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“When will you be going to the council meeting, then?” I asked Diana curiously.
She looked up from her cup of coffee and tilted her head to look at the clock on the wall. “Well, I won’t meet with them until this afternoon, like I said, but I do need to go to the coven house and make some arrangements for when you and Brady take over the leadership roles together. I’m setting up a little surprise for the two of you for when you are able to move in.”
I coughed on my drink. “Move in?”
Diana nodded. “Yes, we’ve always used the coven house as a guest house since I’m also the luna here. With you being the pack gamma now, you don’t have to live in the packhouse and Brady will need to live in the coven house once he takes full charge. So, suffice to say, you both will be moving out and into the coven house as your main residence.” She gave me a soft smile. “That’s not to say you won’t be allowed to occasionally sleep here in your current room.”
I smiled and nodded, though in my mind I was already planning a confrontation with Brady for keeping this information from me.
“So, what’s the surprise, then?” I asked.
Diana laughed and gave me a small wink. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it?” She picked up her napkin and dabbed the corners of her lips as she stood up. “Don’t worry, it’s going to be a good surprise. I promise you will love it.”
She nodded to Alma and me both as she made her way through the kitchen door and then turned towards the front door. I could hear the security team join her in the hall as they made their way out of the packhouse.
“And then there was one,” I thought to myself as I looked over at Alma.
“I don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready to clean up and let this food settle. Why don’t you go sit with the pups in the living room while I get this all cleared out and I’ll join you in just a few moments.” She said with a grin.
I nodded, knowing well that it was no use trying to help her with the chore of cleaning up after breakfast. Alma took pride in caring for her family. She had once told me that it was her way of making up for lost time during Chios’s reign in the pack.
Her husband had been killed in the battle that took Alpha Orion’s parents. Although she and her children were the beta family, Chios had chosen to spare them, and cast them out of the packhouse to live in poverty among the humans.
They were still pack members. Still obligated to attend pack events, however, they were rank-less in the Chios pack and the pack allowance did little to cover the expenses of Alma raising her young children.
Now, she was back in the rank of a beta family, and she returned to the way she had lived life before, with the added personal experience of strife to help her understand the importance of the littlest of things.
I walked into the living room where the toddlers were all watching the TV. A woman singing about the days of the week with a little orange puppet held their attention while their nanny knitted on the couch.
I joined her there, taking up the ball of yarn to help her keep the yarn’s tension even as she worked. She gave me a smile, but no words were exchanged, nothing to distract the children from the program they were so captivated by.
The moment gave me more time to go over my plan. I now knew that everyone would be busy until this evening. The only ones I had to avoid were Alma and the house staff, but I already knew all their routines.
Although Edwardo had mentioned he had extra patrol, I knew exactly what area and time he was referring to. No one thought I knew, but he had taken over the patrols that had been assigned to me before my maternity leave was ordered by Alpha Orion.
The patrols operated with a predictability that was both a strength and a vulnerability. It was a flaw I had intended to address upon resuming my role as beta in Nyte’s pack, but circumstances had shifted my priorities. Today, however, I would exploit this lapse in security for my own ends, promising myself to alert Edwardo to the oversight afterward.
“More, more!” The pups suddenly cried out, snapping me back to the present.
I looked up to find that their video was over, and the nanny gratefully took the yarn from me and began to pack up her things.
“Now, now, children. You know that we only have so much TV time a day. You don’t want to use it all up in one sitting. Let’s go outside and get some fresh air.”
A few of the children began to cry and continue to demand more of their TV time, declaring that they don’t like the outside. I smiled as I watched them, unable to relate to their apparent dislike for the playground that any other day they loved more than the inside world of the packhouse.
“Hey, guys,” I said softly. “If you are extra good for your nanny, I’ll put in a good word with Ms. Alma to make you a special treat later.”
The pups all looked up to me with widened eyes that glistened with excitement at the mention of Alma’s cooking.
“Really?” one little boy asked.
I nodded and smiled. “But only if you listen to your nanny and do as she tells you to.”
All of a sudden, the toddlers formed a neat line, their excited chatter filling the air as they eagerly discussed their love for Ms. Alma’s churros.
The nanny smiled gratefully at me as she began to lead the pups out the door and down the hall to the playground.
“You are going to be a wonderful mother when that little one is born,” Alma said from behind me.
