Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

H arper

Molly meets me at the doorway, her baby balanced on her hip and pulling at her hair.

“Harper!” she says, leaning forward to kiss my cheek and then ushering me inside her new home.

When I left Rockview seven years ago, Molly was a determinedly single omega with no plans to find a pack. Now she’s bonded to three alphas and has a step-daughter, a baby and from what I can see as she leads me through to the kitchen, a very beautiful home.

“Come in, come in,” she says, “I’m so excited to catch up. We never really got to talk at that welcome home party and it’s been ages.”

In the kitchen, she plonks the baby down in a high chair and takes the stool beside him, sliding a bowl of something mushy and green towards her. Sitting on the other side of the ginormous kitchen island is a young girl, engrossed in a coloring book.

“Harper,” she says to me, waving a small plastic spoon in my direction, “this is Harper, my daughter. Harper, this is my old friend, Harper.”

The little girl looks up from her book. She has red ink smudged across her cheek. I peer down at the book. She appears to be turning a princess into a … vampire?

“You’re called Harper too?” the other Harper asks me.

“Yep,” I say, taking the stool next to her.

The girl considers me, furrowing her brow.

“It suits me better.”

I laugh as Molly mouths a sorry at me. “You’re probably right,” I say.

“You look more like a Julie.”

“A Julie,” I say, “that’s sort of an old person’s name.”

The girl stares at me. “You are old.”

“Harper,” Molly says, with a shake of her head, wiping some of the green mush off the baby’s chin. “That’s not very polite.”

“It’s not?” she says, innocently.

“It’s fine. I am old. Practically ancient.” I sigh, and rest my elbow on the counter, leaning my chin against my hand. “And single and probably destined to be alone forever.”

“Well, that’s dramatic.” Molly giggles as the other Harper returns to coloring in a pool of blood.

“I suppose I could get a cat,” I mull.

“Trust me,” Molly mutters, wrestling the spoon from the baby’s grip, “it’s not as easy to obtain a cat as they’d have you believe.”

“Harder than finding, you know, a trustworthy dude with morals and integrity?”

The little girl peers up from her book, all of a sudden interested in our conversation.

“That’s a really great picture,” I tell her.

“Harper worked in an art gallery in Paris,” Molly tells her step-daughter. “She knows all about art.”

“Art galleries suck,” little Harper says, sticking out her tongue.

“Harper,” Molly says to her, “why don’t you go watch TV in the den?”

“I haven’t finished my picture.”

“You can watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Daddy.”

Immediately the little girl jumps down from her stool and scuttles away.

“Is Buffy suitable viewing?” I ask.

“Don’t ask.” Molly rolls her eyes, then holds out the spoon to me. “Here, finish feeding Mitchell for me. I’ll make us some coffee. The bags under your eyes …” She shakes her head.

“It’s jet lag,” I protest, taking the spoon and focusing on the baby. He looks at the green mush on the spoon and opens his mouth, then promptly closes it again as soon as I bring the spoon in, green mush smearing all over his nose. “Is there a knack to this?”

“Nope,” Molly says, with a grin. “It’s why I handed it over.”

“Sneaky,” I say.

Molly presses the buttons on the expensive-looking coffee machine and the thing whirs into life.

“So what’s with the downer on men?”

I tell her about the disastrous relationship with Laurent and the relationship’s even more disastrous ending.

“He claimed he didn’t know we were exclusive,” I tell Molly.

“Pig!” Molly tuts. Then proceeds to tell me her much more positive story about how she formed her pack from three lone wolf types.

“And now you’re living out your very own happily ever after,” I say, gazing at the baby as he wrestles the spoon from my hand and bangs it eagerly on his tray.

“Well, yes,” Molly says, “but it’s not all rainbows, unicorns and orgasms. Being a mom is tiring as well as amazingly wonderful.” The baby looks at her with a big toothless smile and bangs the spoon again. “Yes, you’re very clever and extremely yummy,” she says, cupping his chin and kissing his cheek.

“I want one of those,” I murmur.

“Need to find a pack first … or at least a man … actually just some sperm.”

“I don’t know what I want.” I sigh.

“You need to get back out there, Harper.”

“That’s what my mom says.”

“She’s right.”

“She’s talked me into going to the latest Omega and Alpha event.”

“She’s right, again,” Molly says.

“You always hated those things,” I mutter, remembering how we spent several of them together camped out in the ladies’ bathroom with a bottle of wine and stolen canapes.

“Yes, but I’m me and you’re you. They can be … cringe, but they’re also a really good way of meeting a pack. Or a man. Or just some sperm.”

“I’m meant to be going with Daxton,” I mutter.

Molly turns from the coffee machine to look at me.

“The super-hot brother?”

“Step-brother.”

“Of course,” she grins, “step-brother.” She grins wider and the baby gurgles.

“What?”

“It’s just the way he looked at you. The way you looked at him …”

“We didn’t look …” I say. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I sit up straighter in my chair.

“Uh huh.”

“I’m meant to be helping his pack find an omega.”

“Right.”

“You know, teaching them about what omegas like and stuff.”

“Okay.”

“There’s nothing going on.”

“I believe you.”

I stare at my friend and she stares right back at me. Of course, I’m the first to blink.

“Although we did have this fling like years back.”

“I knew it!” Molly cries out, making the baby jump. She leans over the counter. “How come I’m unaware of this very juicy piece of information?”

“It was before we met. And telling you I’d … erm … slept with my step-brother isn’t exactly something you just throw into a conversation.”

“It most certainly is!” Molly picks up the spoon again, scoops out some of the baby mush and pings it straight in my direction. I duck and it hits the wall behind me. “I can’t believe you never told me!”

“It was a long, long, long time ago. And it lasted for like five days.”

“A five-day relationship?”

“Actually, seven.” I squirm on my stool. “And, not really a relationship, more like seven days messing around.”

“In bed?”

I nod.

“With just the brother or–”

“All three of them.”

Molly fans her hand in front of her face. “Harper Hall, you little devil. That is so insanely hot.”

“And kind of wrong and forbidden and seriously twisted.”

“Yes, that’s what makes it hot.”

“It was a mistake. One I won’t be repeating.”

“Oh shit, I’d repeat it if I were you.”

“Molly!”

“I’m sorry, Harper, but come on.”

“I’ve moved on. I’m over them. Totally over them. I’m going to help them find an omega for their pack.”

Molly picks up her coffee and takes a long sip. “You sure that’s what you want?”

“Absolutely,” I say, sounding way more convinced than I feel.