Page 72 of The Beta's Heart

Kismet agreed.

Ren looked at his watch. “I have to check in on the training class. You okay here?”

Kismet put her hands on her hips and looked around the bedroom. The closet door had been ripped off and smashed, but they’d left the clothes intact, for which she was thankful. “I think it’s safe to say that I have plenty to keep me busy.”

“I’ll bring lunch around noon.”

“Don’t forget the workers, too.”

“You got it.” He gave her a kiss and left.

He spoke to the workers on the way out, thanking them for their help and hard work. The family room was empty, and they were in the process of pulling up the carpet and padding, because the wolves had torn it up as well.

She opened a trash bag and headed into the closet. It would be a long day, but she’d rather be busy than sitting around the apartment twiddling her thumbs while others worked. By the time several hours had passed, she’d emptied the master bedroom closet as well as the bathroom. The bedding and the bed itself had been torn up, so she helped strip the bed and carry things out to the dumpster.

“Heya,” Noah said as she tossed a trash bag of torn curtains into the dumpster.

She gave him a hug, then hugged her mom and Rich. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Ren called me,” Rich said, “and said you were here working on clearing the house, so I called for some backup.”

“How are you feeling? Is your wing okay?” her mother asked.

“I’m good. It aches a little, but the healer said I should take it easy and not try to fly for a few weeks.”

“I’m glad you went home when you hurt it,” her mother said.

“Me, too.”

With her family helping, she could get the other bedrooms clear and the kitchen cabinets emptied.

Her mother surveyed the appliances. Every single door had been ripped off, making them useless. “Boy, they really took it to heart to ruin everything in here.”

“Yeah. They left the clothes alone, though, which I think is kind of weird,” Kismet said.

“They were probably going for maximum damage,” Noah said, sliding a broken plate into a trash bag. “Ripping up clothes would take too long, but for a wolf, it wouldn’t be hard to break a door off something.”

She nodded. She smelled pizza a moment before Ren walked through the front door with a stack of boxes. Her stomach growled loudly, and she said, “You have great timing.”

“One of my many charms.”

“We can sit on the patio,” Kismet said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Noah said. He and Rich ran out to Ren’s truck for the cold drinks he’d brought along, and then called in the pack members to grab a paper plate and help themselves.

Ren carried two pizza boxes out to the patio and Kismet and her family sat on the rickety chairs and ate. She was so hungry the pizza tasted like the best thing she’d eaten in years, all gooey melted cheese and chunky tomato sauce, topped with every meat known to man. While they ate, they talked about the remodeling.

“It’s a chance to redo it all,” Ren said between bites of pizza. “It was all my furniture, but now we can buy new things together.”

“That’s one way to look on the bright side,” Rich said with a nod.

“What are you going to do out here?” her mother asked, gesturing to the yard.

“A garden, of course,” Kismet said. “And a big tree for the kids to play on.”

Her mother had been tickled to hear that she and Ren were having twins.

“That sounds perfect. Once the house is back to normal, Noah and I will perform a blessing.”