Page 8 of Bone Collector’s Mate

Chapter Six

Rook

I let him play outside. Alone.

In the city, I’d never have let him out on his own. It was too dangerous, even in the neighborhood where we lived. People just didn’t send their kids on their own to the park down the street or let them walk to school alone. Even children a lot older than Benji were accompanied by adults everywhere they went.

I had not been so closely watched as a young one. My parents always seemed so focused on their jobs or their arguments, they didn’t seem to notice me much. Oh, I had meals and clothes and a warm bed, but if I came in late, well after the streetlights went on, I just had to eat dinner cold. They never asked why or chided me if my grades weren’t what they could be. Not that they were ever bad—I always did my best in school where I got positive feedback for hard work. In many ways, teachers filled the role my parents didn’t seem very interested in.

But here, outside of town, where the next house was far away and possibly not even occupied, I was determined to give him more freedom. We were wolves, after all, and living in the city was so confining for our animals and our own instincts. So, I warned him to stay close and went inside to prepare dinner. Never intending to be longer than a few minutes, I spilled a ten-pound bag of flour and a cup of milk on the floor, knocking them with my elbow while making biscuits. The ensuing paste was a mess to clean up, and when I looked up, the sun was low in the sky. Abandoning my gummy floor, I went to the back door to call Benji in. He could sit at the counter and help me with the biscuits.

“Benji! Time to come in.” I expected to see him running toward me or hear him answer, but only the hoot of an early owl replied. “Benji, are you hiding?” I went out and walked the perimeter of the yard, looking under bushes and behind trees. I went around to the front, but there was no sign of him. My first panicky thought was that Adam had found us and taken him, but I quickly quelled that. I had not heard a car or a voice, and my wolf’s reactions every time my ex came near would have had me on alert instantly. He’d never liked Adam, but once Benji came, he hated him. After an incident where I had to force back control before he expressed his feelings with claws and teeth, I made sure never to shift with my ex again. He wasn’t making me happy, but killing him might have been a bridge too far.

So, if not Adam, where? I ran out to the road and looked left and right. Why hadn’t I warned him not to go near the road? I had said to “stay close,” but how vague was that for a three-year-old child? What did he consider close? I’d thought he understood I meant the backyard, but I had not said that. Why didn’t I say that?

And the farther I got from the house, the fainter Benji’s scent got. I didn’t know why. There were a lot of scents like tires and fumes at the roadside, so maybe that was it. But it never happened before.

Deciding to go right, toward town, I started off, calling for Benji and getting more and more frantic. I ran, continuing to yell for him, until I had gone far past where my son might reasonably been able to have gone then spun around and started back even faster, intending to run the other way. As I came to our driveway, I picked up the faintest bit of scent and veered left toward the house.

Benji was too little to be all alone like that. No way! My heart was pounding, my breathing harsh, and my wolf demanding to be free to hunt for him, but that had its own issues. I realized that I could run around all evening and night and not find him. Benji was a city kid who had never been on his own even to go to the mailbox. I hadn’t prepared him for any kind of freedom. And that was on me. If…when I found him, that would change. Not that I’d let him go outside alone until he was much bigger, but he needed to know what to do if he ever found himself on his own for whatever reason.

I swore to high heaven that it would never happen again. I would do better. If only the Goddess would help me now.

When the house came in sight, I sucked in a breath.

There he was on the porch, sitting there in the gathering darkness. I ran harder and faster, only slowing down when I realized I might scare him. A casual stroll was anything but what I really wanted to do.

Approaching the porch, I tried to smile, hoping it didn’t look like a grimace. “Son, where did you go? I’ve been looking for you.”

“I didn’t mean to leave but I lost my glasses and then I lost myself.” He held up the broken glasses.

Oh no. He had just advanced to no strap, at Adam’s suggestion. My ex already had far more than three strikes, but this was one more. “It’s okay, Benji. We will get new ones or these repaired as soon as possible. We’ll try for tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, Papa.”

“So, how did you find your way back?” It could have been so bad. Was there flowing water nearby? A pond. There was for sure a road. Not heavily trafficked but fast.

“A nice man helped me find my glasses and our house. I told him about the trees and the color of our house and the white…the shutters.”

“That was very good.” I took the glasses from him and checked them out. Pretty bad, but the lenses were fine, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’d had to make minor frame repairs. I had his prescription and would order another pair online, but he couldn’t go days without them comfortably.

Mate.

Seems unlikely.

Is. We go to them.

I wanted to do that. To scoop Benji up and run to find my mate. But that was not how the papa business worked. Tonight, I would feed Benji dinner—without biscuits because it was too late to start again on them now—give him a bath, and tuck him in. Tomorrow, we’d see what we could do.

Sometimes being a responsible grown-up was tough.

But Benji was safe, apparently thanks to my mate, and for tonight, I’d be grateful and patient.