"You were my partner," Granny growled angrily. "You took my daughter and my son from me."
"You didn't think I was good enough for him," Angela bellowed.
"What are you talking about?" Granny shot back, completely mystified. "I had no clue your sick mind was even going there. You only met John and Annie once!"
"Yes," Angela agreed moodily, "but then I followed him for a year and ran into him randomly on purpose. But no… he was too enchanted by your whore to notice me," Angela screamed as she went to cut Granny's face again.
"So finding me and hiring me was all just a game to you?" I questioned loudly. I was trying to distract her from slicing and dicing my granny while also trying to make sense of how someone could be so delusional. "You had this planned all along?"
"Yes, I did. And you're a whore just like your mother."
I was a lot of things, but whore was not one of them—not by a long shot. Don't know if it was the word whore, or her tone of voice, or the fact it had been a really long week for everyone, but her name-calling was the last straw. Much to Angela's shock Granny tore out of her restraints like they were made of tissue paper and turned on her with a fury like I'd never seen. I dove like an Olympic swimmer onto the couch just as my parents sprang from their spots across the room and went for her neck.
And then suddenly it was over.
I have no idea who ended Angela's life. I don’t know if it was me, my mother, my father or my grandmother. It didn't matter. She was destroyed by the family she destroyed.
"Well, that was messy." Dwayne broke the silence with a ridiculous but accurate comment.
"All of this was because of unrequited love?" I asked in a daze as I backed away from the carnage that used to be Angela.
I stared at my parents and wondered what they looked like in their human form. I wondered if I would ever see them in their human form.
"Can you shift?" Hank asked as he got down low to examine the wounds on my parents.
Granny had already healed. Werewolf-Vampyre genes were clearly superior.
My father slowly shook his head no and pressed his body against my mother's.
"Not all of the Wolves are like us," my father said to me. "Most want nothing to do with normal Weres or humans. They're dangerous, but deserve a chance at rehabilitation if we find a cure."
"I agree," I said aloud. "He says some of the feral Wolves are dangerous and we need to proceed with caution, but they deserve a chance to live too."
"You're beautiful, Essie, and I love you so very much," my mother said with a thick voice filled with sorrow. "I am so sorry."
I grabbed Hank so I didn't fall to the floor as my knees buckled. After all the danger was over I was left with a massive amount of emotion I wasn't quite sure what to do with. I had wished my whole life that my mom and dad were alive… and now they were.
Maybe not in the way I had hoped for, but they were alive. I could have a relationship with them. We could be a very unconventional little family.
Slowly I crawled to the Wolves and wedged myself between them. Granny looked on with a smile on her beautiful undead face. I laid my head against their necks and breathed them in. They were mine. This was by no means perfect, but it was something large—something large and wonderful. My Granny was a partial Vampyre and my parents were Wolves twenty-four seven and I was…
I was a scattered girl who could shoot the teats off a cow in the next county over.
I was a girl without a job or a boss.
I was a girl who was wildly in love with her mate.
And I was pretty sure I was the girl who talked Dwayne into wearing the horrid poofy dress for her at her wedding.
Life was looking pretty damn good right now.
"Hank wants six kids," I told my mom as I traced the markings on her snout. "I say he's smoking crack."
"I want ten," Hank corrected with a chuckle. He sat down on the floor and offered his respect to my father by keeping his head lower than his.
"So not happening."
I giggled and punched his arm as my mother nudged him and licked his cheek.
"Jesus Hesus," Dwayne shouted, startling everyone. "Your daddy can give you away at the wedding!"
"Yes. He can," Granny said with glee and a fit of giggles. "Of course we can't invite any humans—they'd just flip if you walked down the aisle with a Wolf and then kissed it."
I glanced at my father who looked sad but hopeful.
"I would be so happy if you would walk me down the aisle," I told him as I ran my hand along the side of his enormous head.
His fur was soft and I had to fight a tremendous urge to curl up next to him and cuddle.
"It would be my honor," he said gruffly and pushed his head against my hand.
"Done," I said with satisfaction and a huge hug for my dad. "Where's Dima?" I asked as I scanned the room.
"She went to check on someone," Dwayne said with a wink.
I was worried about her and her son, but we would stand by her one hundred percent.
"Um… sir," Hank said to my father. "It's a bit past the actual point of asking."
"Yes," Dwayne agreed. "They've been having sex for years."
"Oh my god, Dwayne," I shrieked and went to slap his bald head. "That is massively unnecessary information for my parents—and my granny."