Dragging a complaining Luke, she fled to the grocery store. She dawdled up and down the aisles, taking way too much time to decide what she wanted. Her budget could only stretch so far, but she didn’t want Caleb to think she’d invited him over to guilt him on how they lived.
She eyed the packages of meat in the refrigerated display. So expensive, but she couldn’t exactly expect him to be content with a salad and hot dog.
Steak it was, a big, thick one that cost more than she usually spent in a week on meat, and figuring what the hell, she grabbed a smaller one for herself and Luke to share. By the time she’d gathered some fresh vegetables and splurged on a premade dessert, it was almost five o’clock and closing time.
Small towns didn’t keep the same hours as the city. Out here, once the sun started to go down, which was fairly early in the late fall, businesses closed, traffic slowed, and people hid in their homes—so the animals could come out and play.
Bitten Point was a shifter friendly town. Sure, it had its fair share of humans—they were after all the dominant race on the planet—however, those that chose to live there knew the secret. And if they didn’t, they didn’t stay long. There were ways to convince people it was best to move on.
Having grown up among the shifters, Renny certainly didn’t fear them, even when they wore their animal shape. A shifter crocodile or bear was no more likely to attack than when they sported their human guise. Only nature’s unenlightened hunted, those who walked on two legs, and that was rare. Most wild creatures preferred to go after easy prey.
So when her son said, “Mama, there’s something hiding at the edge of the woods,” she didn’t pay too much mind. Children had vivid imaginations. Heck, Melanie took the doors off her sons’ closet so that the boogieman would stop hiding in there at night. As for Luke, Renny got him a bed with built-in drawers underneath so the monster under the bed wouldn’t grab him.
The grocery story just outside of town, with its heavy discounts and clearance bins, bordered the swamplands. While quieter this cool time of the year, the area, with its lush vegetation, still hummed with life, some of it probably intimidating for a little boy.
She tossed the groceries in her trunk and slammed it shut. Only once she slid in her car and spoke to an empty back seat, “Are you buckled in, buddy?” did she realize Luke wasn’t in the car. Out she jumped, heart hammering. “Luke? Luke? Where are you?”
“I see something.” The faint reply had her scanning the area until she spotted her son standing on the crumbling concrete curb meant to hold the bayou back.
The little bug had wandered. “Come back here. Right this instant.”
“Do I have to?” Luke turned with a sulk on his face. “I want to see.”
Time to go into mommy mode. Renny planted her hands on her hips. “Now.”
“Fine.” As he huffed the word, he took two steps, and Renny felt all her breath whoosh as something dark swung from the shadows behind him, just missing his little body.
“Luke! Run!” She screamed the words as she darted toward him, but someone else was faster. A big body barreled past her and scooped a frantic-eyed Luke.
Renny pounded toward Caleb and her son, eyes darting between them and the shadows that no longer moved.
“What was that?” she asked, holding her arms out for her son, and while he clung for a moment to Caleb, in the end, Luke reached for her.
For the moment, Mommy still came first.
She hugged him close to her, eyes closed, trying to calm her racing heart.
“I didn’t see anything. I heard your scream and came bolting around the corner.”
“I thought I saw something in the woods.” An admission that had her eyeing the shadows, and seeing nothing. Had she imagined it?
“Thought you saw…?”
“It was another one of the dinosaurs,” Luke confided in a soft whisper. “They escaped.”
“What are you talking about? Dinosaurs don’t exist.” Renny said it, and yet, it didn’t emerge very convincing, especially given how pensive Caleb appeared.
“Even if they did, I don’t want you to worry about any dinosaurs when I’m around, big guy. I was in the army, and we soldiers know how to take care of overgrown lizards.”
“Says the biggest lizard of all,” she muttered under her breath.
“The biggest, baby.” The low growl of his reply tingled her skin with awareness. She tossed her head, still determined to keep him at arm’s length.
But she couldn’t do the same for Luke, who wiggled free from her grip. Setting him on the ground, she couldn’t help a twinge as her heart swelled and at the same time shrank at her son’s instinctive move to stand by his father’s side.
Already he’s feeling that bond to his father. It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Either Caleb had uncanny timing, or he was stalking her. Funny how neither option bothered her, not like the fear of losing her son did.