“Some. I’m the youngest of eight. Which is a lot of kids. We’re all boys. I’m the only omega somehow. My dad is Albert. He’s awolf shifter, and we lived in his pack. Ma is Elizabeth, and she’s obviously an arctic fox.”
“Do you know how they met?”
I nodded. “Ma was in Bangor on her way to Bar Harbor. Ma is from Québec City, so not far, actually. She was on a girls’ trip, and they somehow met. We all haveCnames. I’m not sure why, and neither do any of my brothers.”
“All eight of you have names that start with the letterC?”
I nodded. “Yep. Charles, Connor, Caleb, Carson, Carter, Christopher, Cameron, and then me. Carson and Carter are the only set of twins, which I think surprised everyone since fox shifters tend to have multiples.”
“That’s…a lot ofCnames.”
I chuckled. “We won’t be doing that. And I’d prefer if none of our children’s names start with that letter.”
Maxwell chuckled again. “I can agree with that. I’m not hung up on any one particular name.”
“Same,” I replied. “Well, except avoiding names that start withC.”
“I can understand that. You said some of them were mated?”
I nodded. “Charles is. His mate is Annie. She’s the sweetest. They have three children. Caleb has a mate. His name is Alex. They have one and are hoping for another sometime this year.” I grinned, thinking about my brother and his mate. I was sure they were all going to be surprised that I was the fourth of us to find my mate. “The only other one that’s mated is Carson. His mate’s name is Maria. They have twins, and I’m not sure they’re planning on more. Maybe one more, but who knows. The rest of us were all looking. Well, except for me since I found you.”
Maxwell nodded slowly. “I look forward to meeting all of them. Even your parents.”
I cringed. “You don’t want to. I mean, yeah, you do, but it’s going to be a whole thing. Ma will start pushing for us to moveback there, and we’ll need to have lots of grandbabies for her. And then the calls won’t stop.” I became a bit overwhelmed just thinking about it. “I had to silence both of my parents’ numbers when I left earlier this week. I tried to leave on Monday, but I made the mistake of letting them know I’d be leaving soon, and I wanted to get together and see them before I did. Then the guilt started.” I sighed. “I just gave in and dropped letters in the mail to them and then left. I had to mute their calls and messages.” I pulled out my phone and handed it to Maxwell. “They still come in, but I don’t get notified.”
Maxwell took my phone, and I knew when he saw the little red dots on the home screen. “How many calls and messages do they send you?”
“Too many,” I told him. “Ma will call at least three times an hour because she’s not getting through to me. Then she messages. Then when that doesn’t work, she will use Dad’s phone.”
“This is obsessive,” Maxwell said.
“Yeah, I know. I’m the last to leave. Even my brothers who aren’t mated have moved away because she just kept parading everyone’s unmated daughter or son around us. But they were always from the pack, never anywhere else. Just as soon as someone came of age, they and their parents were being invited over for a family meal.”
“How did your brothers deal with it? What about the ones that are mated?”
I sighed. “They had to go low contact. I know I will have to as well, but I was still holding out hope that she would finally come around and not be so obsessive.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but she needs an intervention.”
I snorted. “There is no wrong way. They’ve done one. She absolutely did not listen. It didn’t work; she didn’t care. Charlesand Caleb are both no contact. Completely zero with our parents. Carson is very low, but I think he’s headed toward zero as well. She was told that they were taking their mate’s wishes into consideration as well, and that wasn’t acceptable for her.” I shook my head. “I was actually kind of happy that I was on Treasure Ridge because she couldn’t just show up at my house all of a sudden. She doesn’t have clearance to be on the mountain.” I looked around the house. “Umm, we’re still on Treasure Ridge, right?”
Maxwell chuckled. “Yes, we are. I chose to live a bit further away though, and this place is about a twenty-minute walk to the council building. It wasn’t an issue for me, but we can live in your place if you’d like.”
I shook my head and looked around. “No. I like the idea of living farther away. My little fox loves to run in the snow and through the trees. That was something I noticed at my house near the council building though. There were only a few trees. I understand that some had to be removed to accommodate all of the houses, but there is only a thin strip of them behind my house.”
Maxwell’s smile grew. “There are plenty of trees for you to run in just out there. Would you like to go and see?”
I glanced toward the back of the house and shook my head. “Not right now. I mean, there’s time for that later, right?” Maxwell nodded. “Is there anything else you want to know about me?”
“Favorite food.”
“Anything. I love grapes though. Especially with vanilla yogurt.”
“Grapes and yogurt. Got it.” Maxwell smiled. “Tea or coffee?”
“Both. I prefer tea in the afternoons, coffee in the mornings. I’m not always the most chipper first thing in the mornings, and I need a cup of coffee to wake me up.”
“Noted.”
