Page 59 of Wolf's Whistle
“Yes, my name is Richard Kerrigan.” He stepped out of line with Julien and let Henri pass. “Julien and I met barely a week ago, but I love him with all of my heart.”
“I’m Marie, Julien’s mother, and this is Arnaud, Julien’s sire. Welcome to the family. Julien told us that both of your parents have passed. We would be happy if you would consider us your parents from now on.”
Richard blushed. “Thank you for the gracious welcome and the lovely invitation. I have a void in my soul where my parents once resided and would be honored for you to fill it. You raised a fine son, and I’m very much in love with him. I loved him from the first night I spent in his house when he claimed me as his fiancé to protect me from a crooked police detective.”
Arnaud spoke in a deep, measured voice, “Our Julien is very protective of those he loves. He will be even more so with his Mate. If you feel smothered, and you will, feel free to speak to us or to Isabel. She’s been part of his household since he graduated to his status as Alpha at twenty-five.”
“Mother, Father, we can’t keep Armand waiting. We can talk later. We need to show the Alphas their rooms and then Richard needs to eat.”
Julien’s mother put her arm around Richard’s shoulders. “Come with me. Arnaud and Julien will show the Alphas and their Mates to their rooms. I’ll take you down to the kitchen. I have some venison stew with buttermilk biscuits ready for your snack.”
§ § §
Julien escorted The Alpha, The Alpha Mate and the rest of the Alphas and their Mates upstairs to the bedrooms. He turned to Armand. “Alpha, all the rooms are the same size with the same appointments. You can choose which one you want to use.”
“I’ll take the one nearest to the stairs. I believe I heard your mother say that yours was the furthest down the hall. I believe there are fourteen rooms up here if my memory serves me. You can leave the one next to you empty. That way you can have a vigorous mating without worrying who will hear.” Armand chuckled at his own joke. “Which room belongs to your parents?”
“The one across from yours, Alpha.”
“Then no one will take that room. They shouldn’t be put out of their bed.” The Alpha turned to Martin. “Get the room assignments straightened out and have the Enforcers bring up the luggage. Where are you putting the Betas?”
“We have a third floor with an additional sixteen smaller rooms. I thought to put the Betas there. The Enforcers will use the empty two-bedroom cabins. My pack Alphas will use the rest. There is a second staircase at the end of the hall the Betas can use to get to the second floor quickly.” Julien was anxious to get back to Richard. He didn’t want his parents’ questions to become too intrusive and scare his Mate. His parents could be nosy, and he wanted to assure Richard that his parents wouldn’t become overly entangled in their lives. It was bad enough they had Isabel to contend with.
“Everything is in order, Julien.” The formal welcoming was over and it was clear Armand had a nap in mind. Taking a nap with Richard would be wonderful, but he couldn’t do that without mating him. “Go down and spend some time with your Mate. I think your mother is feeding him.”
“Thank you, Armand. Welcome to my home.”
Chapter Fifteen
Julien’s Oregon Home
The Kitchen
Thursday, Early Afternoon
“Would you prefer milk, juice, or soda, dear?” Marie opened the refrigerator. Isabel was conspicuously missing. Let the grilling begin. Richard grimaced.
“Milk, please.” Marie poured him a large glass of milk.
“Isabel says you’re going to NYU for your master’s, son.” Arnaud raised his head expectantly.
“Yes, I graduated first in my class from MIT eighteen months ago. I always intended to go back for my master’s but my father died and Mom got an aggressive form of breast cancer. It was up to me to take care of her.”
“And then Charles tells me you lost your job. You were the unnamed engineer from Switched Power Designs that blew the whistle on the hot components in the troop transport.” Arnaud again looked to Richard for an explanation.
“Yes, the power supply was my design. It was designed and tested with parts from one vendor and put into production with a part from another whose component I had tested and found to run too hot for the application, giving the Power Supply a five percent chance of catching on fire. Although five percent was an acceptable failure rate for the company, it wasn’t for me. We were talking about transporting our troops who are in enough danger without their transport flaming out.” Richard took a spoonful of his stew and sopped up the gravy with a biscuit.
“You are just the type of man we wanted for our son.” Julien’s father slapped him on the back. “Again, welcome to the family.”
Julien sauntered into the kitchen. “You can stop grilling him now, Father. If the gods saw fit to give him to me, it’s not for you to say yay or nay.”
Marie bristled. “We weren’t grilling him, we only wanted to get to know our new Alpha Mate. It seems like the gods did very well by you.”
“Yes, they did. Now let poor Richard eat in peace. He needs a nap. We got up very early this morning and will have a very late night.”
Marie giggled.
“Mother…” Julien admonished.
