Page 32 of A Raging Merry Christmas
Rock did the same, but Apache went barrelling in to stop his sons. Too late. Bags of flour flew, followed by eggs and chocolate chips. Butter was scooped up and smeared over faces and into hair, and I saw dainty little Everleigh, Lex’s triplet daughter (aged two), shove Maverick’s face into a bowl.
“Catch that fucker!” I roared as Mav stood up roaring. I reached for the one child we all feared as much as Eddie, but Mav had geared up. Fish’s five-year-old terror let rip, and dough balls splattered everywhere. It was sheer chaos. Screams, squeals, shrieks erupted from the kitchen, which must have been heard throughout the house. But nobody came to our rescue. Clearly, the old ladies were leaving us to it.
“Enough!” Mrs Ames roared, and the children froze on the spot, some in mid-motion. “How dare you treat my kitchen like that?”
Kids immediately looked to the adults, but we kept our mouths shut.
“All of you will scrub this place before sorting yourselves. I’m utterly disappointed with you all. How disrespectful you are!” Mrs Ames continued.
She disappeared into the corridor and came back with armfuls of cleaning stuff.
“You three are in charge of making sure they clean this from top to bottom. Meanwhile, I will supervise. Should you do a proper job, I may make you cookies for tomorrow. Otherwise, no cookies!” Mrs Ames threatened.
Wow. That woman was a goddess, I decided.
The kids moved, even the toddlers, and soon, the kitchen was sparkling.
“They are not traipsing through my rooms like that. Take them down to the man cave and use the bathrooms there. Luckily, their mothers prepared for this disaster, and they all have a couple of changes of clothes. Fetch their backpacks from the cloakroom,” Mrs Ames ordered Grey and Harley.
“Aww, we missed a food fight,” Garrett complained.
Mrs Ames sent him a dire glare, and Garrett wisely stopped talking.
I opened the door, and my mouth flapped like a fish. It took me several seconds to understand what was on my girl’s head.
Aria scowled at me as she rubbed the faint mark.
“Dante, you bastard! I’m coming for you, boy!” I roared as I snatched Aria up and held her tight. Her little arms wrapped around me. “I am gonna whoop his ass,” I promised my baby.
“Daddy, he marked me,” Aria said with a trembling lip and tears in her eyes.
That kid had better run. He’d made my girl cry.
I missed the triumphant look Aria offered as she snuggled into me. Dante was a dead child walking.
Drake
I was grinning as I preened in front of the stables. Phoe and all the old ladies stood there, surprised and awestruck.
“Great, ain’t they?” I asked.
“Yeah, who’s looking after them?” Phoe demanded.
“They come with a dude.”
“Drake?” Phoe was not amused.
“Yes, I paid for a stable hand for them,” I answered.
“Okay, that’s not so bad then,” Phoe said, approaching and holding out a carrot. The reindeer snatched it off her and began chomping happily. “How cute!”
“This one seems feisty,” Vivie exclaimed as a reindeer followed her around the fence.
“A little bit,” the guy in charge of the reindeers replied as he approached. “I’m Rudy.”
I smirked as the women exchanged glances, and Artemis opened her mouth. Yup, I knew what was coming. “Why don’t you fetch the kids? They’ve all eaten lunch and need to burn some energy off. Especially after this morning.”
I had to avoid Gunner for the rest of the day, or until Aria’s mark wore off. Sadly, despite Dante’s face being washed several times, the marks weren’t washing off. Mrs Ames had banned everyone from her kitchen and was baking dozens of cookies the kids could decorate later in the dining room under stern supervision and in smaller groups. Her orders had been one adult to a child, and she didn’t care if it took to Christmas Eve for every youngster to decorate a cookie.