Chapter 36: I Can Explain…

At the sound of two sets of footsteps on the stairs, I jolted up and accidentally kneed Jared’s groin. The poor man groaned in pain and rolled over to his side, and I apologized profusely.

Then I pushed him off the bed and told him to hide. However, hiding an almost seven-foot-tall man under your bed turned out to be close to impossible. At least I hoped he wouldn’t be visible from the door.

It wasn’t that I wanted to keep him a secret, but he’d just come back. I didn’t know how to explain everything. We hadn’t talked about it yet, and my parents didn’t even know he existed.

Besides, introducing him as Jared, my werewolf boyfriend, seemed rather farfetched.

“Skylar! Are you okay?” Mom called from the middle of the stairs, and I ran around my room and gathered our clothes.

I threw Jared’s over to where he was lying on the floor and tried to find my usual sleeping outfit so I could pretend to have slept, but I came out empty-handed.

I quickly pulled on my T-shirt and panties and looked over at Jared, who tried to pull up his boxers.

“I’m all right!” I yelled back. I could only hope that they didn’t barge through the door like they did when Kemar was on the loose.

“Skylar?” It was Dad, and thankfully he had the decency to knock. “Are you in there?”

“Yes! Gimme a sec!”

I almost fell on my nose when I pulled on my yoga pants, and I checked to see that Jared was pulling on his pants too. I signed for him to hide.

Dad was already pounding on my door and would hardly wait a moment longer. Hopefully, he wouldn’t pull out his gun. That would be a terrible first meeting.

“Don’t make a sound,” I whispered to Jared, who stared at me wide-eyed. And as soon as he’d ducked down, I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and was about to grab the door handle when it flew open and almost hit my forehead.

“Jesus, Dad! Relax! I’m fine.”

Mom had been standing right behind him and came rushing over to give me a hug. Then she scanned me like every worried mother does when she thinks her child is in danger.

The truth was that I couldn’t possibly be safer.

Unfortunately, Dad was about to search the room, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the bed, where Jared was hiding between the wall and the mattress, and gave him a hug to distract him.

Then I discovered the broken picture frame and my bra lying on the floor and stopped breathing. Mom saw it too and frowned.

“So…how was the party?” I asked with exaggerated enthusiasm, and Mom frowned even more.

“Are you sure everything is fine?” she asked instead of answering.

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

I swear she saw right through me, because now she started searching the room as well. Luckily only with her eyes. And her gaze immediately fell on Jared’s hiding spot.

“Do you have a visitor? We found a coat…”

“No! No visitors,” I exclaimed and tried to make them leave. Unfortunately, it seemed like I’d have to drag them out to make that happen.

“Is it Simon?” Mom asked, and I was quick to block her when she stepped toward my bed.

“God no!” I huffed.

“Skylar.”

The tone in her voice made me sigh in defeat. I might as well face it. It was impossible to hide anything from them.

“Okay!” I exclaimed and held up my hands. “I do have a visitor.”

Both Mom and Dad stood there with raised eyebrows and waited for an explanation, and I felt so embarrassed I could die.

“Mom? Dad? Meet my boyfriend, Jared.”

A confused face with the messiest bed hair ever peeked up from behind the mattress, and awkwardly he waved his hand to say hello. There was no doubt what we’d been doing.

To make matters worse, Mom started giggling when she added two and two together. Jared was literally buttoning his pants right in front of her.

However, her laughter transformed into a gasp when she saw how tall Jared was. Even Dad, who still had a serious face, stepped back a bit. He looked like a schoolboy in comparison.

Neither of them said a word when Jared came over and stood next to me. I elbowed him discreetly.

“What’s your last name?” I whispered between clenched teeth. But instead of answering, he reached out his hand to greet my dad.

“Jared Mingan O’Connor. Nice to meet you, sir.”

Dad shook his hand and mumbled a few words that were supposed to be his name. Mom shook Jared’s hand, too, and blushed like a lighthouse in the dark.

Her eyes were large as saucers, and I squinted at her and cleared my voice to make her focus, which she eventually did.

Then Dad rubbed his hands together and stepped from one foot to the other, obviously just as uncomfortable as we were.

“So—Uhm—We’ll wait downstairs,” he mumbled under his breath and yanked Mom by her arm and pulled her out of the room. Jared and I were left in an incredibly awkward silence.

“That…,” I started, but I couldn’t find any suitable words. Instead, I started giggling like mad.

Jared chuckled too and was quick to find his shirt. The fact that my parents had seen him partially naked didn’t seem to bother him, but I found it hilarious.

“So—What do we tell them?” he asked with a half-smile. How he was so unaffected by the whole ordeal beat me, but I was so grateful I could cry.

“I don’t know. But I know for certain that we can’t tell them you’re a werewolf.”

He chuckled and came over to me. Then he pulled up my chin to look at him and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

“Tell them whatever you’re comfortable with, Louve,” he said and added another kiss, and I could feel his calmness seep into me and make me relax.

When he took my hand and entwined our fingers, I felt even better. Then we left my room and walked into the kitchen to clear the air.

Mom and Dad were seated at the kitchen table with one huge mug of coffee each, and their low conversation stopped as we came down the stairs.

I knew they’d been drinking at the party, but both of them seemed dead sober now. Mom offered Jared some coffee, but he politely declined.

Why they were drinking coffee way past midnight was a different question. Probably to clear their minds. Jared and I grabbed ourselves the biggest glasses of water and sat down next to them. It was time.

“So—How did you guys meet?”

It was my father who broke the silence first, and I studied a droplet of condensation that slowly found its way down to the table and disappeared underneath the glass. I was too nervous to answer.

“We met in the forest,” Jared said, and stroked his thumb over mine under the table for emotional support. Mom frowned, so he decided to elaborate.

“She was lost and injured, so I helped her.”

“He saved my life, Mom,” I interrupted. “Twice. And he told me where to go to get back to civilization.”

The look in Mom’s eyes changed from skepticism to relief.

“Gosh, that’s so romantic,” she whispered to herself, but Dad nudged her under the table. The look they exchanged would’ve made me laugh if the situation were different.

However, this was something that had to be told right, with well-chosen words that didn’t make us sound like we’d lost our minds. But then I had a massive brain fart, and it simply fell out of me.

“He’s the father.”

Mom looked like she’d fallen from the moon, while Dad still looked serious. I searched for comfort in Jared’s eyes, he smiled back, and I repeated myself.

“Jared’s the father of my baby.”

There was a long moment of silence, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in my parents’ heads.

Normally, I would’ve expected them to start a discussion and throw out opinions left and right like they always did, but nothing about this situation was normal.

“A-are you sure?” Mom asked hesitantly, and I nodded fast and bit my lip to hide a smile.

“One hundred percent sure.”

No one said anything, and I looked from Jared and back to my parents. Then suddenly, Mom broke down in tears, and I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or mad.

Dad just shook his head and gave us a short smile while rubbing her back, until she fanned her face and tried to contain herself. Then Dad started chuckling, and I knew that she at least wasn’t mad.

“Don’t mind her,” he said. “She’s just happy it’s not…you know.”

He couldn’t make himself say Kemar’s name, and I appreciated that. I wished I could erase him from my memory forever, and thanks to Jared, it seemed like I would manage. At least someday.

For now, I was thankful that both my parents seemed to take the news well, and I had just stopped being nervous when Dad suddenly leaned forward on his elbows and nailed Jared with his eyes.

“So, when is the wedding?”

“DAD!” I exclaimed in horror. Just a few hours ago, I had accepted a future as a forever single mom of a boy or a girl because I knew nobody could ever replace the second half of my heart that Jared had stolen.

To go from that reality to having a boyfriend, fiancé, and husband was just way too much.

But Jared seemed completely unfazed by Dad’s threatening demeanor. He simply let go of my hand and gently placed his palm on my stomach.

“Any time she wants.” He turned to look at me but kept talking to my dad.

“Because just the way she carries and protects our little one now, I will carry and protect her for the rest of her life. Because her being pregnant with my child has only made me love her more.”

And that’s when Mom started bawling her eyes out for real.