Her Imposter, Her Imprinter

Chapter 3

Carine woke up to the song "Honey I'm Good". She always had to have something to listen to in the background in order to sleep. Last night it was her radio that was on the nightstand next to her bed. It didn't have to be music or the usual reruns of The Fresh Prince or Full House on the small t.v. mounted on her wall; sometimes when it rained or stormed she cracked open her window or other times when it was hot she'd blast her fan to super high and have the gentle whir of the blades lull her to sleep. It seemed to Carine that the silence was just too deafening to be comfortable enough to sleep through. At Ruon Chase, Carine could always count on the noises her siblings made to fall asleep to . In Tad's older years it was the sound of him playing computer games or watching Minecraft tutorials on Youtube. Bacchus's room was the farthest from her so she didn't hear much from him, but she could hear Gavriil, in the room adjacent to hers across the hallway, on the phone with Tara or running back and forth through the hallway to pester Bacchus, Lilith, and sometimes Carine herself. Lilith was more quiet toward the nighttime, trying to be respectful toward anyone in the packhouse, but usually sang quietly to herself as she straightened up her room or finished up her homework.

God Carine missed her family, but she was grateful for the friends she made in her new home. She immediately became close with Zoey, having been the person that helped her settle in and redecorate her new room. She also found accomplices among the fellow humans in the pack and hung out with them often. All of them were happy families, however, but that didn't stop her from doing things that didn't involve sharp canines and running through the forest on all fours. Fortunately she was going to spend the day with a few of them: Zoey, Wendy and Bennett, and Andy. Andy and Wendy, humans, were older than Carine, 28 and 30 respectively, but proved to still have much of their childish youth. Part of that could be accounted for by their children. Wendy and Bennett's kid, Rory, was a 10 year old with mountains of energy. Robbie idolized him and was one of the many kids that followed Rory around like a little disciple. Luckily, Rory was a good example for the little ones and made sure they were never in harm's way to the best of his 10 year old abilities. When Rory was away from the toddler clan, however, he mostly spent time with his dad.

Andy and Deidre, Andy's mate, had a 3 year old daughter, Megan. Little Meggie absolutely adored her mother and could not go five minutes without her by her side. However, Deidre had been run ragged by her daughter and Andy took the initiative to make sure his wife got a break. Meggie was distraught by the idea of her mom being absent on today's outing but was quickly placated when Andy promised to buy her a Blizzard at Dairy Queen.

Carine had planned to actually pick Andy and Meg up. Zoey would be driving the other 3 plus her own children and there wouldn't be enough room. Carine was the closest to Andy and Deidre and offered to taken them in her car. It was a picnic kind of day so it was decided that they would all go find a place safe enough for everyone to run around and eat. However, the sleepy woman found she actually had to get out of her sinfully comfortable bed before she even thought about doing anything else.

It took five more minutes for her to find her resolve and throw off the temptations from her body. She heard the satisfying 'whump' of her pillow and blanket hitting the floor and took that as her cue to rise. Carine took her time stretching and cracking her well rested, but stiff, joints. Around this time she grabbed her phone to text Andy that she would be at his house in half an hour. She knew Andy needed the heads up because unlike the other munchkins who were full of energy, Megan could be just as grumpy as Carine herself waking up in the morning. However Andy was the one that had to reel that rascal in and get her dressed and fed, and considering Deidre had clocked out for the day, Andy was going to have to do it alone.

After brushing her teeth and using the toilet, Carine found that Andy responded- quite hastily- with a "Thanksa buknch". Carine was sure he was wrangling with the little squirt while he texted. She was sure that took a "buknch" of work.