A little bit later that day, I was left alone in the kitchen. I had sent the guys off to get the groceries and corralled the puppies into one area of the kitchen where I could keep an eye on them. I hummed as I prepared the pot roast. I needed to hurry up and get this in the oven ASAP if we wanted to eat at a decent time tonight. It was going to take about three and a half hours to cook.

When I had the roast in the oven and the timer set, I decided to get started on the brownies. It was way too soon to make them, but I could measure out all my dry ingredients so when I was ready I just had to add the eggs, oil, and water.

Today had gone on forever; the meeting this morning felt so long ago, it could have been yesterday. I reflected back on it. I was still a little upset about my failures in the meeting, but I was relieved that nothing would come from it until several months down the road. Anything could change in that time. I might not even have to go through with meeting the other packs. I decided to let myself believe that for now so I could have a good night tonight.

I had already tried questioning Austin and James about what they spoke to Kelsey about, but they were both tight-lipped. I was hoping to get some more out of them at our late dinner tonight. They had already been through the kitchen to make themselves protein shakes to hold them over until then and had promised to be there.

The twins had been gone for longer that they should have needed for a quick grocery stop, so I started to get worried. I texted Mason: Hey! Did you guys get lost? He texted me back a picture of Jason holding up a plaid dog sweater and grimacing; they were obviously in the pet store.

My heart melted at these two sweet guys. I had no idea how I had been so lucky as to get them in my life. I had not found anything for the two pups at the grocery store when I submitted my order, the only toys they carried were for much larger dogs. The two guys must have decided to take a ride further into Seaside to go to a pet store with a larger selection.

I decided they would probably be a half hour or more, so I took the pups out for a potty break and contemplated what I should do next. I decided I would go visit Caleb; I had forgotten to invite him for dinner earlier.

I ran up the stairs and giggled as my two puppy shadows chased after me.

I hesitated for a second before knocking on Caleb’s door. Would he be upset with me for bothering him while he was working? I did have a legit excuse: I wanted to invite him to dinner.

I hurried and knocked on his door before I lost my nerve. I quickly regretted it when I heard, “What!?” angrily shouted out.

“Um, sorry to bother you, Caleb, but I was just -” I had heard some movement when I first started speaking but was startled when the door burst open and Caleb stood in front of me.

“Sorry, Anna, I thought you were James again,” he said abashedly. “He’s been bugging me and impatient about some information he wants. I told him that the more he interrupts me, the longer it’s going to take for me to get it.”

I blushed. “I’m sorry, I should have realized you would be busy working -”

“No!” he interrupted. “I am working, but you’re not an interruption,” he assured me. “Please, come in.” He stepped away from the door and motioned for me to enter.

“If you’re sure it’s OK?” I asked him, unsure.

He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, absolutely. I could use a break.”

I smiled at him and stepped in the room. The two puppies ran ahead of me and jumped up and down at his feet to try and get his attention. He blinked in surprise, just noticing them. “What’s this?”

“Oh, sorry. I should have asked if it was OK to bring them in here.” I turned bright red. “I’m babysitting my friend’s puppies. Austin said it was okay.”

“Huh.” He looked surprised but bent down to give them some attention. He smiled as they enthusiastically tried to get him to play with them.

“That’s Eeyore, and that’s Tigger,” I said helpfully as I pointed them both out. He gave me an amused chuckle.

“I know,” I groaned.  “I was not the one who named them.”

He cleared some computer equipment off a chair for me to sit and then sat on the floor to play with the pups. I ignored the chair and sat on the floor opposite him with the pups in between us. I touched Eeyore’s tail gently to get his attention and then rubbed his head when he barreled my way. Tigger was more than happy to keep playing with Caleb.

“What brings you to my door, Anna?”

I blushed. “I wanted to see if you wanted to come to dinner. There’s going to be pot roast.”

He looked surprised, then pleased. “I love pot roast. Sorry your family dinner didn’t go to plan last night.” He grimaced. “I spoke with Austin earlier today, and he thought it would be a good idea to have more family dinners here at the house.”

“Really?” I asked with a huge grin.

He smiled back at me. “Yeah, it’s nice to have something other than pizza and wings for dinner. Plus, it was nice, all of us sitting there together…” He trailed off and blushed.

“It was nice,” I said softly. “I would really like it if we could do it more, minus the home invasion and drama of course.”

“Oh, of course,” he agreed with a grin.

“Soooo…” I said when a slightly awkward silence settled over us. “Whatcha working on?”

He laughed. “I have a bunch of projects. I’m working on getting some satellite images for one of our overseas teams, running the fingerprints and doing background checks for the two wolves we captured last night. Plus, I’m working on putting some specs together for tech that one of our teams might need for a job coming up. And that’s in addition to my usual maintenance and monitoring duties.”

“Oh, wow,” I said, genuinely impressed.

“Can I ask you something, Anna?”

“Sure,” I answered curiously.

He hesitated. “Is your friend male or female?” He clarified when he saw my confused look, “The friend you’re babysitting for?”

“Oh, Kelsey! She’s a girl. Austin, James, and the twins met her earlier. Why do you ask?”

He looked a little embarrassed. “Well, I was just wondering if you had a human boyfriend? You know, because you didn’t know any wolves?”

I stared at him for a second in surprise. “Nooo…no boyfriend,” I said slowly. “I don’t really date.”

My thoughts swirled. Was Caleb interested in me? Why else would he ask if I had a boyfriend? He seemed like a really nice guy, and he was super cute and sweet. But I was afraid for him to find out just how weird I was. There’s no way I could pull off pretending to be a normal girl for any length of time.

I sighed. He was probably just asking because he found it difficult to believe a human guy would ever date me and he was curious about how the wolf/human dating thing worked.

I was delusional. Why would I ever think a guy like Caleb would be interested in a girl like me? I was so stupid. I finished beating myself up and went back to playing with Eeyore. He had started to look really interested in one of the cords Caleb had running across the floor.

“Annaaaaaaa!” I faintly heard a voice calling me from downstairs.

“Can you tell them I’m up here with you?” I asked Caleb. I could tell he used his pack bond when his eyes glazed over and he stared off into space. Not even a minute later, I heard footsteps pounding down the hall and Caleb’s door burst open. Both the twins ran in, and the puppies abandoned me and Caleb for the twins. They were both carrying a multitude of pet store bags that looked full. I peered curiously at the bags to see what they had gotten.

They were both excitedly talking over each other to explain all the stuff they had found when Caleb interrupted.

“Can you guys do this somewhere else?” He looked apologetically at me. “There’s a bunch of stuff I need to get done so I can come to Anna’s dinner.”

They guys both nodded. “Anna’s making pot roast,” Jason told him enthusiastically.

“I heard.” Caleb looked at me with a smile.

“I should probably check on it,” I told him.

“And make sure the twins bring in all the groceries.” The twins both grinned, and I held out my hands for Mason to pull me up off the ground. He rolled his eyes but pulled me up and nudged me to the door. “See you later, Caleb!” Jason waved over his shoulder.

“Make sure you help Anna put those groceries away this time!” Caleb told them.

They groaned again but headed down the stairs with all the pet store items. I tried to steal the bags so I could peek inside, but the guys kept them away. “Sorry, Anna, we can’t let you play until the work is done,” Mason teased me and then tossed the bags in the kitchen.

“Yeah, Anna, stop trying to distract us from our chores,” Jason added.

I gave Jason a poke in the side but followed them out to the car to help with the groceries. The puppies bounded after us, thinking it was a great game.

We managed to get the groceries put away and have some time to play with the pups while the pot roast cooked. When it was close to being done, I whipped up the brownies to bake in the second oven. Yes, this house had a second oven. Insanity.

The other guys started drifting downstairs as the smell of dinner drifted through the house. I put them to work setting the table and pouring drinks. Soon, Austin, James, Caleb, the twins, and I were settled around the table outside, ready to try and have a successful family dinner this time. I yawned as I sat down, I had not had much sleep last night, and it was getting late. Chances were that I was going to pass out right after dinner.

“This is nice,” Austin said with a smile. “It’s going to be getting too cold outside for this soon, so Cody is going to get a dining area set up inside.”

I glowed with happiness. It was starting to get chilly outside. Right now it was around 60 but would be getting cooler. It would be very nice to be able to eat inside.

“The guys mentioned you had a dining room you weren’t using?” I asked.

“Oh, we’re using it. Just not for its intended purpose.” James smirked.

“Cody and I were going to make a dining area in the open space next to the kitchen.”

I thought about that. There was a 20x20 empty space where the kitchen flowed into the living room. There would be more than enough space there for a dining table, and it would be convenient to have it that close to the kitchen.

“That sounds awesome,” I told them, and the other guys made mumbles of agreement. I sliced into my portion of the pot roast; it had turned out perfectly tender and moist.

Caleb made a motion to throw a piece to the puppies, who were happily napping over in the corner. “No -” I tried to yell, but I was too late. The puppies were now aware that not only did we have delicious food up here, we were willing to share.

They gobbled down the first piece Caleb threw and started barking insistently at Caleb for more. I groaned.

“Caleb, I know this is going to sound mean, but we can’t feed them anything until we are done eating.”

The guys all looked at me in confusion. “Trust me, Shih Tzus are notoriously stubborn. If you teach them to wait quietly until we are done, then they will happily wait their turn to eat. But if you teach them they can have food on demand,” I waved my hand at the incessantly barking pups, “then they think they are the boss and can demand food anytime they want it.”

Caleb blushed. “Sorry, Anna. They are just so cute.”

“I know.” I smiled at him to let him know I wasn’t upset.

James was not so kind. “Can you make them stop?” he asked impatiently. “Or can you just kennel them somewhere in the house?”

“No!” Jason and I both yelled out. Jason was starting to look agitated, so I hurriedly got down on my knees and called the puppies to me. “Okay guys, I need you to be quiet. I know you know the word ‘quiet’.” They were quiet for about 3 seconds before Caleb made some kind of noise and they ran over to bark at him some more.

Jason was glaring at James, who was glaring at the noisy little pups, Caleb looked embarrassed and was trying to shush them, Mason was watching Jason with concern, and Austin was looking at me with an eyebrow raised. I needed to take care of this quick.

I called the pups back over to me and repeated my commands. They listened for a little longer this time, but when I saw Tigger take a deep breath to start up again, I reminded him, “Quiet,” in a soft and soothing voice.

Both the pups watched, and after they were quiet for about a minute, I praised them. “Good quiet! That was a very good quiet!” They got excited at the praise, and I gave them each a dream bone as a treat. They ran off to the corner to gnaw on their treats in peace and quiet, so I sat back down at the table. All the guys seemed to relax again.

“We can save them a little bit of the roast for after dinner,” I told Caleb with a smile. He nodded at me.

“So, Austin,” I started, wanting to change the topic of conversation. “You hadn’t mentioned how the chat with Kelsey went earlier. Did you manage to figure out who the guys were that harassed her?”

Austin grimaced. “Your friend is certainly…something.” It made me chuckle that he wasn’t quite sure what to think of Kelsey. Most guys were just instantly in love with her because she was beautiful.

“Yeah, Anna. Why are you friends with that chick?” Jason chimed in.

I wasn’t about to let Jason get me off track from questioning Austin, so I just shrugged.

“What do you think, Austin?” I prodded him. “Who were they?”

Austin gave a nod to James, who sighed. “The wolves we turned over to the council were not part of a pack,” James told me. “They were either paid to try and kidnap you or offered some kind of a reward.”

“A reward?” I asked.

“Yes,” James replied. “I have some feelers out now, but our concern is that a bounty was put on your head. That could bring all kinds of lone wolves out of the woodwork here to try and attack.”

My jaw dropped. “What could be worth it, though? They have to know they would be caught.”

“A lot of the lone wolves are desperate,” Austin told me quietly. “If there is a pack out there that is offering admittance if they bring you, it could be very tempting. The life of a lone wolf is very difficult, and not many packs are willing to accept anyone who has been given the label of lone wolf.”

“We don’t know that’s the case,” James interjected. “They may just be offering money.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” I told him with a little bit of snark in my tone.

Jason laughed, and Mason nudged him to be quiet.

“Do you think it was them who questioned Kelsey?”

James nodded. “We found video surveillance of them at a gas station near Kelsey’s house that night.”

“Do you think they could have…been involved with what happened to Evelyn?” I asked James quietly.

I was afraid of his answer. What if Evelyn had not been murdered by her old pack? What if it had been because of me? Guilt threatened to consume me, and I looked down at the rest of my dinner. I felt nauseous and had completely lost my appetite.

“Hey,” James said softly, shocking me with his gentle tone. “As far as we could tell, they were not involved with that. And I need you to remember, what happened to Evelyn is not your fault. We are going to find whomever is responsible and make them pay.” He was very adamant at the end, and I was very surprised again. It almost seemed like he cared.

Austin smiled and nodded at me reassuringly. “Don’t worry, you have your entire pack standing behind you now.”

Mason took my left hand, and Jason my right. They each gave my hand a squeeze; they had insisted on sitting on either side of me earlier tonight, and I was glad for that now.

“We are all here for you,” Caleb added quietly.

These guys were too sweet; I was about to burst into tears. I squeezed both the twins’ hands back and gave the other guys a grateful smile.

James looked uncomfortable. “Don’t look so pleased,” he told me. “There were also other wolves here last night. Most of the ones we have found so far have been lone wolves, and we are still not any closer to identifying the pack we are looking for.”

“Do you think Evelyn’s pack and the one that put out a reward for me are one and the same?”

“It’s possible.” James shrugged. “It seems highly likely that the wolves caught the scent of another wolf in Evelyn’s house and went after you.”

“But it’s also likely that more packs will be interested in you now that everyone knows about you. You have some protection now that the council is aware of you, but some of the lone wolves might think that coming after you is a ticket into the pack of their choice. We need to give it time for word to circulate that anyone caught with you will be severely punished.”

I sighed. “What about next week when I go home and go back to work?”

The twins looked at me sharply. “I’m not leaving you guys,” I assured them. “I just can’t abandon my house and disappear from my job suddenly.”

Jason stilled eyed me suspiciously, but Mason nodded slowly. “Yeah, you’ll probably need to put in two weeks’ notice, and we can help you pack up your house.”

“Um…well, Austin said you have pack members who have jobs outside of the pack, and you guys go to school all day,” I pointed out.

“We don’t have to talk about this now,” Caleb tried to save me as he looked down and pushed food around on his plate.

“Yes, we do!” the twins said in unison. James rolled his eyes.

“She’s not even really in the pack yet,” he told them. “And Austin never said she could live here permanently.”

Austin cleared his throat. “Anna is here on a trial basis,” he added. “But I was hoping that she would want to stay,” he gave the twins a hard look, “without anyone here pressuring her into it.”

Mason looked a little guilty, but Jason just looked down at his plate sullenly.

“Whether or not Anna wants to quit her job is up to her,” he said, looking at me. “That’s something I will discuss with Anna, and it’s not something I want anyone forcing on her.”

Everyone at the table nodded, even James.

“But Anna, I am concerned because I don’t think we will have enough time to take care of everything by next week. Do you have any more vacation you can use?”

I shook my head. “I’m covering for LT Sullivan in the NICU next week so she can take her kids to Disney. The only other pharmacist who can cover for her is on medical leave.”

“NICU?” Jason asked.

“The neonatal intensive care unit. It’s for babies who are born prematurely and need extra special care. Some of the babies born there are only 24-weeks gestational age and half a kilogram.”

Some of the guys looked confused. “Babies are usually born at 37 weeks and are 3-5kg,” I told them. “They need doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who are specially trained and qualified to care for them. There is not a lot of data on how their bodies will react to treatment, so it can be very nerve wracking to dose antibiotics and other meds to try and get their bodies functioning correctly.”

“Why don’t their bodies function correctly?” Jason asked curiously.

“Babies that young aren’t just smaller than normal; their bodies haven’t developed so they don’t have fully functional or developed organs. Sometimes they need surgeries to create a functional GI tract or to correct things that didn’t develop correctly because they came out of the womb too early.”

James looked surprised. “I didn’t realize what you did at the hospital was important,” he told me. “I thought pharmacists just put pills in a bottle.”

I rolled my eyes, but I wasn’t offended. That’s what most people thought; James was just more blunt than most.

Jason looked mollified now, and I sighed with relief. It was becoming more and more clear that he had some issues with abandonment. I wanted to help him through that, not make it worse. It made me feel even closer to the twins, knowing that they also did not have a normal childhood. I was feeling hopeful that the three of us would be able to work through some of our issues together. They were already helping me, so I wanted to return the favor.

I was more than ready to change the topic of conversation now. “So, how’s the pot roast?”

Most of the guys mumbled, “Good”, or something to that effect, and we all went back to eating.

I went deep into thought. Obviously, my assumption that wolves would not go on my military base was completely incorrect. Cody had gotten on quite easily to track me down. Maybe I could stay in the pharmacy while I was there?

You had to have badge access to get into the pharmacy, and admittance was tightly controlled. I sighed. As long as no one waylaid me on my way in from the parking garage and I didn’t go into any public areas, I should be safe. I pushed those thoughts away for now. I had plenty of time to worry about all that before I had to go back to work.

The guys looked like they were finishing up, so I went back into the kitchen to retrieve the still-warm brownies. I had developed an amazing recipe over the last few years. My brownies were fudgy and thick, not like the cake-like brownies that were out of the box.

Every time I brought them to work, my co-workers went insane over them. I was hoping these guys would like the brownies just as much. I liked the idea of being able to do something for them since they had already done so much for me.

The guys did enjoy the brownies. I know that feeding them was something small, but it made me feel better inside to know that I could give them a tiny bit of happiness.

After dessert, James and Austin excused themselves to work. I don’t think those two took any time off at all. Caleb asked me if he could take the rest of the brownies up with him, which set off a playful fight with the twins. They eventually gave up the brownies when I assured them I was perfectly capable of making more at a later time.

The twins stayed and helped me to clean up. I claimed the little bit of what remained of the pot roast for the puppies and cut it up into tiny bite-sized pieces for them. I was exhausted and ready for sleep. The twins were disappointed when I told them I was taking the pups out for a potty break and then up to bed, but I promised them that we could have another movie night tomorrow.

Exhausted, I was finally able to drag myself up the stairs and to my room. I took a quick shower and collapsed on my bed, snuggling up to the puppies. They settled right down with a couple of wide yawns that matched my own.

Even though my body was exhausted, my mind was still working overtime. I knew the twins wanted me here. I also knew James did NOT want me here. Where did the rest of the guys fall on that spectrum? Would I be overstaying my welcome by hanging out here too often? James had made it clear that the house was for full time, high-ranking members of the pack, and I was not one of them. I didn’t really have anything to offer the pack at all.

I was worried about the rest of the pack viewing me as a useless female who was just taking advantage of the pack and living here for free. From looking at this house, there is no way I could afford to pay anything meaningful towards whatever the mortgage was costing Austin. I doubted I could even afford to keep up with the grocery bill here; I had some pretty hefty student loans I was still paying off every month.

I chewed on my lip. I doubt that occasionally cooking some of the guys dinner would really justify my presence here. How would I explain to the twins I was leaving, though? I would genuinely miss them. Now that I had become accustomed to having them around all the time, their absence left me feeling empty.

I thought about going back home, to my old life. I had not realized just how lonely and sad it had been. Tears filled my eyes as I realized how much more empty it would be now that I no longer had Evelyn. My only friend was Kelsey, and yes, I was aware she was not that great of a friend. But who am I to judge? I’m pretty weird, so I doubt I was that great of a friend to have either.

I thought about Cody, my gentle giant; about Austin, the charismatic leader who wanted to change the world; about Caleb, the brilliant but sweet techie. And James; the more I got to know James, the more I realized there was more to him that appeared on the surface. He acted like an asshole, but deep down I think there was a good guy. He acted annoyed with the twins most of the time, but when he thought no one else was looking, I saw glimpses of affection. He acted like he hated me most of the time, but he had been gentle with me at one point tonight when he forgot he was supposed to be acting like the tough guy.

I fell asleep with thoughts of all the guys running through my head.