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Ayrie wanted braids today, and as I braid her hair, all I can think about is the file sitting on the coffee table in the living room. Aizen comes over to me and holds up his tie. He‘ s been practicing tying it himself but hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet. Niether has Knight, so I’m not holding my breath.
“You look sleepy, Mommy,” he says,as I fold his collar over the tie.
“I’ve just had a lot to work on.” I nod.
“Is it true that Auntie Xo is gone?” Ayrie asks, sitting next to me on Aizen’s bed.
“Where did you guys hear that?” what the hell?
“The pack wolves are talking about Uncle Elliot a lot. He’s a new alpha, and people love him better than Grandpa Shark.” Aizen says and climbs onto his bed to sit on my left side. I scoot off the bed and take a seat on the floor.
“Yeah, Uncle Elliot is the alpha now and he’s trying to fix a lot of bad stuff. Xo is gone because she did some bad things to us and the packs decided that she was no longer fit to be an alpha.”
“She made me sick?” Ayrie asks. I nod. “Pop–pop said that Grandpa Shark got you hurt.
Is that true?”
“Yes,” I nod.
“Is that why you lied to me when you said you fell down the stairs?” Aizen whispers. Goosebumps break out all over my body. Why wouldn’t he know that I had lied? FML. “Yes,” I sigh. “I’m sorry I lied to you about that. I just didn’t want to scare you. I was also very scared and Pop–pop helped me.”
“Mommy, why are people scared of us?” Ayrie asks. “My friends say that their mommies and daddies tell them I’m bad.”
“You’re not bad. None of us is. They don’t understand why we’re different. You know how when we lived in Paris, some of the mommies were mean to me because of the color of my skin?” They both nod. “It’s kind of like that. Our wolves are special and very powerful. It scares them because people are used to things being a certain way so when something they’ve never seen before comes along, they immediately think it’s a bad thing.”
“But change is fun. I like living in America. It’s easier here.” Ayrie laughs.
“And we get to be werewolves. I love being a werewolf. It’s so much fun at soccer practice,” Aizen agrees.
“Do you guys like your new school?”
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“Yes, I got new designer programs for my tablet. My teacher likes my arts,” Ayrie nods.
“I have a lot of new friends. We play Minecraft together now. My friend Cody is my best friend. He’s so good at goalie.”
“That is really cool.” I fix his hair. “I’m glad you guys are having a great time.”
He groans and messes it up agaiun. I leave it alone because he’s seen Knight do that to his hair. He asked me to cut it like Dad’s last week, and I told him he should ask Knight if he could take him to whoever cuts his hair. He loved the experience, and Knight’s post went viral. His publicist loves Knight being a father. Please, Daddy merch is everywhere from their trip to the art museum.
“Mom, how come the older kids get to stay in school every day and we can’t?” Ayrie asks. “We’re the same grade.”
“Because they’re older. And I don’t know if I want to add you guys to the residence there. It can be dangerous. You know how we’re always getting into trouble.”
“But like, when we’re bigger, we can stay right?” Aizen takes my hand.
“Please, Mom? You can talk to Daddy and Pop–pop for us. It’s not fair.” Ayrie backs him up. At least, they didn’t get the costumes and the propersition toys this time.
“Why do you guys want to stay there? Do you not like seeing me every day?” I am starting to feel hurt.
“Yes, but all the other kids get to,” Aizen pulls away.
“I’ll think about it. We have a few years before you will be allowed to, anyway. You have to be at least eight. Just because you’ve skipped a couple of grades doesn’t mean you have to do everything the older kids do,”
“That’s a long time,” Ayrie complains. Yup, that’s me feeling hurt. I shouldn’t have let them skip that many grades.
“Guys, it’s time to go,” Knight says. He sees that we all look upset and he makes eye contact with me, panicked. “Is everything okay?”
“They want us to put them in the resident program at the school.”
“You have to be eight. You skipped a couple of grades, but you’re still just five,” he shakes his head. “And I don’t know if I want you guys to take up the resident program at all. It can be dangerous,”
“So, make it not dangerous,” Ayrie jumps off the bed and runs over to him. He presses his lips together when she wraps her arms around his waist. “Please, Daddy. It’s not fair,”
“What’s not fair?” he laughs.
“All the other kids can stay.”
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“You know, if you stay there, you won’t be able to see me and Mom the entire semester until parent–teacher days. There are strict rules because resident students have isolation training for alpha development.” I love him. I love him so much right now.
“How long is the semester?” Aizen asks.
“Eighteen weeks,” I answer.
“That’s a long time,” Ayrie tightens her hold on Knight. He’s awesome.
“You have time to think about it, guys. We’ll talk about it when the time comes. Get your backpacks and don’t forget your snack packs by the doorway.” I nees to end this conversation because I already have enough to think about.
“Okay.” They both take their backpacks and head downstairs.
“I do not want them in the resident program at all,” Knight says when they’re gone. “I fucking hated it.”
“I don’t either, but you saw how disappointed they were. We’d have to put a team and donate-” he covers my mouth cutting me off.
“I don’t want to think about it, Angel. I hate dropping them off at school. I miss them all day. I can’t even imagine not having them running around here when they’re home from school. Who’s going to ask me what I’m doing every five minutes?”
“Your annoying ass dad.has got us covered,” I laugh.
“I heard that,” he calls from downstairs.
“I knew you were here since you entered the culdesac. You were in wolf form.” I call back.
“I’ll be back in a few. Don’t go anywhere with him, or I’ll put you in the office chair,” he leans in for a kiss.
“Now I might have to convince him to go somewhere with me,” I laugh. He growls, kisses me hard, and then walks off.
“Asshole,” he mumbles under his breath when he gets to the stairs. “Let’s go, guys.” “Daddy, can we get juice?” Ayrie calls out.
“Yes, we can. Last one in the car gets carrot juice,”
“Ewww.” They both shout, and their feet stomping follows as they race to the front door.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Knightly. I thought we agreed we were going to meet up later.” I say as I get to the bottom of the stairs.
“I had to come.” He’s standing in the living room in gym shorts and a T–shirt with the sleeves cut off. I grimace at the sight. It’s not a bad one; I just don’t like the sight of him outside of his designer clothes. “I know. It was an emergency. I wanted you to
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hear this from me.”
“Fuck, now what?” I groan.
He comes over with my tablet. I’m not even going to ask how he got into it. He holds it up to show me a picture of people standing in front of Royal Threads headquarters with signs that say, Threads for the Rogue Queen.
“They want you to take over. They’re demanding you be reinstated. Some of the designers have wanted you back since you were fired. Some of them quit. It’s now a huge public issue and your stunt with the City of Phoebes streetwear shit is only adding fuel to the board of directors. They want us to meet them in four hours.”
“Four hours? Do you have a suit in your shorts?” I ask.
“You want to do this?” he laughs.
“I’m going to rebrand. Royal Threads employs many people, and the last thing I want is a ton of pack wolves angry at me for them losing their jobs.” Knight reminded me of that when I asked what he thought I should do.
“Good girl. And no, I do not have a suit.”
“I have some new ones for Knight. They should fit, and I can make some adjustments on the flight there. You’re smaller than he is.”
“No, I’m not,” he scoffs.
“Okay, we’ll let the suit decide. Come choose a color. You can’t have the black on black one. It’s his favorite one.”
“You can’t tell me there’s a black on black one and then say it’s off limits.”
“It’s off limits.” I clarify. “You know what? I’ll bring one for you. Stay.”
“Phoebe-”
“You’re staying here,” I sigh. “I’ll get it.”
