Chapter 2
Sisters of the Moon
Ten Days Earlier
Dolly
Can you come watch your favorite niece and nephew for a bit? Declan’s brother (yes, the one you’re thinking of) needs us in Alaska for a few days, and I don’t want to take the kids since school just started, and Chester has baseball.
Me
Can I ply them with sugar so when you get back, I feel a satisfactory amount of revenge for all the childhood torment you put me through?
Dolly
Are you still working that remote job? Can you get here like tonight or tomorrow?
Me
I may be in between jobs for “calling out too many times.” Like I can control when my brain doesn’t want to work, you know? And we haven’t caught up in a bit but I’m also currently in between living situations so I can be there… tonight.
Dolly
…You were on your way here to crash already, weren’t you?
Me
I plead the fifteenth.
Dolly
What?
Me
See you in a few.
Present
“He said what?!” Briar, my one and only friend in Maplewicket, screeched at me as we sipped on our drinks at our usual spot in Sunny’s Café. I absently stroked the dark-gray old man cat that’d taken a liking to me whenever I came in.
It’d become part of my routine whenever I visited my sister, and now that I was here for the foreseeable future, I was able to see Briar almost every morning to bask in caffeine and the dozen or so cats and kittens that roamed free around the café.
I’d get the niblings ready for school, do the responsible adult thing with the breakfast and the clothes and the yelling at them to get a move on and the rushing them out the door while crossing every finger I had that the kids wouldn’t be late so I wouldn’t be looked at like an incompetent idiot by the other parents.
I wasn’t sure what I’d done to offend the folks in this town.
In fact, they’d been nothing but exceedingly nice to me on the other visits that I’d made to see my sister and her family in the past. The paranormal folks here had always been over-polite to me, which Dolly explained was because they never wanted to alienate humans, as our money kept Maplewicket’s tourism industry alive.
Apparently, the welcome-wagon ended when a human was here to stay, or when they were here without their vampire brother-in-law who could end them with a look, because yikes, I definitely did something to offend almost everyone I met.
I was here.
Dolly and Declan weren’t.
And the town was unimpressed with that fact to say the least.
I’d only been here a little over a week and wasn’t expecting a welcome committee, but the number of odd looks or downright rude comments had my head spinning with what I could have possibly done.
“Yeah.” I nodded slowly, taking a long sip of my apple spiced soy latte extra whip before continuing my tale of the orc asshole. “The dude was a peach. Told me off like he was going to put me over his knee.”
Briar didn’t let that phrasing slide, wiggling her perfectly waxed black eyebrows at the thought. I was definitely blushing, too.
Despite him being a major dick, Thrakh had been hot as fuck.
I blamed his muscles, the tight shirt he’d worn, his tusks doing that whole tusking thing, and my affinity for filthy monster smut.
I’d seen him around on my previous visits, and my sister had mentioned Coach Thrakh enough times when updating me on Chester’s baseball progress that I felt like I’d already known him.
He was imposing even in a room full of paranormal folk.
There was his light forest green skin, which even in a town like Maplewicket made him impossible to miss among the diverse bodies of the residents.
He was also over a head taller than most folks around.
I was five foot eleven and he made me feel dainty.
Me.
Dainty.
He was totally swoon-worthy. From afar only, apparently.
“That’s so weird.” I rolled my eyes at Briar as she shook her head.
“No, I only mean that I don’t think I’ve ever heard Thrakh, as in always-lending-a-hand, coaching-the-kids, volunteering-for-every-event, COMMUNITY–FREAKING-SWEETHEART Thrakh get angry or upset about anything.
He’s the most even-tempered half-orc I’ve ever met.
Even when he’s on the field in coach mode he tends to command the players but isn’t a dick about it.
His rep is more gentle-golden-retriever-giant than raging-dickweed. ”
“Half-orc?” I’d never heard that term before.
“And community sweetheart? Could’ve fooled me with how he behaved last night.
” I sipped on my latte again, savoring the hot sweet liquid warming me up.
I’d slept like shit, unable to stop replaying the handsome bastard laying into me in my own, well Dolly’s—whatever—front yard like he had the right.
I took a deep breath, focusing on the apple deliciousness coursing through my veins, preparing me for the day ahead.
It was my favorite time of year, and I was reminded of that as I took in the Halloween decorations around the café.
Bat cutouts were pasted haphazardly along the town-themed mural-covered walls and front windows with other decals of ghosts and witches.
There was also a lot of black cat decor, but that was a year-round thing.
I remembered asking Dolly if it was offensive to have all these stereotypical Halloween symbols around the town’s very real and diverse paranormal cultures, and she’d laughed in my face saying monsters didn’t think of it that way and embraced this time of year as a celebration of their history and influence on humanity.
Also, the money Maplewicket brought in during spooky season funded a lot of the other smaller festivals the town liked to host throughout the year.
The memory of my sister laughing had me closing my eyes, focusing on the gray cat’s soft rumbling purr that vibrated through my palm.
Stevie Nicks Becker I cannot believe you are not answering your phone right now!
I don’t think we’ll have service much longer.
We’re safe, don’t worry, but we’re trapped in the middle of nowhere Alaska.
Luckily Declan’s family is prepared for this, but you’ll have to stay with the kids a little longer.
I’ll try to get you more details and conserve my battery.
Tell Chester and Marigold we love them and we’ll be home as soon as we can and to mind their P’s and Q’s. Love you too, obviously.
I replayed the voice note my sister texted a few days ago. I’d listened to it enough to memorize the worry etched in every word. My sister had always been a fast talker, but there was an urgency in this message I’d only heard from her when Mom and Dad died.
Between Dolly and Declan trapped in a less sexy version of Not-Hoth, losing my job (honestly no loss there—I’d been wanting to quit for a while, but the lack of insurance, which meant lack of ADHD meds, made everything harder), living out of my car (it was spacious enough that it wasn’t a complete bummer, but still not ideal to be in your thirties and having to crash with your sister), and now trying to take care of two little half-vampires, one a hormonal emo teenager that had me humming “Welcome to the Black Parade” whenever he walked in the room and the other a hyperactive to the extreme little girl who had the self-preservation skills of a deer in headlights… I was burned the fuck out.
No, I was way past burned out.
I was the jagged metal wick left in the cheap candle you burned for emergencies only.
And there’d been a lot of emergencies lately. Self-care in any form, something I normally prioritized intentionally to manage my ADHD symptoms, had shifted toward the back burner.
I need to get my toes done, get a scalp massage and deep conditioning treatment, and get laid before I end up on another grippy-sock vacay.
“Yes, you do.” Briar winked. Had I said that out loud?
I palmed my forehead. “Speaking of,” she continued before shoving herself back from the tiny table we occupied in the corner, ensuring everyone in the café, including my poor old man cat who looked pissed that his slumber was disturbed, looked up at the squeak of her chair on the linoleum. “You!” she shouted.
I’d known Briar was special the moment I met her a couple years ago during my yearly visit around Halloween.
She’d sniffed me, classic wolf shifter, and decided we’d become best friends.
While it was weird as fuck to me, the human, we actually clicked almost immediately.
Briar emanated baddie energy, and as one of the few female shifters in her family, she’d had no choice growing up than to take no shit from anyone.
It was a quality I admired fiercely in a friend.
“You think you can show up here acting like you’re not the biggest piece of shit, coach?
! You listen here, Thrakh whatever-your-last-name-is!
I’ll deep-fry your balls for breakfast and feed your little-limp-dick to the pups the next time I hear you even looking in Stevie’s direction, questioning her ability to take care of those vamp babies.
You get me, buddy?” She poked his chest, similar to what I’d done the night before.
“YOU KNOW NOTHING, THRAKH SURNAME REDACTED.”
“Enough of the Game of Thrones reenactment, B,” Felipe, one of the café’s baristas, said from behind the counter.
I’d stood up at this point. Everyone was staring, and I didn’t want to cause more of a scene, especially if Thrakh was going to lay into Briar like he’d done me last night.
I had her back. Girl power, like the Spice World VHS I had on repeat taught me back in the day.
“You done, feral wolfie?” Thrakh asked with what I swore was an amused smirk on his face.
“I don’t know,” Briar answered, placing her hands on her hips and staring up into the tall orc’s face. “Do you still need to be publicly shamed in front of the fine folks enjoying a calming cat cuddle with their coffee this morning?”