My Shifter Boss

“Oh god, yes,” he replied. He cut off a hunk and shoved it in his mouth, closing his eyes in ecstasy. “This is almost as good as making love to you, Lucy.”

She playfully slapped his arm, pretending offense at his remark. “Jerk.”

“Love you, honey,” he replied with a wink.

She rolled her eyes at him. “So what about Marissa?”

“We’re doing what we can to find her. All the council members have agreed to put the word out that we’re trying to find her, as if it’s some big secret. They’re worried about her threat to start this new group. That’s why they agreed to get the nominations so quickly.”

“Does she have a chance of being successful?”

Nathan mused over her question as he chewed his pancakes. “You know, I’m not really sure. Is it possible? Yes, if we can’t get the Guard under control quickly enough to assuage the weres and the humans fears about all this nonsense.”

Lucy opened her mouth to reply when there was a knock on the door. They looked at each other. “Are you expecting someone?”

Nathan shook his head as he rose. “Nope, but now that I’m acting Head, who knows what this might be.” As he walked to his bedroom to grab some pants, he called, “Be right there!”

Lucy followed him and put his robe on. She walked back to the kitchen as he answered the door. She sat down to eat her pancakes when she heard a familiar voice. She jerked up from the table and hastily moved into the living room.

“Mom!” she gasped. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Nathan stepped back and let Maryann into the apartment. “And what’s more, how the hell did you know your daughter was in my apartment?”

Maryann arched an eyebrow at her daughter, then at this man. “My question is, what are you doing in this man’s apartment in that state of undress?”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Mother, really? That’s why you’re here. Because I’m having s*x with my boyfriend?”

Maryann smiled. “Oh dear, I’m happy for you. But really, you could have dressed.”

“It’s 7:30! I had no idea you were coming,” Lucy defended, then shook her head. “Wait! How the hell did you know I was even here? All I told you about Nathan was his name!”

Maryann moved further into the room and looked around. Nathan had stepped back and was leaning against the bar, watching the conversation with interest.

“All I needed, dear. All I needed.” She looked back at Lucy as she sat gingerly on the couch. “Just because I was banished from this fair city doesn’t mean I didn’t retain my friends here. I have plenty of sources telling me what I need to know.”

“Fantastic,” Lucy said dryly. She looked at Nathan, who smiled and shrugged. Lucy’s shoulder drooped. “Mom, this is Nathan, my boyfriend. Nathan, this is my mother, Maryann.”

Nathan moved forward with his hand outstretched to shake hers. “Hello, Maryann. May I call you Maryann? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Of course you may, and it’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” Maryann replied, shaking his hand from her seat on the couch. “Enough with the pleasantries. Lucy, you need to come home.”

Lucy snorted. “Um, ok. You do realize I’m a grown woman and have been making my own decisions for years?”

“Yes. Do you realize the chaos this city is about to be thrown into thanks to that bi*ch Marissa? It could mean war.”

Nathan shook his head. “No ma’am. We’re working hard at the Guard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Now Maryann snorted. “The Guard? If my sources are correct, Marissa was with the Guard when she stirred up all this nonsense. This city is going to be very dangerous for weres if the humans decide the Guard isn’t handling the problem. Lucy would be safer at home.”

“Mom, I took the job at the Guard. I start today, apparently, what with all that’s going on. I don’t need to come home, nor do I plan to.”

“Lucy, you haven’t lived here when there is unrest. Nathan, have you?”

Nathan nodded his head. “Nothing to this extreme, no.”

“Precisely. You do not understand the dangers.” Maryann shifted her gaze to Lucy. “Please at least think about coming for a long visit.”

“I can’t leave right now, Mom,” Lucy answered. She walked to the couch, sat next to her mother, and took her hand. “I belong here now.”

Maryann nodded resignedly. “Dammit. You’re just too much like me.”

Lucy laughed. “Stay here for a few days. We’ll go back to my apartment to stay, don’t worry,” Lucy said when her mother lifted her eyebrows and looked around Nathan’s apartment. “We can hang out, see the sights, blah blah, when I’m not at work.”

“I’d like that, but I have to go to the Guard’s headquarters to ask formal permission to be in the city. I was banished, remember?”

“Currently, I’m acting Head until a new one is elected next week. I can grant you that permission. But we do have to go to the office to make it official,” Nathan explained.

Maryann smiled at him and teased, “I like him already, Lucy. A man with power.”

“Oh good lord, Mother, what about Dad?”

“Harmless flirtation is nothing for your father to worry about.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Let me get dressed and we’ll run to my apartment so I can put on some decent clothes.”

“You mean fresh clothes, don’t you, dear?” her mother inquired.

“Stop pretending you weren’t a sl*t before Dad came along,” Lucy smirked.

“If you were still a child, I’d spank your ass for that little comment. But since you’re an adult, I’ll just make you pay for lunch.”

Lucy laughed as she walked out of the room. “Deal.”

Maryann turned her attention to Nathan, her expression serious. “How much does Marissa hate my daughter? I know they fought after she killed the Head and injured Lucy.”

Nathan’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You are well-informed.”

“I may live in the country, but I have always known what’s happening here,” Maryann assured him. “How dangerous is Marissa?”

“Specifically to Lucy? Not very. But in general? Incredibly dangerous. She’s even more dangerous because she has many weres who think she’s right.”

“What exactly does she want?”

“Why do I get the feeling you know the answer to that question already?”

Maryann grinned conspiratorially. “Because I do. But I want to hear what you have to say?”

Nathan narrowed his eyes at her. The woman would be a dangerous enemy; the perfect person to fight against Marissa, in his opinion. An idea was forming in his mind. But he put it away and answered her. “Marissa wants a city that is filled with only weres, completely devoid of any humans.”

Maryann nodded, her lips pursed in thought. “Yes, that is what I heard. Nathan, I’d like to talk with you about this later.”

Nathan smiled at her as Lucy walked out of the bedroom, dressed and ready to go. “I’d like that, Maryann.”

“You’d like what?” Lucy asked, looking from her boyfriend to her mother.

“You’re mother wants to join us at the Head’s funeral this afternoon. After, we’ll go to dinner to raise a toast in his honor.”

Maryann’s expression hadn’t changed when Nathan included her in plans they hadn’t made, something Nathan noted. She smiled at her daughter. “I hope that’s ok with you?”

“Yes, Mom! That way you and Nathan can get to know each other,” Lucy exclaimed. “But did you even know the Head?”

“Actually, yes. He and I were friends. He tried to help me when the former Head banished me. It didn’t work, but my life was better in the country anyway.”

“Then it’s settled.” Lucy leaned into Nathan and kissed him chastely on the lips. “We’ll meet you at the office then.”

“I’ll see you there. Love you,” he murmured to her. “Maryann, it was nice to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you better.”

Maryann smiled. “You too, Nathan.”