by Amber Lynn
There was a single instance when we’d made the mistake of abruptly waking her up. She’d fallen asleep in the middle of Paul’s mother’s birthday party, and before we left her grandma wanted to thank her for the little picture Sierra had drawn for her. I hadn’t known what would happen, but at only fifteen months I didn’t imagine she’d show her fangs. Literally.
It was one of the hardest things I had to explain away when it came to the girls. It helped that once she realized she wasn’t being attacked, her fangs disappeared and I could claim it was all an optical illusion.
After that, I made sure whenever she showed signs of being sleepy, we immediately went home. Paul had been kind enough not to ask any questions, but I knew he wondered about the incident. He’d developed the uncanny knack of always looking the other way when something supernatural happened.
If he hadn’t stepped out of bounds when it came to our marriage, I really thought we would’ve been able to make things work. I felt he knew there was something different about me and the girls, and he was okay with it. We’d never spoken about it, but his actions at different times made me feel good about our secret.
I never really wanted him to find out the truth, though. It was something I had a feeling that would eventually get him in trouble as far as his political aspirations went, and I wanted to protect him from finding himself in a difficult situation.
Selina’s squeezing wasn’t working extremely fast, so she leaned over and rubbed her nose back and forth against Sierra’s. It was the way they showed affection to each other, but at the same time it was making sure Sierra didn’t feel a threat.
Selina leaned back, anticipating Sierra’s hand coming up to swipe across her nose. She made a sad little mewling noise before turning her head the other direction.
“I didn’t think she was that tired.” I’d timed things so they’d already had their nap for the day, which should’ve meant they’d be ready for an afternoon of swimming.
“She didn’t sleep earlier. She was worried about us moving away, so she stayed up and made Daddy a present.”
I let my eyes leave one daughter to focus on the one speaking to me. Once I tucked them in for their naps, they were usually good about actually going to sleep, and if they didn’t, I knew they were up. I hadn’t felt either of them up moving around when they shouldn’t have been that day.
“What kind of present did she leave for Daddy? I didn’t see anything in your room.” I thought the gesture was cute, but I was a little worried about Sierra’s ability to sneak something like that by me.
“She put it in your room. I told her she shouldn’t, because you wouldn’t like it, but she was so sad that I let her do it. I’m sorry.”
Selina had tilted her head down, so she wouldn’t have to look at me. She had her hands folded in her lap, with her general demeanor turning submissive.
“Sweetie, why are you upset? There’s nothing wrong with your sister giving Daddy a present.”
“I don’t think you’ll think that when you know what the picture she drew was. It was really pretty.”
I didn’t doubt it was a work of art that belonged in a museum somewhere. Along with the other gifts Sierra shouldn’t have had at two years old, she could draw better than any adult I knew.
“Are you going to tell me what was in the picture?” I was a little worried about the subject matter, but most of Sierra’s drawings were of the people she knew.
“It was a family portrait. She didn’t want Daddy to miss us, so she drew a picture of all of us together.”
I looked back over to Sierra, since my eyes had been off her for a few minutes. I’d hoped she would’ve woken up during the conversation, but her eyes were still closed and her chest showed steady, slow breaths.
“I’m sure Daddy will love it once he sees it. Do you think we should chance waking her, or should I try to carry her in without disturbing her too much?”
I still didn’t know why Selina had acted funny about the picture, but we’d been sitting in the parking lot for around ten minutes, and eventually someone was going to wonder what was going on. Not wanting to draw any attention, I needed to get checked in and get us out of sight.
“You don’t understand, but you need to know. The picture was us running through the woods as a family. With Daddy like he always is and the rest of us how we are when we go running each month.”
My eyes immediately darted back to Selina. Her face was tilted up, her eyes imploring me to understand what she’d said. I understood all too well what she said, but I was hoping I’d at some point fallen asleep and it was a dream.
The girls had only been going out with me for monthly runs for a few months. At a certain point in a werewolf’s life, it was required that they change each month and let the energy that built up in their body out. I hadn’t expected the girls to need to as young as they were, but they’d been ready, so we sneaked out of the house and spent a few hours running through the closest woods I could find.
They both knew there were things about us they couldn’t tell other people, and I’d thought they understood why that was. They knew Paul didn’t know about us, both had promised not to tell him.
“Where did she leave her picture?”
Worry had set in a little, but I didn’t think a picture of Paul with a few wolves would be that hard to explain away. Sierra was two, and it’d be easy for me to blame it on her active imagination.
“In your bedroom, on the table next to Daddy’s side of the bed. She wanted to make sure he saw it.” Selina spoke softly as if she was worried, but she tried to roll calm into her words.
If she’d left it out in the open, he’d more than likely seen it before he’d played hide the salami with Katie. To me that meant he’d seen it and didn’t care that his daughter saw him running around with a mini wolf pack.
I made sure to hide the little bit of concern I felt by echoing the calmness Selina seemed to always have. I was the one who’d put them in the awkward situation of living two different lives.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. I know we aren’t supposed to tell Daddy anything, and I’m sure he’ll just think it’s a pretty picture.”
I hoped Sierra hadn’t put her spelling skills to the test to indicate who each of the people were. Even that I could explain away since we didn’t look humanoid when we were in our other forms. It wasn’t like Paul would see the picture and instantly know it really was his family.
“Okay, Mommy. Sierra, she isn’t mad, you can quit pretending to sleep.” Selina poked her sister a couple of times in the arm.
Sierra made a showing of just waking up, but I could tell she was faking it. I stared at the little hellion, dumbfounded that she could pull one over on me. When her eyes focused on me, I saw an evil little twinkle in them.
“When did you start being able to fake your sleeping?” As a kid I hadn’t thought about fooling my parents until I was closer to my teenage years.
“I suppose I’ve always been able to, but I don’t do it very often.” She rubbed her eyes with her little hands and shrugged her shoulders.
She didn’t want to give me specifics. She was a natural actress, which had me worried about what I’d be dealing with as she got older. I hoped her sister would always be willing to tell on her, even if that put Selina in a difficult situation.
“Do you have anything to say about what your sister just shared with me?”
“I think she did a good job of explaining the situation. I wanted to give Daddy something special and he had enough regular drawings of our family. I didn’t write any words or anything, so we can pretend I was telling a story.”
I’d come to the same conclusion, but it was a good time to drive home the need to keep things secret.
“And you didn’t think that was dangerous given everything we’ve talked about?” I didn’t mean to scold, but I was trying to raise them in the human world and there were rules we had to abide by.
I understood why werewolves never s
trayed far from their pack when they had children. Werewolves actually didn’t go anywhere near humans if they could help it. I still thought living my own life was worth the chances I’d taken. If I’d had a somewhat normal life growing up, I would’ve felt a little bad for my mother.
Since my life had never been normal, I didn’t worry that I’d overly tortured my parents by acting up when I was a kid.
“Daddy wouldn’t care that we’re wolves. He loves us and I wanted him to know how much we love him.”
I sighed when I saw the dare in her eyes. She still thought the reason we were leaving had to do with me not loving Paul, even after I assured her I did.
“You’re only two, Sierra. Can you at least pretend you don’t understand the way the world works for a few years? Things are complicated between me and your father, and you shouldn’t push to understand why that is right now.”
“Fine, but Daddy promised me he loves all of us and said he’d make sure we’d always be together. He’s not going to let you take us away.”
I had turned to make sure no one had decided we needed help in the car. The parking lot had remained free of people. It was in the middle of the week, so I assumed there wouldn’t be a lot of traffic from anyone other than longer term residents of the hotel.
Hearing the conviction in Sierra’s voice, I glanced back towards her. “What all have you and Daddy been talking about?”
It seemed there was a lot being said when I wasn’t around. I thought it’d been a while since there’d been any father-daughter talks, but clearly they’d spoken recently, and he was somewhat aware of my plans.
“We talk about everything. He doesn’t think I’m too little to understand what’s going on.”
I looked over to Selina to see if she had anything to add. I sensed Sierra would lock up if I pushed too much, but the topic did cause me some concern.
“I don’t talk to Daddy like Sierra does, so I don’t know what she’s talking about.”
I’d thought the girls discussed everything, and had expected some secondhand information. It was interesting to learn there were things Sierra kept to herself. It was either that, or Selina was helping keep the secrets.
“Okay, well, if I expect you to stop sounding like an adult, I suppose I shouldn’t ask you adult questions. The next time I talk to Daddy, I’ll remind him of your age. Are you guys ready to go inside and take a look at our room?”
“I want to go swimming.” Sierra wasn’t taking my insistence that she was a baby well.
I preferred the slight whine in her voice to the know-it-all version I usually heard. If she could keep it up, I wouldn’t have to explain why the girls were able to speak grammatically correct sentences.
“First we have to go to our room and drop our bags off. I’d prefer if you changed into your bathing suits, too, if that’s not an issue with you.”
I winked and the girls giggled. We’d gone swimming at a local indoor pool the week before, and Sierra had been impatient, a trait I wished she hadn’t picked up from me, jumping in the pool while I was helping her sister get changed. She’d been nice enough to take her shoes off, but that was it.
All she had to do was take off her jeans and shirt and she would’ve been ready to swim, but that took too much time. There had been about twenty other people in the pool area and almost every single one of them had moved, thinking Sierra had fallen in and was going to drown.
She’d surfaced immediately after her cannonball and started doggie paddling her way around the pool. There hadn’t been anyone else as young as the girls, and most of the human children who were there had floatation devices to help them float.
The stunt ensured that all eyes stayed on our group for the hour we were there. Once Selina joined her sister in the pool, and I’d managed to pry Sierra’s soaking clothes off her, I heard constant whispers. Only one person actually walked up to me to ask where the girls had learned to swim. I told the truth, that I was the one who’d taught them.
The woman looked at me like I was some kind of miracle worker, but I knew that wasn’t the case. I’d seen other babies swimming in Internet videos, which was the only reason I’d been okay with bringing the girls out in public to swim.
“I already promised not to jump into the pool in my clothes. They were so stinky and my jeans turned a funny color.”
I hadn’t figured out why that was, but losing a pair of jeans wasn’t a big deal. I smiled at the girls and opened my door. I had a lot of things to still work out, but getting temporarily settled and letting the girls get rid of some of the extra energy they’d been storing up was my number one priority.
The girls were quick to unbuckle and climb out of the car to help carry their bags in. I didn’t plan on taking all the luggage, but they felt more involved if they could carry something. I handed them their miniature pink suitcases, each filled with a few outfits and some of their favorite toys.
We looked like quite the trio as we wheeled our bags behind us and made it to the front door. I gave the parking lot one last look to make sure we weren’t being watched. I hadn’t felt anything particular indicating we had, but something told me I needed to keep an eye on things.
Chapter Three
Getting checked in took less time than I thought it would. The girls were perfectly behaved, probably because they could smell the chlorine from the pool while we were in the lobby. I wasn’t sure exactly how far away the pool was, but they sure liked to keep it clean.
After a pit stop in our room to get changed, we found our way down to the pool on the first floor. It wasn’t as big as the one we were used to, but it was more than big enough for the three of us, and it appeared we had it all to ourselves.
Even though the girls were expert swimmers, I still watched over them instead of trying the small hot tub a few feet away from the pool. I had some tension in my shoulders that it’d probably work out, but I was a bit leery of hot tubs in public, because Paul and I had a short time where we were somewhat exhibitionists, and on an occasion a hot tub was involved.
It was a fun time for us, but it made me realize we probably weren’t the only ones who’d used a hot tub for that purpose. I should’ve ignored thinking about the hot tub completely, because it was making me a little nostalgic for things I couldn’t have.
“Mommy, I want to go for a ride,” Sierra demanded.
I’d managed not to get in the water, even though I enjoyed it as much as the girls. I was perfectly happy sitting on the tile ledge that surrounded the pool, with just my toes dipped in the water. I wore a one-piece swimsuit with a t-shirt on over it. I didn’t like showing a lot of skin out in public.
“Aren’t you two getting tired yet? I have it on good authority you missed your nap today.”
“I think we’re old enough that we don’t need naps anymore.”
Sierra was treading water directly in front of me as Selina practiced floating on her back. I looked down at my mouthy daughter.
“Why do you have to be so much like your mother?”
“Why does that bother you so much?”
“Because you’re two. Now why don’t you scooch back so I can get in?”
Sierra’s lip stuck out a little as she moved her arms and legs to back up. I usually didn’t have to remind her how old she was a hundred times in a day, but we were going for a record.
I lowered myself down into the water, which was cool against my skin. My temperature ran a little warmer than a normal person’s, so I assumed anyone else would think the water was warm. Since we were in the deep end, I dove under the water to get used to the change in temperature.
I didn’t know if his timing was that good, or mine was just horrible, but I felt a male presence coming close as I broke through the surface of the water. It was hard to believe he’d gotten that close without me feeling him. I was usually better than that. I wanted to ignore him in hopes he’d disappear, but our daughter had other ideas.
“Daddy,” she screamed, ignoring the fact t
hat I’d just jumped in the water to play with her.
She wouldn’t have won any Olympic medals, but she booked it towards the shallow end of the pool. I looked over my shoulder to find my husband standing there with his hands on his hips. He didn’t look mad, which surprised me.
“Hey, sweetie. Are you having fun swimming?” Paul asked Sierra as he swooped her up in his arms.
He didn’t care that his suit was going to be impossible to clean. His determined eyes were on me, even as he kissed Sierra on the head.
“Mommy was just going to take me for a ride.” Sierra moved so Paul could hold her on his hip.
“That’s nice of Mommy, but me and Mommy need to have a little talk. Do you think you can play with your sister while we go sit at that table over there?”
There were only a few tables, but Paul went ahead and pointed to one. Sierra looked over at the table, and then back to me.
“I don’t think Mommy wants to talk. She’s not very happy with you.”
“I know, but that’s just because of a misunderstanding. Once we talk, everything will be fine.”
I had to scoff at his conviction. I supposed he could’ve had different expectations, or a general definition of the word fine.
“I’m pretty sure the conversation we’ll end up having is one that that girls shouldn’t be present for.”
“If you would’ve stayed at the house, they could’ve played in their room while we talked things out. Since you decided to take them and run, we’ll have to hope they’re too busy playing to notice anything.”
I stared back at him like he’d said the dumbest thing I’d ever heard, which it was. At least in the top five anyway.
I knew Paul well enough to know he wasn’t going to go anywhere, and turning into a prune while I waited him out would make me the idiot. So I climbed out of the pool, using the ledge I’d been sitting on while I watched the girls. I didn’t feel the need to swim over and climb out closer to Paul. I planned on keeping my distance as much as possible.
I’d anticipated being talked into the pool, so I had three towels waiting just out of the splash zone. I picked up one of the standard white towels the hotel offered. I didn’t know if I should hurry up and get things over with or take my time.