MY TRIPLETS’ DADDY IS MY ALPHA BOSS

“Mom, Finn has four legs.”

Rowan’s voice was so small that Amara almost thought she had heard him wrong.

She looked up from the stack of unpaid bills on the kitchen table.

“What did you say?”

Rowan stood at the end of the hallway in his dinosaur pajamas. His face had gone pale, and tears clung to his lashes.

“Finn changed.”

The fear in his voice sent Amara out of her chair.

She hurried toward the boys’ bedroom, expecting blood, a broken bone, maybe another fight over toys.

She was prepared for almost anything.

She was not prepared for the wolf standing beside Finn’s bed.

Amara stopped in the doorway.

For several seconds, her mind simply refused to understand what her eyes were seeing.

The animal was dark gray and much too large to be inside their tiny apartment. Finn’s blue pajama shirt lay ripped on the carpet beneath one of its paws.

Then the wolf looked at her.

Amara’s stomach dropped.

Hazel eyes.

A thin golden ring around the pupils.

Finn’s eyes.

Rowan gripped the back of her shirt.

“That’s him.”

“No.”

The word escaped before Amara could stop it.

Children did not turn into wolves.

Her children argued over pencils. They complained about vegetables. They left socks under the sofa and somehow managed to lose their school erasers every week.

They did not grow claws and fur.

The wolf whimpered.

Amara’s heart tightened.

“Finn?”

Its ears lowered.

The animal took one cautious step toward her.

Amara instinctively moved in front of Rowan.

The wolf stopped.

For a moment, Amara saw something in its expression that made guilt cut through her fear.

Hurt.

Finn had seen her step away from him.

“Mommy?”

Evie’s sleepy voice came from behind them.

Amara turned quickly.

Her daughter stood in the hallway clutching her stuffed rabbit against her chest.

“Go to my room, sweetheart,” Amara said.

Evie frowned. “Why?”

“Just for a minute.”

“Where’s Finn?”

Amara swallowed.

“I’ll explain soon.”

Evie tried to look past her.

Amara crouched and met her eyes. “Please, Evie. Go wait for me.”

Something in Amara’s expression finally convinced her.

Evie hugged the rabbit tighter. “Okay.”

She walked away.

Amara stood again and faced the wolf.

“What happened?” she asked Rowan.

“I took his black pencil.”

Amara blinked. “His pencil?”

“He said it was his favorite. I said I only needed it for my drawing.” Rowan’s voice shook. “He got mad, then his eyes turned yellow.”

Amara looked at Finn.

“What happened after that?”

“He fell down.”

“And then?”

Rowan wiped his cheeks.

“He became a wolf.”

Amara wanted to tell him that was impossible.

Instead, she stared at the torn pajamas on the floor.

There was no reasonable explanation.

Her son had changed in front of his brother.

The wolf suddenly trembled.

“Finn?”

His legs gave way.

Amara rushed forward, but stopped when a terrible cracking sound filled the room.

Rowan grabbed her arm.

“Mom?”

The wolf collapsed.

Its body twisted.

Amara covered her mouth as fur began disappearing. The paws shortened. Bones shifted beneath skin.

Then it was over.

Finn lay curled on the carpet.

Human.

Naked.

Crying.

Relief hit Amara so hard her knees almost weakened.

“Finn.”

She grabbed the blanket from his bed and wrapped it around him before pulling him into her arms.

Finn clung to her.

“Mommy, what happened?”

“I don’t know.”

His body was warm and shaking.

Amara pressed her cheek against his hair.

“I’m here.”

Rowan approached slowly.

“I’m sorry I took your pencil.”

Finn lifted his head.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Finn looked down at his hands.

His small fingers trembled.

“I really turned into a wolf?”

Amara hated the fear in his voice.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Am I sick?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What if it happens again?”

Amara tightened her arms around him.

“Then we figure it out.”

Finn looked at her.

“What if I hurt somebody?”

“We’ll make sure you don’t.”

His eyes filled with tears again.

“What if I’m a monster?”

Amara’s fear vanished beneath something stronger.

“No.”

Finn flinched at the firmness in her voice.

Amara cupped his face.

“Listen to me. You are not a monster.”

“But you were scared.”

The words hurt.

Amara remembered the moment she had stepped in front of Rowan.

Finn had seen it.

“I was scared because I didn’t understand what was happening,” Amara said. “I was never scared because you were my son.”

Finn stared at her.

“You still love me?”

Her chest ached.

“There is nothing you could turn into that would make me stop loving you.”

Finn threw his arms around her neck.

Amara closed her eyes and held him.

For a brief moment, she allowed herself to feel nothing except relief.

Finn was alive.

He was still himself.

Then reality returned.

Amara had spent six years handling everything alone. She had survived sleepless nights with newborn triplets, rent increases, hospital bills, job changes, and days when she had eaten less so the children could have more.

Whenever something went wrong, she found a solution because there had never been anyone else to do it.

But this was different.

She did not even know where to begin.

Later that night, all three children slept in Amara’s bed.

Rowan had refused to leave Finn alone, while Evie had squeezed herself between her brothers without understanding why everyone was suddenly so quiet.

Finn fell asleep holding Amara’s fingers.

Amara waited until his grip loosened before carefully getting up.

She walked into the kitchen.

An electricity bill sat beside the half-empty cereal box.

A school notice reminded her that the triplets’ field trip payment was due next week.

Her restaurant schedule was pinned to the refrigerator.

Normally, those problems would have occupied her mind.

Tonight they felt almost ordinary.

Amara stared toward the bedroom.

A wolf.

Finn had become a wolf.

She pressed both hands against the kitchen counter.

“How?”

The answer frightened her before she even admitted it.

It could not have come from her.

Amara had lived thirty-one completely human years.

No transformations.

No strange eyes.

Nothing.

There was only one other person Finn could have inherited it from.

Their father.

Anger stirred beneath her fear.

Six years.

For six years, she had carried every responsibility alone.

The stranger from that hotel room had become little more than a broken memory she had forced herself to stop thinking about.

Now she needed answers from a man whose face she could barely remember.

Amara went to the closet beside the kitchen.

Behind an old suitcase sat a small wooden box.

She pulled it out and returned to the table.

For several seconds, she stared at the lid.

Then she opened it.

A silver bracelet rested inside.

Amara picked it up.

The wolf’s head carved into the metal suddenly looked different.

For years she had assumed it was simply an expensive design.

Tonight, she wondered whether it had been a warning she had never understood.

Six years earlier, she had awakened in a luxury hotel room alone.

Her memories of that night remained broken.

A stranger.

A deep voice.

A scar.

Then morning.

An empty bed.

And a bracelet beside her.

She had waited, but he never returned.

At first, she had tried to discover who he was.

Then her entire life collapsed.

She was accused of stealing from Ellwood Meridian.

Her father stopped believing her.

Her inheritance disappeared behind lawyers and investigations.

Then came the pregnancy.

Three babies.

There had been no time left for mysterious strangers.

Amara turned the bracelet over.

Two initials were engraved inside.

L.V.

She ran her thumb over them.

“Who are you?”

A floorboard creaked.

Amara turned.

Evie stood in the kitchen doorway.

Her stuffed rabbit dragged behind her.

“What are you doing awake?” Amara asked.

“My eyes hurt.”

Concern replaced Amara’s anger.

She put the bracelet down and moved toward her.

“Come here.”

Evie took one step.

Then froze.

“Evie?”

Her little face tightened.

“I feel weird.”

Amara’s pulse jumped.

Evie looked up.

Her eyes flashed bright gold.

For one terrible second, Amara could only stare.

Then a cracking sound came from the hallway.

Rowan stood there, looking down at his hands.

Dark claws were slowly pushing through the tips of his fingers.

His face crumpled.

“Mom?”

Amara looked at Rowan.

Then Evie.

Then at the bracelet on the table.

One child changing could have been an impossible accident.

Three was something else.

Three was blood.

Their father’s blood.

Amara grabbed the bracelet and closed her fist around it.

Fear was still there, but anger had joined it now.

So had determination.

Six years ago, she had stopped searching because survival came first.

Tonight, survival meant finding him.

She looked down at the initials pressed into the silver.

L.V.

Whoever he was, whatever he was, Amara was going to find the father of her children.

“If any of you turn into a wolf while I’m at work, lock the bedroom door and call me before you call anyone else.”

Three pairs of eyes stared at Amara across the kitchen table.

Finn slowly lowered his spoon.

Rowan stopped examining his fingers.

Evie hugged her stuffed rabbit closer.

Amara heard how ridiculous the sentence sounded, but nothing about their lives felt normal anymore.

Less than twelve hours ago, Finn had become a wolf in the middle of their bedroom. Rowan had grown claws. Evie’s eyes had turned gold.

Now Amara was expected to go to work and pretend she was worried about ordinary things like unpaid bills and late rent.

“Even Mrs. Castillo?” Rowan asked.

“Especially Mrs. Castillo.”

Finn frowned. “What if we can’t stop it?”

Amara’s chest tightened.

That was the question she had spent all night avoiding.

She crossed the small kitchen and crouched beside him.

“Then you call me.”

“What a