Authors: Kim Dare
Bayden sat on the bed and watched.
“Do you want to get anything for your mother on the way?” Axel asked.
Bayden shook his head.
“Nervous?”
He shook his head again.
It was one of those lies he told himself. Axel took a deep breath, not inclined to admit that he was nervous as hell too. “What’s her name?”
“Sir?”
“Your mother—what do I call her? Is it Mrs. Wolf, or do I call her by her first name, or what?”
“Her first name’s Miriam,” Bayden offered, but he didn’t seem entirely sure what Axel should actually address her as. He appeared just as out of his depth as Axel felt.
On the way out of the flat, Axel paused. He glanced into the kitchen. The money Bayden had won still sat on the kitchen table. They’d been edging around it ever since Bayden began his punishment, neither of them willing to touch it.
“Sir?” His tone made it clear that he’d noticed what Axel was looking at.
“Your mother might find some extra cash useful,” Axel pointed out.
Bayden shuffled his feet.
Axel made himself step forward and pick it up. He held it out to Bayden, but Bayden seemed frozen in place.
“It’s okay, pup.”
Bayden glanced up at him. He took the money and pushed it deep into his jeans pocket, as if it would contaminate his hands if he held it a second longer.
Axel let the matter drop. He was meeting his boyfriend’s mother; there were only so many things he could worry about at one time. “You said before that wolves don’t usually prefer men or women,” Axel reminded him, as they drove out of the pub’s car park a few minutes later.
“Yes, sir.”
“So, your mother’s not going to have a problem with you turning up with a…boyfriend rather than a girlfriend?”
Bayden shook his head.
Axel tried to pretend that meant everything was automatically going to be okay. Unfortunately, he was already pretty sure that any objection Bayden’s mother would have to him would be based on species rather than gender.
* * * * *
Don’t be nervous. He’ll know if you’re nervous, so will his mother.
Every wolf in the place would know if Axel wasn’t entirely confident and at ease, just from his scent. Thinking about that fact didn’t help Axel feel in the least bit less anxious.
He adjusted the little visitor’s badge he’d been issued at the kiosk at the edge of the car park after the woman inside had checked his ID.
“Sir?”
Axel smiled down at Bayden. “Am I the only one fascinated by the idea that someone might mistake either of us for one of the women who live here unless we had little badges on?”
Bayden smiled back at him, but he still seemed to be watching him warily.
In an effort to appear far more relaxed than he felt, Axel turned his attention to the building they were about to enter. From the way Bayden spoke about the place, Axel had expected something sterile and austere—a cross between a prison and a factory.
It was actually an old manor house set well back in its own grounds. It looked like one of the stately homes his school had taken kids to on field trips.
A stately home that didn’t trust its visitors to be well behaved, Axel mentally corrected, as another security guard checked their visitors’ tags and their ID’s, before ticking their names off a list.
Axel ran his eyes down the list of expected visitors as they waited.
Axel Carmichael.
His name stood out from all the others—easy to spot because it was the only one that didn’t end in Wolf.
Bayden kept pace with Axel as they made their way down a path along the outside of the building to another door where their visitors’ badges were once more checked.
The woman doing the checking smiled politely. “Miriam knows you’ve arrived, she’ll join you shortly.”
The woman ushered them into what Axel guessed was some sort of visitor’s room. There were lots of tables and chairs arranged around the space. A hatch at the far end of the room appeared to offer refreshments. The windows looked out onto the garden. There was a door on the other side of the room with another security person manning it, who would, presumably, let the women from inside the building through to meet their visitors.
The room was spotlessly clean—just as Axel assumed any place inhabited by wolves would be. The furniture was functional, but there was a reasonably cheerful air to the place. The women who’d come out to greet their guests all looked happy and healthy.
China rattled as someone carried a tray away from the serving hatch. Muted conversations filled the air. It seemed more like a quaint little tea shop than a prison visiting room. The worst of Axel’s fears faded somewhat.
Axel waited to see if Bayden wanted to pick a table, but he stood motionless with his hands shoved in his jacket pockets. He didn’t look interested in making any kind of decision for himself.
Axel led him across to a table near a window. “Have you been here before?”
“No, sir. Not inside.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets as he sat down, and rested his hands on the table.
“You don’t have to call me sir while we’re here.”
Bayden jerked his head up.
Axel put his hand over Bayden’s. “Pay attention. I said you don’t have to, not that you’re not allowed to. I’m telling you that you don’t have to call me sir in front of your mother if you prefer not to, that’s all.”
“I’m still allowed to?”
“Yes.”
Bayden nodded to himself. “Yes, sir.” There was just a bit of defiance in the way he said it. He obviously hadn’t appreciated the offer of discretion one little bit. Axel left his hand over Bayden’s, allowing the contact to linger for as long as Bayden might be able to take some comfort from it.
Bayden’s fingers twitched under Axel’s palm. He turned to face the door but didn’t pull his hand away from Axel’s.
A woman stepped into the room. She was about Bayden’s height and had the same colouring as him, with long dark hair plaited over her right shoulder. She was dressed simply, like all the women there, in a long dress with a loose fitting cardigan over it.
Axel turned his attention to Bayden and found him studying his mother very carefully. He still didn’t pull his hand away. Axel stood up, letting their hands separate naturally. Bayden jerked to his feet alongside him.
Miriam smiled when she saw her son. Putting his hand on the small of Bayden’s back, Axel gently nudged him forward.
Hugs between Axel and his own mother had become awkward the moment he’d come out. Bayden turning up with a human hadn’t the same effect on his relationship with his mother. When they embraced, it was as natural and honest as breathing. Several seconds passed before they stepped back. Bayden held her at arm’s length for a few seconds, still studying her carefully.
She wasn’t easy for Axel to read, apart from those times when her expressions matched those Axel was familiar with from Bayden. As far as Axel could tell, she was worried about Bayden, but not as worried about him as he was about her.
Bayden glanced over his shoulder. “This is Axel.”
Miriam glanced toward him and nodded slightly.
“He asked what he should call you, but I wasn’t sure,” Bayden added.
As any intention Axel might have had of hiding how wary he was of saying the wrong thing died swiftly at Bayden’s feet, Miriam met his gaze. She took half a step forward and held out her hand. “Miriam.”
Not wanting to stress his humanity any more than necessary, Axel skipped any attempt at small talk. Greetings done, he settled down to observe mother and son in silence.
“You look less tired,” Bayden said.
She smiled. “I am less tired.”
Bayden nodded, his gaze quick and assessing. “You’re happy you moved in here?”
“Yes.”
Axel was pretty sure that a dozen different messages passed from one wolf to the other that he was entirely unaware of. Body language. Scent. He was a novice at deciphering the first and oblivious to the second.
“We sorted out the gravestone. It wasn’t a problem.”
We.
It wasn’t a word a wolf used by accident.
Miriam turned to Axel, studying him with increased interest. “You’ve visited our burial ground?”
“Yes, when I took Bayden to visit his grandfather’s grave. It’s very peaceful.” Respectful tone. Remember that a wolf always says the dom takes the sub places, not the other way around. Keep the answers short and sweet. Axel wasn’t sure he had lupine speech patterns down perfectly, but he did his damnedest, unwilling to lose whatever ground he’d made so far.
“Everyone’s being kind to you?” Bayden asked his mother.
Miriam nodded. “You don’t need to worry about me, love.”
Bayden didn’t nod in response. He didn’t do anything.
The moment seemed right. “Why don’t you go and get your mother something to drink?” Axel asked, nodding to the serving hatch.
Bayden hesitated. He looked from his mother to Axel and back again, but he went without protest. Axel watched Bayden until he was out of ear shot, then turned to Miriam.
Unsure how much time he’d have, he didn’t waste any. “I’m not going to bother with a whole speech about how well I’m going to treat your son or how happy I’m going to make him. Mostly because I don’t think you’d believe a word of it.”
She blinked at him, just the way Bayden did when he said something that was so unexpected, or so human, it took a wolf’s mind a few seconds to work out what the suitable reaction might be.
“I don’t expect you to like me or to approve of me. Over time you’ll see for yourself how I treat Bayden and make up your own mind. But…” Axel sighed. There was no easy way to say it. “He thinks you moved in here because you don’t trust him to look after you.”
“Bayden and I spoke about my reasons for taking a residential place here.” It wasn’t a correction as such. She spoke the same way Bayden often did, as if he didn’t want to imply that humans were stupid, but it was kind of obvious they were.
There wasn’t time for subtlety. “He thinks he’s let you down and ended up losing both his grandfather and his mother within a few days. He’s tying himself in knots trying to work out how to be a better wolf—a wolf who’d have been worthy of your trust.”
She glanced across to where Bayden was queuing for refreshments. Her eyes weren’t the amber colour that gave away a wolf’s species, but they were still a lot like Bayden’s, just as watchful, just as assessing.
“I can’t fix that,” Axel pointed out.
She turned back to him.
“If I need to find a way to convince him that he’s a good wolf on my own, I’ll do it. But it’s not my opinion on that which is bothering him—not really.”
Bayden came back. He had two cups and two cakes on a tray. He placed one set in front of Axel and one set in front of his mother. As an expression of divided loyalties went, it couldn’t have been clearer. The pieces of cake were exactly the same size. They even had the same number of pieces of strawberry on top.
“Thank you.” Axel stood up.
Bayden began to do the same, but Axel put his hand on his shoulder.
“I’m only going to see what all those notices say,” Axel said, pointing to the notice board on the far side of the room. “You stay here and have a chat with your mam.”
Axel was acutely aware of two sets of eyes watching him walk across the room, but he kept all his attention on the notice boards. All he could do was hope.
If Miriam didn’t offer her son her approval, there was nothing Axel could do about that. Axel pushed his free hand into his pocket. His fingers brushed against a rosary that he’d put in there that morning without really thinking about it. He’d take any help he could get.
* * * * *
“Axel’s worried that you think you’ve let me down somehow.”
Bayden stared at Axel’s retreating back until he couldn’t put off facing his mother any longer. “You don’t need to be here.”
She reached across the table and stroked the back of his hand. He turned his hand over, letting her put her palm against his
“Everything happened very quickly. It always does when a wolf reaches the end. Maybe I was wrong to…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Bayden said, very firmly.
His mother smiled at him, the same way she had when he was a little boy and she’d thought he was trying to grow up too quickly. “Do you really think I took the residential place here because I was scared you wouldn’t look after me?”
Bayden looked down.
“You’d have led a pack well, you’d have looked after any wolf who was part of your pack. I’ve never doubted that. That’s not what me moving in here was about, love. I’ve told you that before.”
Bayden pushed his free hand through his hair. “You want to live trapped in here, doing what humans say all the time?” He kept his tone respectful through sheer force of will, and tried not to think about how horrific it would be, being forced to obey a human who wasn’t Axel.
She smiled.
Bayden didn’t see anything to smile about.
“Is that what you think it’s like? I’ve never said that.”
Bayden met her gaze. Good wolves didn’t complain, and she was a good wolf.
She shook her head. “I like it here, love. It’s…” She looked around the room. “You think the security makes it a prison, I think it means that everyone in here is safe.”
“I can keep you safe.”
“It’s not so much about me being safe anymore. Some of the women here, they have reason to be worried about specific people coming here to find them. I haven’t had to worry about that for a long time.”
Bayden met her gaze. “Dad made sure of that.”
“Yes, he did.”
Even if no one had ever wanted to give him the whole story, he’d put together enough on his own. Before she’d met his father there was a human pimp who’d controlled her. After she’d met Bayden’s dad, that had stopped being a problem. “I could too.”
She sipped her tea. “These days, so could I. I’m not the girl who got mixed up in all that anymore. I can look after myself, and I can help the women who are just starting to learn how to do that. I’m not here to get help from humans. I’m here to help other wolves.”
Part of Bayden wanted to believe it. He’d never seen his mother look so relaxed, so confident in her surroundings. Her scent, her body language, it all told him she was fine, but another part of his brain just refused to go there. “I…”