Chapter 10 10: Luther
“Luther Albion Gray, you transform right now and tell your mother what you’ve done!”
I growl, baring my teeth at my mother as I stare out the windows in front and wait for my mate to be in the park before I transform. In moments, I go from looking my small mother in the eye to towering over her, naked as the day I was born.
She looks me over, grabbing my arms and checking every inch of me for injuries. Her nimble fingers dig into my muscles like needles as she grabs my arms and yanks me down to my knees so we can be face to face. Running her hands through my shaggy black hair, she reaches the back and yanks.
“I never should have cut your rat tail off; you clearly need the leash!”
“Mom, I can explain!” I whine. Yes, whine. I’m nearly seven feet tall with biceps bigger than my mother’s thighs, and I’m whining like a pup in her presence. In my defense, she is my pack’s Luna and deserving of even my adoration and obedience.
“You'd better get to it! You have an hour before your owner comes back to collect you!”
“She’s my mate,” I blurt out, staring into the carbon copy of my own gray eyes as hers bulge with surprise and then flood with tears.
“You're serious?” She gasps, trembling hands coming to her lips. “That gorgeous human is your mate? You’re sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure in my life, mother.”
She smiles, tears spilling over, and bounces in place with happiness. She throws her arms around my shoulders and yanks me down even further, hugging her tightly. I bury my face in her neck and breathe deeply. The smell of safety, of my beloved mother, overwhelms me with a sense of calm security. The fact that she’s happy for me makes it all the more wonderful.
“I knew it the moment I smelled her. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
“Oh, my sweet boy!” She pulls back and peppers my face with kisses. “I always knew you would find your fated mate, just like your father found me. This is a day for celebration! I will call the packs, unite us all under one roof for the ceremony! I will— Oh, oh no, Luther!” she breaks away from me, hands on her lips, no longer hiding a smile but terror.
“Dark Moon, I know,” I try to continue, but she slaps her hand over my mouth.
“If the Valentine’s find out, it will be war, Luther! What are you going to do?” New tears pour from her eyes now. Tears of sheer terror. “We have never had to fight for Seattle, my son. There has never been another pack to claim it. I knew banishing Valentine all those years ago would bite us in the ass, but… Oh, Luther, it’s such wonderful and horrible news wrapped in one.”
I nod, letting my eyes stray from her worried face to the face of my mate across the street. She’s sitting down, licking an ice cream cone as she sits on the lip of the fountain. She doesn’t know it, but the wolf climbing the rocks in that fountain is my Father’s memorial, from when Valentine killed him over twenty years ago.
“I would have never married Catarina, mother. I would have seen her and the twin spawn of the Valentine line dead before she even saw me shift.”
“I know,” she says, her voice small and scared.
I cup her chin and turn her face up to mine, whipping tears away from her plush cheeks with my other hand. “Don’t worry, mother. I found my mate. My Luna. We are stronger than the Dark Moon pack now; they just don’t know it yet.”
“Okay…alright…well…” my mother droned on, her eyes scanning the room as if some hidden answer lay waiting behind the bottles of dog shampoo and collars. “Let me get this off you?”
I growl in annoyance, but bend my head to her so she can remove the pink collar and leash. Bane and Emma would pay for their joke, and mine would be far better, a joke and far funnier. At least for me.
“How are you going to tell her?”
“I have no fucking clue, mom,” I mutter, rubbing my hand on the scruff of my beard while I watch my woman in the park. My woman, I like the way that sounds.
My mom flicks my elbow, probably the highest she could reach, and scolds me, “Language! You are an Alpha! You can’t go around spewing profanities in public.”
I look around sarcastically and give a dramatic wave, “Whose here to see me, Mom? Hmm?”
She huffs in annoyance and tosses my collar and leash at me. “Watch your tone, little man! You’re already in hot water after fleeing the conclave. Not to mention going around with a human as a pet named Fluffy! So don’t you smart mouth me!”
She waddles away, waiving her hands around as she mutters to herself about how she should have raised me better.
“Get back here and take a shower, you mangy mutt, I still need to groom Fluffy after all!”
“You cannot be serious!” I groan, following her down the hallway with my shoulders slumped.
“Oh, you bet your booty I am. You go take a shower and then shift, because you’re getting the prime treatment. Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to make you appear as majestic as you’re meant to be?” she giggles maniacally, sorting through lotions and potions in a closet beside the grooming room. “And I’m getting paid for it!”
I’m exhausted. I smell like lavender and cedar, and my fur has been brushed about a million times more than ever in my entire life. My nails are trimmed, and so is the fur around my neck and down my chest. I look like the most manicured wolf to ever exist.
Sitting in front of the mirror like an obedient pup, I let my Mom put a new black collar on that has three-inch spikes all around it. The leash she hooks to is woven leather and chain. I look so bad ass I almost don’t regret it at all, but then I remember the fact that my own mother just groomed me, and I can’t help but scowl in annoyance. I’m not a pup, after all.
“Now that’s the Alpha I’m bowing down to!” Mom says over my shoulder.
I lick a kiss on her nose and then stretch, my claws dragging long lines in the cheap, waterproof rugs.
“And there he goes, back to his feral, not housebroken ways,” Mom scoffs, waving me away. “Go get in a kennel so it looks real when she gets back, hmm?”
I groan, making noises in my throat like I'm mocking her. Completely ignoring her, I saunter back out to the waiting room and look outside. My eyes scan the park across the street, looking for Chrissy. At first, I don’t see her. She isnt at the fountain where she was before, but next to a tree. I only recognize it's her because of her shoes. I remember watching her tie on the ridiculously bulky white running shoes and wondering why they needed to be so thick.
There are two men standing in front of her, corralling her to the tree. One man has his hand above her head, splayed on the tree; the other man is tilting her head up with a finger. The first man leans in and wags his own finger in her face, and Chrissy flinches visibly and shies away from him as if he is going to hit her.
Rage fills my whole body before I can stop it.
I shift, turning into a man again, fists clenching at my sides.
“You’re gonna need these,” my mother says beside me, handing me a pair of scrubs. I don’t even remember dressing before I’m running through the door full throttle, collar and leash still attached to my now, very human, neck.
