She was looking out the back window and enjoying a cup of coffee when she heard two high-pitched children's voices whispering right outside the door.
"Come on, it's okay," a little girl said.
"No, we're not supposed to go in there." That was from a little boy.
"I'm getting my orange juice." The little girl was adamant.
Two short heads, both with dark, curly brown hair and very similar faces—siblings, maybe even twins—walked in. The little girl had her shoulders held back and her head held high while the boy slunk in like he was waiting for the floor to open up and swallow him.
Ivy, Elise thought, recognizing the kid from a story Nico had told about one of the cubs getting into trouble. And that made the boy her little brother, Eric. Ivy saw Elise sitting by the window and froze, eyes wide. Eric took one look at her and whimpered.
Great. Now Elise was making children cry.
This stay at the werewolf house was goingwonderfully. But Ivy wasn't frozen for long. She marched over to the fridge and opened it up, reaching as high as she could to grab the orange juice on the middle shelf. She was about eight years old, and she was the height Elise would expect an eight-year-old to be.
Ivy looked toward the cupboard next to the fridge and tested the counter. Elise remembered her childhood well enough to know that this kid was about to try climbing up on the counter to get something she couldn't reach. Then Ivy looked over at her.
"Hey, witch lady!"
Elise looked back at her. "I have a name."
"Yeah, witch lady. I said it. Can you give me a cup? They're too high."
"Two cups," Eric squeaked from wherever he was on the floor. He seemed to be crouching down behind the island.
It was a simple enough request, and Elise was just happy the kids weren't quaking in fear. She got up and grabbed two plastic cups from the shelf and put them down on the counter. Ivy was looking at her strangely.
"Why didn't you use magic?" she asked.
Elise smiled. "I don't normally use magic for things that I can do perfectly well with my hands." She wasn't going to mention the few times she had sent out her intentions and purposely summoned something from across the room when she was too comfortable to get up. Kids didn't need to know that.
"If I had magic, I would use it all the time," said Ivy.
"I'm sure you would be great."
Ivy had two hands on the bottle of orange juice and was looking intently at her cup, and Elise realized this was heading for disaster. She reached out and held the cup steady and wondered if she should take the bottle of orange juice from the kid when an adult voice shrieked from the entrance to the kitchen.
"What are you doing? Get away from my child!"
Elise let go of the cup and backed up immediately. Ivy set the orange juice down without spilling it—impressive.
"She's helping me with the orange juice, Mom. She got the cup for me." Ivy glared at her mother, Kara, who was standing in the doorway and looked about two seconds away from ripping Elise's throat out for standing anywhere near her children.
"You don't do magic around my children. You don't hurt them. What the hell were you thinking?" Kara spat.
Elise wasn't sure how to respond to this, but Ivy was apparently her legal counsel in this situation and kept talking.
"Shedidn'tdo magic, she just grabbed the cup from the cabinet. Why are you being weird, Mom? Elise is nice."
Kara leveled her daughter with a stare so cold the eight-year-old had to feel the ice. "Witches are notnice, Ivy. You stay away from her. She's dangerous." Kara quickly poured two cups of orange juice, handed them to each of the children, and then shepherded them out of the kitchen.
Yeah, Elise needed to get a place of her own.
That interaction wasn't unique. Maybe one day the pack would be used to her presence. Maybe one day they would think she wasn't trying to pull some sort of trick on them. But that day wasn't today.
She sat back down in her seat in a, perhaps unwise, refusal to cede the kitchen. Since she had Cole's permission to be in the house, she was allowed to use the kitchen. She was following the rules. It was the wolves that were being dicks to her.
A few minutes later, Nico came in, poured himself a cup of coffee, and took a seat next to her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
