“Help! I’m being attacked by tiny wolves!” Hunt wailed dramatically.
“We’re not tiny!” Thea shrieked, trying to bite his ankle.
“We’re fierce!” Rowan added, yanking on Hunt’s hair.
“In my defense, I was teaching them a valuable life lesson about trust and skepticism!”
They were causing a scene. Right in the middle of the street, with humans walking by and staring. Hunt was making wolf references and the twins were growling and snapping their teeth and basically announcing their heritage to anyone paying attention. I loved them. I loved all three of these idiots with my whole heart. But my head was already pounding and myfeet ached and I really, really didn’t have the patience for this right now. My mood had been changing so much lately, swinging from happy to furious in seconds, and the threatening messages weren’t making anything better. Right this second, watching them wrestle on the sidewalk while pedestrians gave us concerned looks, I just snapped.
“Are you a kid too, Sinclair?” I grunted, glaring at Hunt with all the pregnant Luna fury I could muster. “Behave!”
All three of them froze. The twins dropped off Hunt’s body instantly. Hunt straightened up, his face shifting from playful to sheepish.
“Sorry,” Hunt mumbled.
“Sorry, Mama,” Rowan added quietly.
“Sorry,” Thea echoed, though she looked less sorry and more annoyed that her revenge had been interrupted.
I almost snorted at how quickly they’d all fallen in line. Almost. But I managed to keep my face cool and stern as I pointed toward the car parked at the curb.
“In. Now. All of you.”
They scrambled to obey. Hunt opened the back door and the twins climbed in, sitting in their car seats and looking appropriately chastised. I followed, leaning in to buckle their seatbelts and make sure they were secure before closing the door and moving to the front passenger seat.
Hunt slid into the driver’s seat, still looking sheepish.
“Stay for dinner,” I said as he started the engine. It wasn’t a question.
His whole demeanor shifted instantly, eyebrows wiggling and a grin spreading across his face. “Yes ma’am, I love your food. Best cooking in the pack.”
“You literally just said my cooking was only edible.”
“I said that to mess with you. Obviously your cooking is amazing. Five stars. Would recommend to everyone.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“But I’m a great dinner guest.”
From the backseat, both twins groaned loudly.
“Mommy, but he’s being annoying,” Thea whined.
“He’s your uncle, baby. It’s part of his job being annoying.” I twisted in my seat to look at them, noting their matching pouts. “You can annoy him back. But after dinner.”
The twins’ faces lit up with identical expressions of gleeful anticipation. Hunt caught their looks in the rearview mirror and his smugness faded slightly.
“Wait, what kind of annoying are we talking about here?”
“That’s between them and whatever revenge they’re planning. You started it.”
“I regret all my life choices.”
“You should.”
The drive to the pack house was short, the familiar roads of Ravenshollow passing by in a blur of trees and houses and pack members going about their evening routines. I leaned my head against the window and tried not to think about the message still burning a hole in my pocket.
Who would send something like that? Who blamed me for their suffering? The words had been personal. Pointed. Whoever wrote them genuinely believed I’d wronged them in some way.
