Page 3 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
“But you’ll be the only mom there.”
“And we make such a good team, don’t we? Imagine us out there, kicking all those dads’ butts.”
That earned a small, reluctant grin from him, and he gave a nod.
“What else did your principal say?” I asked, nudging the conversation somewhere lighter, hopefully.
“At the closing assembly, Principal West announced there’ll be an excursion to Palm Springs over spring break and Aunt Valerie put my name on the list!” Ollie’s mouth formed a pout. “Please, Mommy, can I go?”
“You know,” Valerie chimed in from the kitchen, a glass of water in her hand. “I heard there are giant dinosaur sculptures in Palm Springs.”
Ollie’s face lit up like the sunrise, filled with excitement. I forced a bright smile in return, even though a hollow ache started to press against my chest.
“Why don’t you take a bath and change into the clothes I laid out on your bed?” I said amidst a smile, running my fingers through his thick jet-black curls. “And when you come down for snacks, we can talk about that trip to Palm Springs, okay?”
He grinned. “Yes, Mom.”
“Don’t forget to wash behind your ears,” I called after him when hewas halfway up the stairs. I heard a small grumble, his signature sound of resistance, and I laughed under my breath before turning back to Valerie, who had two fingers placed on her lips
“Shit,” she muttered, guilt clouding her eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything about the sculptures in Palm Springs. I only got him more excited for something he may not—”
“He will,” I cut in. “He’ll go on that trip and see those giant sculptures. That may be the closest he ever comes to seeing a dinosaur outside of the pictures in a textbook.”
I let out a heavy breath, the kind that was supposed to at least lighten the weight on my chest, but all it did was shift it to the pit of my stomach. I moved back to the dining room and sank into a chair.
“How much is the trip?”
“It’s a special three-day excursion,” Valerie began, easing into the seat across from me. “Normally kids Ollie’s age wouldn’t even be considered, but he’s shown higher abilities and physical strength than his peers. And you know he’s an adventurous kid—always eager to try something new. When he said he wanted to go, I went ahead and put in the application for him. They approved it, but…” she gave a small shrug, “because he’s younger, the fee is higher than the other parents’. They’ll be staying in one of the safest hotels in the area, with teachers and guides supervising. There’s transportation, meals, tour tickets—the whole package.”
I knew what she was doing. She was trying to make sense of the cost by listing all the benefits to justify it. And that only meant one thing. It was ridiculous.
“The school covers the basics, but families pay extra for the hands-on activities, photo packages, fossil kits, the premium snacks. All those extras push the cost to around twenty-five hundred.”
With everything going on right now, I could barely afford groceries, let alone that kind of money. But it would make Ollie happy, and I always wanted to make him happy. It was all I lived for.
He went to Kingsridge Academy in the Midlands of the Bronx, one of the few schools in the Bronx where wolf shifters and humans studied side by side. The Midlands wasn’t just another neighborhood.It was a pack-claimed territory, full of clean streets, overpriced cafes, and townhouses that looked like they belonged in a magazine. Everything there cost more, like housing, groceries, and tuition.
But I didn’t want Ollie growing up feeling like the weird kid with sharp senses and a full moon curfew. I didn’t want him explaining why he healed faster or why, on some days, his instincts made him lash out.
So, I took the job as an event logistics coordinator, even when it meant hauling crates at midnight, long hours on my feet, and babysitters I couldn’t always afford. I picked up weekend shifts. Sold off the few decent properties I'd scraped together over the years to keep up with my fathers debts and to cover tuition and everything in between.
I’d seen the excitement in his face, the pure joy when he mentioned the excursion. How could I crush that by telling him he couldn’t go because I couldn’t afford it?
I forced a smile for Valerie’s sake. But she blinked at me, her expression suddenly shifting from guilt as her eyes widened and her mouth parted into a small gasp.
My eyes narrowed. “What?”
“I just remembered something…a conversation I overheard between two parents at school.”
My brows pulled together as I wondered what a hallway conversation had to do with the financial disaster unraveling in my lap.
“They were talking about an event planning position for the wedding of Elena Moreau.”
I gave her a look. Unless she was talking about a different Elena Moreau, some distant cousin, maybe a barista with the same name, then she had to be joking. Because the Elena Moreau I knew was the self-proclaimed princess of the Bronx Pack. And the Alpha’s daughter.
Valerie’s smile faltered. “You don’t look excited.”
“Probably because I’m confused.”
