Sarah Everson had a dark childhood inside the Clear Lake Pack, but has finally reached a perfect life and feels stronger than she ever has. She works at the pack's bakery doing what she loves and is surrounded by her hand-chosen family. She doesn't...
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Iris ^
"Feast your eyes on the elusive, mouth-watering, panty-melting..."
"Sarah Jane!" Iris swats at me and I easily dodge her, smiling sneakily.
"...Creme Brûlée Cheesecake!" I finish, flourishing my hands around like I'm on the Price is Right.
"Ooh Sarah, this looks beautiful. Make two more, pronto! These are going in the front window." She looks at me proudly and my heart swells under her praise.
"They're already baked and being chilled." I smirk.
"Good girl." Iris winks.
I've basically lived in this bakery, until I saved enough money at 16 to start renting a cheap apartment and move out of the orphanage. Iris started me in the Sweet Tooth just cleaning, but after letting me apprentice, she hired me on as a baker. Now, I'm her right hand girl and actually mentoring a few little pups myself. Ha. They're not much younger than me, but it makes me feel like a real grown up, when I'm teaching them.
"This will be perfect for the Alpha's visit this morning." Iris reminds me. Alpha Jeffrey has been personally inspecting all of the pack businesses for the last three months. Our compound is the size of a small town, but we also have a few wolf-run businesses among the humans in the surrounding towns. I think most of the humans in our area just think our compound is some kind of weird, religious cult. We don't cause any trouble for them, so they couldn't care less about what we're doing.
In a few short weeks, Alpha Jeffrey will be hosting some Alphas of surrounding packs for a couple of weeks. He's only allies with two of the six closest packs. I guess he's going to show around the remaining four and try to impress them into allying with us.
"Should we go ahead and put on 50 Shades of Grey, then?" I ask Iris teasingly, as I reach for the secret cubby-hole in the wall, by the register. "Really show what we're about here at the Sweet Tooth?" I waggle my eyebrows.
When I first started working here, Iris learned that I hadn't watched a movie since I was five, so first we worked our way through all of the Disney princess movies, during our prep time while the store was closed. Then, she had me watch some "movies you have to see at least once"...Pride and Prejudice, Princess Bride, all the Star Wars, and so on.
When I became an adult, Iris loosened up a little and let me in on her little secret vice. Iris loved dirty romance books! When she found out the 50 Shades series was going to be made into movies, she made me go to EVERY. ONE. IN. THEATER. You know what's more gross than sitting in a theater of old ladies basically moaning at a dirty movie?? NOTHING!!
She had to bribe me to go with her, after the first one. Since then, I tease her mercilessly any chance I get. When it's just us, I make sure just about everything I say is also some kind of sexual innuendo. It just feels right, after what she's put me through. Because she doesn't ever want to be caught with her dirty vices, she made a little hidey-hole, behind a plank of our shiplap wall. No one knows it's there, except the two of us. Of course, when the movies came out on DVD, she bought them as well and stashed them there.
"Don't you even joke about that Sare-Bear! Do you want the Alpha to shut us down?" She asks me, looking around as she smacks my hand down.
"He'll have to shut YOU down with a fire hose. I know you're reading that series again. I saw you sneak one of the books into your purse yesterday!" I point accusingly at her.
"Ooh, girl, I can't wait until you find your mate! You think you're teasing me now? You just wait!" She points back at me.
"Noooooooo. I want you to share your mate with me the rest of my life!" I whine, batting my eyelashes at her.
A little growl comes from Iris, but is negated with a smile. "The Sweet Tooth is MY mate and I don't share." She winks, but then looks at me seriously. "I was never lucky enough to be united with my mate." She cups my face in one of her hands. "But I pray to the moon goddess every day that you get to be with yours. You've never shared much with me about everything you've gone through after losing your mom and dad, but I know you had a rough time of it. You deserve love and happiness, Sare-bear."
I sigh deeply. When I was younger and in the midst of our Disney princess movie marathons, I dreamed of finding my mate. He would be handsome and perfect and rescue me from the heinousness of the orphanage. Obviously, at that point, I was too young to find my mate, but I still dreamed. I wanted someone who loved me and would slay dragons and defeat evil witches to get to me. A small part of me still longs for that - a mate who would climb mountains to be with me. A mate who would always have my back. Now, I've clawed my own way out of my terrible life and made it into something that I don't want to lose.
"I love YOU and am happy here," I mumble, looking down at my hands. My wolf circles possessively over this woman who has become my family.
"I know, sweet girl. And I love you more than Christian Grey." She replies, giving me a wide smile. "Now, go freshen up. The last of the cinnamon rolls need to come out of the oven in about 5 minutes, we open in 10, and the Alpha will be here in 30. Chop chop, little onion!" She shoos me into the employee bathroom.
Freshen up? Rude! I look in the bathroom mirror. Yikes. I take my hair net out of my hair, as I'm done baking for the day. Other bakers will come in soon to prepare more afternoon treats. I loosen my long, thick dirty blonde hair out and run a brush through it. It just lays there, down to the middle of my back, uncooperative. Not wavy. Not straight. Still yikes. So I pull my hair back into a pony tail and pull a few tendrils of hair out to hopefully create a stylishly casual look. My simple clothes are saved by my apron. I'm wearing a plain white 3/4 sleeve shirt and jeans. I grew six inches past tiny little Iris and now stand at 5'8". I'm pretty slender, due to the fact that werewolves have a pretty fast metabolism and I have to sell my desserts, instead of gorging on them all day (which would be preferable). Except my butt. Or as Iris likes to refer to it - my donk. I've come to the conclusion that it has to be genetic. My lightly tan skin is dotted with a few freckles on my cheeks, as well as a bit of flour currently. I rinse my face and look into my brown eyes.
"Still there?" I ask my wolf. While Iris has helped me break out of my shell, my wolf is still pretty reserved. Only feeling most free and talkative when she's doing something physically active, like going on runs.
Always, babe. She replies, as my eyes flash amber with her presence. My heart warms. While my wolf is usually self-contained, she and I were very connected since the beginning, when I turned 10. She comforted and taught me the most, during the worst emotional and physical abuse of my life. Now that she's helped me grow stronger mentally and physically, she's a little less vocal. We will always have our close connection, though.
