He woke to sounds in the kitchen. Normally, he would have thought that this meant Kristen had decided to break in and make herself at home. His sister couldn’t hold down a job and often came to crash with him when she couldn’t afford a place to live or food.

Lately, however, the noise in the morning had been a commonplace thing. Marguerite and Elena had moved in with him. Given what was happening, it felt like the only decent thing to do. Give them a place to live and be safe while they figured this out.

Marguerite was handling it all much better than he had expected. She didn’t freak out, and even if she looked a bit scared when the change happened, she still held and cuddled Elena until she fell asleep.

More clanging from the kitchen. Everett rolled out of bed and threw some clothes on before heading out. He yawned as he entered the kitchen but stopped when he saw what Marguerite was wearing. Cute little booty shorts and a tank top, the kind that had a bow in the center of her cleavage. Her very deep cleavage. His gaze focused in there for a moment until she made a coughing noise.

Everett’s head snapped up, heat rushing to his face. Marguerite was red as well, and she moved to a chair and pulled on a silk robe.

“I’m making pancakes and I didn’t want to get it dirty.”

Everett pointed at a drawer. “I’ve got an apron in there.”

“One that I am never going to let Elena see.”

“Why not? She’s not naked – she’s wearing a bikini.”

Marguerite rolled her eyes. “With giant boobs that her top barely covers. I don’t need my daughter to see an oversexualized depiction of women when this is all still very new and confusing.”

“Ah.” Everett couldn’t help but smirk. “That’s why you’re making breakfast in lingerie.”

Marguerite’s face reddened even more. She opened her mouth, but before she said anything, a sleepy voice spoke from behind him.

“What’s lawn-jerry?” Elena wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug and yawned.

He hadn’t realized that she was awake. Now it was his turn to stutter, embarrassed and uncertain of what to say. It was hard enough curbing his swearing around Elena. There was so much more he had to watch around her. Having a kid around was hard, even though he loved the way she laughed when he swung her around or the image of her and Marguerite sitting on the sofa reading a story.

“Lingerie is something that adults wear,” Marguerite said quickly. “Are you hungry? I’ve got some pancakes ready.”

Elena’s eyes lit up. “Yum!”

Marguerite set a plate and fork on the table for Elena, then placed a pancake that had a smiley face on it. Everett moved past them to get a glass of water as he checked the time. He had six hours before he had to get to work. Enough time to hit the gym and work off some of the excess energy that the change brought as well as go to his favorite rib place for some extra protein.

“Do you want to join us for breakfast?” Marguerite slid a full plate of pancakes onto the table. They smelled delicious, and the butter she’d used to fry them in glistened off of their browned tops.

“I should—”

Elena interrupted him. “Mommy says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You have you eat a good breakfast, otherwise you’re hungry and grumpy all day.”

Everett couldn’t help but smile at that. He hesitated a moment, then got himself cutlery and sat down. Elena stood on her chair and poured him a glass of orange juice, then quickly sat at Marguerite’s stern look.

“Well, don’t we look domestic,” Everett said, chuckling nervously.

Marguerite laughed softly, the nerves apparent in her own voice. “That’s one way to look at it.”

Her robe was gaping open, showing off that cleavage again. Everett tried not to stare but snuck a peek every once in a while. He remembered what it was like to hold those breasts in his hands while they made love. Then they had been a bit smaller. Now, they’d overflow in his grip. Would they still taste the same? Were they still as firm, her skin as taut—

His cell phone rang. Everett jumped, the sound rather loud and obnoxious. He quickly rose to his feet and walked to the other side of the room. “Hello?”

“Hey, baby,” a sultry voice crooned. “I was wondering if you had some time to come over and help me with my plumbing.”

Everett glanced at the table, but neither Marguerite nor Elena seemed interested in his call. He recognized the voice, though. It was Ginny, one of his ‘friends with benefits’ from the last place he had worked. It had been a while since she called.

“Uh . . . ” His eyes wandered to Marguerite, and for a moment, he was tempted to ask if he could bring a friend. That would anger Ginny enough that she’d just hang up. But that was unnecessary. All he’d have to do was say he had to go to work. But really, if Marguerite and Elena weren’t here he’d be out the door already. It wasn’t as though they were a real domestic unit. He might have a daughter now, but that didn’t mean he was in a relationship with her mother. “Yeah. I can do that. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

He hung up and Elena twisted around to look at him. “Where are you going? Can I come, too?”

“It was work,” Everett lied swiftly. “I got called in early.”

“Can I go to work with Everett, Mommy?”

Marguerite smiled as she glanced at her daughter. “No, sweetie. Not today. We’re going to go to the park and then we’re going to get some math workbooks. You don’t want to fall behind in kindergarten, do you?”

Elena clapped her hands. “Yay! I love math.”

“I’ll be back . . . later.” Everett grabbed his leather jacket and shoved his feet into his shoes. He owed them nothing, and it was best that he didn’t get too attached. He wasn’t the kind of guy who made commitments, and sooner or later, Marguerite was going to bring home the perfect guy to be Elena’s father.

It didn’t stop the leaden weight in his stomach, though. As he drove, he kept thinking about what it would be like to have a family. Not being alone when the change happened in the devil’s hour. Not being alone most of the time. He enjoyed his network of friends with benefits, even if there were more benefits than friendship, and when they didn’t cut it, there was always a woman at the bars looking for the same thing he was.

Still, by the time he got to Ginny’s, he wasn’t really in the mood. He rolled his neck as he knocked on her door. Ginny greeted him in a frilly pink thing and pulled him in, giggling.

“It’s a bit early for this, isn’t it?” he asked as he let her lead him into the kitchen.

“It’s never too early. Besides, the sink’s broken.”

Everett sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think I’m in the mood for roleplaying. Sorry. I shouldn’t have come.”

Ginny looked shocked for a moment, then pulled her frilly robe open. “Not even for this.”

He allowed his gaze to trace down her form but shook his head. There was too much going on in his head. “I’ve got some emotional baggage going on right now. I found out a couple of days ago that I have a five-year-old daughter and . . . well. You can understand.”

“Wow.” Ginny tied her robe again. “Wow. And the woman never told you that she was pregnant? The bitch.”

“It was a one-night stand and we never saw each other again. She only tracked me down because . . . My daughter might need a kidney transplant and she isn’t a matching blood type,” he lied quickly, running a hand through his hair. “I thought I needed a distraction, but you’re worth more than some half-assed sex.”

Ginny sighed. “Only you could make a rejection sound so pretty. Ugh. It’s too late to call anybody else. You sure? I mean, it’s not a reason to deny yourself, right?”

“I’m sure.” Everett kissed her cheek. “Sorry. I’ve got to go.”

She showed him to the door and Everett drove away again. His brow furrowed heavily. Why had he done that? Yeah, there was a lot to think about, but Ginny was right. It wasn’t a reason to deny himself. So why did he feel guilty about even the thought of turning around and going back to her?

***

Halfway through his shift, Everett got a call from Marguerite saying that she needed to talk with him urgently. Even though he couldn’t see what sort of disaster might have happened since that morning, he told his boss he was taking the rest of the day off and headed home. He returned to his apartment to find her pacing, hair a mess.

“Where’s Elena?”

“I took her to a drop-off daycare. So, first off, do you change at any time besides at night?”

Everett frowned. “I can change if I concentrate on it, but there have never been any accidental changes, if that’s what you mean. And it’s only at three in the morning. There was this once when I drove west across the continent, staying ahead of three. Didn’t change until it caught up.”

Marguerite let out a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Okay, then I can calm down about Elena being at the daycare, right? I mean, even if she tells them, they’ll think she’s just being a child with a vivid imagination.”

“Is there something urgent you actually need to discuss? Because I left work and—”

“Yes, there is. Where was the lab that you escaped from? And why did you need to escape? Obviously, Simon Bell did something, but was he torturing you? Did he actually do this, or are you like a . . . a werewolf? An actual werewolf? They’re featured in myths all over the world. It makes sense that they could actually exist, right?”

Everett growled in his throat. “Okay, this?” He gestured between them. “This isn’t urgent. You’ve been living with me here for days now and we have talked about Simon Bell. And I will tell you what I have already told you. I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from before waking up in that lab and quite frankly I don’t want to know. I just want to live my life with some semblance of normalcy.”

“And I want answers for my baby girl!”

Everett turned away.

“Okay, I get it. The only time you actually pay attention is when you’re ogling my breasts like you were doing all through breakfast this morning.”

He turned back. “There is no call for you to be this aggressive. I am doing everything I can to help you and Elena. You think you’re freaked out? I’m freaked out too, and guess what? I’ve been living with this for six years. If there were answers to be had, I’d have found them. Now, I am going back to work unless you really do want to get naked.”

A look crossed her face that made him think she might actually do it. Heat flared in his body and he actually took a step closer in anticipation. To feel her body close to his, the taste of her mouth, the smell of their sweat mingling. But she averted her gaze and turned away. Everett opened his mouth, but there was nothing to say, so he closed it again. It was for the best. The situation was already complicated enough.