Extra Epilogue
It was a warm Saturday morning. The Volkov manor was quiet.
Too quiet? Maybe. But Wren liked quiet.
She smiled, and moved the pancetta from the frying pan to her and Katya's plates. She paused for a moment, and then with a twinkle of her eye, curved the pancetta into a broad smile underneath the bright yellow eyes of the eggs.
When Wren put her plate down in front of her, Katya sighed, but there was a smile on her face that matched her breakfast. "What's this?"
"Something to make you smile." Wren winked, and sat down next to her.
With two neat cuts of her knife, Katya changed the eggs from wide-open eyes to a set of angry glares. "What makes you think I need to smile?"
"Oh, I don't know… The way the Alekhines are still sniffing around, the… the way that Shun wants you to go bowling with him. "
Katya looked stricken. "No. I will never bowl. If I ever put on those awful shoes, you have permission to murder me."
Wren smiled, and went about her breakfast. In the year that they'd been together, she had got used to having a mafia queen for a girlfriend. Sometimes it was stressful, and sometimes it was bizarre — but there was nowhere she'd rather be than by Katya's side.
And for her part, Katya had apparently got used to having a boring little normal girlfriend. She sipped her coffee. "And your project?"
"Ugh." Wren sighed. "I have three deadlines all coming up at once." There were many things she was enjoying about her degree, but all that referencing was not part of that.
Katya's eggs weren't the only ones that were grinning evilly. "I could do something about that, you know…" she said, waving her knife lazily in the air.
"Please don't threaten my teachers!"
There was a series of small crashes.
Katya and Wren looked up from their breakfasts in time to see a four-legged, four-armed creation streak down the halls, teetering this way and that.
"Luka! Yuliya!" Katya barked, looking decidedly less happy than her breakfast. "What are you two doing?"
The creation slowed to a halt in front of the two of them. The top half of it turned out to be Yuliya, wearing a large hat clearly stolen from Katya's wardrobe. The bottom half of the creation was Luka, pawing at the ground and uttering the occasional neigh.
Yuliya gave Katya a dry look. She raised her hands, holding up the makeshift reins that Luka was chewing on. "I'm a cowboy."
"I'm a horse," Luka pointed out, helpful — and then when Yuliya dug her heels in, settled for a, "I mean, neigh!"
"No horses in the house."
"I guess you could say… no horseplay."
Before Katya could give Wren a look, Luka whined, unappreciative of her pun. "But uncle Aleksandr has horses…"
"Uncle Aleksandr goes to see horses," Wren pointed out. "Out somewhere else where horses are allowed to be."
"And then he leaves all his money there," Katya groused.
"Fi-i-ine," sighed Yuliya. She put her hands up in surrender, and Wren helped her dismount her noble steed.
Not too long ago, being told off would have sent the twins into tantrums. Now, though, with their trauma fading into the background and a set of steady guardians, Yuliya and Luka took it in good grace… albeit with a grumble or two.
The loss of their mother would always be with them, but with love surrounding them, they could cherish her memory instead of being trapped by fear and uncertainty.
As the twins ran off to find new entertainment, Wren watched them go with warmth in her heart. "They're good kids."
"They are," Katya agreed. "Even if they do need constant attention."
Constant attention… constant attention…
Suddenly, something inside of Wren clicked.
"But that doesn't need to be from us…"
"Pardon?"
It wasn't until the appearance of a horse that Wren had noticed that the manor was completely empty of animals.
Now, it seemed incongruous that a house of this size, with two rowdy children, didn't have a single pet: not a house cat, not some tropical fish in some designer tank, not a single tiny dog.
"You guys aren't a big family of animal lovers, are you?" she asked.
That got a shake of the head from Katya. "I don't get the point. If I wanted something useless to clean up after, I'd spend more time with my siblings."
Wren could imagine how Aleksandr and Valentina would react to hearing that, squawking with outrage and blowing up like offended chickens. She tried not to giggle. "I think… you know, if you're okay with it, I think the kids would really thrive with one."
Katya stared at her like she was from another planet. "One what?"
"A pet. A dog, maybe."
"But they already have so many toys!"
"There's something different about a real animal."
Katya was silent for a while, calculations running behind her cold blue eyes.
She wasn't a touchy-feely person. Wren loved that about her — her confidence, her steely poise, her ferocious love — but she wasn't exactly the sort of person who cooed over kitties and puppies.
It was a wild idea. The manor was tidy, clean, orderly, no place for a rowdy puppy. Wren prepared herself for a list of reasons why it wouldn't work.
Instead, Katya simply said, "Would a pet really be good for them?"
Wren knew she'd won. She beamed.
*
As a rule, Katya gathered intel then moved fast.
When they settled down for bed, some nights Wren caught her reading dossier printouts on dog training. When she came to visit Katya in her office, there were phone numbers written on her notepad, each with a note in her sharp handwriting: trainer; breeder; groomer.
And then, just a little later, Wren and the twins got into Katya's Bentley under the guise of going for lunch, and stepped out in front of an ordinary house. A woman was there to greet them. "Ms. Volkov? Hi, I'm Alice. Please, come on over this way."
"This isn't the ice cream place," grumped Luka, sensing trickery.
"It's not," Katya agreed. "We're here to get something even better than ice cream."
"A laser gun."
As Wren laughed, Katya shook her head. "No, Luka, not a laser gun. What about… a dog?"
"A dog…" Luka and Yuliya looked at each other, their eyes wide. "Really?"
"A real dog?"
"No, a fake one. Of course, a real dog," Katya said.
Amazement and awe bloomed over the kids' faces like a sugar-filled sunrise. The sight went straight to Wren's heart — and then it went straight to her adrenal glands, as the two of them began shrieking. "A dog!"
"A puppy!"
"Two puppies!"
"Three puppies!"
"One dog," Katya said, cutting into the din. "One. Between the both of you." She looked up at the breeder. "I apologize."
"No, no, it's perfectly fine." Alice smiled. "I'd be more concerned about kids who weren't excited about getting a puppy! And I'm sure you and your wife will teach them how to interact with it safely."
Her wife?! Before Wren could correct Alice, the twins, furiously impatient, were already tugging on her trousers. "Miss, Miss, where are the puppies?" Luka pleaded.
"Okay, kids, come this way."
As Alice led the children into the yard, Katya and Wren looked at each other, both with their eyebrows raised.
Her wife! Wren fought the urge to giggle, a reaction that was edged with adrenaline. Well, that was ridiculous. Katya clearly wasn't the marrying type.
Wait, she asked herself, that's your problem with this — that Katya's not going to put a ring on it?
No, of course not, Wren corrected herself. What they had was good, sure. Very good! But there was the whole tiny little thing about Katya being a mafia queenpin…
Some people didn't get married because their star signs weren't compatible. Being a criminal overlord had to be more of a barrier than that!
Still, as she followed the breeder into the backyard, she and Katya couldn't help but catch each others' eyes.
Wife. What a ridiculous idea.
When Alice opened the back door of her house and whistled, Wren had just enough time to turn before a big furry avalanche swarmed out into the yard, engulfing the children in one big wiggling wave. The children shrieked with joy, patting every one of the many, many little puppies that were currently assaulting them with kisses.
Above them, Katya crossed her arms and looked down at the swarm of fat German shepherd puppies. "These are the ones?"
Alice nodded. "Champion lines. The sire and the dam have been completely health tested, and they're both champions from working lines. They're well trained, intelligent, and reliable."
She whistled, and from down the open hallway, a German shepherd bitch ambled out. She sat down with the people instead of her babies, clearly glad to get a reprieve from her swarm of children. Wren reached down and patted her between her ears. Her tongue lolled in happiness, delighted to have someone paying attention to her for once.
"She's lovely," Wren said. She'd never been a dog person, not really. She'd never had pets, with her family the chaotic way it was, and then living in an apartment...
Still, she'd always wanted one.
"They'll protect us?" Luka looked up from the mass of puppies that were all trying to sit in his lap at once.
Yuliya looked down at them, and picked one up. She held it up between her hands and gave it a quizzical look, tilting her head this way back as she eyed the fat little potato of the dog. It wagged its tiny tail, unbothered. "He'll get any bad guys that come after us?"
Alice laughed. "They sure will!"
But as the kids' faces lit up, something cold and awful slid down into Wren's stomach.
They'll protect us from the bad guys?
No children should have to worry about bad guys — even if that was a valid fear in their family's line of work.
The twins had been getting better over the last year. Their nightmares had faded, and they'd got less clingy, fearful that the adults in their lives would leave them.
Still…
A movement caught her eye. Next to her, Katya cocked her head, tilting to the side.
Wren followed her, giving the two of them some privacy away from the children — not that a single adult conversation could have competed with puppies for the children's attention.
"Is something wrong?" Katya asked, when they had a little privacy.
Wren shook her head. "It's just… I don't know. They shouldn't have to worry about protection. That's not what a pet is for."
"What do you mean?"
Wren looked back at the kids. She could almost see it. Whenever something scary was happening, the kids could rush to their dog, clinging to it for assurance.
On the surface, it was a sweet enough image. But… Wren briefly explained her worries to Katya. "It just feels like a bad idea to put expectations like that on a dog."
Katya frowned. "I see what you mean, but… Well, it's not like there's anything else. This isn't a store. Are you going to try and tell the kids to walk away from a collection of puppies without one?" Katya folded her arms. "I don't think you'll do that. Hell, I'm not brave enough for that."
"Excuse me, but…" Alice did the awkward shuffle of someone trying to sound like they hadn't been eavesdropping on a conversation. "You're not certain about the German shepherds?"
Wren looked apologetic. "No, no, it's okay. I'm sorry, I'm just probably being anxious. I mean, look at the kids, they're obviously delighted—"
"It's just that we also have another litter available at the moment," Alice continued. "We show and train two different breeds here." Her steely dog trainer face broke into an uncharacteristic smile. It softened her, instantly transforming her. "My husband and I have rather different tastes when it comes to pets," she explained.
The hell did that mean? Wren cocked her head, but Katya didn't seem to care. "If you don't mind showing us the other puppies," she said with a nod, "that may be worth looking at."
Alice nodded, and headed back inside. For a few minutes, Wren waited, giving the German shepherd momma some affection. She leaned her head against Wren's leg, that scary attack dog face breaking open into a big goofy smile, tongue lolling as she leaned into the ear scratches with bliss.
When Alice reappeared, her arms were full of plush toys. Wren looked behind her, but there was no parade of puppies following her this time, like there had been the last. Then Katya let out a snort, and Wren looked up — and realized.
"Would you like to see these guys, too?" Alice asked the twins, and put down on the grass what Wren had thought were stuffed toys.
They were white. They were fluffy. They looked a little bit like wind up toys, wobbling to and fro on the lawn as they stumbled around. The German shepherds were easily three times their size, bounding around on longer legs, as the little pomeranian puppies blinked in the sunlight.
Alice went over the details with Katya: diet, training, the fact that the puppies still had two weeks with their mom before they could go to a good home. Wren let her handle it, and played with the twins and the puppies.
Was there any better way to spend a day than with a bunch of puppies? She wasn't sure there was.
Eventually, Katya caught her eye. "You seem like you're in a good mood."
"You know what? I am." Wren got up, brushing grass off of her knees, and went to join her. Together, the two of them watched the children play with the puppies. And when it came to the pomeranians, there was no more talk about guarding and protecting. Luka and Yuliya just simply loved them.
"This one," Luka declared.
Wren held her breath, hoping against hope. Next to her, she felt tension from Katya.
Yuliya gave the round little fuzzball in Luka's hands a critical look, eyeing it from the top of its little ears to the very tip of its paintbrush tail.
Eventually, she gave one decisive nod. "That one's the best one," she agreed.
"Yes!" Wren whispered. "No world war over picking puppies!'
"Oh, there's going to be enough fighting in the future," Katya assured her. "Which room to sleep in, which twin loves it more…"
Wren laughed. "What's the best name to give it, whose turn it is to clean up after it…"
"You have no idea of the hell you have unleashed upon my household."
"You love it."
Katya gave her hand a squeeze. "I don't hate it."
Wren broke into a beam.
*
Eventually, though, the puppies began to wind down. When they started to fall asleep in furry little piles, Katya clapped her hands. "Okay, I think that's enough, kids. It's time for us to leave."
The twins turned towards her, their faces screwed up in misery, but Katya cut them off with one raised finger. "If you two are on your best behavior, then you can come and pick up your puppy in two weeks."
Katya delivered the ultimatum to the children the same way that she gave orders to her soldiers. The kids, however, didn't seem to care. Their little heads bobbed up and down like dolls. "We'll be good!" they chorused. "We'll be good."
Wren sighed in relief. "Well, in that case, I think it's about time to go get something to eat." She looked up at Katya, smiling. "Don't you think so?"
*
At the Wheatsheaf, the twins talked a mile a minute about names, workshopping the best name for what was clearly the best puppy.
And as Katya's fingers entwined with Wren's below the table, she was thinking about names, too.
Mrs Wren Volkov…
It had a certain ring to it.