Beta

Chapter 6

"Wake up everybody!" Someone called from downstairs. I groaned, rolling over and pulling the pillow over my head to block out the sound.

"Come on, were going hiking!" That was definitely my mom who yelled this time. Even with the loudness of her town, it still sounded nice and loving, something only she would be capable of.

Why must parents wake their children up so early in the morning? Especially when we're on vacation. We're suppose to be able to go to bed late and sleep in until noon, not get woken up at whatever the hell the time was right now.

"Why the fuck did they wake us up at seven thirty," someone groaned from the floor. It sounded like Natalia and I peeked over the edge and saw that it was. Raiven and Maxi were laying down next to her, the three of them lined up in a row on a pile of blankets. Natalia's phone was in her hand and she had just turned it off and shoved it under her pillow, letting her head fall back down. I buried my head under mine once again.

"Kids! Wake up!"

Shit. Someone was right outside the door now.

"We're up!" Sammy called from beside me.

"Good. I want you all downstairs within the next ten minutes or they're won't be any biscuits and gravy left," my mom said. I bolted up right, falling off the bed in attempts to untangle myself from the sheets and landed on Natalia. I ran past Conner and Preston, who were sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed, as I made my way to the door.

"Ow. What the hell Carlie!" Natalia had yelled, but I was already out the door and pushing past my mom to make it downstairs. Biscuits and gravy were my favorite and I'd be damned if I let everyone else eat them.

"Be careful on the stairs Carlie! I don't want you to-" My mom called after me, as I reached the stairs, and right before she finished her sentence I slipped and fell down the first half flight of stairs. "-fall," my mom sighed, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face at the top of the stairs. "This happens every year. Haven't you learned from your mistakes by now?"

"Guess not," I said, running into the kitchen and ignoring the pain in my butt and tailbone as I grabbed a plate and three biscuits, pouring gravy over them. I grabbed a glass of apple juice and sat down at the table where all the younger kids and all seven of the dads were sitting. I was squeezed in between my dad and my seven year old sister, Mallory. "Morning Carl," my dad said, pulling my in for a side hug and kissing my forehead.

'Carl' was what my dad called me as a joke. He was the one that named my Carlie, after his sister who died in a rogue attack when they were only teens. It was what left him a rogue as everyone but one other person in his pack was slaughtered. Apparently his sister was named after his father though, who's name was Carl. I guess he wanted me to be named after both of them and since everyone else called my Carlie, he called me Carl.

"Morning dad," I said, shoving a forkful of biscuits and gravy in my mouth. The taste was too delicious to explain but I savored it, not wanting it to end. I shoved another forkful into my mouth at the same time that someone sat down across from me. I looked up to see my wonderful mate sitting there with a smirk across his face.

"Enjoying that a little too much it seems. Don't eat too much or you'll get fat," he said.

"At least I'm not already fat," I muttered.

Last night, after we had finished Monopoly and everyone had laid down to go to bed, I mind linked Conner and told him that Sammy was on to us. We decided that we still have to have our 'arguments' so our parents wouldn't get questionably, but not as brutal and verbally abusive as they had been before.