Without Reservations

was acting as Bit’s bodyguard, that had made the tension he’d been feeling ease some. But no way in hell was he going to get stuck cooking for company. Fair was fair. He was going to play the but-I-cooked-last-night card and he was going to play it to the hilt.
    He’d run into the kitchen and pulled out the cookbook while still on the phone with Bit. Fifteen minutes later, he was off the phone and he’d made no progress. Every time he settled on a recipe and took out ingredients, he realized he lacked a key item that made up the dish. He shook his head, picked up all the ingredients from the last no-go, stepped over Pita and put them back. They needed to go shopping. They were, apparently, out of everything.
    Chay grabbed the cookbook and strolled to the pantry for one last check.
    Pita bit the leg of his scrubs and started tugging.
    Maybe he could order take out, toss the containers and pretend to have made it. It was a thought. Chay jerked his leg back up next to his other one. “Give it a rest, pup.” The question was, could he pull it off without actually lying to Bit? Nah, probably not. Chay sighed and flipped through the book again.
    It appeared as though he had everything for the recipe on the second to last page. He couldn’t pronounce it, but it looked edible. He reached for the flour when the sound of a car brought him up short. “Crap.” Out of time. Chay grinned, anxious to see his mate. He swooped the growling puppy up and went to the garage to open the door for Bit. He should buy an automatic garage-door opener. A trip to Sears was definitely in order.
    He lifted the door open with one hand and…no Bit. He could have sworn he heard a car. Glancing over in front of the house by the curb, he saw John and Mary Carter getting out of their car.
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    J.L. Langley
    “Hi, Chay.” Mary waved and rushed forward.
    John followed her carrying a big box. “Hey, Chayton.”
    “Hey, guys.” Chay motioned to them to come on through the garage.
    “I thought you were Keaton. What brings the two of you out this way?”
    Mary hugged him. “We brought you and Keaton some things,” she said, petting Pita’s head. Beating Chay to death with his tail, the mutt ate the attention up.
    Chay’s eyebrow shot up as he closed the garage door. “What kind of things?”
    They trailed behind him into the kitchen, almost tripping over the excited puppy.
    Mary smiled and patted his arm. “We wanted to do something nice.
    You being newly mated and all.”
    John set the box on the kitchen table.
    Chay grinned. Apparently, he wasn’t going to have to tell anyone about him and Bit. It would seem his dad had taken care of it.
    Mary dug into the box, pulled out a smaller white box and set it on the table. “I brought you guys a cake, and some towels and a fruit basket.”
    John shook his head, grinning, as Mary continued to pull things out of the box. “We figured there wasn’t likely to be a wedding. And all new couples deserve gifts, so we brought a few things. I tried to talk her out of the fruit basket.”
    Mary snorted. “Yes, he did. He said I should get a meat tray.”
    Oh wow. How cool was that? Chay chuckled. “Mary we are wolves,”
    he joked. “Thanks, guys. I can’t believe you did this.”
    John slapped him on the shoulder. “Your father is one of my oldest friends and my Beta. You didn’t think we’d just ignore the fact that you finally found your mate, did you?”
    Chay shrugged. “Well considering… Yeah, I guessed it would pretty much go unnoticed or unacknowledged anyway.”
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    Without Reservations
    “Nonsense.” Kissing his cheek, Mary continued, “Everyone who knows you knows you’ve always wanted a mate. So what if your mate’s not quite what we all expected. He seems like a nice young man and you are obviously happy, so we are too.”
    Man. Hugging Mary back, Chay grinned. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome,” they chorused.
    John leaned against the table, suddenly looking serious. “I’m sorry your mother isn’t taking it well. Rest assured you’ll get no grief from the pack. This isn’t unheard of. I know of two other similar cases. A friend of mine in Texas is mated to another wolf. He’s actually married and he, his mate and his wife are all quite happy together. They have four kids between them and when I talked to Emilio last, he and Michael had two grandsons and another grandchild on the way.”
    Chay cleared