Page 126 of The Lone Wolf Café
My mother, father, and sisters visited Wisteria Grove frequently, and they usually stayed in my cottage. Since it was a small place and I wanted them to have plenty of room, I would sleep at Rowena’s house during their visits.
Not like I didn’t already sleep in Rowena’s bed several times a week.
With everything that happened, it didn’t take long for my father to come around to Rowena and I’s relationship. However, with his traditional mindset, he still pressured us to undergo a bonding ceremony as quickly as possible. It wasn’tproperfor anunmarried couple to be spending so much time in each other’s domiciles. Even for two women.
Now that Rowena and I had a few months to settle into our new lives, I was certain she was the one. My future mate. I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. But we were in no rush to solidify our union. I was only twenty-one, and Rowena wasn’t much older than I was. We wanted to take our time.
After all, we still had a whole lifetime to look forward to together.
“Keep an eye on your unruly little pups,” my mother uttered to my father as she walked past him. There was a scolding undertone to her voice, but I saw a playful smile on her lips. “I think they’re far too hopped up on sugar.”
“And caffeine,” I noted, lifting my own coffee cup.
“What?” My mother raised her bright red eyebrows. “Who gave them coffee?”
I didn’t respond, but my eyes flicked in my grandfather’s direction. Alden simply chuckled, in the way that mischievous older folks did, hiding his smile behind a large mug with little moose painted on it.
My mother’s wolf ears popped out as she scowled, but she quickly brushed the feeling away, patting the top of her head until her ears disappeared.
She and I made trips up to Bangor once a week to meet with Melanie, the empath witch who worked as a therapist for magical beings. It had only been two months, but we’d already made a lot of progress not only on understanding our powers, but on mending our mother-daughter relationship.
Melanie had given me the courage to express – in a healthy manner – how much my mother’s disappearance hurt me and my sisters. And in turn, Melanie helped me better understand my mother’s illness and that she never meant to hurt us. Mymother was human, like the rest of us, and humans made mistakes.
I knew how deeply sorry my mother was. And in one exercise, where I imagined myself as my mother and had to ponder how I’d react in her situation, I realized just how easy it was to run away from such a complex problem. How easy it was to feel like there was no other option.
And I told her I loved her. Many times. My mother expressed how much she loved all of us, and announced that once she’d made more progress, she wanted my father and sisters to join our therapy sessions as well.
My father agreed that it was a great idea. Especially since Alice and Abbey were nearly adults, and we all wanted to be prepared for when they came into their own powers.
As for my parent’s relationship, they didn’t get back together. My mother’s primary residence was still the Mount Desert Island pack, and my father had his duties as Alpha on Hollenboro. My sisters were disappointed, but I completely understood. My mother even confessed to me that her and my father worked far better as friends and co-parents than as mates.
And I was happy for them. Even if they weren’t mates anymore, they spent so much time together caring for us girls that it didn’t matter. They loved us, and in their own, non-romantic way, they also loved each other.
“It’s tiiiime!” Mariah called out in a loud, singsong tone, which attracted everyone’s attention as they began shouting the countdown.
“Ten!’
“Nine!”
“Darius, stop pushing me!”
I turned my head and chuckled as Rowena scolded her two half-siblings, gently bopping the younger one on the head with an empty teacup.
“Eight!”
“Seven!”
Abbey blew into her party blower so hard that it flew out of her mouth and across the room.
“Six!”
“Five!”
Abbey ran to retrieve the blower, nearly knocking over our grandfather in the process.
“Four!”
“Three!”
