Mack coughed and daintily set his burger down. “Gayest?” That got a nod and a fingertip to nose.
“That’s the one.”
“Yes,” we all replied in unison. “Gayest.”
I snapped my fingers and smiled. “Less competition for you,” I offered.
He didn’t smile, though. “That’s one way to look at it.” Then he sighed. “What about my mother? She’ll be all alone.”
I’d already told him what she’d done to him, but he seemed to accept it, to understand what she was trying to do. Especially now that he saw what it was like to change. The ferocity of it. The danger to it. And what it would be like to have a pack after him, like they were after his father. So I wasn’t pushing him. Like I promised his mother, it would have to be his decision.
“She needs to live her own life,” Mitzy said. “Not prevent you from
