“This whole time?” she asks, the shock plain in her voice.
I’d shrug, but my focus is back on the kids—on their jerky. “Thankfully, it’s never come up. I wait til the dominants are done eating their portions, and I eat what you guys leave, and nobody ever tries to take my food or take back theirs once they’ve given their plates to me. No casualties,” I add as a joke. Obviously, I’d never harm Susan’s brood, but it would be difficult to hand off food if I thought it was mine.
There’s only one person I’d share my food with. Without moving my eyes to hers, I hold out my jerky flake. “Here. Try it. You can have half.”
There’s a pause. “You’ll give me half. The whole half?”
I slide my eyes in her direction, but quickly snap them back to the kids when I catch a wobble out of the corner of my vision. It’s Liam taking a tumble—but thankfully he’s not hurt, and lucky for him, he kept his jerky clutched tightly in his hands. Smart man. “I’ll split half my portion with my mate,” I tell Susan.
“What about the kids?” she asks.
I gesture to the room. “I make sure the kids are fed first.”
“You know, I keep thinking I have werewolves figured out, but then I learn something new and weird about you guys.” Her fingers close again on my jerky, and she tugs it, just a little.
I keep my grip on it, my hand following.
“Lucan!” she laughs.
“You can have your half,” I insist. “But Susan, I’m not letting it go.”
“Oh my land, you can’t be serious!” she cries, still laughing.
My eyes leave the kids and swing to hers. “I’m a werewolf. I never joke about meat.”
Susan holds my gaze as she leans in close—
And drags her tongue slowly and provocatively along the meat in question.
My eyes narrow. “Change of plans. You’re going to have to wait to share this,” I inform her.
Her eyes dance. “Oh?”
“This is not the place or the audience where you can lick anything in front of me, it turns out. Least of all my meat.”
She chokes on a laugh.
Chessa calls out, “Kennedy, watch it, you’re about to drop—”
Pint-sized growls erupt. I leave Susan’s side so fast she’s probably spinning. But before I wade in to break up the shifter brawl of tots with Chessa, I pressed my jerky into Susan’s hands for safekeeping. Because she’s my mate, and I trust her.
When I’ve got three kids scruffed between both my hands, I spare Susan a glance, and find her smiling wistfully at me, her heart in her eyes, and my jerky held carefully between her fingers.
“I love you,” I call to her.
She holds up the jerky square and grins. “Lucan, I believe you.”
CHAPTER 49
SUSAN
Lucan and Chessa herd everyone back upstairs to join their families. I’m glad I snuck down to watch him teach. Lucan is so good with kids. He’s playful, he’s thoughtful, he leads them by excellent level-headed example, even when half the class erupts into wolf and various shifter forms and tries to rob each other of jerky. I run my hand down Lucan’s back as I pass him, earning a lycanthrope purr (a male sound of satisfaction I got well acquainted with last night), and quietly move to our pew, following Maggie.
Lucan is right behind me. His broad hand makes contact with my lower spine, and stays there, causing a warmth to radiate through my whole body as we rejoin Charlotte and Ginny, who I left with Finn, Jenn, and Dave.
My girls eye us speculatively from the pew, and Finn is smiling—not smugly, just happily, which is nice. He also moves to stand, politely offering us an alternative to clearing his knees like Olympic pommel horses or hurdles. Liam goes in first, then Maggie, then me, squeezing past Ginny and Charlotte, our usual seating order. The only thing different this time is that Lucan is with us, bringing up the caboose of our train. There’s no room for him on the pew—or there wouldn’t be—but Finn gives him the end seat, leaving us for the choir box where he’ll lead the final song.
“Psst,” Ginny whispers to me. “Switch spots with us.”
My brows furrow, distracted—but then I see her and Charlotte’s gleeful faces, and I give them a wry grin. “Thanks. Lucan and I appreciate it.” I stand, and Ginny and Charlotte scooch behind me, sliding next to Maggie, leaving me the perfect spot.