“Hey, honey, I made you some coffee.”
Winston grabbed his coat. “Sorry, Mom, I’m running late. I need to open up the store.”
His mom’s smile dimmed a little. “Just a little sip. I made it specially. It’s a new blend I bought for you.”
“I really do have to run.”
“Please!”
Winston frowned at his mom. She seemed almost nervous.
“Ah, well, I guess…”
She pushed the cup into his hand and eagerly watched him. He lifted it to his nose to inhale the deep scent and his wolf gagged.
“What’s that smell?”
“Nothing, drink up.”
She placed her fingers on the bottom of the cup, trying to force it to his lips.
He sniffed it again. It was so familiar. “It smells like your nighty-night formula.” It helped his mom get to sleep – put her out like a light.
“No it doesn’t!” she cried.
Winston groaned. “It is, isn’t it? Right, because today was the day you were planning on me getting married. Are you seriously trying to put me to sleep to drag me to the chapel and force me to marry Tara?”
His mom scowled remorselessly. “It’s for your own good.”
His beast snarled. Winston poured the liquid down the sink.
“I’m going to work.”
Perhaps it was time he considered professional help for his mom. There was a line between being overprotective and just plain nuts.
*
Avery maneuvered the heavy-as-hell statue of Wonder Woman. Oh, why did he buy it? Winston had been wondering that since he ordered it. It was huge, weighed a ton and only kind of looked like Diana, Princess of the Amazons. It looked more like someone had been going for a Captain Kirk statue, made a mistake with the boobs, and so slapped a black wig on her. Still, Howie would probably buy it. He was already starting to get interested – though that may be more to do with the fact that Avery was lifting the statue.
Did he feel bad about making his girlfriend do manual labor? Nah – she was the strongest one there, she volunteered, and she looked too hot for her own good while her muscles flexed in a tank top.
“How about here?”
Avery twisted the statue around so Diana was staring down her nose at some of the more risqué comics he carried – the ones that Tara couldn’t bring herself to go near.
“Don’t you think it will put my customers off from buying these?”
He waved his hand at the comics.
Avery shrugged. “Wouldn’t put me off.”
Winston grinned proudly. “No, but you’re a real-life Wonder Woman.” Seymour let out a humph, and they ignored him. “A lot of my usual customers are… well, I don’t want to say, cowards…”
Speaking of cowards… His wolf started whining, and that could only mean one thing.
His mom strode into the comic book store with more swagger than Darth Vader. He had once nicknamed her Darth Mother. The look on her face incited more fear than Vader ever could. A couple of his customers clamored to get to the bathroom.
Tara let out an ‘eep’ and took a step toward Seymour.
“Tara, there you are,” said his mom severely. She flashed a look of disapproval at Winston, but he was used to it by now. “Tell my son you are going to marry him.”
“No, actually…”
“See!” howled his mother triumphantly. “You two are…” She frowned and stared at Tara. “What did you just say?”
Tara turned pale, but she stood her ground. “I ah, I’ve found someone else.”
Winston looked at her in surprise. Avery smirked. His mom growled.
“Who?” she demanded.
Seymour pushed his glasses up his nose. “Uh, me.” He put an arm around Tara’s shoulders, and she grinned.
“What?!
His mom turned her attention to Seymour, who had until that point been nothing more than an inconsequential speck on her radar.
“We already mated,” gushed Tara, finding some courage as Seymour squeezed her shoulders.
“Really?” asked Winston.
Seymour puffed out his skinny chest and pompously told him, “Yes, I’m afraid she is no longer interested in your advances.”
Winston stared at him while Avery tried not to kill herself with silent laughter.
“She was not in danger of getting them, no offense,” he added to Tara.
She beamed. “None taken.”
“But… but…” spluttered his mom.
“Something just clicked when I met Seymour,” explained Tara and then cast a shy smile at the object of her affection. “I was just afraid he wouldn’t be interested.”
“You were afraid he wouldn’t be interested in you?” repeated Howie in disbelief.
Tara seemed not to notice everyone’s surprise. She looked up at Seymour in quiet awe. “He’s the most fascinating man I’ve ever met.”
“Him?” scoffed Winston.
She nodded. “He has so many wonderful ideas for the store – if you’d only listen.”
“When was he ever holding back on talking?” demanded Winston.
A little hush now and again would be welcome huffed his beast.
“I was thinking that Seymour and I could take over running the store and you could concentrate on drawing – that is your passion, right? I think your Wolfman comic could really be something special, and I think with more marketing, this place could be special too. Have you thought about possibly having a small coffee shop in here?”
“I’ve been saying that for months,” added Seymour.
“Since when?” howled Winston.
Avery patted his arm, in between repressed hiccups of laughter.
Tara turned to his mom. “I’m sorry, but I do love Seymour – he’s my soulmate.” She turned to Winston. “Sorry, Winston.”
Winston gaped and following Avery’s frantic motions said, “No, congratulations – I am so happy for you both.”
Seymour smirked. “No problem with me stealing her?”
Rawr!
Avery nearly fell over at that. A tear of laughter escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek. He was afraid his lioness was going to explode with amusement.
“You did not… you know what, no. The best man clearly won.”
Seymour and Tara giggled and kissed.
Howie stroked his chin. “So it’s that easy to steal a woman from you.” He waggled his eyebrows at Avery.
She flashed her fangs at him.
“Avery’s not interested,” said Winston in a tired voice. Seriously? Again? Complained his beast. They went through this every day.
Howie grumbled that he’d see about that.
Winston shoved aside his annoyance at the oily male trying to steal his female, and simply grinned at the two lovebirds. “Yeesh. Lid for every crazy pot.”
Avery smiled and stepped forward to his mom who was completely dumbfounded by the whole situation.
“Mrs. Strong, I’m Avery, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
*
Avery smiled politely as Mrs. Strong continued to scowl and search for any weakness she could exploit. Winston’s mom was quite similar to her own in some ways. She was quite ruthless in pursuit of her own interest. But while her own mom only really cared about herself, she could tell that to Mrs. Strong, Winston was the most important person in the world. While she may seem to act selfishly, it was because she was scared of losing him. Avery could relate to that.
Wanting to get to know her, Avery told Winston she would walk his mom home. Everyone in the comic book store breathed a sigh of relief when she made that offer. Mrs. Strong had only been there for ten minutes, and already everyone was either terrified or infuriated with her. Well, almost everyone was relieved – Winston definitely was not. He made it clear he didn’t want the two of them to have any alone time, but he really couldn’t put up a fight against both of them. Mrs. Strong was keen to size up her only son’s new girlfriend.
“So, how old are you?” Mrs. Strong asked, displeasure written all over her face.
“I’m thirty-two,” replied Avery serenely.
“Hmmm, can’t you find a man your own age?”
“Not one as perfect as your son. He’s the best guy I’ve ever met.”
The older wolf shifter muttered under her breath. She really couldn’t argue with that.
“You know he owns that comic book store, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“He loves comic books.”
“Yep, me too, ever since I was a kid.”
“Humph.”
Apparently, his mom thought that should put her off. Ha, as if.
“You know he lives with me?” asked the belligerent wolf.
For now, grumbled her inner lioness.
“Yeah, currently I’m living with my sister and my roommate, Wayne,” she told her cheerfully.
She pounced on that tidbit. “You’re living with another man? Does my Winnie know about this?”
“Yeah. Wayne’s like a brother to me.”
His mom started getting flustered. Avery suspected it was because she couldn’t either rile Avery or find a particular fault she could exploit. Honestly, she could ask whatever she wanted because there were two reasons why she wasn’t going to either scare Avery away or provoke her into an argument. The first was that Avery had a lot of experience in dealing with difficult mothers. Mrs. Strong was a cakewalk compared to her own. The second was that she loved Winston – he was hers.
Mine purred her beast.
She wanted to be with him, and no amount of meddling mothers would stop that.
“Do you even like apples?!” huffed the she-wolf in exasperation.
“I love apples,” said Avery.
She was mildly baffled by the question, but she thought it best just to answer in the affirmative.
The two women turned down an empty street, and her lioness hissed as she sensed danger. Avery inwardly sighed. Now, really? While she was trying to convince Winston’s difficult mother that she was the right female for him?
A gangly teen jumped out, brandishing a knife and sneering at them. “Gimme your money?” he hissed.
He was a skunk shifter unless she was mistaken. She could be mistaken, given that he hadn’t washed in a while and was instead wearing about five different brands of aftershave to cover that fact.
“It is 'give me your money,'” huffed Mrs. Strong. “Not 'gimme.' I don’t know, young people today!”
“Tell me about it,” agreed Avery.
The teen scrunched his face in anger. Avery glanced behind them to see another teen much like him watching them. Undoubtedly he was there to block their escape. Her lioness yawned. These two wouldn’t even make her break out into a sweat.
“Hand it over, you stupid bitches!”
“Really!” exclaimed Mrs. Strong. “There’s no need for that, young man.”
In spite of her bravado, Winston’s mom’s hands were shaking a little, and no wonder given that this was how she lost her husband. Avery placed a hand on her arm to soothe her. She was not going to let these little bastards intimidate or hurt her future mother-in-law.
“We don’t have any money on us, genius.”
That was true, too. Mrs. Strong had rushed out the house without her purse – or her keys for that matter which is why Winston gave her his set. While Avery, knowing she would be returning, left everything back with Winston at the store.
She held out her free arm to show she was carrying no purse, no bag, and if they thought she could fit anything else into her tight, tight skinny jeans that almost made Winston’s eyes pop out of his head, they were even stupider than she first thought.
Not possible sneered her beast.
“Don’t lie, bitch.”
Mrs. Strong clucked her tongue in disapproval but didn’t say anything. Clearly, they weren’t very good shifters. Otherwise, they would have sensed that Avery was telling the truth. Though, she could be quite a good liar. Perhaps their animals weren’t very strong. Perhaps they didn’t realize at just what was lurking inside Avery waiting to pounce.
Avery curled her upper lip, allowing a fang to show. Her body shimmered as if she was about to shift.
“Drop the knife,” she said in a very friendly voice, as if she was trying to lull her prey to just walk into her jaws, “and I’ll let you keep most of your teeth.”
Not, I’ll let you go. Not, I won’t hurt you. No, they had given up the right to get out of this unscathed the moment they dared upset Winston’s mom.
“Fuck, she’s a fucking lion, you stupid fucker!” hissed the young male who had stopped trying to sneak up on them and was now considering options for fleeing.
“Language!” admonished Mrs. Strong putting a bit of a growl into it.
“And she’s a fucking wolf!”
Avery rolled her eyes at Mrs. Strong, and she grimaced in return.
“Now, why don’t we…”
Her lioness started purring a moment before she heard the achingly familiar voice.
“Never fear, Wolfman is here!”
Avery wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or excited as Wolfman made his entrance. Though, perhaps, they needed to work on his superhero patter. Never mind veering into corny, His superhero spiel had thrown itself off the corny bridge and landed into the clichéd river.
“Fuck this!” snarled the second young man.
He tried to run, and pushed Wolfman away as he did. Given his running start, he did make Wolfman stagger a little, but then the young idiot managed to trip over Wolfman’s cape. This sent him careening to the ground, and he knocked himself out cold.
The other young shifter, the one holding the knife, barely even blinked before Avery was in front of him. She gripped his wrist, twisting it until he dropped the knife, and then she knocked him cold. She wasn’t a particularly vindictive person; she did let him keep most of his teeth on this occasion. Most of them.
Her lioness huffed as he crumpled to the ground. Barely even worth waking up for. Though there was one thing worth it…
She couldn’t help the dreamy sigh as Wolfman strode towards them. His usual costume had been shredded, so he was currently in black trousers, black sweater, a mask clearly taken from a Batman costume, and he appeared to be using an inexpertly dyed black sheet as a cape, but he was still breathtaking.
“Winnie?”
Mrs. Strong blinked at him, and Wolfman stopped in his tracks, a horrified look clearly on his face.
“What? No, I’m…”
“Winnie!” exclaimed his mom. “What are you doing? Are you… Don’t tell me you’ve been Wolfman all this time.”
Avery pressed her lips together to stop herself from, oh, bursting into laughter.
Winston grumbled and pulled his mask off. “How did you know it was me? Did you tell her?” He asked Avery grumpily.
Avery held up her hands. “Not a word.”
His mom gave him a look similar to the one Avery gave him when he first took off his mask for her, and then she threw back her head and laughed. He grunted in annoyance.
“Oh, Winnie, that’s clearly your voice, your face and your slouching posture.”
He stood up a little straighter, and Avery couldn’t help the snort of amusement that escaped her. He frowned at her before returning his attention to his mom.
“I can’t believe it,” she muttered looking him up and down.
Avery wanted to point out that usually, he looked a lot more impressive – he was just having a little costume issue at that moment, but she decided to keep quiet. They were kind of waiting for his mom to explode in a fit of over-protectiveness. Besides, he still looked cute, bed sheet and all.
“You’re Wolfman,” she murmured.
“Look, Mom…”
“Isn’t it dangerous?” she asked him with wild eyes.
“Mom, I can take care of myself.”
Avery cleared her throat and gave him a steely glare.
“Most of the time,” he added. “And for those other times, I have Avery.”
He smiled and held out his hand to her. Oh, that wasn’t nearly good enough. Avery wrapped herself around him like an octopus and, in deference to his mom, just kissed his cheek. Her lioness was pushing for a long lick along his neck, but no, later.
His mom stared at him, and he shuffled his feet. Avery didn’t know the woman, but apparently, this wasn’t her usual reaction when she found him doing anything that could result in injury. Apparently, when he was younger, she had even wanted him to wear gloves when handling comic books – lest he get a papercut.
“Oh, Winnie!” exclaimed his mom and pulled him down for a hug.
Her lioness yowled in objection, but Avery let him go… for the time being. He was allowed to hug his mom. But only his mom. There would be no hugging of other ladies, that was for darn sure.
“I’m so proud of you,” gushed Mrs. Strong.
“Wha… what?”
Avery propped him up as he staggered. Evidently, the shock of her being proud of him was making him weak in the knees.
“You’re proud of me for being Wolfman?”
His mom pulled back and glowered at him. This seemed to relax him. Clearly, this was much more the reaction he was expecting.
“Of course, not. But I’m proud that you’ve managed to find a mate who will take care of you.”
Avery snickered behind her hand.
Winston frowned, uncertain whether he should be offended or not.
His mom beamed. “I’m proud of you for finding a female so much like me.”
It was Winston’s turn to snicker while Avery froze, thinking of all the horror stories Winston had told her about his mom. Did she really think they were so alike? But as she looked down at Mrs. Strong’s happy smile, and then at Winston’s nearly bursting with laughter grin, she decided she would let it go. After all, the woman had raised Winston to be the man he was – she really couldn’t be as bad as Winston suggested. Avery decided to take it as a compliment. Without his mom, Winston wouldn’t be there, so Avery decided to be grateful.
Her beast snorted, but Avery just gave the now teary Mrs. Strong a hug. She reflected that one quick mugging had done what it would have probably taken her months to do – namely get into Mrs. Strong’s good books.
Plus, it didn’t help that the next words she said wiped the mirth right off his face.
“Winnie, is that one of my best sheets?!”
There will be blood, chuckled her lioness.