Property Of Daddy

Last time in San Francisco

The slamming on the front door continued and the doorbell rang.

I know that it's impossible, that everything had to have been a coincidence, but I couldn't help but fear the worst— especially after how crappy my luck's been so far. I mean, I'd literally just blurted out that I wanted to go into hiding: an extremely illegal thing in which a human hides from their werewolf mate. And not even two seconds after the words left my lips that were super soft thanks to the cherry chapstick I always use, there's a load slamming on the door and the fuckin' doorbell rings.

Knowing my luck, it's either the police who'd managed to overhear me, or it was someone from school who wanted to jump me over my Mating Gene status. Why does life suck? Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen to me! I'm too young! I'm too beautiful!

I knew that Dad wouldn't bother to go answer the door because he's too busy with Enrique, a.k.a. the bitchass boyfriend of his, and the frequent ringing of the doorbell made it perfectly clear that whoever was outside wasn't going away any time soon.

"Dakota, answer the damn door!" Dad virtually screamed from his bedroom.

Damn it all! With shaking footsteps, I tiptoed out of my bedroom and slowly made my way downstairs to the main room where our double front door was. My heart seemed to be racing all the damn time now... I must be inadvertently good at cardio with how much it's been working out lately.

"Wh-who is it?" I stuttered, having to clear my throat so that my voice wouldn't sound like a frightened mouse. I swear that if it's Caleb or Alpha, then I'm bolting out the backdoor and sprinting all the way to... I don't know. Somewhere that's not here!

"Move your ass and open up the damn door, Kid!" barked a very familiar voice that made me perk up.

I rushed forward and undid the lock and bolt, slamming the door open. "Grandma!" I cheered, my smile appearing on my pale face as soon as my eyes landed on the older woman in the doorway. I outstretched my arms to give her a giant bear hug, but she quickly held up a wrinkled hand and took a step back.

"Don't touch me right now," she sneered, pointing at her dark brown fur coat. "This is sable."

Sable is one of the more expensive and luxurious furs, so I quickly retracted my arms and stood to the side so that she could enter the house. Her assistant, Courtney, followed behind her, holding a box that was wrapped up in shiny red wrapping paper.

"Where's my son?" Grandma asked, grimacing when she glanced down at me. "And why are you wearing last season's sweater? You may be a werewolf's mate now, but you still have to uphold the Winter's Family reputation."

Frowning, I glanced down at my sweater that I'd thought was pretty fashionable since it was cashmere, but luckily, I had Grandma to set me on the right track. She was always looking out for our family. I love her very much. I barely got to see her though because she lives in Marin County in Sausalito, so she often has to apply for a permit in order to cross the county lines due to Pack laws. After all the turmoil that I've been going through, I was so relieved to see her.

"I'll go change, Grandma," I said, spinning around on my heels to rush upstairs. "And I'll tell Dad you're here."

Grandma just grunted and began to boss Courtney around in the background as I ran off. 

I scurried down the hallway and walked back up to Dad's locked door. I was still angry with him over him being useless to help me. However, Grandma was very impatient and she's a little scary when she's mad, so...

"Dad!" I called out from the other side of the door. "Grandma's here."

I could still make out her bossing her assistant around downstairs, the irritation highly detectable in her shrill voice.