So I Married a Werewolf Page 2

  “No.” He spit the word out. “But they love to recruit new wolves into their fold. Rogue, dangerous wolves. I’ll make sure every wolf on my team is on the lookout.”

  “Of course they’d reach out once we start the show.” I slid off the desk and paced my office. It was too small for all the wolf energy in here. And the last thing I would do was shift. That was exactly what Montana wanted. To lure my wolf out. To take The Mating Game away from me.

  “They won’t get their hands on you, or anything associated with the show. I guarantee it.” Hugo stepped in front of me, putting his hands on my arms. Energy rocketed between us. Hugo was ready to fight.

  But was I?

  I closed my eyes.

  Yeah, I was ready. Montana wouldn’t set the terms this time. Sunset Springs was my turf now, and I determined the rules of this game.

  Chapter Two

  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.

  The alarm finally stopped, but the tears didn’t. I leaned against the kitchen counter, desperate to regain my composure. Bibi and the crew would be here any minute...

  Which made me cry harder, and I slid down the counter onto the floor. All the frustration of the last ten years of my life poured out of me, when I’d done what everyone else told me I should do for the good of the pack, and this was what I got in return.

  A knock on the door made the boys start barking. Another charming trait they’d picked up in the last few weeks. I wiped under my eyes...good thing makeup remained at the bottom of my to-do list, because it would be all over everything at this point.

  Charlotte ran to the door. Stranger danger wasn’t a thing in Green Mountain Village—nobody came here unless they had to—and she opened it to reveal a spectacularly sparkly drag queen, a giant blond man who exuded some serious bear energy wielding a camera, and a tiny, dark-haired human woman who was perfectly put together—it was probably a requirement hanging out with Bibi—in tow.

  “Hey, sugarplum.” Bibi picked up Charlotte. “Aren’t you just as cute as a button?”

  Charlotte’s mouth dropped. “Princess?”

  My daughter wasn’t the only one absolutely fascinated by Bibi le Bonnet. She was this ethereal creature, this ideal that no one could possibly meet. I mean, she had sparkly eyelashes. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d managed a shower by myself.

  “You’re the princess. I’m more like your mom’s fairy dragmother. Which would make me your drag grandmother. Oh, I am way too young for that.” She laughed. “Where’
s your mom?”

  “I’m in the kitchen.” Still slumped in an upright fetal position, hugging my knees to my chest.

  Bibi put Charlotte down, and her impossibly high heels clicked on the linoleum floor. The last time I’d worn a pair of heels was probably my ceremony day. I didn’t call it my mating ceremony anymore, because Pedro wasn’t my mate.

  She wore a black-and-white patterned dress. One arm was completely bare, that was, until the opera glove started, and the other side had a giant poof at the shoulder. It was a wonder she managed to get Charlotte to let go.

  Bibi kneeled in front of me, the hair from her shocking red-bobbed wig falling slightly toward her face, and frowned. I couldn’t be more of her polar opposite if I tried in my stretched-out T-shirt and ripped leggings.

  My socks didn’t even match.

  Her entourage stood behind her and looked at each other, confused whether or not they were supposed to be capturing this absolute rock bottom moment.

  The thought that I could look back on this and laugh meant that I believed that things would get better. They had to. There was nowhere to go but up.

  “What happened here?” Bibi asked as she settled beside me. I cringed at the thought of her beautiful dress making contact with the kitchen floor.

  “You mean, why does my house smell like burnt cheese and little boy pee?”

  “I wasn’t going to bring it up, but now that you mention it.” She put her hand on my arm and gave me the first smile without pity that had come in my direction since long before Pedro took off. “My plan was to give you three choices about what you wanted to do tonight, but we have no choice but to make this better.”

  “I’m not sure you can.” My heart broke to say the next words. “I should back out of The Mating Game.”

  Fire engine red lips formed a perfect O. “Why on earth would you think you should do that?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “You’re a perfect fit for The Mating Game.” Bibi shifted her long legs to get more comfortable, looking even more out of place among discarded toys and too many dishes in the sink. I was embarrassed that I didn’t have a chance to shove everything into a closet, a backroom, somewhere Bibi, her crew, and anyone who eventually watched this didn’t have to see it. “My mission is to make you believe that you’re worthy of all the amazing things that are about to happen to you. Please don’t back out.”

  The next wave of the meltdown sucker-punched me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Bibi pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back until I cried all the frustration, anger, and embarrassment out.

  I pulled away to catch my breath. Bibi’s shoulder was soaked. At least it was the bare one. Of course I’d be the one to finally give her a flaw.

  “Tell me everything. If you’re ready.”

  “Where do I even start?”

  Marissa tapped my shoulder and handed me a tissue. “Want some tea?”

  “Sure. I mean, maybe. If I have any, it’s in the cabinet over the stove.” I slid to the side so she could reach it. “The mugs are there too. You’re welcome to have some.”

  Bjorn opened the tripod for his camera. They were filming this. The boys came downstairs, sensing two new shifters in the house.

  Their mouths gaped at the sight of the sparkly goddess beside me and the bear of a man behind the camera. I held my breath, expecting them to try to mark their territory, but I was too overwhelmed to do anything about it.

  But so far, it looked like they might actually behave.

  “Start at the beginning.” Bibi welcomed Charlotte back into her lap.

  “Like how I wound up married to a wolf that wasn’t my mate?” Humans thought of marriage as the ultimate commitment, but they had an out. They could walk away from each other, even if it tended to be messy and painful. Becoming mated was so much more. It was a soul contract, written in the stars before the wolves involved in it had ever laid eyes on each other. That was all I could say about it because I had yet to experience a true mate bond.

  But I wanted it. There was a wolf out there for me.

  Bibi scrunched her nose. “If you want to talk about Pedro.”

  I’d studied what Bibi had done with The Real Werewives. She had a way of getting people to tell her things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. Agree to things way out of their comfort zone. Right now, she was giving me a one-way ticket out of this pity party.

  And somehow, my kids were being good in her presence, so it would be pretty reckless of me to doubt her magic.

  “I do. Everyone says they want to know what happened, but they never give me a chance to answer, and I’ve lain awake more nights than I can count thinking about what I wanted to say.” I accepted the steaming mug of tea that Marissa offered. “I didn’t have to mate with a wolf in the Green Mountain pack. Technically. But it was expected. Celebrated. Some of my friends found their mates right away. They’re still together. Others got the hell out of Dodge. Those were the smart kids, the ones who got scholarships. That could’ve been me, but I had to go straight to work after school to help my mom after my dad died. Wolves take care of their own. So I never worried about my future, because I thought, when it was my turn, I’d be taken care of, too.”

  “That’s a great theory, when it works. But packs have changed, and there are too many wolves that don’t have a place anywhere.” Bibi’s words had an edge, like all those glitter-covered wounds that were still healing. “That’s why we’re doing The Mating Game. It’s time to change the way wolves think about finding fated mates. You deserve to find a wolf that makes you feel like a queen.”

  “I feel like a queen right now.” Sad as that was. Sitting on the floor with Bibi and the kids—while Marissa made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches assembly-line style to replace my burned mac and cheese, and Bjorn watched her with guarded amusement—was the most peaceful and orderly my life had been in a long time.

  Bibi laughed. “Then we definitely have some work to do.”

  “How are we going to pull this off? My babysitter bailed tonight. My house has been marked by my two tiny wolves. How will I convince a mate they want this?”

  “By being you.”

  She was determined to make me cry every last bit of emotion out tonight.

  My she-wolf told me not to get my hopes up, but I was tired of mediocre. I wanted some of that sparkle that Bibi was more than ready to serve.

  “I’m not sure who I am anymore.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Carter climbing Bjorn’s leg, and Caleb getting way too close to the camera. “Boys. No. Eat your sandwiches.”

  “Maybe we should go somewhere else,” Bibi suggested.

  “All of us? You’re underestimating how much time it takes to get three kids out of the house.”

  Caleb turned to us. “Where are we going?”

  “You’re staying here. Your mom is coming for a walk with Bjorn and me,” Bibi said.

  Marissa turned to her boss, knife still in hand. “Wait. What?”

  “Well, I certainly can’t watch the kids. I’m the host. Besides, Auntie Bibi doesn’t babysit until they’re housebroken. Don’t worry, you’ll be great at it. You’ve already made them dinner. They’ll love you.”

  Marissa turned to Bjorn, but he simply grinned at her as he removed the camera from the tripod.

  No wonder Pedro left. We were chaos at our very best. “What happens when the show is over, and my new wolf realizes this is his life now?”

  Bibi waved her hand at me. “It won’t be anyone’s life anymore after you all go through Bibi Bootcamp. We’ll get you the help you need to make your life exactly how you want it to be.”

  “How?”

  “You have to believe in fate, Cindy.” She walked to the front door and took my jacket off the hook. “Now are you ready to do this while we have a perfectly capable and willing—"

  Marissa opened her mouth to protest, but Bibi waved her off.

  “—babysitter, and a fabulous fairy dragmother with an almos
t unlimited budget to make your dreams come true?”

  The kids didn’t even complain when I left. The forest air was cool and crisp, and it felt good to be outside with adults.

  “Is it weird that I feel guilty that I’m doing this?” I pulled my coat tightly around me. Even in heels, Bibi walked much faster than I did.

  “We won’t be gone long, and Marissa will be fine. She always gets flustered at first, and then she pulls the task off without a hitch.”

  “Not about that. About Pedro.” How could I put this into words? “He left months ago, and I was never in love with him, but I feel like I’m the one who’s abandoning him.”

  “Of course you do. You’re a she-wolf. We can’t handle abandonment because it’s not supposed to happen to us. Even if you were never in love with him, you’re still mourning his loss. You had a life with him, and everything you knew, everything that made you feel comfort and security, is gone.”

  I appreciated Bibi’s calm, cool, and collected demeanor, but she couldn’t be perfect at everything. Even if she hit the nail on the head when it came to the emotions swirling inside of me.

  “What do you know about being abandoned?”

  “I lived a good part of my life as a man and had to run a thousand miles before I found where I belonged. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”

  “Sometimes it’s easy to forget you lived another life before this,” I said.

  “That’s what you’ll be saying about yourself at the end of this episode. But you’ll never forget who you were, Cindy. It becomes a part of your armor. It will make you invincible.”

  Chapter Three

  Logan

  “This job is career suicide. You can’t do it.” My agent, Margaret, didn’t even wait for me to say anything when I picked up the phone. I’d missed a half dozen calls from her and hadn’t had a chance to check my texts before she called again.