Dakota, Same day. Thursday 6:53 p.m.

  I wonder if the other moms in the book club are actually reading this stuff. It’s awful. I thought to myself as I flipped through a not so safe romance novel in the kitchen. Then my phone rang.

  “Hey Sweetheart. Running a little late for dinner, aren’t you?” I asked with just enough tease to let him know I wasn’t really mad.

  “Hey Hun, yes. Sorry, Charly shot down the blueprints I drafted up for him and he wanted to iron out the changes with me in person. I called to see if you wanted me to grab anything last minute on the way home.”

  Oh ho ho he sounds like he knows he’s in trouble. Fun! No no reign it in, don’t want him to be all gloomy and sad when he gets here.

  “Yes indeed I do, grab me some red wine. Don’t care what kind, just as long as it doesn’t come in a box.” My eyes shot open. Well not my eyes literally, though they did, but my proverbial eyes as well. Someone is marching into my forest and my mongrels saw them. What the hell?

  “Ok, no pre–”

  “Sorry, gotta go Sweety. Drive safe!” *Click*

  I leaned against the counter. Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! What the fuck! The mongrels out on that edge are practically starving to death. They’ll scare the living daylights out of anyone walking through there. They might kill themselves running through the forest before the engravings kick in and I can go grab them and take them back out to the road. And why the fuck is he in a suit? Why does he look so calm? Who the fuck walks through the woods in a suit?

  [-]

  Nearly an hour later.

  Why is he still walking through the woods? Why aren’t the engravings having any effect? Oh God tell me he’s not from Crow.

  “Honey I’m Home!” Darren tried to mimic the line from a movie I am almost certain he’s never seen.

  “That’s great. I’m not feeling so well. Can you take over dinner?” I progressively got louder as I started sprinting up the stairs and locked myself in the bathroom.

  Ok, I can handle this. I’ll manually take the reigns and steer the mongrels away from him. Engravings are frowned upon but not strictly illegal. They’ll have my ass if they see an unregistered mongrel though.

  Ok hands to my temples, crisscross apple sauce, focus on the connection, just like grandma taught me. Easy Peasy, as the connection started to clear up I realized things had already gotten out of hand.

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  I opened my eyes to see a man in an all black suit, head smooth as an airstrip, gray beard, and sunglasses on when it’s pitch black dark. And of course he was just wrapping up one of his famous ‘government authority’ speeches.

  That’s Mr. R. Oh Fuck, That’s Mr. R!

  Did he say ‘eradication forces’?! No, this’ll work. If it’s Mr. R then He’ll be fine. Doesn’t matter the number of mongrels. I’ll let them jump at him, He’ll call in the eradication forces, and I’ll push all the rest away from my home. Let them do their job and eradicate all the mongrels. Plead complete ignorance and find those forged adoption papers for Sally.

  Oh God, how do I explain the adoption papers to Darren? Just ask him to trust me for now? Just ask him to trust me for now. I don’t have time to explain anything else. I’ll keep an eye on everything and keep pushing the mongrels away from my home. Diversion is the name of the game.

  [-]

  I kept the mongrels a few miles away from my house and missed dinner. I kept doing so until sunrise. Crow doesn’t really eradicate anything when the suns up. Too much exposure. And at this point I really shouldn’t have to bother with it again. They hunted down more than half of them. The less I involve myself now, the better.

  I went through my day and had a meeting with a client for my interior design business which helped take my mind off the stress but I knew ‘Friday night movie night’ and a glass would accomplish that way better. Then as I continued to ignore my mongrels dropping like flies the time for movie night came. Given I hadn’t slept the night before I was more than ready.

  As soon as I planted my butt on the couch I thought to myself, Beautiful house, great husband, daughter as cute as a button, full glass of wine, and my favorite movie. Can’t get much better than this. Just ignore the rest. It’ll all be OK.

  Then about 15 minutes later it was, fifth glass of wine, daughter husband, something about a house. Have I seen this movie before? Lemme check my phone. Nine p to the m? Yep it’s time for momma to go to sleep.

  Darren gave me a questioning look as I got up, “You goin’ to sleep Hun?”

  “Mmmm Hmmm… shure ham”

  Darren spoke again, “Well, usually I’d scold you for abandoning your loving husband and daughter to fend for themselves in the perilous movie room but it seems like you might need the sleep.”

  Did he just snicker at me? To himself? Ohh he’ll rue the day, I’ll tickle him to death! Muahahaha!

  I dove towards him with the deftness of a snow leopard. And I definitely didn’t almost fall over the table. And I definitely definitely didn’t actually fall just shy of the couch.

  “Oh! Sweetheart, are you ok? Do you want a hand up the stairs?” Darren ran to my aid like a night in shining armor. A knight in shining armor that snickered at me. I believe I have decided I do not need his help. Humph.

  I stood up swiftly and gracefully. “I am phine, thank you fairy much. And I will traverse the steps alone.”

  Then like a ballerina I made my way up the steps and to my oh so wonderful bed.