“Seems like a lot of work,” he said with a frown as some wolf got thrown into a tree by the sound of it.
“It is,” I assured him.
“I made out with a guy, though,” he said.
“What? When?”
“At this… thing. I don’t even know. Then there was this girl. I don’t know if that counted, though. She just… put her tongue on my face. Like, near my nose.”
“Okay?”
“Is it bad to be twenty-one and not have had sex?”
“Uh… no? Why are you asking me?”
He stared at me. “You’re the future mate of the future Alpha. You have to answer questions like this.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. It’s, like, your job.”
“Oh. No one told me?”
“What did you think you’d be doing?”
“Honestly? I’m not really sure. This was all kind of… sudden.”
“When you got a boner for Joe?” he asked sympathetically.
“Oh my god.”
“So you have to give advice and stuff. Help the pack when we have problems. It’s what Mom does. It’s what she did too. When the pack was bigger.”
“I’m not your mom.”
He dismissed that with a wave of his hand. “Might as well be.” His mouth twitched. “Or something like it. Dad?”
“I will make sure you never get laid.”
He shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll happen when I’m ready.”
I nodded. “And not a day before. Don’t let anyone pressure you into anything.”
He grinned. “Thanks, Dad.”
I took a breath to stop from punching his face. He would have healed from it while I walked away with a broken hand anyway. “Okay. I’m not very good at talking. Or advice. Or much else.” Because if he needed it, if they needed me, then I’d do what I could.
“You do okay.”
I smiled at him. “Yeah?”
“Except for the part where you made out with Carter before Joe has ever gotten to tap that.”
Wolves snarled somewhere in the forest. I said, “That’s just swell.”
“JOE’S TAKING me out on a date,” I told Mom because I told her everything now. It seemed easier that way.
She said, “Oh? Where?”