Lila ducked her head inside Nana’s bedroom. Her grandmother was fast asleep, and there was the soft sound of her breathing in the room. The moon was full and was casting a nice white glow against the walls. Asleep, Nana looked so peaceful. There was no trace of the illness that was slowly ravaging her mind. It broke Lila’s heart to know that one day, when she and Mason did have kids, Nana might not be around to meet them. If she was still alive, the chances that she would understand what was going on were slim to none.
“Hey,” Mason said from down the hall. “Is she okay?”
Lila nodded and made her way to her boyfriend. That’s what Mason was to her now. Her boyfriend. They were official. If she had any kind of social media presence, she would have made it that kind of official, but she had nothing like that. She preferred to keep her life private, and besides, with the strange ebb and flow of Wi-Fi out here in Half Moon Key, it was better not to have internet or anything like that anyway.
“She is out like a light,” Lila answered as they quietly made their way down the steps.
Misty was still working for Lila, but the caretaker knew she was on thin ice with Lila and Mason. One more disappearing act, and Misty was out of there faster than she could say …I am sorry. She had been dismissed for the evening, given that Lila and Mason were around. Bobbie was running the kitchen with a couple of the kids from town, taking care of Moony’s. It was giving them a much-deserved night off from the diner.
Even with Mason’s help with cooking and admin work and the extra pairs of hands they had hired, it was still a lot of work. She was trying not to get too distracted by the fact that her livelihood was being managed by a bunch of high school kids, but Mason reminded her that it was okay to take a night off every now and again to keep their sanity.
“Remember, when we have kids to worry about, you won’t want to be sitting there, wondering if the customers are happy with their meal. You’re going to want to give all of your time and energy to the kids and me.”
“I love how you’re so sure that we’ll be together for that long.”
“Oh, darling, I know we are in it for the long haul. WhatIcan’t figure out is whyyoustill have doubts.” He grinned to show that he was just joking, but Lila rolled her eyes.
“You ready to tell me why you’re so sure?”
Mason tapped the seat on the couch beside him. There were two glasses of her favorite red wine already poured and waiting for them on the coffee table. There was a little charcuterie board that Mason had prepared for their light dinner. It was one of her favorite things now. Sitting in the living room with Mason, nibbling on light wares with a glass of wine.
“You sure you’re ready to know what I have to say to you? It might be a bit of a shock.”
Lila giggled. “You mean, more of a shock than you being here, in this small town in the middle of nowhere where the electricity and the internet are unstable? Shocked that you haven’t gotten claustrophobic about this little life once?”
He chuckled and sipped his wine. “If I say yes, will you drop it?”
“Not a chance. Tell me all of your secrets, Mason Pierce. You know all of mine.”
“Fine. Just remember that you’re a wonderful woman and that I would never do anything to hurt you. I have never lied to you, Lila. I might have kept things from you for the sake of simplicity and to get to know you.”
“You’re scaring me a little bit,” she admitted. But this was stillherMason. It couldn’t be that bad.
“Don’t be scared. At least, not yet.”
Lila held her breath, but she pretended to take a sip of her wine as Mason turned in his seat to face her.
“I told you that my parents met, and they knew they were destined to be together forever from the second they laid eyes on each other, right?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, well, there’s a special reason for that. It’s got to do with the kind of people that we are.”
“The kind of people you are?”
“We’re not exactly human. Not in the way that you are.”
Lila’s deep pull of her wine got caught in the back of her throat, and she choked. “What?”
“My family has special gifts. We’re shifters. Wolf shifters, to be precise.”
“Wolf? Are you telling me that your family are werewolves?”
“No. We’re something entirely different. We can change into our wolves at will. It also gives us some interesting talents. For example, we have some heightened senses. Hearing, taste, smell. That kind of stuff.”
Lila didn’t know what to say, so she remained quiet and let Mason go on.
“Sometimes, when I’m quiet or when there is something intense happening, I can hear my wolf’s voice in my head. He tells me things. Warns me about things. And a little while ago, he told me something about you.”