20. MJ
MJ
C hocolate Pity Party Headquarters (a.k.a. Carina’s Kitchen)
There are seven Nutella stuffed chocolate dough zeppoles left.
Correction—six, now that Dina just inhaled another one like her damn Wolf Shifter mate.
“I’ll kill him and skin him and have him for a throw rug!” she snarls, caramel sauce dripping down her wrist like it’s a visual aid for murder.
I blink at her. “Dina, Jesus.”
“What?” She shrugs, unapologetic. “If the mane fits?—”
I blink again, but I’m too heartbroken to even make a decent joke .
Which, if you know me, is a big red flag.
Because I’m always the funny one. The snarky one. The one who doesn’t fall for guys like this.
Carter Leone—total heartbreaker. The one you know you should steer clear of if you know what’s good for you.
But like a dope, I didn’t.
I fell for him. And I fell hard enough to be sitting in my sister’s kitchen with fudge on my cheek and emotional trauma in my chest.
I sigh, dragging another zeppole through the hot fudge like it personally offended me— because triple the chocolate equals triple the cure, right?
“I mean, I knew he wasn’t in his right mind at the meet and greet. The pheromones were off the charts, we were both worked up, and yeah, I practically begged him to fuck me—actually, I’m positive I did just that.”
The silence that follows is deafening.
Until Carina chokes on her cocoa.
“You did what?!”
Humiliation slaps me across the face like a wet towel, but I barely flinch. I just cover my eyes with one hand and groan.
“Yep. Your baby sister brought shame upon the family name. Lock up your sons. The whore of Newark walks among you.”
Carina gapes like I just confessed to sacrificing virgins in the name of Satan.
“MJ!”
“Oh, come on! Don’t get all maternal on me now. You and Dina act like I’m still twelve with braces and a Lisa Frank trapper keeper. If I recall correctly, both of you lost your virginity in the backs of cars long before graduation day.”
“That’s true,” Dina mutters, licking marshmallow fluff off her spoon. “My back still twinges when I hear Crazy by Aerosmith.”
Carina groans.
“I didn’t need that visual. Also, you know better than to compare your dumb choices to ours. You didn’t just hook up with some high school burnout, MJ. You had sex with a Lion Shifter. That’s like— like throwing your pussy in the lion’s den and asking to be mauled .”
Dina snorts frozen hot chocolate out of her nose.
“Jesus, Carina! Are you kitten me? Get it?”
Another round of giggle-induced snorting.
“What? She knows I’m right!”
I lift my face from my hands.
“Okay, yes. I let the Lion in. And yeah, he roared.”
Dina wheezes.
“You let him pounce, huh?”
Carina glares.
“This is serious!”
“Oh my God, Carina! We didn’t do it in the middle of the ballroom during the cha-cha slide. We snuck away. It was private. And Carter was, um.” My voice softens. “He was attentive. Gentle, even.”
Carina raises a brow. “Gentle? The man growled like you were a chew toy at the meet and greet. And your neck is sporting a huge scar.”
I wave a hand.
“Okay, sure, he was a little growly. But I liked it! And besides, I thought it was just sex. Just one night of growls, claws, and tongue flicks, okay?”
Dina makes a fake whip-crack noise.
“Damn. You are the wild one now.”
“But it wasn’t just that,” I say quietly. “He bit me and I thought that meant something like it did when your mates bit you, but it didn’t,” I confess and I can practically hear my heart breaking.
“I didn’t think I was catching feelings. I thought I was being cool. Chill. Casual sex kitten, purr-purr-meow , no big deal. ”
Stupid tears well in my stupid eyes, and I hate it. I hate how weak I am.
Carina winces. “Oh, honey.”
“I mean, what was I supposed to think?” I swallow hard. “Then he bit me. Claimed me. I thought I was getting my happy ending.”
Silence.
Carina slowly puts down her cocoa.
“So, you mean, he bit you and you thought you were mate claimed, but you’re not?”
I nod.
Dina drops her spoon. “Holy. Shit.”
“Yeah.” My voice cracks. “And I’m so dumb, because right after he told me he didn’t mean to.”
Carina clutches her chest. “Oh no. MJ, you are not dumb!”
“So, I went to confront him to see what it actually meant. And I go to his garage, then I find out that he’s got some kind of Pride thing going on, and that he’s out servicing some Lionesses.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I guess mating a normal like me is, like, forbidden fruit or whatever the fuck. And that he might’ve only marked me ‘cause he saw other guys talking to me and got jealous.”
Carina groans.
“I’ ll tell Horace to kill him,” Carina says, unhelpfully.
“Doug, too. He can definitely find someplace to bury the body. Dogs are good at that.”
“Um, thank you both, but no homicide, please. Fact is I let the Lion play with my kitty, but he played me instead.”
Dina snorts. “Pretty sure he ate you first.”
“Cats do like their cream,” Carina supplied unhelpfully.
“I want you to know I hate you both.”
“Nah, you love us,” Dina replies with a grin.
Carina scoots closer, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
“MJ, look, I know we tease, but for real, you didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, he’s the one who messed up. And if he’s not man— or Lion —enough to own what he did and choose you without pressure from his precious Pride, then he’s not worth your time.”
“I just,” I say and sniffle, blinking fast. “I thought maybe he wanted more. And now I feel like the only thing that pussy wanted was a taste of forbidden cream .”
Dina covers her mouth.
“You did not just say that. ”
Carina is speechless for once.
I shrug helplessly.
“If the mane fits.”
But that’s just the thing, I thought it did fit—me, that is.