Her Big Bad Wolf

Chapter 1

Vanessa

“Have you heard?” Mary asked the second I answered the phone.

“Heard what?”

“The Baylor boys are missing.”

“All of them? I warned them this was going to happen. Kyle should have made the Fosters keep them there and together. I told him there would be issues if he tried to separate them.”

I was so frustrated with the situation. Three orphaned brothers were going to be a handful. Anyone with half a brain should know that.

“All three. They helped each other escape and seem to have run away. Lane called in some trackers. Kyle has a team out looking for them too.”

“But there are so many scents throughout the territory and those boys run around everywhere. Even the chances of a tracker finding them are slim.”

How could they let this happen?

Sure, those boys were rotten to their core.

They terrorized the Pack regularly, always getting into something.

They’d been busted for stealing, lying, destruction of property, and the list goes on.

Everyone looked the other way and let them off with warning after warning simply because they were the poor boys who lost their parents.

Facing the consequences of their actions would have done wonders for their attitudes.

I’d been working with children for years. At their core, all children were good. No one would convince me otherwise.

“It does seem to be posing a problem from what I’d heard so far, but they are trying.”

“Finding the pups will be next to impossible. If they don’t want to be found, they won’t be. You and I both know it.”

“I just hate to think of them out there and alone like that.”

“I know. Me too.”

“Kyle is sending an alert out to the Pack, and I’ve already notified my prayer group,” Mary told me.

“I’ll drive around and see if I can find any signs of the boys.”

“Thank you, Vanessa. I knew you would want to be notified right away, especially with little Cameron in your class.”

We said goodbye so she could make other calls to get more attention on the boys while I grabbed my coat and keys. I was in my pajamas, but that didn’t matter. I was just going to drive around to see if I happened to get lucky.

Cam was only four years old. He’d been in my daycare and then preschool program since his birth, as had his brothers before him.

I hated the thought of him being out there somewhere without adult supervision.

Cam could be quite the handful. It only gave minimum comfort to know he was with his brothers.

Noah was the oldest at ten years old, but he’d been forced to grow up so quickly with the death of their parents.

He was young and angry, no doubt still grieving, but he was proud too and insisted on taking care of his younger brothers even when it wasn’t necessary.

It had caused contention in every home they’d attempted to place them in until it was clear it was just too much.

I had not been happy over the decision to separate them, but even I could understand why. Still, I hated it. And I knew this was going to be the outcome.

Mary’s phone call hadn’t been a surprise in the least, which pissed me off more than anything.

I knew Noah meant well. He had always been head-strong and determined. I knew that his parents had harped on him about the responsibility of being the oldest and how he needed to look after his brothers.

But I also knew there was a resistant part of him when it came to them too. He hadn’t wanted that responsibility, and who could blame him? He was only six when Cam was born and already looking after Mason, the middle child.

Mason was an easy-going child and one of the sweetest boys I’d ever had the privilege of caring for. But he also idolized his big brother and would do absolutely anything Noah asked of him. Apparently, that included running away in the middle of the night.

I was still fuming over the situation as I got into my car and started it up.

A growl of frustration resonated through me as I put it into drive and set off on my search.

When I drove through downtown there were already a few search groups gathered. People were walking around yelling out the boys’ names and searching all the most obvious places.

There was another group by the school. And yet another all the way out by the Lodge. When I drove down to the lake where most of Westin Force now lived, even they were out looking.

It did warm my soul a bit to know so many people seemed to be helping to find them. It gave me hope that just maybe they would be back in their beds before morning.

Leaving others to search in the more obvious places, I tried to think of where the boys may find interesting enough to run away to.

If it had been a person they were comfortable with, we would have heard something by now.

I knew they must have taken to the woods. But where?

First, I drove down to the old caves. That area was supposed to be shut off entirely.

But Linc had also built a pretty cool obstacle course near there for his mate Christine who was a fanatic of the TV show Survivor.

Lots of the Pack kids enjoyed hanging out there.

It had become a local park of sorts, though I knew he planned to change it up once a year and reset things while hosting an annual big challenge amongst the Westin Force families just to make his mate happy.

There was already a team searching there, though.

I drove some more, keeping a close eye around houses and along the tree lines for any sign the boys may have been there. But there was nothing. It was as if they had just disappeared.

Still, I didn’t give up.

Maybe the most obvious of places was exactly where they would go. They needed some sort of familiarity, didn’t they?

An idea sparked in my mind and excitement grew.

Had anyone thought to check my school? All the boys had seemed happy there at some point. They would know there were cots to sleep on, food in the kitchen, and a safe, warm place to hide.

Fueled by hope, I drove over to the school.

As I pulled up to my little home away from home that I was so proud of, I sat there checking for any signs that I could be right.

There were no lights on, no movement. It looked like another dead end.

I sighed, starting to feel defeated and nervous for the boys.

Once upon a time, I had genuinely thought I was going to be Pack Mother of Westin Pack.

Kyle Westin was going to choose me as his mate.

But that didn’t happen. I had no regrets.

When push came to shove, I had learned the hard way just how strong his true mate, Kelsey, really was.

I’d tried to graciously bow out and refused to challenge her for him.

Though I had very much wanted to, I also did not want to die.

There was zero doubt in my mind that Kelsey would have killed me. Maybe I’d have gotten lucky and she would have let me off the hook easily the way she had Christine.

Despite our rather barbaric customs at the time, Kelsey hadn’t been able to kill Christine in the mating challenges. Once she knew there was no question of her victory, she’d shifted and demanded help, not for herself, but for Christine. Kelsey had saved her.

Of course, I liked to think she’d have done the same for me, but I also wasn’t going to test that theory. I liked my throat fully intact, right where it was. And in some weird change of circumstance, Kelsey and I had become friends.

With the realization that I would never be Pack Mother came the harsh reality of finding a path for myself.

It took some time to decide what exactly I wanted to do with my life.

I had been prepared to serve Westin Pack in the highest position any she-wolf could achieve.

All I knew was that I wanted to do something impactful still.

I had always had a heart for children. One day I had been sitting at Pino’s eating a slice of pizza by myself when I overheard a few moms of young kids complaining.

They wanted the opportunity to do more with their lives than raise their pups, not that it wasn’t a noble choice, just not the best choice for them.

Personally, I’d have done anything to be a stay-at-home mom with a supportive mate and a whole houseful of pups. That just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me.

Not everyone had the same goals as me.

One of the ladies had been a teacher and missed teaching at the high school.

Another had her own business, a little store in town, and was struggling with juggling the kids and mom duties with her growing business. She feared she was going to have to choose one over the other.

And the third lady with them had confessed in hushed whispers that her mate had squandered much of their money.

Despite the generous stipend Kyle gave every Pack member, they were struggling to make ends meet.

She feared she was going to have to get a job and wondered if one of the other ladies would be willing to help with her kids.

Sitting right there in the middle of Pino’s eavesdropping on other people’s lives, the idea struck me like a lightning bolt.

What our Pack needed more than anything was a daycare center and maybe a preschool for all the pups not ready for school yet.

I had heard the need and I was so excited to get started that I had left my pizza on the table and ran out to my car.

I’d driven straight to Kyle and Kelsey’s cabin as the former Alpha and Pack Mother (Jason and Mary, Kyle’s parents) still lived at the Alpha House. Kyle only held office hours there.

We all respected their personal time outside of his office hours. Everyone made an effort to only bother the Alpha and Pack Mother with absolute emergencies. But after years of feeling lost, I suddenly knew my calling and it felt like a pretty big emergency to me.

When I’d gotten to their house and banged on the door, Kelsey had answered looking startled and more than a little surprised to see me.

“Vanessa? Is everything okay? We were just finishing up dinner here.”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t think this can wait.”

“Kyle. Something’s wrong. Come on in, Vanessa.”

“Vanessa?” he asked.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m sorry. It’s just that I know what this Pack needs more than anything.”

They had two small pups themselves. Couldn’t they use an extra hand for a few hours to manage all the responsibilities of their jobs?

The more I thought about it, the more I was positive this was exactly what we needed.

“What?” Kelsey asked.

There was a touch of humor in her voice. I suspected my own excitement was becoming contagious.

“A daycare and preschool for the Pack. I think it should be free and funded by the Pack just like the school. And I want to be the one to run it.”

The two of them shared a look. The glassiness of their eyes told me they were discussing it through their telepathic connection.

Only fully bonded mates could do that. And I knew in my heart that Kyle and I would never have had that level of intimacy.

He had made the right choice in going after his one true mate.

“This really couldn’t have waited until tomorrow?”

“I’m so sorry. I know better, but I was sitting in Pino’s having dinner as I overheard some moms discussing the hardships of mom-life and it just hit me.

You both know I’ve been struggling to find my place in the Pack since, well, you know.

” I didn’t want to say, since you decided to ditch me and take Kelsey as a mate instead, but we all knew it.

Mary Westin had all but promised me the Pack Mother position.

Though I knew now, I wasn’t the only one to think that.

Still, it had seemed to hit me the hardest. Christine had landed a lucrative job with Westin Foundation.

She actually replaced Kelsey there. But I had floundered, no longer having a purpose in the Pack.

“There’s a need, Kyle. I could fill that need.”

“She’s not wrong. Just today I had a meeting and no one to watch Jason. He was very crabby and I felt bad for having to reschedule. Even I could use a hand with the kids every now and then.”

I nodded my head. “See. This is a great idea. I want to fill this need, you guys.”

Kyle nodded. “Okay. I don’t know if we can pull Pack funds to fully cover something like this, but I’ll schedule a meeting with Liam to go over some numbers and see.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

“You’ll need a building.”

I grinned. “I already know the perfect place!”

That excitement that I had felt back then stayed with me all these years.

I loved what I did. I loved the children of Westin Pack and I was so proud of each and every one of them that graduated out of my preschool program and confidently moved on to elementary school.

It gave me a purpose in life and made me feel like a valued part of the Pack.

As I sat there staring at my building almost a decade later, I knew in my heart that I loved every single one of those kids I had ever had the privilege to care for, including the Baylor boys.

I started to leave, seeing no signs of them, but something told me to go inside.

The second I opened the door, I heard the rustle and hushed whispers. My accelerated wolf hearing perked up.

“Someone’s here. Hide!” Mason ordered.

“We have to go,” Noah said. “Run.”

Cam whimpered.

“Boys? It’s Ms. Vanessa. You’re safe here.”

But it was too late. I heard the back door slam shut, but as I raced over to it, they were already gone.

“Damn it,” I cursed, pulling out my phone and calling Kyle to let him know.

I ran back out front to jump in my car and spent another three hours driving around, but there were no signs of them anywhere.