starting to think Lina had a crush on my boyfriend.
The grits had begun to thicken as I stirred, so I turned the heat down and removed the spoon, going to one fridge to collect the butter and garlic, then getting paprika from the pantry. It was all a stall tactic to keep from talking about things with Cash, but it didn’t matter how long I put it off, Lina would circle back around again like a hungry vulture.
“He’s been really busy with school, and it’s making him kind of a grouchy dick,” I announced finally.
In spite of my being twenty-one, I half-expected Lina to scold me for my language. When she didn’t smack me with a spatula, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Is he still treatin’ you good?”
“Good enough. He isn’t being mean to me or anything. Just aloof and short-tempered. I don’t think all this recent werewolf media attention is helping.”
Lina made a thoughtful mumbling sound. “You think he’s bothered by it?”
“I’m not sure.” I sliced cubes of butter into the thickened grits and seasoned them with some nearby Australian pink river salt. Only the best ingredients in Lina’s kitchen. As I was stirring in the paprika, I said, “I think me being a public figure bothers him. We used to joke about the whole princess thing a lot, make fun of it. But I think he’s started to realize I am a princess and the whole world knows it.” Returning the butter to the fridge, I grabbed some aged white cheddar and found the cheese grater on a hook next to the island.
“He doesn’t like that you’re powerful?”
I grated a healthy dose of cheese into the pot, more than she normally might, but I liked my grits cheesy. Sometimes when I made them in the city I’d cheat and use Velveeta because I liked how smooth it was, and I secretly thought grating was a pain in the ass.
“I think he didn’t know what he was signing up for when he started dating a werewolf. Now he’s learning what it really entails, and he’s not such a big fan of having an exotic supernatural girlfriend.” I bit my lip. This was the first time I’d said what I was feeling out loud, and voicing my concerns felt like a betrayal to Cash.
“Maybe he’s under a lot of stress. With law school.” Lina was playing devil’s advocate. She would probably never tell me outright to end things with Cash, especially considering how long he and I had been living in sin together. I think she was hoping we’d get married and she’d be able to babysit our adorable mixed-race, potentially werewolf children.
That was something he and I had never discussed. He’d teased me a few times about the idea of getting married, but we hadn’t once had a serious sit-down discussion about it. I knew he wanted kids since he was from a big family, and I did too, but if we ever planned on having any, we’d need to talk about the possibility of them having werewolf genetic markers.
Not just anyone could be turned into a wolf, in spite of what horror movies had led the world to believe. A person needed to meet certain genetic requirements in order for them to become a werewolf after being bitten by one. Children with two werewolf parents were guaranteed to carry the DNA, but it wasn’t always a sure bet with only one parent. It happened more often than not, but not in every case. Rarer still were the outliers, the people with no werewolf family connections at all who carried the right DNA. Those ones were the odd cases who became weres after being bitten by a rogue, or by accident.
I wondered if Cash understood the likelihood that our kids would have my werewolf genes. And if they did, I wanted them to be a part of the pack. The choice would ultimately be theirs, that was how the Awakening ceremony worked, but I would never deny them the opportunity to be a part of this world I loved so much.
Realizing I’d been ignoring the grits, I quickly turned the heat to its minimum setting and stirred the thick light yellow mash until all the cheese
The grits had begun to thicken as I stirred, so I turned the heat down and removed the spoon, going to one fridge to collect the butter and garlic, then getting paprika from the pantry. It was all a stall tactic to keep from talking about things with Cash, but it didn’t matter how long I put it off, Lina would circle back around again like a hungry vulture.
“He’s been really busy with school, and it’s making him kind of a grouchy dick,” I announced finally.
In spite of my being twenty-one, I half-expected Lina to scold me for my language. When she didn’t smack me with a spatula, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Is he still treatin’ you good?”
“Good enough. He isn’t being mean to me or anything. Just aloof and short-tempered. I don’t think all this recent werewolf media attention is helping.”
Lina made a thoughtful mumbling sound. “You think he’s bothered by it?”
“I’m not sure.” I sliced cubes of butter into the thickened grits and seasoned them with some nearby Australian pink river salt. Only the best ingredients in Lina’s kitchen. As I was stirring in the paprika, I said, “I think me being a public figure bothers him. We used to joke about the whole princess thing a lot, make fun of it. But I think he’s started to realize I am a princess and the whole world knows it.” Returning the butter to the fridge, I grabbed some aged white cheddar and found the cheese grater on a hook next to the island.
“He doesn’t like that you’re powerful?”
I grated a healthy dose of cheese into the pot, more than she normally might, but I liked my grits cheesy. Sometimes when I made them in the city I’d cheat and use Velveeta because I liked how smooth it was, and I secretly thought grating was a pain in the ass.
“I think he didn’t know what he was signing up for when he started dating a werewolf. Now he’s learning what it really entails, and he’s not such a big fan of having an exotic supernatural girlfriend.” I bit my lip. This was the first time I’d said what I was feeling out loud, and voicing my concerns felt like a betrayal to Cash.
“Maybe he’s under a lot of stress. With law school.” Lina was playing devil’s advocate. She would probably never tell me outright to end things with Cash, especially considering how long he and I had been living in sin together. I think she was hoping we’d get married and she’d be able to babysit our adorable mixed-race, potentially werewolf children.
That was something he and I had never discussed. He’d teased me a few times about the idea of getting married, but we hadn’t once had a serious sit-down discussion about it. I knew he wanted kids since he was from a big family, and I did too, but if we ever planned on having any, we’d need to talk about the possibility of them having werewolf genetic markers.
Not just anyone could be turned into a wolf, in spite of what horror movies had led the world to believe. A person needed to meet certain genetic requirements in order for them to become a werewolf after being bitten by one. Children with two werewolf parents were guaranteed to carry the DNA, but it wasn’t always a sure bet with only one parent. It happened more often than not, but not in every case. Rarer still were the outliers, the people with no werewolf family connections at all who carried the right DNA. Those ones were the odd cases who became weres after being bitten by a rogue, or by accident.
I wondered if Cash understood the likelihood that our kids would have my werewolf genes. And if they did, I wanted them to be a part of the pack. The choice would ultimately be theirs, that was how the Awakening ceremony worked, but I would never deny them the opportunity to be a part of this world I loved so much.
Realizing I’d been ignoring the grits, I quickly turned the heat to its minimum setting and stirred the thick light yellow mash until all the cheese
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