sound… “I think it’s time we were leaving.”
Caroline buried her knuckles in the cushions on either side of her hips and tried to push up, but her body didn’t seem to want to move as every inch of it quivered, and she just knew that her legs were never going to hold her weight up.
“I think you’re forgetting something,” Jasmine offered as her lips quirked with amusement.
“W-what’s that?” Caroline seemed a little distracted.
“Me!” Jared growled.
Caroline swallowed down again. She couldn’t seem to get rid of that lump in the back of her throat, but she was giving it a damn good try.
“Oh, you … No … I mean yes, but no.” Now she felt like an even bigger fool and mentally berated herself for not being able to make a sentence.
Speak, dammit!
You’ve been doing it for nearly seventy years - why stop now?
Say something!
Her mind was blank. Not blank as in there wasn’t a thought in her head, because there were, lots of thoughts, and images. The problem was she didn’t want any of those thoughts; she needed to come up with an answer for him, and all she could think about was vaginal dryness, a quick death, and how two people of her age would even go about having sex.
Carefully!
Very damn carefully, and with a lot of embarrassment…
Sex … with him? Heaven forbid!
He might be good for his age, but I’m definitely going downhill faster than a runaway car…
“I might be getting old … But I think you need to explain it to me,” Jared said.
Oh no! Please tell me I didn’t say any of that out loud!
CHAPTER NINE
~
How can I tell myself that I didn’t say it out loud – I can’t even remember what I said … Thought … Said … didn’t say…
Oh that day has finally come … I’ve gone senile, can’t be helped, it happens to the best us.
At least I won’t have to worry about vaginal dryness and sex.
I guess the last laugh is on me…
I suppose it’s a blessing.
Mated to a Wolf shifter – or senile – senile – or a mate…?
I suppose losing my marbles is the better option. At least I’ll be fully dressed.
“Which part?” Caroline asked, trying to rise above the fact that her mind was slipping away. That her cheeks were burning hot like she had a fever and that her kin were enjoying every last moment of her fall from grace.
“Well, I got lost somewhere between the yes, the no, and the but,” he grumbled.
Caroline could have sighed with relief that she’d, at least, kept her inner thoughts to herself, but that would have been a dead giveaway to the fact that she had no idea what he was talking about. Now if only she could take back all the other things that he’d overheard.
“Are you senile?” Caroline demanded on a frown.
“Do I seem senile to you?” Jared grunted in annoyance.
“Yes,” she announced, turning the attention back on him to deflect from her, and give herself enough time to get back on track – if there could ever be enough time for that. “You can’t even follow a conversation.”
“Oh, I think I followed your conversation rather well…” His tone turned teasing, playful, but she was in no mood to be played with or reminded about what he’d overhead with his big ears.
“Such a gentleman!” Caroline huffed.
“I never said I was gentleman,” he teased again.
“So you didn’t lie about that, at least,” Caroline huffed.
“Well, what do you think I did lie about?” Jared demanded.
“You said I was your mate. How am I supposed to know if that’s true?”
“I guess there’s only one way…”
She could hear it in his voice. It wasn’t just the teasing that time, there was an underlying growl that rumbled along with his voice, and it sounded hungry.
Caroline didn’t want to turn and look at him, but it was one of those moments when you knew you shouldn’t look, you willed yourself not to do it, but you just can help it.
Randy old Wolf!
Just look at those eyes … Oh, I know what he’s thinking…
You don’t have to be a genius to work that out.
The man still thinks he’s some kind of stud muffin…
More like a three-week old muffin that’s been sitting under the hot lights in a shop…
Probably throw his back out just at the thought of sex.
I know my left hip would probably pop if I even tried to wrap my legs around … anything…
Not that I would try to wrap my legs around … anything … Not anything of his!
But still … The man probably struts around in the saggy old buff thinking he’s one of those full Monty strippers and that he’s still got it…
Oh, he’s still got it alright … Shifter … And I don’t want it!
One way to find out, Ha! When hell freezes over.
I still have my dignity. There’s no dignity in two people our age having sex.
That’s just a car crash waiting to happen!
“And there’s another picture in my mind that I don’t want.” Wade grumbled, as he looked everywhere but at the mates.
“I think it’s sweet,” Jasmine grinned.
“Meredith, your daughter has gone insane,” Caroline bit out.
“You know what they say, mum, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Meredith chuckled.
“I think I need some air,” Wade grumbled as he turned and headed for the front door.
“Killjoy!” Meredith chuckled.
“Bah humbug!” Wade lifted a hand in the air and without looking round; he waved goodbye.
“Well, that just leaves me, and my new family.” Jared said, but the frown on his forehead said he wasn’t too sure of himself.
~
~
~
Meredith could still hear her mother’s hissed tones ringing in her ears as she walked along the lonely, winding trail through the trees. The woman’s protestations about Meredith leaving for a short walk still made her smile, even though it had triggered the guilt button within her brain.
She’d left Jasmine behind as a sort of chaperone, but there was still that familiar tap – tap – tap, and ping – ping – ping of guilt somewhere within the dark recesses of her mind. Oh, how she would love to find a way to switch that off.
“I’d say a penny for them, but if they are anything like the conversation that was going on in there I don’t want to hear them,” Wade said.
His deep, gravelly voice jarred her out of her thoughts, and into the reality of finding herself alone with him. She thought she’d be alone with her thoughts on the trail – obviously he’d had the same idea.
She spun towards the sound of his voice, and there he was sitting on a downed tree trunk. He was leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees and his hands linked in front of him, looking the epitome of relaxed, when she felt anything but at his presence.
“Kind of,” she gave a grimace followed by something of an apologetic look.
“I guess it was a shock,” Wade said.
“The accident? Yeah…”
“That to, but I was referring to your mother finding her mate.”
“That my mother had a mate? Sure, that’s shocking that fate would make someone who could live with her without wanting to kill her.” Meredith grinned at the thought.
“Do you think she’ll…” Wade gave a small grimace of his own at the thought, “mate with him?”
“It’s more than likely that he’ll kill her before that happens,” she chuckled.
“Trust me when I say that I feel the same way about Jared sometimes.” Wade nodded as he bit out small chuckle.
“Does that make us bad people?”
“If it does I’m okay with that.”
“Ooo, does being okay with it make us bad people?” She mused.
“You’re very analytical. Sometimes you just have to turn your brain off and roll with it.”
He gave her the kind of smile that she was sure made plenty of women’s panties drop at the sight of it. Jasmine was right, the man was a silver fox … or wolf in his case.
Meredith caught that thought and tried to shut it down. It must have been something in the air on the mountain in spring time, because she hadn’t even entertained a thought like that in a very long time … let alone feeling slightly miffed about all those women getting their share of the alpha.
That wasn’t her. She wasn’t even remotely interested in men, or him, well maybe him, but not in that way … well, maybe a little bit in that way…
She wanted to roll her eyes and groan long and hard at the thoughts that were going through her mind, and the strange, almost alien feelings that were shooting through her body.
The man w
as pretty potent … like that chocolate cake in a baker’s window that just drew you in, made you salivate, and then forced you to buy it so you could devour it at your earliest opportunity, and sure, you might have regretted it later, but boy did you dive in their wholeheartedly and with damn gusto…
Wade watched a million and one thoughts chase through her mind, almost all of them was etched right there on her face as she slowly considered something that he couldn’t even hesitate a guess at, but he did like to watch the floor show.
She was a fine looking woman. All soft curves that he could appreciate more if he’d had her naked on his bed, but he was appreciating them just fine right then.
He liked the way that she’d allowed the grey streaks to colour the front and sides of her hair. He hated it when women of their age reached for the colour bottle and banished their age instead of embracing it.
The minimal makeup made her look softer … he’d seen some woman that plastered it on and tried to fill in their laughter lines, annihilate their character. It was good that she didn’t do that because the story of her life was right there on her face … she’d laughed a lot, but she’d frowned some too, and that was what made her the person that she was.
He liked looking at her. Reading her expressions. She intrigued him and his wolf.
The beast had been clawing at him since he’d left the house for a little solitude from all of the madness with the females talking about feminine problems … he didn’t rightly need a picture in his mind of the elder’s having sex … he’d much rather think about taking Meredith in his arms and…
Don’t even think it! He growled to himself.
She’s not just some woman you met in a bar, she’s going to be kin to the pack, and you don’t crap on your own doorstep!
His wolf growled indignantly at that remark…
Not you … damn it … me!
The wolf made a curious sound and Wade wanted to sigh, but he knew that he’d look like a complete idiot in her eyes if he did…
I’m not talking about physically crapping … oh forget it!