No one ever plans to get arrested at a nightclub after getting drunk and mistaking two EMTS for strippers—it just sort of happens.

Rowena Flores hadn't planned on going out that evening. No, she wanted to do the same thing she'd done over the past two weeks since Cross Howler, the man who claimed to be her soulmate, ghosted her. True, Cross never confirmed their plans for a first date, but Rowena was positive he committed the cardinal sin of leading her on. Her friend, Gina, and Gina's criminal boyfriend, Little Mikey, assured her she was right. Little Mikey was even kind enough to offer up a few of his guys to "rough the jerk up" in retaliation. Rowena declined. If anyone was going to make Cross feel physical pain, it was going to be her.

Besides, Cross Howler wasn't an ordinary man. On top of being rich, handsome, and the mayor of Howler, he was also a wolf-shifter and the alpha of his pack. Yes, he was a wolf-shifter. A wolf-shifter who stopped responding to her text messages and phone calls. He went from stalker to stranger and Rowena was still processing how she felt about that.

She shouldn't have been surprised by his change in behavior. She met Cross after he kidnapped her and accused her of murder. It wasn't exactly the type of story one could tell their grandchildren without them thinking you were either a masochist or a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.

Her kidnapping happened after Reed, Rowena's ex-boyfriend, cheated on her. Rowena, in a moment of justified anger, cursed his hair to fall out and his house to burn down. To everyone's surprise, his house did burn down. Unfortunately, his other woman was inside the house during the fire. It was then that Rowena learned Cross Howler was an alpha wolf-shifter. She also discovered she may be something called a Hexing Witch. It was a shame she couldn't Wikipedia what that entailed because she had no one to turn to for answers when it came to her possible new powers.

"Will you stop looking at your phone?" Lorena, her cousin and a well-known culandera in their town of Clarkton, demanded. She was sipping on some blue drink with a little umbrella sticking out of it. "He's not going to call you."

Gina, Rowena's friend and co-worker at Sweeter Homes, shook her head as a green neon light flashed across her face. The nightclub, Chazzie's, was dark except for the strobe lights, the backwall of the bar, and the random neon lights scattered across the club. Techno music played as people crowded around the DJ on the bottom floor of the club.

"Will you leave Rowena alone? If she wants to be miserable moping over some guy who was too good-looking for his own good, that's her choice," Gina said, popping a pretzel into her mouth. "It happens in all the books we read. Sooner or later, our protagonist will get her guy."

Lorena rolled her eyes and pointed a manicured finger between Gina and Rowena. "That's your problem. You two have your book club and you keep reading all those romance stories. Now, you have no sense of reality. Men will never live up to those romance books. Never. Life is not a fairytale, ladies!"

Rowena took a drink of the pink concoction Lorena had ordered for her. It was her third one that night and tasted like melted pink Starbursts. She grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself. Her vision was starting to blur. She reminded herself to be patient with her cousin. After she divorced her cheating ex-husband Donnie, Lorena was cynical about love.

Gina made a harrumphing sound. "I will have you know; my Mikey is very much the epitome of a hero in a romance book."

Rowena choked on her pink drink before breaking out into a fit of coughter.

"What?" Gina's eyes narrowed. "You don't agree?"

Mikey, usually known as Little Mikey, was an infamous criminal in Clarkton—hence the offer to rough Cross up. After Rowena had been accused of murder, she turned to Little Mikey for help with an illegal gambling ring.

"Gina, you're my friend, but Little Mikey is more like the villain in a romance story," Rowena explained, blotting her mouth with a napkin.

"Fine, maybe he's the lead in a dark romance," Gina said, her eyes widening as if daring Rowena to argue any different.

"A dark romance with sumo-wrestlers," Lorena muttered.

"Are you fat-shaming my boyfriend?" Gina hissed at Lorena.

Rowena stuck her hand out between both women. "Time-out! No one is fat-shaming anyone. Little Mikey is awesome. Are those dancing hippos in tutus?" She was pointing to a couple of stools with jackets thrown over them.

"Girl, how much have you had to drink?" Lorena asked.

"Why aren't we dancing? I feel like dancing," Rowena hummed.

Both women grimaced.

"What?" Rowena bopped her head, but she wasn't in tune with the music. "I love to dance."

"Yes, we know." Lorena sighed. "That's the problem. You aren't the best dancer."

"What? You are such a liar. I took Folklorico dances, remember? The teacher said I was a natural!" Rowena reminded them. "I'd have kept taking lessons if stupid Carmen hadn't ruined it for me."

Carmen Flores was one of Rowena and Lorena's cousins and made it her life's mission to bully Rowena. She had the gift of predicting winning lottery numbers. She never won anything huge, but she won enough that the family acknowledged her ability. Every woman in the Flores bloodline, apart from Rowena, had some sort of special ability. It wasn't until recently that Rowena discovered her ability to curse people. It was still a secret from her relatives she wasn't sure she wanted them to know.

"Is that what they said?" Lorena asked thoughtfully. "I could've sworn Tío Fernando said the teacher thought you were having seizures when you danced."

"Seizures?" Rowena cried, standing up and almost toppling over. Both women grabbed her hands to steady her before pulling her back to her seat. "I dance like I belong in a Paula Abdul video!"

Gina coughed up her pretzel. "Paula Abdul? What are you even talking about?"

"How about we don't dance like we took a time machine to the eighties just yet," Lorena suggested. "We have a surprise for you, remember?"

"Is this a blind date situation?" Rowena asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared at both women. "Because I told you, I'm not ready to date anyone right now. It's bad enough that Reed cheated on me and then Cross led me on just to ignore me. Did I tell you my parents are in Hawaii right now?" She slammed both her hands against the table.

"Yep, she's drunk, drunk," Gina mumbled.

"It's their second honeymoon," Lorena reminded her, pulling Rowena's drink out of her reach.

"That's sweet," Gina acknowledged, eating another pretzel.

"No, it is not sweet," Rowena disagreed. "It would've been sweet if they told me they were going to Hawaii. I only found out after they posted it on social media. What kind of parents do that? They left the country and didn't even tell me!"

"They didn't leave the country. Hawaii is in the United State of America." Lorena sighed.

Rowena lifted her chin. "Prove it!"

"Rowena," Gina said so softly the music drowned out her voice.

"No one loves me," Rowena whispered, her eyes watering. She pressed both of her lips inward before forcing a tremulous smile. "Thank you both for taking me out tonight. Sorry, I'm not sure why I'm being so emotional right now."

"Because you drank too many pink drinks and the guy you were falling for hasn't called you back, but you never know what the future holds. You really need to stop this feeling sorry for yourself spiel. We love you like crazy," Lorena reminded her while Gina pushed the pink drink back at Rowena.

Thirty minutes and two more pink drinks later, Rowena was attempting to break-dance in the middle of the dance floor, a crowd of people around her. Lorena and Gina were nowhere in sight and Rowena was too tipsy to realize no one else was dancing.

Two men in dark EMT uniforms pushed their way through the crowd.

"Is this her?"

One of the men kneeled next to Rowena. "Ma'am, what's your name?"

Rowena was in the middle of doing a body roll on the floor, which was more like someone wiggling on the floor, unable to get up.

Her eyes widened. "Are you my surprise?"

He frowned. "Are you on any medications?"

"Medications?" Rowena wasn't following what he was saying. She sat up and placed both of her hands on his cheeks. "I can't believe the girls got me strippers!"

He helped her up as she pulled something out of her bra and shoved it down his pants.

He pulled it out and looked at it in confusion. "Did you just shove a Sweeter Homes coupon down my pants?"

She nodded, a wide smile on her face. "I work there so there's more where that came from. Hubba, hubba."

"Did you just say 'hubba, hubba' to me?"

The second EMT gave them a puzzled look. "Why is she carrying Sweeter Homes coupons in her bra?"

Rowena began tutting in the middle of the crowd before trying to shove another coupon down his pants.

The EMT attempted to pull her hands away. "Ma'am, we aren't strippers. We're EMTs who were called here because a woman was having a seizure in the middle of the dance floor."

"What! Where?" Rowena frantically looked around before noticing the crowd of people around her, staring. When had the music stopped? "Oh no, this is not happening," Rowena squeaked, shaking her head.

A flash from someone's phone had her look to her right. Standing in a too-tight silver sequin dress was her evil cousin Carmen. "This is going to look great on my Christmas card this year." Another blast of light from Carmen's phone flashed in the room.

"Stop it, Carmen!" Rowena took a step forward, almost falling as the EMT grabbed her to steady her.

"Ma'am, I think we should take you to the hospital or maybe outside to get some air."

"Delete those photos!" Rowena roared, pointing at Carmen. "Anyone else can take pictures but not you!"

"Awww are you embarrassed?" Carmen asked snidely. Even from where she stood, Rowena could see the red lipstick that always stained her cousin's yellow teeth. "I heard your boyfriend dumped you. Now, you're pretending to be sick so you can feel up the emergency technicians. You're so pathetic, Rowena."

Fury erupted like a hundred-year-old volcano and Rowena lurched forward, tackling her cousin. "You evil wart-licker!"

"Rowena stop!" Lorena's voice echoed in the background.

"Did she just call that woman a wart-licker?" one of the EMTs asked.

"I don't know but do you want one of these coupons she gave me?"

Everyone's shouts and questions became background noise as Rowena pulled at her cousin's hair. She tossed an extension into the crowd.

"Someone call the cops!"

"They're already here!"

Hands grabbed Rowena, pulling her off her cousin.

"You're going to jail, you psycho witch!" Carmen screamed.

Rowena spread her arms wide and looked around at the crowd. "Did she just call me psychic?"

The police escorted Rowena and Carmen outside. Lorena followed behind them, shaking her head. "We leave you alone for fifteen minutes and you literally start a fight in the middle of a nightclub."

"You can't prove anything!"

"I'm pretty sure half those people recorded everything," Lorena reminded her.

"Well," Rowena huffed. "If you're going to bring proof into the argument, I guess I have nothing left to say."

"Rowena!" A familiar male voice called out.

Rowena turned to see Cross standing next to Gina. Lorena rushed towards them.

"What are you doing here?" Rowena asked. Her hair was in knots, her black dress was torn, and her make-up was smeared.

"We wanted to surprise you," Gina explained.

"Ma'am," one of the EMTs stepped forward and handed her back the coupons she shoved down his pants earlier. "I talked to our boss, and we can't accept gifts—even if you did think we were strippers and shoved them down our pants." He lowered his voice. "I wrote my number on one of the coupons."

Rowena smiled and tried to wink at the handsome EMT but her eyelash extension got caught in her bottom lash and it looked more like a twitch than a wink. She quickly pulled the false lash off before turning to a scowling Cross.

Lorena jumped in front of him and raised her hands in the air. "Surprise!"