Jennifer would have expected more dramatic consequences after several alien portals opened across town, but things calmed down very quickly after Rolly—also known as Ronan the Dragon—left her building lobby.
For one thing, her heart stopped doing little pancake flips.
The alien portal was closed cleanly. Jennifer wouldn't be able to say exactly when or how, but by evening the broken road outside hosted news vans, Pandora Investigation Teams (PITs), and the hotdog man with his cart, which was miraculously unscathed.
Jennifer had almost resigned herself to joining the queue outside and eating hotdogs for dinner.
Fortunately, Adrian had called in enough pizza for everyone.
They had surrendered the Pandora Box to the officer from the reinvestigation team. When asked where it had been found, Quintin answered with suspicious smoothness.
"I tripped on it last night in the back alley."
Liar! That was Rolly's story! Quintin had found it in her hidden basement with the mountains of shady bank notes. Oh, well… Jennifer supposed it was better not to mention that abnormality. Frank and Bastien had rather strained expressions. They would need a specialist to come check the notes. Hopefully they were just very good counterfeits, because if they were genuine mint, then there was a good chance it was black money. And probably marked by a government or another gang so that they would be alerted the moment it passed through a bank.
"My mother would be so audacious." Frank felt sure.
To everyone's relief, tripping over a black box while walking in the back alley at night raised no questions at all, because it turned out that this was actually quite a normal way for people to discover Pandora Boxes.
Unfortunately, as a result, the newly awakened MLs had to enroll in Pandora Awakeners University (PAU) for proper training.
Luckily, Damien, Angus, and Quintin were already freshmen there.
But Bastien was not happy.
"I already finished university," Bastien sulked.
He had just graduated from law school and had only come here to help his grandfather.
More like win over his grandfather, inherit the family business, and get his revenge—but Jennifer politely nodded anyway.
Then she had a brilliant idea.
"Bastien," Jennifer said brightly, "I think school would do you good."
"What the hell, woman?"
Bastien was not pleased.
"It's nice that you want to help your grandfather," Jennifer said patiently, "but I think Frank would want you to live your own life."
"Not really," Frank muttered from the sofa. "He is rather useful."
"He'd be even more useful as a trained Awakener," Jennifer insisted. "And Bastien is very capable. I'm sure he can still find time to help you. Lots of college boys work part-time."
Frank considered this thoughtfully.
"You are right, my dear," he finally said. "I can see why my mother values you."
Jennifer blinked.
Huh?
What exactly had the landlady been telling her son?
But never mind that. Focus.
Jennifer needed to help Bastien. He was her favourite ML after all.
"He can rent an apartment here too," Jennifer continued. "And help take care of these three troublemakers."
That should do it.
What Bastien really needed were friends.
Specifically, friends who wouldn't become his henchmen.
And a home that wasn't a shark tank.
"I'm not a troublemaker. He is," Angus said immediately, pointing across the room. "You can take care of that reckless idiot."
"I'm not an idiot," Damien growled. He didn't deny the troublemaking part. "And I don't need anyone."
"Aren't you the Yin of the Yin–Yang thing?" Quintin pointed out. "Wouldn't you need your Yang?"
"He's useless. All he does is heal."
"Idiot. Without my healing you'd be dead a hundred times over!" Angus crossed his arms. "And healing is better than Snow White powers."
"Snow White powers?" Bastien repeated dangerously.
Quintin coughed into his hand.
Damien snorted.
And then all three troublemakers turned to snicker at Bastien.
This was when Jennifer finally saw the flaw in her plan.
Even though Bastien would no longer be living with the sharks in his family home…
…he would instead be living with these three.
"Alright," Bastien said suddenly.
Everyone looked at him.
"I can help you manage the building more conveniently from here anyway," Bastien continued calmly. "And don't worry."
He gave the three younger men a slow, meaningful look.
"Leave these brats to me."
This exposed further flaws in Jennifer's plans. These boys were not exactly her kindergarten kids. Technically, they were a young alpha werewolf, a crown prince, an OP destined awakener. Maybe putting them in the charge of a future underground power broker was a hasty decision on her part.
But for some reason, the brats didn't protest. In fact, Damien had proudly declared, "Fine, but if Snow White wants to run with us, he better be able to keep up."
And for better or worse, that was that.
They watched the news together over shared pizza in the lobby on someone's tablet.
Many politicians had stepped forward to reassure the public that everything was under control.
The media had gone into a frenzy, and it didn't look like the government could pass the whole thing off as an online gaming publicity stunt anymore.
At this point they were mostly saying variations of:
"Don't worry. We have everything under control and a very good explanation which we will share soon. But not now, because it would be premature."
Alpha Drake wasn't in the country earlier that day. He had been presiding over some international Lycan Alpha convention.
But he flew back immediately.
He came straight from the airport, in wolf form, accompanied by a small pack of warriors.
Of course their werewolf doorman opened the door for the Alpha King.
Of course he immediately started a face-off with Damien again.
And of course Damien shifted on the spot right in the middle of the lobby.
Jennifer pointed toward the backyard.
"Outside."
She must be getting used to them.
They were getting used to her too.
All she had to do was point, and the large wolves obligingly padded off single file.
Angus sighed and stood up. "I suppose that idiot will expect me to heal him after this."
Quintin, the Alive boys, and even Bastien decided to join Angus in his apartment, where they would have a safe second-floor vantage point from the window.
Now that the younger ones were gone, the older men finally began discussing the events of the day.
Jennifer wasn't paying attention. Shilem was now speaking at an emergency press conference. Was it funny that the moment he appeared on the screen, Jennifer felt the same disgust rise up from her stomach as when the first alien roach popped out of the portal today?
Well, it was funny to Jennifer.
And when the camera zoomed in to Shilem's middle-aged handsome face, Jennifer felt he looked like an alien roach in human skin.
Urgh… I could've been married to a human sized roach.
"Now that it has come to this, I doubt the world governments can continue denying the existence of Pandora Boxes or the alien invasion," Duke Chevon said gravely.
"Well, it was something inevitable," Adrian conceded.
"I agree," Frank said pleasantly. "But only because I'm an agreeable old man. An innocent civilian like me couldn't possibly grasp the seriousness of today's events."
"You are neither agreeable nor innocent," Duke Chevon said coldly.
Frank chuckled. "It takes one to know one."
Duke Chevon gave Frank an icy stare.
Jennifer was done.
She claimed exhaustion and made her escape to her apartment.
Sebastian had kindly salvaged what he could from the crumpled bouquet earlier that day.
The surviving flowers now sat on her dining table, surrounded by the other realities of her life: unopened mail, dirty coffee mugs (yes, plural was not a typo), several remote controls, and a mysterious cable from something Jennifer wasn't entirely sure she owned.
The apartment was quiet as always. Because Jennifer lived alone.
Which was nice.
Except now the rest of her building were full of people. She could hear faintly a collective shouting from the other side - probably the boys at Angus' apartment.
Angus' mother used to live there. She would be happy to know her son had friends crashing in his apartment and yelling out the windows at werewolves in the lawn right?
Anyway, the cake Rolly brought was delicious.
Being alone meant she didn't have to share it with anyone.
So all's well that ends well.