Blood Wolf

12: Naptime and Fruit

The last six days have been a blur. All the pack new I was Ryker’s mate. A little incident at the park with Tristian had ensured that everyone in Ryker’s pack, and even some of the neighboring packs, had heard he found his mate.

I didn’t blame Tristian at all, he was just sticking up for me when one of the older kids walked up and started talking down to him. I let him go to the toilets alone, obviously I couldn’t just walk in with him! Though I did stand just outside the main door.

A group of kids twice his age walked in, they seemed friendly enough, even smiled at me when they walked passed. I didn’t feel like they were a threat so I let them go in, I wasn’t about to stop a couple of eight year olds from taking a wee if they needed to.

That was until I heard Tristian shouting at them.

“Don’t say that about my mummy!”

At that moment I really didn’t care about the looks I would get about running into the boys’ facilities. I had learned Tristian rarely shouted about anything, he cared too much for his pack to yell at them, unless he needed to.

Busting through the door, I was beyond surprised to find Tris on top of a boy who was nearly three times his size. His little fist pulled back and before I could reach him it came down to connect with the child’s nose. The cracking sound that reverberated throughout the small room was followed by the deafening sounds of painful screams.

Freezing, I watched Tristian hit the boy again, yelling at him to keep his mouth shut and to respect his mum and their Luna. The title given to me for being Ryker’s mate, not a title I particularly wanted, but one it seemed I couldn’t get out of.

Just as his growls got louder did I finally snap out of it and rushed over to pull him off. As soon as my arms went around his tiny waist he stopped and nearly went limp. He didn’t struggle or continue to fight. I had asked him about that later on, on our way back to the pack house and he had simply said. “I didn’t want to hurt you mummy. I knew it was you and I didn’t want to hit you.”

I knew I should have been angry or upset that he was fighting but from what he told me, that little shit had it coming. He’s just lucky I don’t hit children or his head wouldn’t be attached to his body.

“Daddy, he said…he said…”

He paused when telling his side of the story. I hadn’t expected Ryker to know about it so soon but just as we walked in he was rushing towards us with a somber look on his face. All but pulling us both into his office where the little shit and his parents sat, looking quite smug. Well the mother was, the father had his poker face on.

“He said what?”

I could tell Ryker was doing his best to keep his temper under control but the calmness in him was slipping. I might not have like the child but I didn’t fancy letting Tristian see his father rip the eight year old to shreds in front of him.

“Ryker. Don’t make him repeat it.”

I took his arm and pulled him to the corner, I knew the others could still hear us but I didn’t want my innocent and sweet Tris saying such words. Sure, I cussed like a sailor on leave from a nunnery, but that didn’t mean I wanted Tristian picking up that bad habit of mine.

“He said I was nothing more than a “filthy rogue gash, who wasn’t even worth calling a whore.”

Ryker tensed and if it weren’t for my grip on his arm, I wasn’t sure what he would have done. Thankfully he didn’t have to do anything.