Rise Of The Moonwalker Pack

Chapter 27- Outplayed And Outsmarted

"Is there any chance they went outside?" I race to the patio door that leads to the backyard. "Kian! Uriel!" I yell, hoping that if they hear me, they'll come out. "There's no hiding outside. We already discussed this."

Nothing.

Heading back into the living room, I'm full-blown frantic now. "Did they leave out the front door? Grandma? Did you see where they went?"

Noah comes back from the kitchen, saying they're not anywhere downstairs. With Xavier already kidnapped, the worst case senerios run through my mind.

Why would they leave the house? We talked about the rules earlier, and they agreed to stay inside. This was beyond disasterous. Azariah was going to kill us, and if she didn't, then Jace certainly would. They trusted us to watch those two, and within a couple hours, we've lost them.

Grandma Peryl looks up from her knitting and shakes her head at me. "I'm sure they didn't leave the house. My little angels are good pups." Oh yeah, it's safe to say the dynamic duo had her fooled big time.

Placing my hands on my hips, I groan in frustration. "Fine. Olly olly oxen free, " I call out, signaling I give up. If they were in the house, this is the magic sentence that would make them come out of hiding.

Kian immediately pokes his head out from under Peryl's pile of dark grey knitting, laughing his head off. How in the hell did he even fit under there? Better yet, how did I not notice the weird lump under it. Next, the cushion beside Peryl flops forward, and Uriel joins his brother in laughing at me. Seriously! This entire time, they were sitting right next to Peryl.

"You losed!" They both sing out in unison.

"What? Grandma Peryl, you helped these two trick me?" I say in astonishment. She might look like a sweet little old lady, but don't let her sweet grandmotherly looks fool you.

"Trick you! They adhered to the rules of your silly little game. They hid, you searched, and you lost. End of story." She scolds me.

"You helped them," I accuse her. There was no way they came up with this plan all on their own. With me in the room at that.

She points her finger at me, with her no nonsense look fully plastered on her face. "I most certainly did not."

"Hey," Noah intervenes, "Why don't we play a board game? Then we can build a fort and watch a movie before we fall asleep."

"And eats snacks, right?" Uriel says.

"Of course." Noah goes to the storage room, where there's a shelf with dozens of board games to play. "Hey," He yells out to us, "How about hungry hungry hippos?"

"Yay!" The pups cheerfully agree. They dance around the living room, waiting for Noah to set up the game.

He explains how it works, and they eagerly listen to his every word. We let them pick their color of hippo first, and Noah and I take what's left. I can't even remember the last time I played a board game. Or the last time I was excited as these two were to play one. Seeing the excitement on their faces makes me excited to play, too.

"Ready? One, two, three, go!" I call out. We all start pumping the little black lever on the butt end of the hippo, trying to collect as many white balls as we can. The pups are fascinated with the game, giggling and screaming the entire time until the last ball is gobbled up.