Seven mates for seven brothers

11- That means you can all fit!

For lunch they would be eating out – out of cans!  For dinner she should be able to do some macaroni and cheese; that would most likely be the first proper meal they had in a long time.  By the time she had to start preparing, the kitchen should be clean enough.  That should restore some goodwill between her and the boys.  In a show of solidarity Alex was manning the wash basin.  Cassy was sure that by now he was regretting his decision, but like a trooper he kept on going.  He had the younger twins Derrick and Dennis drying.  They were muttering under their breath at each other. 

Alex had growled at them to shut up, but Cassy gave him a wink and a smile, letting him know that she was not rattled at all.  He had a look at the tower of dirty dishes that were still piled sky high, waiting for their turn to be immersed in the soapy water and come out sparkling clean.  And he now made sure he cleaned them properly.  His brothers received too much enjoyment shoving dirty dishes he had already washed back in his face.

It still amazed him how Cassy had herded them all into the kitchen after finishing her beer; and put them all to work.  She had not allocated any work to him, but when his brothers temperatures had started rising, he had stepped in.  He would have chosen something else if he had know they had this many bloody dishes in the house.  He had even considered going Greek and breaking all the plates!

Cassy had cleaned the insides of all the cupboards and was re-organizing them to get the most out of the space she had available.  She felt rather pleased with what they had accomplished.  When she had seen the state of the kitchen she had felt like running away.  Never before has she seen such a large gathering of dirty dishes before and she was relieved beyond reason that Alex had taken charge of that.  It was just as amusing to see how much pleasure the twins got from sticking the dirty ‘clean’ dishes in his face.  She was suitably impressed that his temper managed to outlast the pile of dishes.

When the kitchen was sufficiently clean enough, Cassy dismissed the boys with her thanks and started preparing dinner.  She had been told that there was vegetable garden behind the house and had found some tomatoes, carrots and greens that she would be able to fix up in a salad of some sort.  So while the pasta was boiling merrily away, she had trekked ‘outback’ to explore and collect the salad veggies in a worn out basket she had discovered in the empty pantry.  At least the boys had made sure there were plenty of cheese, eggs and bacon, so she should be able to feed them for breakfast as well.  But she was seriously going to have to get into town tomorrow to do some proper grocery shopping.  Alone.  The one cupboard that was not empty had the unhealthiest range of breakfast cereals, snacks and sweets that most likely was the biggest part of their diet.  The cans she had opened for lunch dated from the pre-historic era.  She had considered throwing them out; there was a reason ‘best by’ dates were put on perishable products after all; but decided against it in favor of having lunch.  They were werewolves with iron constitutions – they could handle it.

It was a sullen bunch of boys that Cassy found at the far side of the cozy little village.  The closer they came to the pack house, the less reluctant they became; sniffing every now and then, at last getting a whiff of the dinner waiting for them. 

In the kitchen the table was set for eight, and they eagerly took their places.  Cassy put a large bowl of salad on the table and one dish of macaroni.  They stared at the one dish with such sadness that Cassy burst out laughing.

“There are two more of those in the oven boys, tuck in.”

It had been a long time ago that Cassy had felt such satisfaction at feeding people.  These boys have had no woman’s hand in their upbringing; they were absolute diamonds in the rough.  It would take a lot of cutting and even more polishing to have them shining, but Cassy was determined to do exactly that.

After dinner she chased the boys out and did the dishes while thinking about the best way to go about cleaning up the rest of the house.  The living areas down stairs were a priority.  She would worry about the bedrooms later.

The bedrooms … Where was she going to sleep tonight?

She wiped and wiped all the surfaces in the kitchen until they were sparkling.  At last Alex came looking for her. 

“If you carry on with that, we are going to have to re-surface all the counters in here.”

Clutching at her chest she swung around to face him.  “What are the sleeping arrangements for tonight?” she almost accused him.

Alex blinked his eyes rapidly.  He had not thought of that.  His brothers had all moved into their own rooms during the past four years.  There were more than seven rooms, he knew that much; but he had actually never gone though and counted them.  Then there was also the rooms his parents had shared, back when his mother was still here.  Since then his dad gone ‘wolf’.  He still hung around the pack grounds, which were rather large, it had taken at least four of them to keep running patrol, and they still caught his scent from time to time.  So it would be the best if he put Cassy in those rooms.  Especially because it had its own bathroom, huge walk in cupboards and a nice balcony.

“You could take my parents room.”  He stepped closer to her and smirked; he caught it when her heart stuttered.  “I will be joining you there later.”

Cassy stumbled around, looking for something to say.  He had made it clear to her that he was not going to be changing the situation between them.  Confusion was clearly written all over her face.

“In a few weeks maybe?”