The Hidden Queen

Chapter Three

Fiona POV

           Ring… Ring…Ring… I wake up to my phone ringing. I must have fallen asleep on the couch. Isaac must have draped a blanket over me at some point before going to bed himself. I look at my phone and it is Joey, then I glance at the time. Crap. I am late; she is going to kill me.

           “I am sorry… I fell asleep on the couch. I am getting ready now. I will be down there in 15 minutes.” I say before she has a chance to yell at me for being late.

           “Make it 10 and you're trying on at least 3 dresses that I pick.” She scolds. I did not want to spend the day with a crabby Joey, so I conceded.

           “Fine,” I grumbled as I hung up; I ran to my room to quickly get ready. Luckily the boys were all still in bed, so they didn’t hinder me further. I ran out the door, just as Gabe and Gavin were reaching the top of the stairs.

           “Don’t have too much fun, Fiona!” Gabe jokes as I run past. I just turn and give him the look.

           “ Just get everyone back in one piece.” Gavin smiles. I just roll my eyes and run down the stairs as fast as I can.  

           Joey, Sarah, Dakota, Grace, and Laura(James’s mom) were all standing at the doors, Joey tapped her foot, and the look on her face made me hope I made it in the ten minutes.

           “Nine minutes 30 seconds, not bad Fi.” She says as her face turned into a smile, and we walked out to the cars. Alpha Andrew was not letting us go without having guards with us, too many ranked females out and about would just be too much for him. We pill into the two SVUS with me riding with Dakota, Joey, and Sarah, in the back and two warriors in the front. Not 30 minutes later we arrived at the store, it was a small human town, but at least they had one good store for formal wear. We probably kept it in business with all the formal wear we bought each year.

           “Good morning ladies” The sales clerk greets us as we walk in. She is closer to my height while the rest of us all towered over her. They are used to us coming and getting formal wear last minute, so always kept a lot of options on hand.

           We all start browsing the shelves and looking for options. We all grab a bunch and head for the fitting rooms. There were only 5 rooms, and I was more than happy to wait for them to go before me.

Dakota picks out a dark purple dress silk dress with spaghetti straps and a slit up to her thighs it accents her tanned skin and long blond hair and green eyes; it is even so long that she can still wear heels at 5’11”. Her mom Grace finds a short sleeve; sweat heart neckline light purple dress that ends at her knees. Grace has her daughter’s same green eyes, and blond hair, but she is a little shorter at 5’6”. Sarah’s is green(same color as her eyes) and strapless with a straight neckline; it flows down to the ground with pleats around her waist. She is the same height as her sister Dakota with the same blond hair. You can tell they are all related when they stand in front of the mirror.

           Next are Laura and Joey. They both go for dark pink dresses, which match their dark brown eyes and hair. They are the same height at 5’8”, so both go for floor-length numbers. Laura’s has a white lace overlay and is form-fitting until the knees. Joey’s was the same style as Sarah’s just different colors. I started laughing when I saw Sarah see Joey in it. There is a reason why no one questioned anything when we found out they were mates. They were literally the same and fit together seamlessly. Sarah walks up to Joey and peaked her on the lips.

           “I guess we are going as twins.” Joey jokes.

           “Wouldn’t want to twin with anyone else.” Sarah smiles.

Then they all turned to me, I guess this means it is my turn. I had picked out one dress, otherwise, the rest were from them. I head into the room and start. I try on a few, but don’t show them. None of them even feels right. Even the one that I picked out just was not right. Then the curtain gets pulled back and Joey enters. I don’t even bother coving up, as werewolves we are very comfortable with nudity.

“Here try this one.” She says holding up a glittery silver strapless gown with a sweetheart neckline. It was short and would fall to my knees; it would flow outright at my hips. And if I spun the world would see my underwear with how flowy it is.

“Joey, isn’t it a bit too flashy? And short?” I ask as I slipped it on.

“ You look amazing Fiona! Stop!” she persists. “Come on let’s show everyone else.”

           We walk out of the fitting room and every gasp. I guess this really wasn’t that bad. I look good, and it wasn’t pink. And it would give me a reason not to dance with anyone. One wrong move would show the world way too much.

           ‘Maybe our mate will like the show’ I hear my wolf, Ivy, in the back of my head.

           ‘Ivy, stop we might not even find out mate there’ I protest. She huffs and goes back to being quiet in the back of my head. Ivy was probably the quietest wolf in our group. She used to talk all the time, but after losing my parents, she lost it and was quiet for months. She will come and talk to me sometimes now, but otherwise only when I shift. I never thought I would miss that chatterbox I meet back at 16.

           “It looks like Ivy approves,” whispers Laura. I nod my head and stare into the mirror. I guess this wasn’t going to be that bad.

           “ Okay fine, I guess this isn’t that bad…” I mumble. The rest of the girls cheer, and I just roll my eyes and head back into the room to change into my normal clothes. We have them bag up the dresses and head to the checkout. The rest of the ride home they all talk about what they are excited about, and how they are going to do their hair. Dakota is convinced she is going to meet her mate, and Joey is convinced I will meet mine. We stop and get lunch at a little café near the pack border, and then head back. I race upstairs to relieve Gavin and Gabe from daycare duty.

           “How was it?” I ask. They each have two kids in their arms, and James rounds the corner with the fifth quint. The twins and triplets are watching cartoons in the living room.

           “They were angels.” Gabe insists, but the look on Gavin’s face says otherwise. Quinn trots up to me and I reach down and pick him up.

           “So what did you boys get into?” I ask him.

           “We found snow! It snow inside. Den we get baf[Baths], and Gavin say bad words.” He tattles on them without realizing it. I smile and shake my head.

           “They found a bag of flour in the kitchen. It went everywhere… so they all got to take a bath early.” James clarifies “Gavin gave bathes while we cleaned up, and I think they soaked him from head to toe.” That was when I saw how wet Gavin’s clothes were.

           “I am so sorry guys… Thank you for watching them for me.” I try and apologize.

           “Fi, don't worry about this crabby old man, they were fine we just aren’t used to toddlers.” Gabe laughs “ Plus I get to take this one back to our room and clean him up.” Gabe winks and pushes Gavin out the door waving bye to the kids.

           Gabe and Gavin were mated later in life the rest of the ranked wolves in the pack, and they still were like rabbits in heat. They would have a million kids if they could get each other pregnant. They adopted both Rose and Ross when they lost their parents in a rouge attack 10 years ago, they were 4 and 2 when it happened. Gavin was Andrew’s younger brother and looked just like him with his dark brown hair and blue eyes. Gabe was African American with black hair and dark brown eyes. Rose and Ross were mixed and looked just like Gavin even having matching blue eyes.

           I put Quinn down in his booster chair and James helped me get the rest of them rounded up for lunch. While the boys all eat, I go and hang up my dress in my room. I come back out just as Isaac walks in from training. He and James start discussing how it went this morning without him. James hangs out until it is time to head to dinner, and we all head down to the pack kitchen. The rest of the weekend passes in a blur. 11 little brothers do that to you. Before long my alarm is ringing Monday Morning to signal the start of the week.