The Lupine Necklace

Bonus-Karen

This is a bonus chapter about Karen because someone was curious enough to ask after her. You can all thank AllOfTheBest for this chapter. She asked more information on Karen, so this chapter will be dedicated to her :)

Karen

        When Karen found out that her three year old daughter could transform into a wolf, she abandoned her on a hiking trail in the woods, two hours away from her home.  She had always dreamed of a normal, happy family and she'd thought she'd found it when she'd met Jeremy.  However, when she was six months pregnant, Jeremy dissapeared without a trace.  Her family wasn't perfect anymore, but she had a daughter to care for and she could always find another guy one day.

        The day that she took Layla outside to play changed everything.  Layla was chasing butterflies around like she always did when she was suddenly a wolf puppy.  Karen didn't know how to deal with that, nor did she want to deal with it.  She blamed Jeremy for everything and all she could think of to do was to get rid of Layla and start all over.

        So that's what she did.  She told Layla they were going camping and left her in the woods.  She thought it was the perfect plan.  Anyone that could turn into a wolf must have animal instincts.  She figured that Layla would transform and survive as a wolf and Karen would be able to go back to her life and get a second chance at a normal happily ever after.

        She focused on her job as an accountant and dated sporadically for the next five years.  None of the guys met her standards and she rarely went on more than a few dates with them.  However, after five years of unsatisfactory dates, Karen's friend, Alyssa, set her up with a dentist named Dennis Watts. 

        Unlike the other men that Karen had met, Dennis fit her standards.  She could picture them having a life together and starting a family.  He was a down to earth, friendly man that had grown up in a large family and wanted three kids.  She felt like they clicked and they dated for three years before he finally popped the question.

        It was a long engagement, a year and a half.  Dennis wanted to take Karen to meet his parents, who lived four states away.  They saved some money and planned a week long trip to his parents house so that Karen could meet his family and they could announce their engagement.  The trip was successful and Karen fell in the love with the absolute normality of his family.

        They had a conservative but beautiful wedding.  Karen wore a white dress with a slight train and the ceremony was held at the local church, where she'd always dreamed that she'd marry Jeremy before he'd completely ruined her life.  They had a perfect Hawaiian honeymoon and were ready to start a family when they came home.

        Unfortunately, they were unable to concieve.  After a few years of trying, Karen decided to go see the doctor and see what was wrong.  They doctor gave her some vitamins to help make her more fertile and showed her some ways to map her ovulation schedule so that she and Dennis could try concieving at the right times and with the vitamins.  The doctor told her that she'd have a hard time concieving, but if she was persistent and methodical that she could have a baby.

        If not, there was always adoption.  Karen didn't want to adopt.  It didn't fit in with the plans she had for her family.  She wanted her children to be a mix of her and Dennis.  She wanted the stereotypical family of three kids and a white picket fence.  She wasn't going to give up on her dream.

        She did everything the doctor told her to do and within a few months, she and Dennis were ecstatic to see the double verticle lines on the pregnancy test.  She quit her job at the accounting agency and focused herself on staying healthy for the baby.  She took prenatal vitamins, ate healthy foods and exercised lightly everyday. 

        Nine months later she gave birth to a bouncing baby girl that she and Dennis named Jasmine Lisette Watts. They brought her home the next day to a fully furnished pink and purple nursery.  Dennis continued to work while Karen became a stay at home mom. 

        When Jasmine was nine months old, Layla showed up again, bloody and half naked, flanked by two other werewolves.  Karen felt as if her world was falling down around her.  Layla was supposed to die in the woods or go full wolf, not reappear on her doorstep thirteen years later after Karen had finally gotten the life that she wanted.

        She wanted nothing more than to get Layla and her friends out of her house as soon as possible.  She never told Dennis about the daughter she'd abandoned.  He put too much value on family and would never forgive her for her actions.  She would never regret what she'd done to Layla and she would never tell Dennis about it.

        She was angry to learn that Layla had a pack of wolves on their way to her house.  There was no way that she was going to have an entire pack of wolves in her living room, an hour before her husband was due home from work. 

        She was happy to see them go, praying to every god she could think of that they were honest when they said she would never see them again after today.  She had a life she was happy with and she didn't want it jeopordized by a pack of mutant freaks.

        And she never did see Layla or her pack of freaks again.  She and Dennis had two more children, a boy and another girl, all a year apart.  They were raised to honor family and take care of each other.  She and Dennis enrolled all three of them in private school and put them through college as well.

        Karen had gotten her normal family and happily ever after and Dennis and their three children were none the wiser about the three year old girl that Karen had abandoned in the woods all those years ago.

~~~*~~~Author's Note~~~*~~~

I hope you guys enjoyed this little bonus chapter about Karen.  It's short, but I feel it should be able to answer most of your questions about Karen. If you have any more, feel free to comment and I'll make sure to answer them for you :)

Thank you all for supporting this book and any others books of mine that you may have read. You are all truly amazing :)

~Haley~