I was just getting more certain, as time went on, that we weren't going to be.
No matter what I did, the dragons kept showing up in the sky. They torched buildings, killed people, and kept threatening our businesses directly. If a building had a Fontaine Feeds logo on the window, it was targeted. There was no denying that Alashia was making her message clear; she was after us as much as she was Eskal. And that pissed me off.
Halloween dawned bright, balmy, and cheerful for the pups. We were a little too rural to do anything at the house, per se, but the pack's old place in town was centrally located and had the perfect neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. I spent most of the day with one of the nearby sanctuaries, working with an adorable party that invited the local pet owners out for spooky fun and prizes. There were hundreds of costumed dogs, all of them having a great time.
Every now and then, a pet still gave me a little side-eye, but I tried to keep the werewolf-ness under wraps and make friends. It usually ended well enough that no one blinked twice.
Gabe, Xav, Lillian, Leo, and the pups all made appearances during the party, some helping while the kids screamed and ran around with the other kids in the area. It was loud, bright, wild chaos but I felt so alive that I wished it could last longer. The only thing missing was Hudson.
We cleaned up rather quickly after the party was over before heading back to the old house, the place I'd first turned into a werewolf. Though we paid a cleaning staff to keep it tidy and comfortable, it still smelled like no one had been in it for weeks. And, truthfully, we hadn't. Between the museum, the business, Hudson's injuries, and everything going on with the dragons, we hadn't had time to come out to the city for ages. I breathed the scent of clean, empty home, and felt some little part of my heart die a bit more.
"Mommy, when are we goin' out trick or treatin'?" Tommy asked, his hand clamped around my own.
Immediately, I smiled down at him. "As soon as it gets dark and spooky outside, honey. Uncle Gabe's gone to grab dinner for everyone, then we'll get into our costumes. Okay?"
The boy beamed at me, but there was something in his gaze that said different. I crouched down and hugged him, taking a wild guess. Hudson had always escorted us during the evening's festivities. Almost every year, they'd gone as a paired costume. I'd jumped in a little more recently, but we'd continued the tradition.
After having the quadruplets, we'd all gone out. But there'd still been something special between father and son, Tommy and Hudson, always planning their costumes.
Thankfully, I'd been in on it this year. I knew exactly what they were going to do, and I intended to keep up with my boy's plans no matter what was happening outside of his realm of understanding. The kids had been largely unaffected by the mayhem we'd been dealing with, and I intended to keep it that way.
With the little ones trailing me on all fours, they knew it was safe to shift as soon as we were inside, I picked up Tommy and carried him off to the kitchen. Outside, Gabe pulled up with the Hummer and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't in any mood to cook and, to be perfectly honest, I was willing to subsist on greasy spoon-style cookin' more than I once had been. How long had it been since I'd shoved a terrible sloppy joe in my mouth?
Leo helped Gabe in with the bags of food, both of them having to make a second trip to feed us all. The men ate like exactly what you'd expect, and I was no pixie either. I snuggled Tommy on my lap and stroked Norrin's head as Lillian and Xavion worked through the pile, spreading it all out in a Styrofoam-covered buffet.
"Can I give Tres my bacon when we go home tomorrow?" Tommy asked, peering at the various trays and boxes.
I gently pulled him away from the table and sat him down on the floor. "If you remember to get it out of the fridge, sure. I bet he'd love it."
Though, I had to admit I was impressed that he was willing to share such a prized possession. People, if you think that humans love bacon, you've never seen a hungry werewolf in the breakfast meat aisle. You're likely to watch them sweep the whole shelf off and into a cart. Vegetables? I had to sneak them into foods now and then just to keep the guys healthy. But bacon? Sausage? We couldn't keep enough of it in stock.
Dinner was a nearly silent affair, everyone quiet and digging into their food. Waffle House had said bye bye to our little nook of the country a while ago, but Waffle Queen? Ah, she was a kind and wise ruler, dolling out grits and hash browns to all her subjects for the low price of 99 cents per side dish. It'd been that way since I was a kid, it had stayed that way when I'd graduated high school and we'd all gotten horribly sick from too much junk food at 3 am.
"Wait a minute," Gabe said as the kids and I got up to leave. I frowned at him, but he continued. "I know Hudson usually takes all of you out tonight. He's been your great big watchdog for a long time, especially you, kiddo," he said, referring to Tommy with a gentle punch to the kid's shoulder. Tommy beamed at him. "But he's still recovering, and we're going to go ahead and let me follow along this year. If that's okay with Mom."
"I thought we'd decided I was going?" Xavion asked, his brow a frown across his features. "You and Leo were staying here to take care of things, watch the kids who turn up for candy, make sure it's all just fine."
Gabe shrugged. "I made an executive decision."
"You're an executive. Everything you make is an executive decision. Doesn't matter. You stay here, hang with Leo. I've got this," Xavion said, getting out of his seat.
"Boys," I started, looking between them. "We could all go. It's not against any rules to just leave a bucket of candy on the front porch with a sign, is it?"
Lillian rolled her eyes. "Billion trillion dollar mansion and you still think small-town rules. The HOA would eat you alive for something like that, you know."
"Ah, shoot," I sighed. "I forgot about the HOA. We don't really have those out there, and we're never out this way anymore."
Damn snobby people anyway. I needed to talk to Hudson about selling this place when he was feeling better, didn't I? We could still have a place in the city, but I preferred that we have it somewhere more relaxed than here. Though I supposed that would mean we'd have to have someone come through and do... what? What did you do to prep a house that took away all signs of werewolfery?
I guess you cleaned it like you would for someone moving out that had pets, but what if someone stumbled upon a bit of fur and took it to a lab? Though, the cleaners could have done that at any time. I shuddered and shook away the thoughts of damnation and despair. Paranoia only gets you so far in this life. Then you just have to hunker down and deal with the consequences.
"Lil-" I said.
She shook her head, interrupting me. "I've never gotten to take the kids. Who cares what the HOA says? We'll just pay them off and go as a group."
"You sure that's okay with you?" I asked, cocking my head. Lillian was a stickler for rules; one reason that she made such an amazing aunt for the kids. The rest of the pack and I needed a reminder sometimes to be stricter; for their own good.
A smile appeared on her face, though it was only there for a second. "I appreciate that you're all worried about my feelings, but I'll be fine. We can afford it, the HOA can cry about it later. Besides. What're they going to do? Take the candy out of a baby's hands? Come on."
"Auntie Lillian are you gonna dress up, too?" Tommy asked, blinking up at her.
She paused, then looked back at me. "I think I will, if your mom lets me in on what you two are planning to do."
"Come on," I told her, sliding an arm around her shoulders.
Even after all this time, there were moments when Lillian wasn't sure she belonged with us. Maybe it was because of her alignment. The pack was already thick with alphas; Hudson, Gabe, Xav, Leo, and even Tommy. We weren't sure about the quads yet, but it seemed to me it was likely that most were omegas. I'd learned, after some time, that omegas usually blossomed later than alphas and our pups showed no real sign of their alignment yet. When I'd met Tommy, they'd known he was an alpha f
or quite some time; and he'd been so young.
We went upstairs as a group, pulling adorable onesie-style costumes on each pup, after they'd shapeshifted back into human form, of course. That was another adjustment to make; the pups had shifted wildly during my pregnancy with them and I wasn't entirely certain I was ready for more of that. Having a baby switch into being a puppy, then back again? Being pummeled with paws, claws, fists, and feet all within ten or twenty minutes? It was a hell of a lot to handle.
I settled my four little pumpkins on the bed, all of them too cute in their little hats and jack-o-lantern outfits. They walloped each other with their fists and I had to break up two fights before I started to help Tommy into his own costume. A long tail, sweet little painted on whiskers, and a pair of huge, wide ears that looked more at home on a Disney character than on my boy.
"You're the cutest mouse I've ever seen in my life," I said.
Then I bent nearly in two and kissed his cheek. Yet, I realized that it was nowhere near as deep as I'd had to bend last year to kiss my boy. He had to have put on at least three or four inches, maybe even more, and that struck me in the chest so hard. In ten years, he'd be driving. In fifteen, he'd probably be doing keg stands at some frat house.
They grow up so fast.
Lillian took over for me, watching the kids as she went through a closet. I snuck off into the bathroom, carrying a plastic bag with me. No one had seen my costume other than Tommy, who had declared it the best one at the store. Personally, I thought the kid was picking it because of the ears more than anything, but Hudson certainly would have approved.
Even with a set of quads behind me, I'd spent a lot of time getting back into shape. When things were busy, I lived off of coffee and whatever my assistants could grab for me. When they weren't, I was always busy helping with the rescue at home anyway. I'd been lean when I was broke, but these days I was a strong, shapely predator who had been working out.
The cat suit was quite literal. I, too, had a long tail with a piece of metal in it to give it shape. My ears were a spotted headband across the top of my skull, and the leopard-print skin-tight suit left little to the imagination. Sure, it was a little bit racy to be taking my kids out, but I thought the boys might appreciate it a little.
I pulled on a pair of paw gloves and booties, then slinked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. I'd drawn whiskers on my face with a black lipstick and darkened my nose, not trusting my powers to do it, too. Tommy gasped and pretended to run away, dashing over to one of the closets. I did my best imitation of a purr and stalked after him, lifting my hands in that classic clawed monster position as I growled.
"Little mouse, I know you're in there," I told him, my voice gravelly.
He gave a giggle and then screamed in the way that kids do when they're very overexcited. "No! You can't come in here!"
"Rah!" I yelled, throwing myself into the door.
Tommy shrieked again, then ran at me and bit my paw, shaking his head as he would if he were in the form of a pup. I laughed and let him take the glove, watching him happily run away with it before he realized what he was doing. Blushing, he brought it back to me. I took it and off he hurried.
"Careful with that," Lillian warned. "You start pulling on him like you're a tug toy, that predatory instinct might take over and he'll end up chomping you again."
"It worked out last time," I told her with a grin.
She tutted and rolled her eyes. "You go get the stroller ready. I'll get these four."
I gave her a thumbs up and got up, chasing after Tommy as I pulled my glove back on.
Within minutes, the whole pack was ready to head out on to the street. Tommy clutched his little plastic pumpkin as I wheeled the quads along in a stroller that was, honestly, way too big for polite society. But what were you going to do when you had four babies at once? If nothing else, we'd tried to give pedestrian traffic some forethought and bought something that lined each kid up rather than having them abreast of the sidewalk.
Though, I wasn't really sure if they even made ones that wide. I'd gotten everything second-hand, still intent on saving every penny that I could. The guys had scolded me throughout, finally giving in when I threatened to bite them over not buying each baby their own separate wardrobe.
I sighed as we walked, Xavion, Gabe, and Leo clustered tight around us. We could have hired security, but where was the fun for the kids in that? We passed houses full of spooky surprises, homes that had been professionally and minimally decorated, and some that weren't participating in the fun at all. My parents would have never approved. They'd been the type that only let me get candy out of the back of people's cars parked around the church back when I was a kid. Trunk or treat wasn't a bad idea. It gave you more control over where your kids went and who they saw, sure. It also didn't let them really suck up all that scary that was Halloween.
Well, it hadn't in my case anyway. I've heard some are better at the haunted vibe than others.
Tommy was on his seventh house when the light of the crescent moon went out overhead. My stomach dropped and I pulled the stroller closer to myself, searching for any sign or scent of dragons on the wind. Fire, brimstone, and fury drifted past me. I didn't have time to react before Leo snatched me up and yanked me away from the stroller, pulling me into the well-manicured bushes to the side. Xav snatched the kids, Gabe got Tommy, and the pack hid beneath the mulberries, listening to thick, leathery wings slap the air.
Then the screams began. We weren't anywhere near it, but I could feel the heat from the first fire blast as it ripped across the street and sliced a house in half, just visible through the branches of our hiding spot.
"We need to get the fuck out of here," Gabe whispered to me. "Shift. We're all shifting."
"The stroller," I whispered right back.
Gabe let out an annoyed sigh. "We can buy a thousand more of the fucking things. Get your paws on and let's go!"
I couldn't disobey a direct order, not from an alpha that had knotted me so many times. I didn't think that Gabe would ever do it and wow, would we be having words later, but my suit split straight down the back as fur burst from my skin. I was on my paws before I knew it, glaring at him, my ears flat.
There was no remorse in his gaze. He nipped my shoulder and away we went, fleeing beneath the cover of darkness. Tommy still carried his treats in his jaws, the bright plastic pumpkin a dead giveaway in the night.
Xavion realized it at the same second I did. He snatched the thing out of the pup's mouth and ran ahead of us, ducking into the shadows once more. That proved to be his undoing. With a triumphant shriek, a dragon plummeted toward my pack. I leapt in the air, twisting and snapping at the claws. One raked across my cheek and knocked me to the ground. I came back up screaming in rage.
I was nowhere near as far up as Xavion was. That silver dragon had my mate in its paws, Tommy's candy and all, flying higher and higher into the sky. I screamed, pacing on the ground, demanding the dragon come back. But I was an omega.
It was an alpha.
And it didn't listen.
Chapter Fifteen
Sadie
I stood in the street, a wolf watching her mate fly away, until a horn blared and headlights shined on me, illuminating the night. I froze, staring into that oncoming death with my tail between my legs. What else would you do if a car flew at you at a thousand miles a second?
Leo caught me by the shoulder, slamming me across the road and raking my coat against the pavement, but he saved my life. I staggered back to my feet, folding my ears against my head and sniffing him to make certain he was still real; that he hadn't been stolen away by a dragoness with a grudge.
If I'd only kept my mouth shut. I was newly come, newly made compared to the others. I had no right, especially as an omega, to try to organize everyone into a group like I'd been doing. It was my fault Xavion was taken from us, my fault that the sanctuary had been burned, my fault that who knew how many people had just been vaporized. I
danced on the spot, anxious and upset. This was why omegas weren't leaders. We couldn't deal with it when things heated up.
Leo touched his nose to mine and licked my cheek, as if sensing that I was working myself up. I shied, trying to get my thoughts straight. No. I was an omega but I had every right, maybe even more right than some others, to try to protect the innocents in the world. I was newly come, so I remembered what being human was like in a place where some had never been human to begin with.
I lifted my head and snarled at the sky, promising deep in my heart that, somehow, we would get Xavion back.
I just didn't know how quite yet.
We crept back to the house as soon as the sirens started blazing in the distance. There was no good time for a pack of wolves to show up in a residential area, and armed officers weren't likely to take kindly to us at the moment. I shifted back as soon as we got there, not caring that the curtains were or weren't drawn. I didn't know. I wasn't looking. I spun on my family, my pack, and stared at them.
Puppy Problems: A Reverse Harem Werewolf Romance (Her Secret Menagerie Book 3) Page 13