It all started when she was pretending to be a U.S. Marshal at the sheriff's office.

One of the boys who met them after they visited la iglesia had shown up, and was talking rather animatedly to the sheriff. Intrigued, she politely excused herself from a less-than-enthralling conversation with one of the deputies and made her way over to the desk.

"Just be careful, okay Dad? She's crazy, and she's dangerous. Like, werewolf-level danger." As she came over, the sheriff made a shushing noise at the teen with a not-so-subtle look at her. His son followed his gaze. "Oh, don't worry. She knows the deal."

The sheriff looked at her incredulously. "How does a U.S. marshal learn about..." his voice trailed off as his gaze shifted to something, or someone, behind her. "Agent McCall. I thought you were done with your evaluation." His tone had shifted as well, cordial to combative. But that was hardly the most important detail Braeden picked up.

McCall. Could it be...?

She glanced questioningly at the boy - Stiles, her brain supplied - and he nodded back at her, seeming to sense what she was asking. Interesting...

A sharp voice brought her back to attention. "Yes, I'm done, don't worry. But I'm going to be in town for...a while, it looks like. So I figured I might see if I could be of use to you here."

Braeden took a moment to study the speaker. He was handsome, for an older man, that much was easily evident. The sheriff wasn't too bad either. She filed the information away for later use.

They were at Derek's place for another "pack meeting" when she saw the beginnings of an opportunity. Normally, she skipped them, but Derek had advised her to be present for this: a werewolf hunter was coming back from France.

She knew Chris Argent by his family's reputation, of course, but she'd never gotten a particularly good look at him. Pity. The tired eyes, the few days of stubble - here was a man that had clearly aged like fine wine.

As Scott began telling him what had been going on, she beckoned Derek over. "How did you guys get a hunter on your side?"

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "It's a...long story. But to make it a short one, his daughter and Scott had a bit of a romance. She helped us...well, she also tried to kill us...well, it's hard to make it a short story. But yeah. His daughter."

Another dad, thought Braeden. "I see. Which one is she?" she asked, gesturing towards the assembled teenagers.

"She's dead."

"Ah."

What was the saying? Once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern? When it happened for the fourth time, Braeden knew she had stumbled upon a potential goldmine.

She was supposed to meet Scott after he got out of school, but it was 12:30 and Braeden preferred not to wait. Walking in the front doors, she went classroom to classroom, scanning the students for a certain alpha werewolf. On her fourth try, she found him.

"Hi," she said, sashaying into the room. She had left her fake badge at Derek's flat, but confidence got her most places just as well. "I am here to get..." she held a piece of paper up, pretending to read it, "Scott McCall? The principal would like to see him."

The teacher, an attractive Asian man who wore a suit like a second skin, was a little more resolute than she'd hoped. "I don't recognize you," he said.

"New intern, from the college," Braeden lied smoothly. He wasn't convinced.

"Can I see the note?" he asked. Shit. Before she could hand it over, another voice came into the mix.

"Uh, dad?" A girl who Braeden recognized as Scott's maybe-girlfriend from Mexico made a face at her father. "She's been here for a week or two." The teacher looked confused for a minute, and the kitsune gave him another look. His face cleared.

"Ah, my apologies." He winked at her. "By all means, take Scott off my hands."

A few good-natured protests from Scott later, they were out in the hall, discussing business. But all Braeden could think about was that she only needed two more.

She had accompanied Scott to the hospital after their meeting. He had thanked her for getting him out of class, said he was going to have to skip anyway to check on the person he'd bitten - potentially his first beta. As they walked through the halls, they came into view of his room. The boy - Liam, Scott had said - looked fine and was talking to a doctor. The bite had taken.

Scott tugged her arm. "Stay out of sight. His stepdad works here."

Braeden shifted into the adjoining hallway, obscuring her from view. "His dad is a doctor?"

The alpha peered out from behind the wall. "The one he's talking to."

It was Braeden's turn to sneak a peek. "His dad is that doctor?" Jackpot.

Five. Five hot dads.

She just needed one more.

With six, she could double up. She was thinking one picture in work clothes, another in casual. After all, they had the right professions. Teacher, doctor, sheriff, FBI agent... she ticked off her fingers. The hunter would be hard to describe, but maybe he could be an undercover cop or something. She'd figure it out.

Six hot dads, twelve months of the year... it would work out great. The only problem was, she had run out of dads.

Once she had found the doctor, she had gone around the group and subtly asked around about their parents. She knew she already had Scott's, Scott's girlfriend's, Scott's dead ex-girlfriend's, Liam's, and Stiles' fathers. That left Lydia and Malia.

Lydia was a bust. She had been hard to read, but an eventual offhand comment about her father never being there was enough for Braeden to follow other routes. She had been to Malia's house once, to collect the werecoyote for a "pack mission," and she had most decidedly not been impressed by Mr. Tate. (Malia hadn't been there, anyway. She'd shown up to the meeting point a few minutes later in Stiles' jeep.)

That was it. Braeden had to limit herself to the pack. She couldn't just go around looking for attractive male parents - it would be a waste of time.

It really was a pity she couldn't use Peter. His werewolf muscles could fill out a t-shirt deliciously. But he didn't have any children, and it felt a little too much like cheating to include him.

That is, until she overheard a conversation between Scott and Stiles.

"You have to tell her! I'm telling you Scott, the longer we wait, the bigger this is gonna blow up in our faces. And we've already waited too long!"

"I know, I know, okay? It's just...you can't just spring that on someone! How would you like it if you found out your dad was a psychotic killing machine?"

Peter was someone's father? Braeden surreptitiously slunk a little closer to the conversation.

"Malia is a lot more grounded now than she was when we first met her. I'm sure she can handle being told that Peter is her father."

Well, that spelled it out for her. Peter had a daughter and Braeden had her sixth model. Perfect.

A few weeks later, Braeden slid a new price across the table. "Family and friends discount," she had called it, with a wink at the two werewolves (well, mostly at the moody black-haired one) in front of her.

When Peter pressed her about it, all she said was that she had money coming in from another source. "Don't worry about it, October."

"October?"

EPILOGUE

She and Scott were standing in the hospital waiting room, watching the nurses rush to tend to one of the newest victims of the Mute. Well, watching one nurse in particular.

"So...she's your mom, huh?"