It was the start of summer the first time my siblings came to visit. The wolves built a big summer house with a pool attached: basically, it was a common room with a communal bathroom (toilet stalls on one side, showers on the other, meant for cleanup before and after swimming) for pack use except the days my siblings were over. This deal was only until I reached 18—I couldn't keep putting my family on the pack like that. Although both Harou's parents liked me enough—or at least were trying—I didn't think the pack could handle a bunch of unmated bunnies taking it over.

Well, not like Harou and I were mated. I mean, we shared a bed, and I was most often little spoon with my teeth buried deep enough into his forearm to draw blood. I don't know how we slept through that, but the first few times I freaked out about it he just cheerily said it was a lot like marking, so it honestly made him happy that I was willing to scar him.

Other nights I woke up, head lolling off the bed, leg wrapped around a bedpost, hand covering his face—sometimes a finger up his nose. Guy is seriously happy that I just touch him.

Anyway, this would be the first night I didn't sleep beside my mate in our stupid matching boxers. (I have us looking rediculous as we slept. Come on, this dude is too damn hot for sleep, and I ain't got nothing down there. Anything to keep us kids longer, mm'kay? He just thinks I'm silly, but I'm a calculative bunny. We ain't playing Captain Commando and the Dodgy Buns of Destiny.)

I was worried that I'd treat my siblings like I did Harou. Well, fingers up the nose would be cool, but biting?

He didn't want to let me go without him, though. "I want to sleep with you, too!"

"No balls on the bunny farm!" My voice squeaked like a child going through the change, I was so shocked.

The passing adult wolves who were outside with us chuckled. I think we both turned red and didn't bring it up again.

That wasn't the last laugh because I was dragging Harou over to the pool house to hang up a sign that looked suspiciously like it came from those old Loony Tunes, that proclaimed the building The Rabbit Hutch.

More laughter. It's a good day for the wolves when they can laugh at me.

The bus pulled up and I mentally named each kid as I walked the aisle before letting them off. No way in hell was I counting them once free.

And I was glad I did. Back row, a little kindergartener that wasn't a relation.

"You go with Harou." I jerked my finger at the sibling in the seat and he ran past me to get off. Then I sank to the kid's level. "How did you get stuck on this ride, kiddo?"

"I was playing with Gayle, and your mom was throwing things at the guy who came to pick us up, telling him that she wasn't sending them with any clothes. Nobody listened to me that I needed to call my mama!"

That's when the child burst into tears. Everything was exciting and fun until someone older began asking questions. Poor baby.

But now I had 2 problems to deal with—no, 3 or 4. Damn that woman. "You know your phone number?"

"Yeah..."

Poor little bunny, it wasn't their phone number, it was their social. This was another X Bunny, just from another family, so hopefully the Bunny part was wrong. "What's your last name?"

"Scrape."

X Scrape, probably from 2 houses down, should be at my mom's and yelling at her for her kid to come home and eat. Not every X child was as badly uncared for as Mom's. Lavina didn't much like her kids, but thought of it like a civic duty to at least try to raise them. That wasn't always a good thing. Someone who is trying to care but doesn't gives far more discipline than they should. But I knew what a step up from Mom looked like.

I figured I'd call Mom first. I memorized Lavina's because she was quick to sort out issues that mom wouldn't touch. That included sick days where the school wanted someone to pick me up and let me vomit at home. But if she's worked up, she's at mom's and that would need her cellphone number, not the house line. I wasn't even her kid, to have that number.

Mom picked up on the 2nd ring. I could hear little Scrape's mom yelling at mine. "Yo, give the phone to Lavina."

"What, I can't hear you over this nosy neighbor of mine—shut the fuck up Lele, I can't tell if this is about your damn kid or not!"

It got quiet real quick. "Just give the fuckin' phone to Lele, ma!"

I think mom threw it at her, but rabbits aren't pushovers so a "Hello?" came through the line real quick.

"Yeah, Missus L, I got a little Scrape that rode the bus to my little sleep over. Kid is safe. Mom was fighting with the driver so they couldn't get a word in."

"Thank God. I don't need lose another one." That's why Lavina was diligent. There was a child a few months older than me that was kidnapped just off the reservation. She hadn't counted noses at supper, so she didn't know that one was missing all night, and never lived that down.

"Do you need us to return him? One more mouth on this end isn't going to harm anything."

"No, I set off a bunch of males outside, and if a driver brings back a little one, they're going to attack and not listen to me. I'll go home and calm down, get my kid when they are back in."

I had a few more pleasantries with this woman as I shooed the little one off. When I sure that the only witness left was the driver, I changed my tune. "Ah, Auntie, could you put my mom back on? I've got something to tell her before I go back to the kids."

"Alright." I know the phone was handed back as her temper had cooled, as this took a bit more time.

"What you want?!"

"You ever pull a stunt like this again where you can't safely count your damned kids out because you want to fight over a scrap of cloth, I will hack your bank account, do you hear me?"

Mom hung up immediately. She didn't argue, so I knew she understood me. Probably opened a new account and switch everything that day, to protect herself. Dumbass never learned. I pinged her new account with micro-deposits for a good 6 months straight, so her bank statements would show tons of transactions she never made.

Anyway the next problem was to get a hold of the Omega that would be overseeing us this weekend. From what I hear, that word can be derogatory in a bad pack, but here, it was just a description of the physical attributes of the wolf in question: smaller, faster, meaner, meticulous. Yes, give them the training of a big posturing wolf and they get their asses handed to them. But these wolves could thrive in The Warren if they wanted to. The average wolf wouldn't.

Anyway, this was Nanny Jay, the warbling creche manager. Weekends had more adult wolves home, so the staff could be smaller in the nursery—which cared for pups up to pre-k.

"What's up?" I asked her as she stared out into the pool with her arms on her hips, humming. The water was full of shifted bunnies, so she was an impromptu lifeguard.

"No manners." Just an observation about my siblings.

"Less than I've got." I muttered back. "You got their clothes in the wash already?"

"Yeah. Dixon and Tye are making them come get their hair checked one at a time. They haven't found anything yet."

My hair had finally hit my chin after the Christmas shave. No way in hell was I going through that again. Jay agreed as soon as I mentioned it. "Well, mom sent nothing with them. Hand-me-downs are fine. It does no good to send stuff back with them because she isn't going to spend anything on the kids, and she'd sell any cloths that come back."

"Go on in, X. I've got this."

I stripped and jumped in shifting midst air—just a kid without my junk.

As for revenge against Mom and a reward for that Other Mom in my life? I sent a beekeeper to set up two compatible hives on Lele's property, so she earned free honey for housing them. Mom wasn't allergic—no one in The Warrens was—but she had the singular misfortune of attracting attacks from them. These critters just sensed her evil soul and dive-bombed her all the time.