(Jason POV)My heart drops when I see that Candy is no longer standing there. Where did she go?I follow her scent to the parking lot, where I see her walking to her car.“Candy!!!” I shout.I see her hesitate, but she doesn’t turn around.“Candy!!!” I yell out again, hurrying as quickly as I can to catch her.She still doesn’t turn around, but at least she isn’t getting into her car. Finally, I reach her. “Candy!” I say in a softer voice. I reach out and grab her gently on her arm, and I feel powerful sparks shoot through me.“Go away, Jason,” she says softly, still not turning around.“Candy, please,” I beg. My heart is pounding inside of my chest. I can already feel the power of the connection between us. My wolf is right; I cannot let her go. “Candy….”*****(Candy POV)As soon as I heard Jason call my name, the single tear running down my cheek became a river of tears. Everything in me wants to turn around and face him, but I do not want Jason to see me crying. Instead,
(Aaron POV) After almost three years of planning, rescheduling, and planning again, my father and Josephine are finally married. All things considered, I think today’s event went perfectly. The ceremony was beautiful, the dinner was delicious, we made some good connections with wedding guests from other packs, and we even got some free entertainment in the form of Jason finding his second-chance mate. Once my father and Josephine said their good-byes to the guests, and once Cassie’s family turned in for the night, I was ready to do the same. I swept my beautiful bride off of her feet and I started to carry her, giggling, back to the packhouse and to our room. Unfortunately, just before I made it out of the reception area, Jason came running in. “Aaron!!! Aaron, where is Josephine?” he asked me. “She’s with my father.” “Where?” I looked at him annoyed. “Jason, it’s their wedding night. Where do you think they are?” “I need to find Josephine,” Jason responded frantically.
***TRIGGER WARNING*** I promised that the next few chapters would introduce some humor, and it is definitely coming in healthy doses! However, this chapter will also touch on unwed mothers and suicide, which is a necessary part of the story. I have flagged the section of the chapter that deals with this; please feel free to read the first part of this chapter (the Granny Apple section) and then skip the rest. ****** (Candy POV) My grandmother – Granny Apple—is here. I am relieved and happy. She always seems to know when I need her. When everything happened at my original pack, she was the only person in my family who trusted and supported me. To this day, I think that she is the only person in my family who even cares to know that I am alive and well. Granny Apple is a force of nature. She is 79 years old, going on 19. She married my grandfather at age 18, and went on to have nine children including my father before she turned 27. All nine of her children were boys, meanin
(Cassie POV) On Tuesday morning, I groggily rolled over in bed, only to find my husband already awake and staring at me. “Good morning, Luna,” he said, smiling. “Good morning, Alpha,” I smiled back. “What time are we leaving for the lake?” “Eh, we probably need to head out in about an hour. If we don’t get there early enough, I’m afraid Josephine will insist on decorating the picnic site with rhinestones and feathers.” I laughed. “I’m going to miss her and your dad, you know.” “I will, too. But they promised that they will spend at least six days a month here at Blue Moon, so we should still be able to see them fairly frequently. Did you get a hold of Candy yesterday?” “Yes, although I wasn’t able to get a good read on her. She didn’t say anything about Jason at all. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.” “Is she still going to come today?” “She said yes. In fact, she told me that she is bringing her grandmother, Granny Apple.” Aaron raised his eyebrows
(Candy POV)Well, that was an interesting way to introduce Jason to my grandmother.Leave it to Granny Apple, though; she does not do awkward. At her age, and with her spunk, there is no such thing as a taboo subject in her mind. She would rather you just lay it all out there and deal with it.So that is what we did. Or rather, what she did. Instead of letting me run --which I desperately wanted to do after seeing my mate get an obvious hard-on for his first mate-- Granny Nanny made me stay. Without Granny Nanny, I would have expected my insecurities to get in the way of a productive conversation with Jason, but Granny Apple was determined to not let that happen. After berating Jason, she turned to me. She told me that she had seen more than her fair share of penises, and that "an erection is a male body's natural reaction to stimuli" (yes, she really did use those words). She said I could no more blame a sex-starved man for "getting it up" than I could blame a man for farting o
(Jason POV)I went home on Tuesday a very happy man. Even my parents’ request that we sit down and talk about the visuals that Jake has been sending me did little to ruin my mood.On Wednesday, I decided to send Candy a bouquet of flowers. I did not know her address, so I sent them to her at work. Jake and I agreed that we wanted to avoid doing things the same way that we had done them with Cassie, so instead of sending a bouquet of traditional roses, we opted for a bouquet of pink and white rose lilies. I was surprised and a little disappointed when Candy did not text or call me after they were delivered, but I did not dwell on it. I just assumed that she was either really busy or her work schedule had changed.On Thursday, I knew Candy was planning to get off work at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Based on that, I had originally planned to meet her at a restaurant nearby the boutique. However, she texted me Thursday morning to let me know that she was getting off of work a littl
(Cassie POV)I have been having the best time tonight hanging out with Granny Apple. We have been laughing and drinking and eating and telling stories the whole time Candy and Jason have been gone. I am practically ready to beg Granny Apple to adopt me. This woman has had so many experiences and lived so much life; I just cannot get enough.The best part of Granny Apple is that she isn’t just wise; she is a little crazy too. It’s a “fun” crazy… the kind where you may not always agree with the opinions the other person has, but you cannot help but enjoy them anyway. For example, she told me that all of the underwear in her closet is white because she refuses to wear colored underwear. She is convinced that the dyes in colored underwear will turn her vagina different colors, and “men don’t like a rainbow down below.” I do not even know how it would be possible to dye your vagina, but it entertains me to no end that Granny Apple seems to really believe it.A few times throughout t
(Candy POV)I very much appreciated how kind and gentle Jason was with me after I accidentally ate the shrimp at the restaurant. The walls around my heart cracked just a little seeing how concerned he was about me, and how protective he was when taking me to the hospital.I also appreciated that he had Alpha Aaron, Cassie, and Granny Apple meet us there. It was nice to see Jason try to anticipate what I would want and what would make me comfortable. It was a side of him that Cassie had never described, and it made me think there was an increasingly large possibility that maybe things could work out between us.Unfortunately, the small hope in my heart was dampened as soon as I saw Granny Apple's expression.You can always tell when Granny Apple is angry, because she becomes super serious, super polite, and she acts her age. Once you get to know her, seeing serious Granny Apple can be scary and unsettling to the core. Most people would much prefer her embarrassing intrusive questio