Chương 122: DAY ONE WITH KEYS

I woke up to the usual sound of my alarm. I was still tired and slightly achy all around, but I'd survive. I had forgotten about having long hair again and tripped over it while getting out of bed, resulting in an ungraceful tumble onto the bedroom rug. Goddess, did you think this was funny? To plague me with constantly long locks that would trip me up, use up all my shampoo, and take up time to blow dry, brush, and braid just so that it would stay out of my way?

Perhaps instead of all that trouble, it might be easier to just chop the whole thing off every morning. Except that it would become obvious whenever I shifted. My Mum would be able to know, just by the length of my hair, if I had slipped out last night for a run in my wolf form. Speaking of my Mum, I really should work out some way to make it so that I wouldn't have to worry her so much. You know, nothing too fancy—just not appear in front of her soaked in blood.

Flashback to last night: "Don't worry Mum, it's not my blood. Honest, it was vampire blood." Somehow, the bit about vampires made things worse. I think I should've stopped at the first half. Quit while I was ahead. Maybe the less I spoke, the better. But my earlier attempts to keep quiet had also worried everyone. They had interpreted my silence as deep unhappiness or something serious like that. I couldn't win either way.

So it would help a great deal if I could somehow sneak in a shower before seeing Mum, sort of like a superhero hideout maybe, with a shower installed. Actually, I just needed a bathroom with a wardrobe for towels and clothes. And maybe bandages and disinfectant, just in case it sometimes turned out to be my blood. I could sneak into the house, but Mum and anyone else in the house would hear the shower turn on. Maybe what I needed was a bathroom in the packhouse.

I wondered if I might be able to convince Dad to let me use one of the guest apartments. Probably not. I can't imagine Dad agreeing. The other thing I wanted right now was a car. Now that I might have a permanent driver, I thought I could have my own car. A simple convertible or something cool like that. A deep blue one. Keys could drive me around. I got dressed and dragged my school bag downstairs. The scene at the breakfast table surprised me. Dad, Mum, and Savy were all seated at the table.

Even Mum, sipping tea and eating omelet with… was that bell peppers? Since when did we have fancy breakfasts on a normal school day? There was a really nice smell coming from the kitchen.

"Morning, Goddess. How would you like your eggs?" Keys stretched lazily where he stood at the kitchen counter.

"Scrambled?" I asked.

"Too easy!" Keys gave me one of his signature smiles and picked up the pan. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"What's going on?" I asked my family.

"Keys' making breakfast," Savy told me. Mum started blow-drying my hair. Savy had some strange egg blob on a slice of toast, with avocado and bacon on her plate. It looked like something from a fancy food photo.

"What's that?" I asked. Savy shrugged.

"Eggs Benedict on toast. I was trying to be difficult, but it came out anyway." My scrambled eggs were done; Keys placed the plate in front of me. It was shaped in a perfect small dome. How was that even possible? I poked the egg with my fork. It smelled really good, though. I took a bite. Wow. I had to say I was impressed.

"Keys! This is super yum!" I called out to the kitchen. Keys brought out a lunch box for me to take to school.

"I would say I cook the way I f***, but that would probably ruin your appetite," Keys quipped. I laughed and took the lunch box from him and stuck it in my bag.

"Keys?"

"Yes, Goddess?" Keys asked.

"From now on, replace the f-word with something else," I ordered.

"What should I replace it with?" Keys asked.

"I could change the f to an s." Dad choked a bit on his coffee. I shook my head.

"Change it to… Let me think about it. I'll tell you after school." {Betas are near} Today, Savy did some kind of braid and ponytail. She grinned.

"It's like playing doll every day."

"A perfect woman is like a doll. Beautiful and quiet," Keys told her.

"Shut up, you perverted old man. Don't teach my sister anything weird," I told him. And then Savy surprised me by cackling. Keys lifted his brow and shrugged.

"She gets it." Why was Savy cackling in front of anyone who wasn't family? I glared accusingly at Keys. {Betas approach} Beta Lucas knocked on our back door, and Dad called for him to come in. He entered with twins trooping in after him.

"Oh my, wow," Lizzy blurted out on seeing Keys. Keys smiled and earned himself low growls from her Dad and brother. I chuckled at that. Poor Keys—he can't even smile at a girl without the other male wolves baring down on him. He took it quite well, simply offering coffee.

"Oh yeah, Keys, this is Ben," I told him.

"He's my Beta in charge of the Night Leaf Pack." I thought Keys might scoff at Ben being just a kid or whatever, but Keys only nodded politely.

"All right, Keys, you come with me now. Do you think you can drive the kids to school without crashing or behaving inappropriately?" Beta Lucas challenged him.

"Do your best, Keys! I'm rooting for you!" I cheered him on, tongue in cheek.

"Have I ever failed you, Goddess?" Keys asked. I stopped short.

"I just met you." Keys flashed me a winning smile.

"Just leave it to me, Goddess." I had no idea what he was talking about, but I remembered the word, Loyalty, so I flashed him a wide smile in return.

"I will leave it to you, then." Beta Lucas looked more concerned, but he managed to hand over his car keys without crying. Keys held the back door open for them to leave.

"Oh my," Lizzy told Savy as they left.

"He's a hottie." Savy smiled at that, but she didn't cackle. Savy only cackled in front of family… and Keys. I finished the perfectly scrambled eggs. Mum got up from the table.

"You better go to school too." Oh yeah. I got up to go. Did Savy and the others have something special this morning? They left earlier than usual. Oh well, I had lots to do today too. I stomped through the knee-high snow to the bus waiting for me outside my front door.

"Thought I might as well, with the snow so deep," the bus driver told me as I boarded.

"Thanks," I said. I sat at the back of the bus and watched the piles of white snow stacked against the pavements. Someone was up early clearing the main roads. There was always someone doing their job so that someone else could also do their jobs. That's what it meant to run in a pack too. Whether we were running a pack town or running a pack hunt, every wolf needed to do their part for the pack to thrive. Now, Keys was a part of this pack too.

He was strong, but I worried about how he seemed to be in pain last night, how he took his life so lightly. I hoped with all my heart that he would grab this new life with both hands and make something of it that he could be proud of. Then I worried about him being new and alone in the pack and inadvertently pissing off all the other males in the pack. I worried about him getting into mischief. I suddenly understood my mother's words when she said she worried every day.

I wondered if Keys was my retribution child—the one that Mum promised would one day make me understand whenever I wouldn't agree with her. Sigh. I don't think I was ready to be Keys' Mum.