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ChapterTwo
Cindy
“Mom! Caleb just marked my spot!”
Some sadist in my pack thought it would be cute to enlighten my twin four-year-old sons about how wolves liked to mark their territory. To be fair, they probably didn’t expect them to take the advice to heart, but they’d been pissing all over everything ever since.
That’s what I got for relying on anyone who was willing to watch my three kids under the age of five, but I’d unexpectedly become a single mother. When my mate—
No, he was never my mate. He was a man I committed myself to because I thought it was the right thing to do.
Don’t mind me for being a little frazzled. Let me try that again.
When Pedro took off after a failed challenge against our pack’s alpha, the first emotion I had was relief. I had a chance to start fresh. Our whole pack did. He might not have been our leader, but he had enough influence around here to keep people down. Set in their ways. To make them stop expecting anything better.
“Don’t pee on anything else!” I yelled from the bottom of the stairs. A fit of giggles made me squeeze my eyes closed. My request had come too late.
Just become one with the pee, I told myself. They’ll get bored with it if they don’t get a rise out of me. Or they’ll get kicked out of kindergarten and become the wild wolves they’re destined to be. Just like their dad.
“I’ll be up there in a minute. Don’t...do anything else.”
No big surprise I was woefully unprepared for life without Pedro. Caleb and Carter had been acting out, not understanding why their daddy hadn’t come home in months. I couldn’t explain it to them, because I didn’t understand, either. There was a contingent of the Green Mountain pack that wasn’t as relieved as I was that Pedro hadn’t crawled back into my life. They decided I’d be the perfect target for that frustration. I’d been in a precarious position in the pack. Some of my closest friends had to sneak behind their mates’ backs to give me a much-needed hand. Not to mention the whispers behind hands and disapproving looks volleyed at me when I ventured into our village.
And then The Mating Game announced I’d be their first contestant. I only thought the pack had been up in arms before.
How could I move on so fast? Did I even care about Pedro?
I held back the urge to scream. Did anyone care what I wanted?
Bibi and her crew would be here soon. I should have time to clean up whatever disaster had transpired upstairs, feed the kids, get Charlotte in her jammies, and make myself look presentable for my first on-camera interview.
But first, where was my phone? Right, Charlotte had it. Maybe I wasn’t winning the mother of the year award by letting my two-year-old play with my phone, but sometimes I needed the moment of peace that it bought me. Snatching it out of her hands was not for the faint of heart, but I liked to think I was no amateur.
I had a message.
Girl, I am so sorry, I won’t be able to watch the kiddos tonight. I owe you big time.
Mari would never back out on babysitting without good reason, or without her mate giving her serious grief about aiding and abetting my reality show appearance. I would bet all the money I didn’t have on option two.
How would I keep these kids under control during my interview?
Maybe I could talk Bibi and her crew into doing the interview after the kids went to bed?
Like I’d actually be able to get them to bed when there was a drag queen and a camera crew in the house.
Or maybe I could talk Wendy into it...? But she lived in Sunset Springs, and it would take forever to come here, if she even said yes.
“Mama!” Charlotte held her arms up, opening and closing her hands. She wanted her toy back.
“Sorry baby. Mama needs her phone.” I was holding onto the pipe dream that I’d be able to find someone to watch these kids in the next—
Charlotte huffed, and oh no.
Tantrum time.
She’d missed her nap this afternoon. Her arms stiffened by her sides, her little hands balled into fists. “Want it.”
“Mama needs it.”
“Want. It.” She jumped, reaching for it, and then dissolved into tears when she missed.
I scrolled through my phone, ignoring the hysterical toddler at my feet. Maybe I could talk Michelle into watching them? She was right down the street, and she’d been my lifeline since Pedro left. But then I’d have to get them over to her house...
“Mom!” one of the twins called from upstairs.
I opened my mouth to answer, but the sound of the fire alarm sent both Charlotte and me straight into the air.
Frantic, I scooped up my daughter and turned to head up the stairs.
But the source of the blaring alarm wasn’t on the second floor. Smoke plumed from the oven. I’d completely forgotten about the macaroni and cheese that I put in there...who knows how long ago, because the timer sat forgotten on the back of the stove. After putting down my hysterical toddler, who even in the midst of an emergency managed to wrangle my phone out of my grip, I pulled the blackened casserole out of the oven, opened the back door to let the smoke out, and half-heartedly waved my oven mitt at the smoke alarm to shut it off.
Tears streamed down my face, and I hurled curses in the direction of the damn alarm. All it was doing was its job, but I felt like it was mocking me. I couldn’t even manage to heat up a damn casserole right now. And moon knows I’d had enough practice—the she-wolves of the pack had been dropping them off here on the down-low like there had been a funeral.
