Wolf's Call (Wolves Next Door #2) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,12

to go out and find some cute young woman, and yeah, I'd seen the one talking to Ian outside the office.

From the way he'd reacted, I could only assume she was the woman Lane had warned me about. The worst part was that her short, dyed-blonde, asymmetrical bob fit her name a little too well. Of course her name was Karen. It couldn't really be anything else. She probably came from money too. Some rich, pretty, young white girl with entitlement issues. How was I, a forty-year-old Latina, supposed to compete with that if I kept telling the guys sex wasn't even an option?

But they didn't seem to care. They understood. When they were around, I never felt pressured. It was only when I was alone, like now, when I ended up worrying myself to death about it. Mostly because I couldn't figure out what was in this for them. I had five amazingly gorgeous boyfriends. All of them were in the prime of their lives. They had so much going for them, and out of all the women in the world, they'd picked me.

I was putting away the clean dishes when the front door opened and my darling daughter came in and sighed. Without slowing down, she slung her book bag onto the couch and went straight for the fridge. I watched as she rummaged, pushing aside the fruits she'd always loved for a piece of summer sausage. Grabbing that, she closed the fridge and sighed again.

"Long day?" I asked, knowing she'd not only had drama rehearsal today, but also wolf lessons.

She took a healthy bite out of the cured sausage and chewed it, nodding the whole time. "Mason spent the entire rehearsal trying to screw up my lines." And she headed around the kitchen bar to claim a stool so she could keep going. "We're never really on at the same time, but he has it in for me, you know? And now that Roman's allowed to wait for me? Mason's always barking at me like I'm some kind of dog."

My eyes narrowed. "Is this because you're always calling yourself a wolf like the rest of the kids from the pack?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. The guy's just a freak."

"What kind of freak?" I asked, because she sounded just a little too annoyed.

Gabby had never been bullied before, but there was a first time for everything, and this was still her first year at this school. Yeah, having the kids from the community as friends meant she didn't have to face it alone, but she was also one of the few minorities in her class. Those two things combined meant that she'd stand out, and sometimes that was all a bully needed to pick a new target.

"He's just obsessed with us," she groaned. "Like, he follows me in the halls, you know? Olivia, too. One of the older girls carries mace on her keys, just in case he comes after her. That kind of freak."

"Have you told a teacher?" I asked.

She gave me a look like I'd lost my mind. "And say what? The guy looks at me?"

"Barks at you?" I huffed at her. "Gabriella, you are a Latina! If he's being racist, that's something to tell the teachers about, because if you won't, then I will."

"Olivia's white, Mom," she reminded me. "So it's not a race thing. He also doesn't pick on the guys."

My guts twisted. "I'm getting you mace," I decided.

She actually laughed at that. "Don't need it. I've got my pack, remember? We've started walking each other to class, just to make sure he's not lurking or anything."

Well, that helped, but not enough. "You need to tell your principal that you're worried enough about him to change your habits," I warned her, "or I will."

"Don't," she insisted. "Mom, he's just weird. And the last thing we need is to get called out. I mean, Ian says we're not allowed to bring too much attention to ourselves, and Mason just barks. Yes, it bugs me, but it's not worth risking exposing us."

Those words made it clear just how much my little girl had changed. She was a wolf now, through and through. Oddly, I wasn't sad about it. She'd been right. This was a good place for us, but it suited her in a way I hadn't expected. Gabby was thriving as a wolf. She'd found a confidence I hadn't expected, and it was like she bloomed a little more each day.

"Ok," I relented, "but on one condition.