Page 7 of Lycans & Lattes

What I didn’t expect from her coming home was how well she’d slotted right back into the community. She’d instantly won over the townsfolk with her coveted apple cider donuts. She’d even started leading the moonlit hunts.

As proud as I was of her, I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of inferiority, like I was even more of a disappointment to our mother by comparison. I hadn’t changed form in nearly four years, and the pressure built every full moon. I was starting to worry that even my deal with a demon wouldn’t keep the change at bay. But if I shifted, I’d be forced to acknowledge what Willow was to me even more keenly, and I’d want to claim her so badly it might kill me.

What was that saying about rocks and hard places?

“Shall I take a little bit more off?” my aunt asked, instantly cooling my heated thoughts.

I rolled my eyes. “No. I like it like this.”

“Like a scruffy twelve-year-old?”

“It looks fine,” I gritted out.

“The pack alpha shouldn’t have this Connor Storrie cut,” Edie said, ruffling my hair.

I glanced up at her through falling clippings. “How do you even know who Connor Storrie is?”

“Hush.” She pushed my chin back into place, but not before I caught the blush on her cheeks. “If you don’t want to look like a golden retriever celebrity, then why are you still wearing it like this?”

“Is this some sort of reverse psychology tactic?”

“It is if you let me give you a proper haircut.”

The stubbornness on my mother’s side of the family was unparalleled.

I gave a heavy sigh, unwavering in one of the only choices I could still make for myself.

To my surprise, she listened and stuck to the maintenance trim I’d requested. “I’m just saying⁠—”

“You’ve been talking with my mother, haven’t you?”

She guffawed. “Every day since I was born.” She patted me on the shoulder. “Listen, it was a big deal when Sandra married a Sullivan. And not just any Sullivan, but the next alpha. Your parents’ betrothal elevated our family’s ranking in the pack and our status in this town. It’s the reason Lulu could get the loan to open this place.”

“I know.”

She ruffled my hair again. “And now Sandra’s son—my nephew—is going to be our pack leader.”

“Not yet,” I bit out.

“I’m going to put your photo on the wall.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Why shouldn’t I be proud? You’re a local celebrity,” she pushed. “And the tourists eat that stuff up, thinking all the paranormals on the wall are just a gimmick. I bet you’ll have your own fan page within a year. The Maple Hollow alpha⁠—”

“Edie—”

“Wyatt,” she lamented as she checked the length of my hair in the back. “Your grandfather is getting up there in age. He needs to retire. Usually, alphas step down by their sixties.”

“I know.”

“And he’s seventy-four.”

Irritation started to claw at my temples.

“I know.”

“You’re a big, strapping man in the prime of your life, Wy. It’s time to step up.”