Renee hurries down the hallway, her phone ringing as she does so. "Yes, mom?" She answers warily as she picks, her gut telling her that it couldn't possibly be good news.
"Renee?" Maggie calls, sounding petulant and Renee braces herself for what was to come.
"I've only been here for less than half an hour and I want to beat everyone here with my wig" She starts to complain.
Renee stops her journey, knowing that with how distracted she was, she was more than likely to run into a wall. "Mom, you're not wearing a wig"
But Maggie had already moved past that. "The venue isn't flashy, no shimmering, no shining"
"Mom, it's supposed to be a quiet woodside wedding." Renee cuts off her mother's ranting.
This was exactly why she had surprised them with the date because her mother, ever the party planning enthusiast, would have taken over the entire wedding without giving the opportunity for a refusal.
And if Maggie took over the wedding planning, it would turn into this monster of a party, not only putting the Werewolves' identities at risk but also ruining the plans that the actual people getting married had wanted.
"But"
"Gotta run , mom." She says cheerily into the phone, hearing her mom curse before she hangs up.
It made her grimace and chuckle, Maggie never cursed, she was probably beyond frustrated, especially with the people that were in charge of the decoration.
The Colts, Shana and her older brother, her girlfriend and Darian tagging along, it must be real fun outside.
But she had bigger issues like how two matching tiered cakes disappeared overnight without a trace.
She walks back in the kitchen to see the Pack members that had offered to help, from both Packs, cowering in a corner, the entire kitchen covered in flour.
Dia is sitting on the ground full on sobbing and Heather is panicking over her, trying to console her mate.
A part of Renee wants to step back out, find an empty bed on the fourth floor and sleep till the wedding begins but Dia catches sight of her and gets up, hurrying in her direction.
"Oh my God, Ren, I'm so glad you're here"
Renee let the older lady throw herself into her arms, Heather wringing her hands behind her.
"What happened?" She asks in surprise, when she had left to check up on Hayden, they had been in the middle of looking for the cakes, Dia planning on making a brand new one, she didn't understand how they got from that point to this.
"Baking disaster" Heather starts to explain.
Dia cuts in, sprinkling a fine dusting of flour all over Renee. "Can you imagine that?" She sobs, sniffling, eyes red, hair wild. "On my sons' weddings is the very day I have a baking disaster, how am I supposed to make brand new cakes in time"
Heather looks increasingly bothered at Dia's breakdown, murmuring to Renee, how "I've never seen her get like this." She rubs over Dia's back who leaves Renee's arms to hug her mate, still sobbing.
"I'm so sorry, Dia," Renee consoles her friend, equally worried about Dia, although it could just be pre-wedding jitters. "We could always try to get new ones" Dia's crying gets louder at this, Renee and Heather wincing.
"I can check if I can order a couple that looks like the ones you baked."
Dia's crying gets even louder, Heather giving her a pointed look which is the signal to shut her yap.
Renee could not understand how cakes would just go ghost the night before the wedding, she knows she has had her what the fuck moments but this all this
She takes a look at the mess of a kitchen, cleaning it up right now would take out of the time that they didn't particularly have.
The best course of action would be to take all the ingredients they needed to the Dark Moon Pack's kitchen while some people stayed back to clean here up.
Then they would bake as fast as they could, she was certain that Dia could do it, she just needed to be convinced.
"Alright! Enough crying! We haven't worked so hard for weeks just to give up now." She starts sternly, the people that had moved to the end of the kitchen, moved closer.
She explained the plan with as many details as she could, expression stern, voice authoritative
Everyone gathered around even Dia stopped crying and was sniffing as she listened intently.
Heather caught on quickly, already directing the people available to help with ease and precision.
Renee grins when she's done with motivating everyone, stepping backwards with a smug smile which fades away to a goofy one when a loud ominous crack resounds from under her feet.
"I hope there are more eggs..." She mutters sheepishly, stepping away to reveal a broken packet of eggs, white slipping through the opening of the white plastic.
Everyone had frozen in their steps at the sound of the eggs breaking.
"Yes." Heather finally says, swallowing back laughter at the stricken expression on Renee's face when she thought it was the last one.
"Plus there's always spare eggs in the pantry and at the Dark Moon Pack House, come on, help me with this" Dia reassures her, inviting her over.
Renee's phone rings and she stops to pick it without even looking at the Caller ID, she already knows who it would be.
"Mom, no, no redecorating"
Her father's cool laughter greets her outburst.
"Daddy! Have you both gotten to the airport yet?"
Her dad and Yanis had gone to pick up Mrs Nolan, the only person invited that didn't live in Pine Creek.
"Almost, just called to check up on you, I see that Maggie is quite a handful." He notes, his voice soothing to Renee. "If you had just let me take her along"
"You know she wouldn't have agreed to that."
"Maybe, bye now, Ren, we'll be back in no time."
"Bye dad." She responds, hanging up.
"Let's go bake cake." She beams at Dia who gives her a returning smile through red rimmed eyes and puffy lids.