Everything That You Are (17 page)

“I know you can. Just humour me.” Michael knelt down in front of the sexy man and held out the bag to him, answering his questioning look simply by telling him to open it.
Kaden
looked inside,
then
pulled out two pairs of slacks, one blue, the other black, along with a black, long-sleeved, button-down shirt and a red T-shirt. There were also unopened packages of boxers and socks at the bottom.

“You got these for me?”
Kaden
asked with a frown.

“As much as I’d like to take the credit, they’re from my mom. Read the note.”

Another glance inside the green bag revealed a small, cream-coloured envelope. Setting aside the clothes,
Kaden
took out the card inside and read the elegant scroll written in pen.

For my new son,
Kaden
,

I hope these fit you. I’m in the process of making more, so if you have any preferences, please let me know. We have been looking forward to having you as a part of our family for years, and now that I’ve met you, I feel wonderful knowing that my Michael is in such good hands.

All my love,

Mom

Kaden
continued to stare at the note for so long that Michael began to get worried. He could smell the tears before he saw them glisten on his mate’s long lashes.

“Your mom made these?” he asked quietly.

Michael cupped a hand over his cheek and said, “Our mom made them. She’s crazy about you, you know.”

“But…but…she only just met me, and I’ve made so many mistakes… I must seem like a total loser.”

Michael let out a sharp bark of laughter. “You think she dances around the kitchen listening to country music with just anyone? I’m the only one she’s ever done that with, and that was only until I reached the age of eleven and became too embarrassed and self-absorbed to indulge her. You’ve made her a very happy woman.
You and Missy.
They’ve been cooking up a storm over the past few days. This keeps up and I’ll have to invest in a second fridge.”

A single tear slipped free but
Kaden
wiped it away and asked, “You’ve been looking for me for years? You told your parents about me?”

Michael felt pain engulf his chest as he replied, “Of course. I went back to that club every night for six months, then wrote to every clan I could find. But I should have told the rest of my clan about you. I’m sorry for that. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of you, it was just that I’d only met you briefly and, after a while, you started to seem more like a dream that I couldn’t make come true instead of a reality. I can’t seem to stop making mistakes with you, but I promise I will always try to make up for them, if you’ll let me.”

Two more tears trickled down his cheeks and, if not for the hand he kept on
Kaden’s
face, allowing him to gauge his feelings, Michael would have thought he’d screwed up again. It tore him apart to watch his mate cry for any reason, but as far as he could tell, these tears reflected happiness, not sorrow.

“I know that nothing I say is going to convince you of the fact that what I feel for you is real and permanent, but for however long it takes, I’ll be here, and I won’t give up.” He made sure to put all of his sincerity into his emotions as well as his eyes.

“Now get dressed. It’s about lunchtime and I think I smell hamburgers, which means mom knows we’re awake and is expecting us.” Michael grinned and kissed his mate on the forehead before reluctantly removing his hand to allow him to get dressed.

They both donned shirts, underwear and pants, but forewent socks and shoes. Michael had no intention of going anywhere that day where he might be required to relinquish physical contact with his mate. As soon as they were ready, he grabbed something from the nightstand, stuffed it into his pants pocket, then swiftly lifted
Kaden
into his arms and headed out of the room.

“Are you going to carry me everywhere?”
Kaden
asked wryly.

Michael looked into those vibrant, nearly violet eyes and replied in a solemn tone, “Yes. Mine. For as long as I can keep you.” The levity in his eyes belied his serious demeanour. Michael took him downstairs where the smell of food grew stronger and its aroma caused
Kaden’s
stomach to growl.

As Michael entered the kitchen, he saw Sam sitting at the table and his mom hovering over a skillet on the stove. Missy had practically squeezed her entire little body into a bottom cabinet, obviously looking for something that was hiding from her.

His father looked up and smiled as Michael took the seat across from him, adjusting
Kaden’s
weight in his lap and encircling his arms around his small waist. Katherine turned at the noise and also smiled broadly.

“Well, there you two are.” She walked over and placed her hands on their heads, kissing each of them on the cheek before returning to the stove to flip the burgers she was cooking. “
Kaden
, I figured you were roughly about my size, but if the pants don’t fit, I can let them out.”

Before
Kaden
had a chance to thank her, Missy sprang from her position on the floor and barrelled into him with a little too much enthusiasm. At the man’s grunt of pain, Michael reached around and rubbed the teenager’s arm.

“Take it easy on him for a little while, okay? It’ll still take him another day or two to heal completely.”

Missy immediately stepped back but retained her excited grin. “I’m so happy you’re finally awake. Do you like the clothes? I helped Katherine make them. She’s teaching me how to sew, and it’s really fun! Not as fun as cooking, though. I actually taught her a new recipe, although she has way better ones. Did you get the herbal medicine I made for you?”

“Hi, Missy.
And no.
Where did you put it?”

Missy turned a fierce glare on Michael. “
Grrrrr
…”

He was so surprised at the snarl that came from such a sweet-looking girl that he didn’t know whether to laugh or run and hide. “Umm…I may have forgotten it in the room, but I promise I’ll see that he gets it tonight.”

“Oh, you’d better. Now, I have work to do.
Gotta
go.”
With that, she pecked
Kaden
on the cheek and span around to finish whatever task she’d been working on when they came into the kitchen.

Michael turned an incredulous look on
Kaden
, who only laughed and said, “Don’t let her sweet face fool you. She can get mean when she wants to.”

Sam grunted. “Great.
Two females that could liquefy a man’s backbone in two words or less.”

“With relish,” Michael added.

They fell into a companionable silence then as they watched the women bustle about the kitchen, making entirely too much food for five people. It was mesmerising the way they worked so well together. After a while, he even began to notice a routine in their actions. Missy always seemed to know which ingredients were needed next, and Katherine helped her by opening drawers and cabinets while watching the food.

Kaden
leaned close to his ear to whisper, “Your mom’s hot!”

He could tell that the man had only meant it for his hearing, but his voice hadn’t been nearly low enough. Sam burst out laughing so hard that he almost choked on the swallow of water he’d been sipping from his glass. Michael joined him, throwing his head back and practically howling out his amusement at
Kaden’s
unexpected words.

He looked up to see if his mom had also heard the hushed words.
Yup
.
She turned on the sink faucet, grabbed the nozzle of the sprayer beside it, and shot a stream of water at Sam, causing him to sputter in surprise. Michael started laughing harder at seeing his father get soaked, until the spray turned on him, missing
Kaden
completely.

Katherine locked gazes with
Kaden
and displayed a grin so wicked that the pup started laughing as well. He and his dad were still chuckling when she turned the water off and picked up the spatula she was using to flip the burgers.

“Now what brought that on?” Michael asked.

Kaden
shrugged. “I’m gay, not blind.”

Michael and Sam laughed again and Katherine turned back, waving the spatula threateningly at them.

“You two could learn a lesson from him. I’m liable to keep the cherry pie we made for dessert for just us three,” she said, waving the utensil to encompass herself,
Kaden
and Missy. Michael and his father shut up immediately, but couldn’t wipe the smiles from their faces.
“
Mmm
-hmm.”
Katherine turned back to the food with a little swing in her hips this time.

Katherine brought the food to the table and when
Kaden
tried to move to the empty chair beside them, Michael once more held him in place and gave him a stern look. Without skipping a beat, he began loading food onto a plate for
Kaden
, not missing the smile that curved Missy’s lips as she took in his actions.

He could feel a slight pang of frustration from his mate, but it quickly disappeared as the man attacked his food. The table was filled with chatter throughout the meal, though Missy contributed most of it, and for once,
Kaden’s
plate was empty by the end of it.

“I’m glad you got your appetite back,” Michael said.

Sam spoke up from the sink where he was washing his plate. “I’m going to head out to finalise the paperwork Mrs
O’Neily
needs to expand her lands. I’ll have my cell phone with me if you need anything.”

“And Missy and I are going to run to the store to pick up some more material. I’m working on Mora’s gown for her celebration party. I told you she finally got mated, right?” Katherine asked Michael.

He nodded and smiled.
“To Richard, right?
He’s a lucky wolf.”

“Yeah, well… I swear that woman is in full panic mode. She’s so nervous she’s changed the design of her dress as well as the dresses of her mom and girlfriends—all of which, by the way, I need to have done in the next two weeks—three times already. My heart goes out to the poor party coordinator. I can just imagine what he’s going through.”

Michael laughed and called out his goodbyes.
Kaden
made sure that Missy was keeping up with her homework online,
then
gave her and Katherine a kiss goodbye, remembering to thank her for the clothes she’d made. After hearing the front door close, Michael kept a firm hold of the man’s hand as he started gathering their dishes and taking them to the sink.

Much to his chagrin, he found that he had to release the hand in order to clean up, but managed to keep his mate close to him at all times.
Kaden
was helping him, and from the brief times their fingers touched, he started to feel what he thought was confusion and something else from the boy.

“
Kaden
, is something bothering you?”

Kaden
looked up in embarrassment before shrugging a shoulder and returning his attention to the cup in his hand, scrubbing it a little too vigorously.

“
Kaden
, I can feel your emotions, remember? I know something is wrong. Tell me.”

Kaden
huffed, blowing strands of blond hair from in front of his face. “Do werewolves marry? Is that the party your mom was talking about?”

Michael paused at that and set down the towel he was using to dry the dishes. He turned to his mate and took the cup from his hands to set it on the counter, then took both hands in his so that they had no distractions.

“Baby, is that really what’s bothering you?”

Kaden
blushed, but Michael sensed a thread of anger, and maybe hurt, in him. “I was just curious. I still don’t know very much about clans, werewolves…us.”

Michael pursed his lips but decided to let the younger man set his own pace for the conversation. “We don’t get married, that’s a human custom. When we mate, we mark each other,” Michael ran a finger across the raised ridges of his mating mark on the man’s neck, smiling a little when he saw a shiver run through
Kaden’s
body at his touch, “and that lets everyone know we’re taken. We can also tell by the mating scent. Anyone who gets close enough will be able to smell my scent on you, and vice versa.”

Kaden
frowned. “Then what is the party for?”

“It’s a celebration to which the entire clan is invited so that everyone can know that the couple has found each other.
Matings
don’t happen very often and, when they do, it’s a joyous event. My clan is very large, like a community, so we use the mating celebrations to mingle with each other, as well as with other clans if one person in the couple happens to come from a different clan. Richard, for example, is from the
Wysek
clan. They’ll be joining us at the party and, hopefully, the mix of wolves will produce more
matings
.”

Kaden’s
frown deepened as he asked tentatively, “If we were mated, would we… I mean…would you…” He paused and took a deep breath as if gathering his courage. “Would there be a celebration for us?”