My car crunched over the gravel driveway of my parent’s colonial mansion. I’d spent all of my childhood behind those walls, yet now, it felt alien to me, and the nervous knot in my stomach was testament to the person my dad had become over the years.

He’d been so desperate to keep me from being with Max that paying his family off had seemed like a viable option at the time. I just didn’t know how I was going to explain to him that now I was about to run away to the city with the one person he’d tried so hard to keep me from.

I took a deep breath at the door and put my key into my pocket. I could have opened it myself and gone in, but somehow, with the news I was about to break to them, letting myself in seemed too informal.

Their housekeeper opened it, and when she saw me, her face lit up and then clouded over instantly.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice a raspy hiss.

“Is my dad in? I have to speak to him.”

She shook her head, looking at me with disdain.

“He’s here, but word has got back to him about Max.”

“Max? What about him?”

She wouldn’t move from my path, and I sighed. I’d grown up around Marie. She’d looked after me back in the day when my parents had been too busy to notice my brother and me. She’d even spent hazy afternoons entertaining my cousins while the adults went out to change. She was part of us, part of our kind, and it was clear by the look on her face that I’d offended her too.

“You’ve got some nerve coming back here,” she whispered, closing the door behind her slightly. “When Faye told your father, he had to go into the woods for the whole night. It took him all morning to change back to his human form. He’s still angry. I don’t…”

“Mary? Is there a problem? Who are you talking to?”

I heard the soft silkiness of my mother’s voice as she came up behind Mary and opened the door wider.

“Lewis?”

The surprise on her face was apparent, and I knew I could always count on her to not turn on me.

“I need to speak to Dad,” I said to her, stepping past Mary into the large entrance hall. “I have to explain everything.”

She looked concerned and glanced behind her.

“He’s in the study,” she whispered. “Your uncle only just left, and he’s in a terrible mood. Promise me if he starts to change, you’ll just get out and lock the door.”

“Mom…”

“Promise me!” she pressed, squeezing my arm. I nodded and left her side, making my way down the hall. I saw his room ahead, and I felt the sick feeling in my stomach.

On the drive over, with images of a soaking wet and soapy Max in my head, I’d planned to go in there and lay it all out. No small talk and no beating around the bush. I wanted to tell him what I was doing, not ask him, but now I was actually there, the fear took over. I didn’t even know how to start the conversation with him.

I lifted a hand to knock, but he must have sensed me there, as I heard his deep booming voice from where I was standing.

“Come in!” he directed.

I gingerly opened the door and stepped inside. He was standing by the window with his back to me and a glass of something strong in his hand. I noticed on the table he had a box of herbal tea, something the wise ones always said to drink when you were faced with transformation headaches. He was suffering, I knew that, and part of me regretted that I’d put him through so much stress and hassle. From just after he’d shipped Max away until only a few days ago, I’d been the model son. I’d followed him around, ready to take over the town duties from him. We’d spent early mornings on the mountains as the sun rose patrolling the area. His life was what I’d wanted. I’d wanted to be in charge of Grayson. I had wanted to do as every other male wolf before me in our family had done and take over, but now things were different. Now Max was back, and I wanted him. I wanted to wander through new areas in a new city with him holding my hand. I wanted to experience what it was like waking up every morning to someone you loved beyond all measure. I wanted to live and exist outside Grayson. I wanted a new start.

“Sir?”

He hesitated for a moment before turning, the grey eyes he was so well known for looking me up and down.

“So, you’ve come to defend yourself?” he asked, turning back to the window.

I closed the door behind me, remembering my plan and going over it in my head.

“No, actually, I’ve come to tell you some news…”

He snapped his head around to look at me, eyes narrowed, and the alcohol in the glass spilled over the edge. He put it down and shook his hand a few times before taking a few steps towards me.

“What? What is it? Because I’ve been hearing rumors about you, Lewis.”

I took a deep breath, getting all the words ready to say and trying to draw up confidence by thinking of Max naked in the shower, our hands running over each other’s bodies and the feeling of our cocks pressed against each other as I devoured him with kisses.

It was fine. I could say it. Especially knowing that once it was out there, I could go back to Max and we’d leave and get out this godforsaken place.

“Sir,” I said slowly, taking a step back, “I’m in love with Max, and tonight we’re leaving to start over somewhere else and…”

“What?” he asked, slamming his fist down on the table. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”

I shook my head.

“You’re telling me that’s it? You’re throwing away everything you’ve worked hard at and tried to get for a man? For an Omega?”

I looked at his aged, weathered face as he agitatedly ran a hand through his thick hair.

“What about your kind?” he asked eventually. “You’re just going to turn your back on us all? Do you think you’re going to last out there in that fast-paced world? What are you going to do when you can’t contain your energy?”

“They have places I can go. It’s not all built up.”

He laughed, but it wasn’t the easy lighthearted laugh that he usually had. It was sharp and nasty.

“Lewis, you really think people in the city aren’t going to bat an eyelid at a wolf roaming around the streets or the park? You think they won’t tranquilize you immediately and put you up in their research labs?”

“It’s not like that!”

“Isn’t it? According to the rest of the world, our kind mostly died out centuries ago! We’re supposed to be practically extinct. Remember what happened to Jacob?”

“Myths!” I snapped. “That’s all you have!”

I knew what he was talking about. Apparently, many years back, one of the Kinnley brothers left for a better life in the city. The fast pace of life had built up a surge of energy, and he’d changed right there in front of everyone. He’d been immediately locked away in a zoo, and when he turned back to a human, the other wolves killed him instantly in his pen.

As young boys, we’d grown up believing it was just a silly rumor made to make us stay put in Grayson for the rest of our lives and do as our parents told us.

“What do you think they’ll do to us when they find out who we really are?” he asked, lowering the tone of his voice. “Think of your mother. Think about her shut away in some government hold…”

“No one will know.”

“Max will. How long before you have to tell him everything? Do you remember what happened to Faye’s family?”

I knew. How could I forget? Faye had come from a community in a nearby mountain town. Unbeknownst to her, someone had talked, and within days, every last one of them disappeared. They’d gone, and she was the only one left. I understood her desperation to keep our kind alive, but both she and my father had to understand that they couldn’t keep me against my will.

“I’m leaving,” I said, turning back towards the door and opening it.

“Wait,” I heard him say behind me. I looked up at him as he took a large gulp from his glass. “If you go… If you leave Faye for Max, you’ll be making the biggest mistake of your entire life. A human Omega won’t be able to give you what a female wolf shifter can.”

“I know what I’m doing,” I whispered. “I just came to say goodbye and don’t follow me.”

I left the room, and to my surprise, he didn’t come after me. My mother was in the hall, teary-eyed, reaching out for me.

“Don’t go, Lewis,” she said, catching hold of my jacket. I pulled her close to me and held her.

“Listen, I’m going to come back. I promise. Just make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Okay?”

She nodded, and before she could talk me out of it, I ran out through the entrance hall and past Mary without giving her a chance to speak either.

I knew I was doing the right thing for myself; I just had to believe it.