Natural Instincts - Jared Cameron

.thirty three.

"Jules, you can't teach a dog to say 'Happy New Year'," dad judged. 

"Excuse you, he's extra smart. Jared and I have been teaching him to bark on cue, so you never know."

He laughed into his morning coffee at me, knowing I loved animals too much for my own good.

"How is Jared?" 

I smiled. "He's perfect." 

"You two are getting pretty serious, hey?" he wondered. He wasn't pressuring, he genuinely cared for Jared and wanted to show an interest.

"Yeah you could say that." I summarised. "Jared makes me feel stable, like I have no more questions about my life, I just know it's supposed to be with him. I love him, dad."

My father smiled proudly, nodding his head like he knew the feeling I was talking about. "I like you two together. You're clearly head over heels for each other, and he cares for you so much. The way he showed up for you in Miami was...really special Jules." His appreciation for someone caring for me so much was clear. "Do you think you'll end up married one day?"

I didn't expect the question, but also didn't know how to approach it. Obviously I knew Jared and I were going to end up together, but I didn't know if dad would laugh at that or think I was being hasty. I didn't want to hear the whole 'you're too young to know' bullshit, especially when no one understood what Jared and I had been through together already.

But my dad was pretty relaxed most of the time, so I took my chances.

"I know we will. I won't ever be with anyone else. Jared's the one. I know that 100%."

He nodded. "I know. I just wanted to hear it from you," he smirked. "Listen while we're talking, I want to chat to you about Sash."

Ugh, here we go. I couldn't even hide my eye roll.

"Juliet, don't roll your eyes. Come on, what's your problem with her?" 

"Dad, we don't have to do this. I want to like her, I want you to be happy. I just don't trust her."

He looked perplexed. "What does that mean? Why don't you trust her?"

He really wanted to know?

"Dad she looks like half your age. She's so clearly the classic younger woman going for an older rich successful widow. It's so cliche! I mean come on, the way she looked at me was like I was a competition to wipe out. Like she wants to ship me off to boarding school at the first opportunity."

Dad sighed. "Listen Jules. I don't have the right to tell you not to feel how you feel. But I want you to remember how accepting I was of Jared when he came into our life. I didn't question your judgement once."

"Jared wasn't trying to replace mom." 

My words came out cold, and stung him slightly, his face contorting into a wince at the jab.

"Juliet, don't go there. You and I both know that's too far and frankly not true."

This wasn't getting anywhere. "Whatever dad, I'm late. I gotta run. Have a good day." 

I picked up my backpack off the back of the chair and was out the door toward the forest. I was supposed to meet the pack but they had been caught up, so I usually hung around the forest recently until Jared got a spare second and would find me.

The reason they ran out on Christmas Eve was because of a new addition to the wolf pack - young Collin had gotten into a fight with his mom and phased, which no one was expecting, and they couldn't quite calm him down. Thankfully he was all okay now - just required some training.