Without Reservations

Prologue
    “ Brooom brooom… Mommy, if I’m a wolf like daddy, why can’t I change into a wolf?”
    Lena Winston looked up from her mixing bowl and smiled at her only son.
    Chay had a toy car in each hand, his wide brown eyes staring up at her expectantly.
    “Because you haven’t reached puberty yet, Chay.” She went back to stirring the chocolate cake batter.
    Chay made “ brooom brooom ” noises again and the toy cars clicked against the floor. “Mommy, what’s pooberty?”
    Oops , maybe she should have worded that differently. Lena turned, grinning at her mistake. Chayton was the most inquisitive child she’d ever known. Of course, he would ask that. “Umm, it means when you are older. A teenager.”
    His little forehead wrinkled. The four-year-old sat quietly for several seconds then cocked his dark head. “Mommy, when am I going to be a teenager?”
    She set the mixed batter on the counter and dug out a pan from under it. “In about eleven years, when you’re fifteen or so.”
    “But thirteen and fourteen comes before fifteen and they say teen too.
    Won’t I be a teenager when I’m thirteen and fourteen?”
    Lena shook her head and poured the cake mix into the pan. “Chay, you are too smart for your own good. Yes, you will be a teenager then www.samhainpublishing.com 5
    J.L. Langley
    too.” She held out the mixing bowl and spoon toward the little boy. “Do you want to lick the bowl?”
    “Yes, yes, yes.” Chay dropped his cars, jumped to his feet and bounced on his toes. “Yea, I get to lick the bowl, I get to lick the bowl.” He danced in place.
    “Sit on the floor and I’ll give it to you.”
    The little boy sat so fast he practically rebounded when he hit the linoleum. Their dog Roscoe ambled into the kitchen, licked the boy across the cheek and flopped down beside him.
    Lena set it between his outspread legs and handed him the spoon.
    “Try not to make a mess. I’m going to start on dinner while the cake is in the oven.”
    Chay took the big plastic spoon and shoved the whole end of it in his small mouth. Cake mix oozed from the corners of his lips and spread across his nose and cheeks.
    Determining that keeping him clean was a lost cause, she put the cake in the oven and proceeded to the pantry. She brought the spuds to the sink and began rinsing them when she heard slurping or…licking sounds? Without even turning around, Lena knew what was going on.
    “Chayton Montgomery Winston. What have I told you about sharing your food with the dog?”
    “But, Mommy, Roscoe likes to lick the bowl too.”
    “Chay…”
    He sighed. “Oh all right. No more, Roscoe, Mommy says I can’t.”
    Lena heard the dog’s toenails click on the linoleum as he left. She shook her head. The child thought absolutely nothing of letting the dog lick his spoon, and putting it back into his own mouth. Yuck.
    “Mommy?”
    Lena turned the faucet off and dug through the drawer to find her potato peeler. “Yes, Chay?”
    6 www.samhainpublishing.com

    Without Reservations
    “How did you know Daddy was your mate if you aren’t a wolf? Daddy says that wolves know their mates when they meet them.”
    “Well, I didn’t know, but your father did.” She started peeling potatoes. “You see, Chay, because your grandpa Matthew is a wolf, I grew up around wolves. Wolves don’t pick their mates, sweetie. God picks them. But when a wolf meets his mate he knows it. So, when your Daddy told me that I was his mate, I knew he was telling the truth. It was my destiny to be with him.” Lena smiled, thinking about her husband Joseph.
    “Mommy, my mate will have hair like the sun and eyes like the sky.
    He will be like a prince.”
    “She. And it’s a princess, honey, not prince,” Lena corrected automatically. Then what he said about hair and eyes sank in. She felt like someone sucker punched her. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he was a child and didn’t know any better. “No, Chay. Your mate will be one of our people, not a white woman. She will have long beautiful black hair, brown eyes and lovely tanned skin. She may not be Apache, like I’m not—I’m Lakota—but she’ll be one of us.”
    The spoon scraped the sides of the bowl a few more times. “But you said we don’t pick our mates, God does. How do you know that my mate won’t have hair like sunshine and eyes like the sky?”
    Lena rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Because God wouldn’t do that to us Chay.” She finished