{"id":1196,"date":"2018-02-28T13:53:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T18:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2018-02-28T14:10:25","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T19:10:25","slug":"macaroni-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/?p=1196","title":{"rendered":"Macaroni Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wolf<\/a>Having trouble waiting for Huntress Unleashed<\/a>? I promise to regale you with the first few chapters next week. But in the interim, perhaps you’d like to learn a bit more about Sebastien?<\/em><\/p>\n

Spoiler alert!<\/strong> This is set between books three and four, so probably best to read the first three books in the series first.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Neighborhood.<\/i><\/p>\n

As a child, Sebastien had always thought of the word as a proper noun. Capitalized. Unique. Unalterable.<\/p>\n

Now, as his slick new vehicle cruised down grungy city streets, he realized this wasn\u2019t \u201cThe Neighborhood.\u201d It was merely \u201ca neighborhood.\u201d A place where hundreds of children lived the exact same lives of squalid desperation he\u2019d extricated himself from eleven years earlier. All it had taken was calling in a hard-earned debt and faking his own death to claw free of a chrysalis that had nearly strangled him alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Glancing sideways at the speaker, Sebastien couldn\u2019t help smiling despite the dark thoughts catalyzed by this return to old stomping grounds. Before Ember had insinuated herself into his life, he\u2019d never seen a reason to return to the pit of drugs, guns, and treachery that had spawned him. But his partner believed in family and heritage. She\u2019d asked endless questions about the Neighborhood, had begged to be shown around his childhood home and introduced to his estranged mother.<\/p>\n

Little did this sleek, well-brought-up woman know what a mother from the Neighborhood was really like.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. We\u2019re here,\u201d Sebastien answered, pulling up to the curb and securing the parking brake with more force than was absolutely necessary. It wasn\u2019t as if he didn\u2019t trust the transmission to keep his car in place. Nor did he think the boys lounging on the corner would go after his ride\u2014not after he\u2019d flashed a gun and a curled-lip glare upon arrival.<\/p>\n

Some survival instincts never grew stale.<\/p>\n

No, he\u2019d simply yanked up on the handle and listened to the creak of protesting gears to remind himself of the past. This was where he\u2019d lost his childhood. From ages 0 to 18, this was where Sebastien had been parked.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

There was no lock to stop residents, visitors, or random strangers from walking up the dark stairs of the tenement building. Which wasn\u2019t to say the path was entirely hazard-free. A crunch of plastic splintered beneath Sebastien\u2019s heel on step three and his hand jerked away from the railing further up after coming in contact with a slick stream of liquid. He\u2019d promised not to kid himself about the reality of his former habitation, but he still chose to believe the slime was merely air-conditioner condensation rather than bodily fluids related to the used condom kicked against one wall.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his unsullied hand tightened around Ember\u2019s fingers. It was too much to hope that his girlfriend would overlook these signs of hard living. After all, she was a werewolf possessing stronger than average eyes and nose.<\/p>\n

But she didn\u2019t comment as they neared the third floor. Just asked: \u201cDid you live here when you were a pup?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis very place,\u201d Sebastien answered, trying not to remember the past as he led the woman he hoped would be his future down a narrow hallway toward his mother\u2019s door. And, strangely, good memories bubbled up out of his cortex while feet traversed worn carpet. How had he forgotten dozens of sunlit afternoons spent stacking blocks by the window with the Hailey twins, how much fun they\u2019d had rolling found marbles down the stairs onto the heads of unsuspecting passersby?<\/p>\n

Adult memory had focused only on the twins\u2019 unsavory reason for being ejected from their mother\u2019s apartment in the first place. But now Sebastien recalled his childish envy of the next-door matriarch, who was industriously prostituting herself for the sake of her family rather than thrusting her offspring onto the landing so she could nurse a hangover in silence. His young friends had never gone to bed with faces bruised and bellies grumbling. Their mother welcomed them home at the end of her irregular shifts with open arms.<\/p>\n

Now, as Sebastien paused in front of number 46, he heard where that love had taken his compatriots. A groan, a murmur, a forced giggle that didn\u2019t really ring true. The happy Hailey twins had chosen to continue the family tradition, two smart and kind women stuck here in the Neighborhood while children of their own likely angled toward the same trajectory within the next few years.<\/p>\n

In contrast, his own mother\u2019s hatefulness had been the impetus Sebastien needed to flee his birthplace with no more than a college scholarship and an uncertain future to fall back upon. So maybe, in the long run, he hadn\u2019t been so unlucky in being raised by Linda. Perhaps he\u2019d won the parental lottery after all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere?\u201d Ember asked, brows rising as she interrupted his analysis of destiny past. Shifter senses would magnify the tiny gasps and vague tang of sex emanating from the other side of the thin wall, and Sebastien could only guess at the result. Could guess that Ember would catch every murmur of feigned passion, would smell the sweat and semen oozing onto dirty sheets….<\/p>\n

Cheeks heating, he pulled the best thing that had ever happened to him a little further down the hall. Number 44\u2014the spot where internet research suggested his mother still lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, here,\u201d he answered. Then, forcing his hand to rise before he lost the last of his courage, he pounded loudly on the door.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at twenty, his mother had been no beauty. Now, having crested the hill of forty and started coasting down the opposite side, Sebastien barely recognized his sole parent behind the wrinkles and bloodshot eyes.<\/p>\n

She, apparently, didn\u2019t recognize him at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sluts are next door,\u201d Linda continued, apparently having missed Ember\u2019s presence in the patch of darkness where the hall light had burned out. Why exactly had he thought it was a good idea to put on a new suit and polished shoes for this first meeting with his mother in over a decade? To don clothes no one in the Neighborhood would have been caught dead in…unless, of course, they were strangers literally caught dead in a darkened alley after losing both wallet and life to thieving teenage riffraff.<\/p>\n

Oh, right. Because he\u2019d harbored some childish illusion that Linda would welcome him with open arms and be proud of how far he\u2019d come. That she might take his picture and slip it into her wallet or paste it onto the fridge.<\/p>\n

Knowing the joke was on him, Sebastien barely managed to slip his foot into the crack before the door could slam shut in his face. \u201cJust a minute,\u201d he told her, wincing as he recalled using those exact same words many years earlier in previous bouts of dewy-eyed optimism. It was understandable that his kindergarten self had hoped his mother would be proud of his hand-print turkey or macaroni collage. Less understandable why he was once again waiting for a different reaction than he\u2019d gotten two decades before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Linda demanded, her slurred reaction exactly the same as it had been when he begged for her attention as a child. But she didn\u2019t struggle to press the door the rest of the way closed when he failed to respond verbally. Instead, his mother paused and leaned in closer until the scent of cheap booze made Sebastien\u2019s breath catch in protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I know you?\u201d his mother demanded when Sebastien failed to elaborate upon his request. Her eyes were clearer than they\u2019d been a moment earlier. And this time she did reach out, fingering the rich fabric of his bespoke suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of you,\u201d <\/i>she could have said. \u201cThe clothes make the man.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Only, the words that actually came out of her mouth were very different. \u201cYou can come in here if they\u2019re busy next door.\u201d And she rubbed up against his taller body with curves that still had the potential to sway a male libido…or would have, if the mark in question hadn\u2019t been her son.<\/i><\/p>\n

So that\u2019s where I got it from. <\/i>As Sebastien watched himself turn into a dollar sign in Linda\u2019s eyes, he realized that his youthful ability to con soccer moms out of lunch money and sway teachers into failing to report unexcused absences had been a trait learned at his mother\u2019s knee.<\/p>\n

Was his adult job as a research psychologist merely Sebastien\u2019s own way of carrying on the family tradition? Not so different from the Hailey twins after all….<\/p>\n

If Linda had been lucid enough to understand the story, she might have found the comparison ironic. Or she might just <\/i>pretend to find it ironic while bilking me of everything I own<\/i>, Sebastien thought wryly as he pulled his foot out of the now wide-open door.<\/p>\n

Coming here had been a mistake, and there was no reason to compound that error by stating his name and purpose. Sliding one arm around Ember\u2019s shoulder to pull her in for a protective squeeze, Sebastien walked back down the hallway in the direction from which he\u2019d come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWrong door,\u201d he called back without bothering to turn and watch the greed in his mother\u2019s eyes fade into disappointment. \u201cMy mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry I asked,\u201d Ember murmured as they reached the bottom of the stairwell. She\u2019d been unaccountably silent ever since entering the Neighborhood, which Sebastien had initially taken for shock at surroundings that would have been anathema to someone raised in a nurturing werewolf pack. Only now did he realize that his soft-hearted girlfriend was beating herself up for suggesting such an ill-fated outing in the first place.<\/p>\n

Little did Ember realize how freeing it was to relinquish a macaroni dream that never had a chance in hell of working out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sorry,\u201d Sebastien countered, reaching forward to open the front door so Ember could precede him into the outdoors. And as she slipped into light and out of darkness, he realized that he\u2019d been shockingly, abysmally wrong when he\u2019d claimed that he had no family worth speaking of.<\/p>\n

Because family was what you made of it. And if this pastry-baking werewolf held his hand, fought at his back, and laughed at his foibles, she was his family in every way that counted.<\/p>\n

How could he have missed how wealthy he\u2019d recently become?<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Be the first to read Ember and Sebastien’s final adventure by preordering on any of the retailers below:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\"Amazon\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"nook\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"apple\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"google\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"kobo\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having trouble waiting for Huntress Unleashed? I promise to regale you with the first few chapters next week. But in the interim, perhaps you’d like to learn a bit more about Sebastien? Spoiler alert! This is set between books three and four, so probably best to read the first three books in the series first. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,141],"tags":[59,9,14,7,27,23,8],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-fantasy-and-romance-books","category-series-wolf-legacy","tag-free-fantasy-and-romance-books","tag-free-stories","tag-paranormal-books","tag-shifter-books","tag-urban-fantasy-books","tag-urban-paranormal-romantic-fantasy","tag-werewolf-books","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}