Raised Mateless (On Hold)

Chapter 10

"Why, Koda?" My voice was scratchy and strained.

My little boy gazed up at me with his big grey eyes and innocent, sad smile. "Momma, it's okay. The man that lives with Grandma told me Daddy left us in November." He paused to hold my hand, "I want to see him before November ends."

I was speechless to say the least. Furious that Marcus, Alpha Foster, had the gall to tell Dakota and bewildered with Dakota's ability to process that information.

He was four going on forty.

I kept glancing over at the digital clock hanging from the ceiling, it was already ten o’clock. Two more hours. I just had to last two more hours and then I could go home and forget this whole night. I wasn't sure when I had spit on a leprechaun, stepped on some massive crack or pelted my lucky horse shoes off a cliff but my luck had gone from bad to worse: First, I had left the house an hour late because some snot nose kids had decided that it would be cool to egg the house. Only they hit me coming out of my front door, instead of the house. Second, once I had salvaged any braids left in my hair and cleaned my black coat of any poultry warfare, I ended up tripping and breaking one of my high heels. I trudged towards the diner resembling the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And finally, when I actually got to the diner my father called to tell me Dakota had come down with some sort of fever. I promised Vanessa to stay out tonight, but now I had to be home before midnight at the latest.

Needless to say, it was my last Halloween as a teenager but I couldn’t say I was going to miss it one bit.

I heard someone clear their throat, bringing me back from my reverie. I noticed Vanessa using her eyes to gesture to the waitress coming this way, trying to get me to act normal.

"If you're all done I can be right over with the cheque," the waitress smiled warmly. Vanessa said the waitress’ name was Katrina, I think; she had just been hired for the holiday season.

Vanessa readjusted her silver bottle cap of a hat as she nodded, "That'd be great! And hey, you're doing a really good job."

The young brunette beamed at my sister and rushed off to the kitchen with our plates. I'm sure to brag to the other two holiday season waitresses hired than she had been praised.

As I moved to stand at the door, I watched Vanessa went up to pay the bill. I would have offered to pay, but she had an employee discount.

"So are you ready, Harps?" She beamed at me, walking past as I held the door open. She looked beautiful tonight; her eyes decorated with a smokey-eye design, her lips painted red, and her hair was curled then pinned to sit on one side of her body.

Instinctively I held my jacket closer to me, I getting shivers from the chill in the air and my lack of clothes. "More than ready." I answered her.

Vanessa looked at me curious as we walked toward Bella Coola. "Are you ever going to tell me what's under that flasher coat of yours?"

"Just a few more blocks, dear sister, be patient." I replied, mysteriously. I couldn't help but smirk. I had embraced my inner dork from my high-school years and was about to use it to my advantage.

We fell into a comfortable silence after that. The only noise was the clacking of her heels against the pavement - since I had broken my other heel to make my shoes flat.

I was surprised she hadn't figured out what I was from my hairstyle. I had two braids starting from either side of my head that lead into one think braid, held together by a thick gold band at the start of the braid.

"I'm so excited," Vanessa breathed, her hand gripping mine impossibly tight.

As we walked past the hunk of men watching over the door, they simply nodded at us. Vanessa rushed us through the black painted doors towards the coat check.