My Hybrid Mate

Chapter 5: Pancakes

Everest walks over to the bed and places me down on it, more gently than I thought he would, before walking over to the boy and ruffling his hair.

“Hey, Ben.” His tone shocks me. Soft, gentle, caring. A voice I’ve never heard of in my life. A voice I never thought I’d hear in my life.

“Who’s that?” he asks accusingly, pointing at me with his tiny outstretched hand. He looks so similar to Everest it’s not even funny.

“Uh, this is a friend. Her name’s Avery.” He replies, scratching the back of his neck and watching the current exchange between the boy and I. So far, it’s just us staring at each other. “And, um, Avery, this is Ben. My son.”

He has a son. Already? What is he, like, twenty?

“Uh, hi.” I give a tiny wave and flinch when the wound on my chest stretches because of it. I don’t really pay a lot of mind to the pain, though. I’m more interested in the fact that Everest has a son. With another woman. Did he not think he would get a mate because he’s half wizard? Is he married? Oh God, what if she’s pregnant with more of his babies?

Please, Moon Goddess, I’m begging you, please let him be adopted.

Okay, Everest adopting a kid? That would never happen.

“Why is she wearing your shirt?” Ben asks his dad, not even sparing another look at me.

“There was a problem with a nasty man, but he’s gone now, it’s fine.” Everest answers, smiling down at him in reassurance.

“Is that why she smells funny?” I glare at my mate when his lips tilt up at the sides, trying to contain a smirk. I took a shower this morning, so it must be the werewolf smell this kid is on about. Which means he’s not werewolf, is he a full wizard? No, that doesn’t make sense. Everest is half werewolf, which means if Ben is closely related to him, then he must have werewolf blood too. I guess his senses haven’t developed properly yet.

“It doesn’t matter, Ben. Go to your room and I’ll come play cars with you in a bit. Just give me a minute to talk to Avery.”

“Okay.” Ben agrees, adjusting his glasses on his face. “Can we watch Harry Potter later as well?”

“I don’t understand why you like that rubbish.” Everest sighs, while I fight to hide a chuckle.

“Please?” Ben begs, lips turning up to form a cute pout. Everest gives a huff and nods reluctantly, causing Ben to smile evilly and run out of the room.

“You need to explain. Now.” I state as soon as the kid’s out of earshot. He runs a hand through his hair and walks over to the bedside table, retrieving a pair of his boxers and throwing them at me.

“Go put these on in there; I need to treat the wounds before they get infected.” He replies, ignoring my question. I sigh but do as he says, knowing he will try and treat my wounds if he wants to, no matter what, and since I’m only wearing his shirt and a bra, I don’t want to be naked when he does so. I stumble to the bathroom and lock the door behind me. Guess what colour this room is? I bet you can’t guess.

Grey! Again with the f*****g grey.

It’s a relatively small room with a shower in the corner and a toilet right next to it. There’s a sink with a perfectly normal tap and soap. The only thing letting it down is the colour; otherwise I would think a normal person might live here.

I pull the boxers on, saying a silent thank you that they have an elastic waistband and don’t seem to be falling down too much. Then I grab hold of the sink to keep me up while I unlock and open the door since my leg is pretty busted. I know it will heal faster than if I was human, but I need to clean it so it doesn’t get infected.

When I enter the bedroom again, Everest is sitting on the bed fiddling with some cotton pads and disinfectant. I cringe as I stagger over to him, using the wall for support.

“Sit.” He orders, but with a gentle undertone in his voice. It surprises the hell out of me, and I drop myself down on the bed as carefully as possible. “This is gonna hurt.” He announces, before lifting up my shirt to just over my bra and pressing the cotton pad drenched in rubbing alcohol to it. I don’t have time to be embarrassed, and try not to cry out in pain as he manoeuvres the pad all over the claw marks, then adds more liquid and goes over it again.

There’s a transfixed look on his face as he focuses all the attention on my injuries, and not my scrunched up face or anywhere else, for that matter. He grabs the bandage from the bed and wraps it around the wounds, careful not to touch them. When he’s done, he breathes out a sigh of relief, which is short-lived when he sees my leg.

“Well, shit.” He mutters, staring at my leg for a second before standing up and leaving the room. I don’t have time to ask where he’s going before he returns with a cloth.

“What’s that for?” I ask, curious and concerned at the same time. He throws me a grim smile that almost holds reassurance.

“This will sting like a b***h, I don’t want to have to treat your tongue as well if you bite it off.” He shrugs. I swear, I can see some regret in his dark eyes as he speaks. My wolf purrs. I ignore her.

“You want me to put a cloth in my mouth to stop myself from choking on my own tongue?” I question, raising my eyebrows in shock. And fright. Okay, I’m petrified. Can you blame me?

“Yep.” Everest hands me the cloth and I put it up near my mouth but not in it. “Listen, I’m going to have to re-break it again so it heals right, and then disinfect it so it doesn’t get even worse. I don’t have any pain killers or morphine or any of that jazz, and I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to get through this together.” He speaks softly in a calming voice that relaxes me immediately, especially when he starts rubbing circles on the back of my hand which is lying on my thigh.

“Okay.” I stuff the cloth in my mouth and shut my eyes tight. I hear Everest suck in a deep breath and tingles run up my leg, before pain.

Nothing but pain.

I scream as Everest moves my bone around and then drenches it in stinging liquid. His laboured breathing is loud in my ears but I block it out with the crying as sweat starts coating my forehead. He was right; it does hurt like a b***h.

He stops touching my leg and the pain subsides only slightly. Then, the tingles start up my arms and I find myself lying down, not even trying to stop myself from falling into blackness.

***

“Hey.” My body jolts with someone bouncing on the bed and I groan in annoyance, sleep keeping my eyelids shut. “Are you dead?” the voice says again. It’s a male voice, but not a grown male. A child. “Wake uuuppp!”

“What?” I mumble out, turning onto my side and sinking further into the pillow.

“Wake. Up. Dad says he’s going to take you out for breakfast while I go to Tyler’s to see his new trampoline. So you have to wake up. You’ve been sleeping for ages, all afternoon yesterday and all night as well.” It’s Ben. Of course it’s Ben, how could I forget my mate has a child with another woman?

Maybe because he only told you yesterday? Wait, scratch that, you only saw him yesterday. He didn’t even explain himself!

Eh, true. But the kid says Everest wants to take me out for breakfast. Maybe he’ll explain then?

“Fine, I’m getting up.” I sigh, opening my eyes finally. The light streaming in from the curtains burns my eyes and I fight to keep them open. “Where’s your.. dad, anyway?”

“I told him to go shower. He hasn’t been very good at that lately.” He replies, bouncing on the bed slightly with his face still looming over mine. I’m scared his camo style glasses will fall off his face and onto mine any minute now, although the way he mispronounces his words prevents me from asking me to move. I get that I shouldn’t like him, but he’s just so damn adorable.

“How old are you again?”

“Four and a quarter.” He answers proudly, puffing his chest out a little to look intimidating.

“And you’re looking after your dad, not the other way around?”

“Well, no.” he puts a chubby finger to his chin in thought. “But he’s been distracted by something. And then you came and it got ten times worse.” Ben shrugs. I laugh at the thought.

“That’s not true.” Everest speaks from the doorway. I look over quickly to find him wearing dark jeans and a black t-shirt, with his hair dripping with water from presumably the shower, leaning against the door frame with his shoulders crossed. “But you keep wanting to play cars all the time so I don’t have time to shower.” He adds with a smirk.

“Dad, the last time you played cars was yesterday lunchtime, you could have had loads of showers since then.” Ben sighs in exasperation, shuffling around on the bed to face him.

“I was busy.” He shrugs. “Are you ready to go to Tyler’s yet? You’re still in your pajamas.”

“I was talking to your girlfriend. I’ll go now.” and with that last comment, which leaves me fighting to hide my laughter, he jumps off the bed and walks out the room.

“I, uh,” my mate coughs awkwardly, walking closer. “Brought you some clothes. I don’t know if they’ll fit, they were at the back of the closet. I thought we could go for coffee and stuff, I mean, if you can walk again?” He hands me the pile of clothing and I take it gratefully.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Okay, cool. I’ll be in the kitchen when you’re ready, it’s not that hard to find.” He says, turning round and going to leave.

“Everest?” I call softly after him, still sitting on the bed holding the clothes he gave me. I watch as his body physically tenses and he looks down over his shoulder at me.

“Yeah?”

“Is he yours?” I question boldly, referring to Ben. I need to put my mind and wolf at rest by finally asking this question. In a way, I want him to say no, so that I don’t have to carry the shame of having a mate who didn’t wait for me to start a family, but on the other hand, I would be disappointed if he did. Ben seems to bring out the best in Everest, and if he’s not his own, then to know a kid can do a better job of making him open up than his own mate is slightly embarrassing.

“Yes.” He answers tightly, before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him. I breathe out a sigh of relief and anger at the same time at his curt reply, not wanting to dawdle on the answer too long.

Standing up off the bed, I walk to the bathroom with the clothes and shut the door behind me. When I examine the clothes, frustration builds up inside of me. Shorts. Grey t-shirt. Underwear. All for a girl. As in, somewhere along the line, he had a woman over and somehow, her clothes ended up in his wardrobe. My wolf growls at the thought it could be the mother of Ben. Who am I to assume they’re not together anymore? What if she still lives in this house?

And where did she sleep last night if she does? I’m in Everest’s bed right now, she can’t have been pleased.

Despite these thoughts, I pull on the clothes which only just fit, and splash my face with water from the tap. I’ll shower after breakfast; Ben seems pretty excited to get to his friend’s house. My wolf has almost completely healed my injuries from the rogue attack, and all that’s left are scars.

In leaving the bedroom, I find myself straightening the bed covers quickly and quietly, and folding the t-shirt and boxers I was previously wearing in a neat pile on top of them. Just in case he does live with another woman – although I doubt that now, since I can only smell my mate in this room – I don’t want her to think I’m a slob.

Everest was right when he said the kitchen isn’t hard to find. His room is at the very end of the house, so there is only one way to go to look for it. Oh, and the incessant chatter between father and son coming from there also helps to locate it.

“Ben, you have to eat something before Tyler’s, and you had cookies for breakfast yesterday. I just spent ages making you this granola, so eat it. Otherwise I won’t take you to your friend’s house.”

“Dad, you used your powers to make it. It didn’t take you ages. Can’t you make pancakes instead?”

“No. Why can’t you just eat the granola?”

“The raisins look like bunny poop, dad. I can’t eat bunny poop.”

“There, I took the raisins out. Can you eat your cereal now? Please?”

“The milk smells funny.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, what’s the matter with the milk?”

“I don’t like it. Make pancakes.”

“For the last time, no. This stuff is way healthier, you have to eat it.”

“But the box says it has fib-re in it. Fib-re is bad for you, right?”

“Fibre? Fibre is really good for you. Eat it.”

“What does fibre do, dad?”

“Everest, just give him pancakes for crying out loud.” I sigh whilst finally entering the kitchen. Listening to their conversation was entertaining, to say the least, but I was told I was getting coffee. And I really like coffee.

“But-”

“He’s obviously not going to eat this, and you don’t want him passing out later, so just make the kid some pancakes. You’re a wizard, it’ll only take two seconds.” I try to persuade him, taking a seat next to Ben at the breakfast bar. Ben looks from his dad to me, from me to his dad, before he says very simply, with a grin on his face,

“I like her.”