With Abandon: With or Without, Book 4

Matt glanced at his mate, Aubrey gave him a little nod and an encouraging quirk of his lips.
    “So, Matt, what are you going to do with a criminal-justice degree?” Howard asked. “Any specific
    plans? Keaton said you worked for Jake. Are you wanting to be a PI?” As before, his tone and the fond
    look served to ease Matt’s worries.
    “I want to be a police officer.”
    “Matt wants to be a homicide detective,” Aubrey said.

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    Using the toe of his shoe, Matt rubbed it against Aubrey’s leg and smiled.
    Aubrey frowned and shook his head, then seemed to notice he was doing it and hurried to take a bite
    of his mashed potatoes.
    Howard took a drink, studying both of them. When he noticed Matt looking, he grinned. “Why
    homicide? Won’t that be tough with the blood and stuff? Being a wolf, I mean.”
    Matt shrugged. “I’m pretty good at controlling my wolf tendencies.” He just wanted to catch bad guys
    and help people. Murderers were the baddest of the bad.
    Thompson leaned back in his chair a little, stretching his arm around the back of his wife’s chair.
    Martha’s husband was her exact opposite in everything but temperament. He was a huge white man with a
    bit of a beer belly. He looked like a biker, bald head and all. “I think it’s an admirable profession. Our sonin-law David is on the Macon SWAT team.”
    “Being a cop is dangerous work.” Aubrey waved his fork. “But at least in homicide Matt isn’t likely
    to get shot at.”
    “He’s a wolf, for crying out loud,” Martha offered.
    “A bullet to the head can kill even a wolf. I don’t want— Never mind.” Aubrey’s voice was clipped,
    then he clammed up and concentrated on his dinner.
    Howard cleared his throat. “Matt, how is your family? Have you talked to them since you’ve been in
    Atlanta?”
    Matt finished his bite of food and nodded. “I talked to my brother Logan just this afternoon. He says
    there is a cooties outbreak at Darren’s school. Darren just started pre-kindergarten and a girl kissed him at school yesterday. Now he has a case of girl cooties. He wanted to stay home this morning.”
    Everyone chuckled.
    Thompson shrugged. “Sounds reasonable to me. Kids get to stay home for chicken pox, why not
    cooties?”
    Matt nodded. “Unfortunately, Dad made him go to school.”
    “That’s just wrong.” Martha grinned. “Doesn’t your father know how contagious cooties are?”
    Howard laughed. “Just give him a few years. He’ll be complaining about the girls not kissing him.”
    “Very true,” Thompson agreed.
    Joanna shook her head. “If he looks like Matt, that won’t be a problem. He’ll have the girls falling all over him.”
    Matt took a drink of his tea. He did not want to discuss his sexual orientation. They had a gay son, so that shouldn’t be a big deal, but…yeah he didn’t want to talk about it.
    “Speaking of girls falling all over them…” Joanna gave Aubrey a pointed look. “When am I going to
    get to start planning a wedding?”
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    With Abandon
    Matt tried not to squirm as Aubrey choked on his tea. Talk about being put on the hot seat. Matt
    couldn’t wait till the day they knew he was Aubrey’s mate, but until then…this was a conversation he
    wanted no part of.
    Aubrey composed himself almost immediately. Even his scent didn’t betray him. It was quite
    impressive. His recovery was so swift one might have completely missed his little cough and the strangled breath. He shrugged nonchalantly.
    Howard came to the rescue. “Joanna, leave the boy alone. Don’t rush him.”
    Her eyes widened and she cocked a brow at her husband, but she didn’t appear upset, only surprised.
    After a few seconds, Howard winked and she let it drop and went back to eating.
    The rest of the dinner passed mostly uneventfully.
    As they were getting up from the table, Howard caught Aubrey’s gaze. “Aubrey, go get the pack
    settled and come back. I want to talk to you in my office before we hunt tonight.”
    Nodding, Aubrey turned back toward the door.
    Matt pushed his chair in, ready to follow. A hand landed on his arm, stopping him. He turned, looking
    into Howard’s serious brown eyes, and a knot formed in his stomach. He hadn’t known Howard long, but
    he didn’t need to to read the expression. Matt swallowed hard and tried not to give his nervousness away with his scent.
    “I’d like to have a word with you, Matt.”