Once as I reached home, the kids started bombarding me with questions.
“Why did we leave Momma?”
“Why is Daddy not with us?”
“Where’s Daddy?”
Taking in a deep breath I instructed, “Take a seat.”
They both sat next to each other on the couch opposite the one that I was sitting on. I wasn’t about to tell them everything from the start- so why I first ran away from here- because even though they were extremely mature for their age, I don’t think they were old enough to understand everything. They didn’t even know about mates or much about werewolves, so I didn’t think they would be able to understand much. But I have never lied to my children, and I wasn’t about to start now.
“Your Daddy and I had an argument, so I left,” I stated, looking directly at them.
Their faces turned into similar frowns and after a few moments of their little brain processing it, Samantha finally asked, “Why?”
“Because this isn’t our home. Our home is back in New York, and your Daddy wanted all of us to stay here,” I explained.
“We’re leaving Daddy?” Samantha looked so heartbroken, with tears in her eyes and her lips quivering.
I slowly nodded with a sad smile on my face.
“We don’t want to leave Daddy,” Terrence finally said, speaking for the first time.
“We want Mommy and Daddy to be together,” Samantha said, “We want Mommy and Daddy.”
“I’m sorry baby, but we can’t have that,” I whispered.
“But why?!” Terrence screamed, standing up abruptly.
“Calm down baby,” I said, walking over to him.
“But we want to live with you and Daddy!” he shouted once again. “I don’t want to choose. I want Momma and Daddy together!”
“Okay, shhh, baby,” I said, placing him on my lap and smoothing his brown hair. My heart was breaking seeing him like this, and it made me wonder whether me moving back to New York was really worth this.
Was my job really worth my the happiness of my children? No, no, it wasn’t. I’d give everything up for them and be unhappy, even if it meant that they were happy. If it meant that they stayed happy for the rest of their lives, then I’d happily hand them over my life.
Terrence had fallen asleep on my lap, whispering that he wanted his daddy and momma to say together, and Samantha on him. It had been a long day for them, so they were both exhausted. After placing them both on Terrence’s bed, I made my way to the couch again, closing my eyes and resting my head in my hands.
My job was important to me because it meant that I was making a difference out there for others, but my kids were definitely my top priority. Always had been and always will be.
The doorbell rang, interrupting me from my train of thoughts. Hoping that it was Howard, I quickly ran to the door and pulled it open. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.
“Randy!” I screamed, hugging him and wrapping my legs around him.
I missed Randy because he was definitely my best friend and like my brother. He’s like my rock, and without him, I knew I would be a mess right now. And he couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I missed you!”
“Ouch! My ears!” he chuckled.
“Sorry, come in,” I said, walking through the door, with him following me.
“Wow, nice house,” he said looking around. “It’s really quiet in here; where are the twins?”
“They’re asleep.”
“What happened Caroline?” he said, looking at me in the eyes. “And don’t even think about lying to me and saying that everything is good, because we both know that it isn’t.”
So I sat down and told him everything, from the flowers right down to what the kids had told me, and cried about. Randy sat there, holding me and comforting me while I cried my eyes out. I didn’t even realize when I felt asleep in Randy’s warm arms on the couch.
“Caroline! Caroline!”
I groaned, and squinted my eyes, rubbing it. I tried to sit up, but I noticed that a muscular arm was placed over my waist, restricting my movements. I felt so exhausted and my head was pounding from crying myself to sleep last night- something I hadn’t done for years now.
I heard another groan from Randy, whom I was sleeping on top of as he stirred. Sitting up, I noticed that I was still on the couch, sleeping on top of Randy while he held me tightly in his warm embrace.
“Oh.”
My head snapped towards the sound, and I was surprised to find out that it was Howard, who was currently glaring at Randy while jealousy and anger rolled off of him in waves. If looks could kill, Randy would be six feet under right now.
“Who’s this?” Howard spat, looking at Randy in disgust.
“Randy, wake up,” I shook him, trying to wake him up.
“Go to sleep Caro, it’s still early morning,” he groaned, placing his arms over his eyes to stop the light from the windows from getting into his eyes.
“Randy. Get up right now. Howard is here,” I shouted, pushing him away. For some reason, I felt so guilty to be in the arms of another man in front of my mate. Why was I feeling like this? Damn, the mating bond.
Like a flash, Randy sat up and his eyes widened. He hated Howard because he hated everything he had done to me. I knew Randy would be there to protect me, but Howard wouldn’t hurt me . . .physically anyways, as it would hurt his wolf too much to inflict any pain on his mate.
Randy tightened his grip on my waist, causing Howard to growl. Maybe he knows now how I felt seeing him with Eva. He was in a full make-out session with Eva in front of me while Randy was just holding my waist and yet he was acting like I was having a relation with Randy. Hypocrite much?
“Who is he?” growled Howard, trying to fight his wolf from coming out.
“Randy . . .my best friend, not that that’s any of your business, of course.”
“Everything to do with you or my children is my business. You’re my mate! And this looks a little too cosy to just be friendship,” he scoffed.
Just as I was about to say something, the twins came running out, probably because of hearing Howard’s voice.
“Daddy!” Samantha squealed, jumping onto Howard. “I thought you were never coming back here.”
“Baby, I told you I would never leave you to be alone,” he said, looking at me in the eyes. “I will always, always be there for you. I love you guys so much.”
“We love you too Daddy,” Samantha said, hugging Howard very tightly.
“Uncle Randy!” Terrence said, running over to Randy and knocking his fist.
“I missed you Uncle Randy,” Samantha said, now giving a hug to Randy, who also hugged her back.
“I missed you guys too. I’ve got you guys presents when I went to England, and I think you’ll love it. It’s back home though, so when you guys come back, I’ll give it to you, okay?”
Howard growled while I gave him him a pointed look, then turned to look at the children.
“Howard, why don’t you have a seat while we brush our teeth and have a shower,” I said to Howard.
After everyone had changed, and freshened up, I started cooking up some breakfast. I loved cooking for family and even though it was mostly just the twins and I, I always cooked us our meals. It sort of made me feel like we were a proper family. . .if you get what I mean.
“Wow, you’re making breakfast,” Randy grinned as he came into the kitchen.
“Well, only because you love my blueberry pancakes so much!” I nudged him.
“Well, true that,” he said, placing a small kiss on my cheek. A growl startled me, causing me nearly fall on my ass.
“What the hell?” I shouted.
“He kissed you on the cheek!” Howard growled, glaring at Randy, who seemed to enjoy watching Howard get so riled up.
I narrowed my eyes at Randy, while he just smiled innocently at me.
“Just don’t say anything in front of the kids okay? And don’t you dare growl in front of them,” I said to Howard.
He nodded and helped me make a huge breakfast. Since Randy and Howard were full-grown werewolves, and both of them being Alphas, they ate twice as much as me, which would be four times more than an adult male. Since we burnt energy off a lot quicker than the average human, we needed way more food.
After making endless amounts of pancakes, a lot of French toasts, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages and some fruit salad, I turned on the T.V so we ate as we watched Shrek. When everybody finished their breakfast, Howard helped me bring the dishes into the kitchen, where he cleared everything and cleaned the surfaces while I washed the dishes.
“Are you really going to move back to New York again?” he asked in a quite voice.
I already knew the answer to that the moment I saw Samantha cry. “No, but I am going to have to travel there sometimes, because my job’s still there as well as my home. So we will be visiting quite often.”
Howard let out of sigh of relief. “I can deal with that. But I can’t deal with my whole family being away with me. Thank you so much Caroline, you don’t know how happy you just made me.”
I nodded and we continued cleaning everything up in silence, however it wasn’t one of those awkward silences when you’re trying to make small talk but you just fail, but in fact, it was one of those nice, comforting silences.
Once we finished, we walked side-by-side to the living room, where I took my seat on the couch again beside Terrence and Randy. I placed my legs on Randy’s and my head on his shoulder, while his arms was wrapped around my waist.66
We sat in silence, while Shrek played in a tense and sour atmosphere.
— Howard’s POV —
I watched as Caroline sat on Randy’s lap and I couldn’t help but feel so jealous. So this is that really horrible feeling she must’ve felt when she saw Eva and I together. I have never been so jealous in my whole life ever before, and honestly I don’t ever want to feel like this ever again. It was one of the worst feeling ever and I absolutely hated it.
I knew Caroline never confirmed that there was something going on between herself and Randy, but she never denied it either.
But whatever was going on between them, I was going to stop it, because Caroline was mine and only mine.
And I wasn’t about to stop at anything to get her back. I would do anything to get her back.
Anything.