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I need my focus to be on ways to earn money.
Before last night, I’d intended to bake a snake themed cake for Haven’s Food Festival. Possibly, two snakes like my cupcakes but a giant version.
After all, it’s what the bakery is known for.
But now, it doesn’t feel right.
Fuck, I need inspiration to strike fast.
What should I bake?
What could win?
What’s worthy of a quarter of a million dollars?
My palms are sweaty. My throat is dry.
Last night, while I was rubbing arnica cream carefully into the bruises on Vito’s hip and face like I’ve done many times before, he whispered his plan to me.
If we won the money, then we had a slim chance that Dad wouldn’t immediately find out.
Slim.
In that window of opportunity, we’d pay off the mortgage on the bakery with the winnings straight away and the loans that we needed to start up the business.
We’ve worked hard to make our business succeed, when bakeries are risky: One in five fail. We have a loyal customer base now, however, and if our pack weren’t pocketing funds that we should be reinvesting, then we’d be thriving.
Of course, our pack would find out what we’d done with the prize money. But it’d be too late for them to steal it.
There’d be consequences, and Vito would be the one to pay them.
A cold ball forms in my stomach at the thought, along with a protective rage.
At least Dad would feel that he had ownership of the bakery, however, and Vito and I could continue in business. Without the mortgage to pay each month, we’d be able to hand over the protection money to the Snakes from our takings without being ruined.
I need to know that if the worst happens and I die, Vito will have a stable base to start a new pack of his own, away from Dad’s influence.
I know that he won’t let himself think about it.
Yet I have to.
If Seven is dominant enough and a close scent match to help me through my heats, then maybe I can survive longer without bonding.
Perhaps, I can hold onto what I have here with my brother.
Yet the scent patches are wearing off faster and faster every day.
My nervous system is being overwhelmed a little quicker every week.
I don’t care that the world has labeled this as a defect, however, because I won’t see myself as a victim or broken.
I’m simply me, Candy.
I’m going to face this journey with courage.
If I have a day, week, month, year…or my entire life…ahead of me. I’m going to make each moment count.
And right now, that means ensuring that this bakery remains open.
