“Are those potato pancakes?” I asked when I walked into the dining room and found Nic digging into a plate of latkes smeared in ketchup. A pile of crispy bacon sat on the other side of his plate while a steaming cup of coffee was parked next to his left elbow.
“Maybe you dating a bunch of other guys isn't the worst thing that ever happened,” he joked as he gestured with his chin in the direction of the kitchen.
Montgomery was standing at the stove in a black apron, his white hair hanging in a thick braid over one shoulder, a spatula in his right hand. He glanced up as I walked in, throwing a cautious smile my way. The whole scene was pretty domestic … except, you know, for the swords hanging off his back and the white wolf with the blue eyes sitting at his feet.
“You cook?” I asked as I padded over to the breakfast bar and glanced at the four separate frying pans going all at once. Montgomery was even making use of the built-in griddle that ran down the center. This was the same, exact stove that my mother had in her house. Just more proof that werewolves like things done just so. Even something as simple and inconsequential as a kitchen appliance had rules, traditions, patterns to follow.
“I told you my sister, Patience, was just one in a litter of seven, right?” he asked, flipping a potato pancake onto a plate and handing it out to me. “How many do you want?”
“Three please, plus a heap of bacon.”
'Toss me a slice, would you?' Jax asked, blue eyes as bright as a summer sky. He waited with his tongue lolling until Montgomery tossed a crinkled slice of bacon his direction, snapping it out of the air and downing it in a single swallow.
“I haven't had a hot breakfast before class since I graduated high school,” I said, remembering the fancy omelets that Selena used to make. Both Nic and I had decided not to let her cook or clean for us anymore after senior year. I knew Nikolina and Majka found it strange, to treat the omega as anything but a useless tool, but I wanted to be a different kind of alpha. “Nic and I never manage to get up on time. And then usually Faith calls me at the last minute looking for a ride. Speak of the devil,” I mumbled as Montgomery loaded up my plate and I mouthed a silent thank you at the same time I answered the incoming call.
“We're heading out the door right now,” I said but all I got was a scoff in response.
“Are you, really? Because I stopped at both your house and Nic's and you weren't at either of them. According to Lana, you guys moved in together without fucking telling me!”
“Faith—” I started, but she wasn't done.
“Are you guys doing it now?” I hesitated for just a fraction of an instant too long. “Oh my god! You lost your virginity and you didn't tell me!” She was screeching now. So loudly, in fact, that if I tilted my head toward the open front door of the Pairing House, I could quite literally hear her voice echoing across the property. “I borrowed my mom's car because dad said I could until she came home and so I thought it'd be nice to surprise you guys for once with breakfast and I went to McDonald's and then I find out that you and Nic finally got over your weirdness and started having sex and you didn't even tell me and—”
“You're speaking in run-on sentences. I know you hate run-on sentences.”
“I do!” she said, and I could just see her chewing on the end of her braid, standing outside of Nic's parents' house next to her dead mother's car. My stomach tightened and nausea rolled over me in a wave. “Where are you, Zara Castille? I'm coming over there.”
I stood there for a long moment, catching Nic's bewildered expression.
'You can't tell her about the Pairing House,' he said, blinking big, dark eyes at me. His terrified expression was actually kind of cute, considering the piece of bacon he had hanging out of his mouth and all. 'Zara, don't.'
'Your mom's the one who told her we moved out in the first place,' I countered, noticing Che slipping into the room and taking a seat at the table. There wasn't an alpha-son in that room who wouldn't be able to tell that Nic and I were using wolfspeak to have a private conversation. But they also probably wouldn't understand why it was such a big deal either.
“Zara?” Faith asked, and I could hear this … unsure quality in her voice that I wasn't used to. “Please tell me you've just forgotten the address and are frantically searching for the lease so you can—”
“There's no address,” I said, making the decision right then and there. I wasn't going to alienate my best friend just so I could avoid an awkward, probably really confusing conversation about why I was living in a relatively small house up a dirt road in the middle of nowhere with seven men. I was like, Snow fucking White or some shit. “If you take the road behind Lana's house and follow it all the way up into the trees, you'll find us.”
“Um … oooookay,” she said as Nic dropped the piece of bacon from his mouth to his plate and stood up, chair scraping across the old wood floors. “You're living on your mother's property?”
“Hurry or we'll be late for class,” I said, ignoring her question and ending the call before she could get another out. I needed a minute to think. “Nic, I had to tell her.”
“No, you didn't,” he said, gesturing at Jax with an angry hand. “Can you please shift back? I don't want to explain a wolf the size of a small pony to a human this early in the morning.”
Jax just grinned at him, his body flowing like water, molecules sliding past one another and rearranging themselves into a very attractive, very naked man.
“Is that better?” he asked coyly and I watched as Nic struggled to control his temper, clenching his hands into fists at his sides and gritting his teeth.
“Other than the fact that your dick is out and hard, yeah, it's a start.”
“Oh? You want this covered?” Jax asked, pointing at the half-erect length of his shaft. With a bemused chuckle, he snagged an apron off a hook in the kitchen and threw the loop over his head, turning around and flashing the sculpted muscular perfection of his ass. “Hey Zara, do you think you could tie this for me?”
“You see?” Nic said, gesturing in Jax's direction again. “This is what Faith is going to be walking into. I hope you've got a really good explanation ready because I know I sure as fuck don't.”
He snatched his shoes off the chair next to him and carried them into the living room.
“Would you mind putting some clothes on?” I asked with a small sigh, rubbing at a wrinkle between my eyes. Good thing werewolves aged slowly or else I'd have had quite a collection of stress wrinkles on my forehead already. “You need to get dressed anyway to head over to the university.”
“Really?” Jax asked, turning back around and crossing his arms over his chest. “I was hoping you'd let me get away with just a leash and collar?” He smiled at me, flashing one, sharp canine tooth.
I found myself smiling back, shaking my head and taking Nic's seat to wolf down—excuse the pun—my breakfast before Faith showed up. From Nic's parents' house to here, it was only about a ten minute drive.
Che tapped his fingers on the surface of the table as he watched me.
“So,” he asked, drawing my gaze up and away from my plate. Those purple eyes of his were impossible to ignore; Faith would notice them right away. Then again, she'd pretty easily accepted Montgomery's shock white hair, Anubis' crimson stare, and all my own general weirdness without question. Push come to shove, we'd use the contacts lie again. “You think your friend will like me?”
“Most definitely not,” I said, closing my eyes and trying not to groan with pleasure at the creamy texture of the potato pancakes. I took a bite, rubbed it around in the ketchup blob left on Nic's plate and stuffed the last piece in my mouth.
“Why not?” he asked, his voice as smooth as silk. But there was an edge there, hiding underneath his words that I couldn't miss. I wasn't sure what, exactly, it was. Maybe it was because we'd had sex and never got a chance to talk about it? Maybe it had something to do with his nearly dying yesterday? I didn't know and I didn't have time to find out—I could hear Faith's t
ires coming up the drive behind the house.
“While she doesn't mind dating them herself,” I started as I folded a piece of bacon into my mouth and swallowed it almost as whole as Jax had. “She doesn't really like the bad boy type.”
I smiled sharply and stood up, trying to calm the frantic racing of my heart. Faith hadn't met Che yet, and I'd been too preoccupied with other things to ask how Nic had introduced her to Tidus the other day. It'd been bad enough, showing up with four 'suitors' and asking her to try and understand where I was coming from. Now I not only had to tell her that Nic and I had had our first time together, but that I'd also added two more boys to the mix.
“Mother help me,” I said, stepping onto the porch and moving down the steps to the grass, digging my toes in and trying to draw strength from Mother Earth herself. Diya's car rolled into view around the corner, creeping up the windy dirt road behind the Pairing House. Seeing it, I was struck with a massive wave of guilt. It made my throat go dry, my tongue swell. I didn't want to lie to my best friend. Fuck, I didn't want to lie to anyone. It wasn't something I wanted to make a habit of.
“Hey,” I managed to choke out as Faith climbed from the car, glancing up at the log walls of the cabin with a skeptically raised brow. She was dressed in jeans and a pink tank with a strawberry on the front, a white and yellow fast-food bag tucked into her right hand.
“Zara,” she started, tossing her black braid over one shoulder and slamming the door behind her. “Girl, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
You have no idea, I thought as Faith picked her way over to me, dropping a narrowed brown gaze on me. It was ripe with accusations. If she only knew how many things I was really keeping from her …
Faith pushed the McDonald's bag into my hands and then crossed her own over her chest.
“Well?” she asked, catching me in a rare moment of speechlessness.
I guess even Alphas need a moment to catch their breath sometime.
“You kept telling me it was time to get my own place,” I joked, cracking a somewhat melancholy smile. It felt like a bunch of bullshit, talking to Faith about boys and houses when what I really should've been doing was telling her the truth. “So I did!”
I gestured at the Pairing House with an open hand, trying to keep the mood lighthearted.
“Did you screw Nic?” was the next question she whispered, taking another step close to me. I could smell a whole host of things on her—sugar, flour, butter, cocoa. It was obvious that Faith had spent the morning baking.
I just hoped it wasn't stress baking.
Although … considering her mother was still missing, it probably was.
“Why would you think that?” I asked, trying to grin my way through this. Faith just stared at me for a moment before pushing past and raising her hand to her mouth.
“Nic!” she called out as I moved behind her and tried not to sweat so profusely.
Dealing with Faith in a mood could be twice as scary as dealing with my mother.
“Nicoli!” she shouted, heading up the porch steps … and pausing just inside the front door. “Whoa. Did I miss a party last night or something?”
“Faith,” I said, moving around her and into a living room filled with furniture older than my grandmother. “You remember Anubis …”
“Hey, Faith,” he said, standing there barefoot … and shirtless.
Her eyes locked right onto the firm grooves and valleys of his chest.
“And Jax … Montgomery. Silas, of course.”
I looked around at the scattered assortment of boys and tried to figure out a way to explain this that didn't sound completely deranged.
Well, Faith, you see, I'm technically sort of engaged to all of these guys. More than engaged, really. We're magically bound together. For the next twelve months they'll fight beside me, sleep beside me, fuck me on forest floors surrounded by leaves.
“You met Tidus the other day …”
“Good morning!” he said cheerfully, ruffling up his blonde hair and grinning. “How's Owen doing?”
“He's … fine,” Faith said suspiciously, casting a look my way. She was clearly pissed.
“And I'm Che Nocturne,” Che said, appearing in the entrance to the dining room and slouching sideways against the wall. He was sin incarnate, standing like that, a swirl of smoke and shadows with violet eyes and a wicked smirk. “Zara's boyfriend.”
“Zara's … boyfriend,” Faith repeated, and I was just about positive that her eyes were going to topple straight out of her skull. “You're Zara's boyfriend?”
“Suitor,” I corrected quickly.
'Mate,' Che said inside my head, drawing out the vowel until it was long and sticky, clinging to the nerve endings in my brain and making it really, really hard to think properly. Asshole.
Faith just stood there, completely silent. When she reached up, took hold of her braid, and started tickling her lips with it, I knew I was in serious trouble.
Finally, Nic came back down the stairs, fully dressed, and parked himself in the middle of the room. We exchanged a long look.
'I warned you,' he said as Faith scanned Jax (thankfully wearing a pair of jeans although not much else), Montgomery in his apron, and Silas pulling a pack of smokes from his back pocket.
“Can I, um, talk to you outside for a moment?” Faith asked, snatching my arm and dragging me down the front steps next to the lavender bushes. “Zara Vodja Castille,” she admonished, planting her hands on her hips and going into full outrage mode. “Why are there so many shirtless men in there?”
There's no advice column on how to answer your best friend when she asks why there are so many shirtless werewolf hunks hanging out inside your house.
There should be.
“Zara, I sense Nikolina's hand in all of this,” Faith warned, standing up and focusing an accusatory stare on my face. “Why are they all here? Why the fuck is Nic okay with all of this? I thought you said you guys finally—”
“We did,” I said, feeling a small flutter inside my chest.
Nic and me. Finally.
It was meant to be.
“You did?!” Faith shrieked, snatching me up in a huge bear hug. If I weren't a werewolf, it might've suffocated me. “Tell me everything. How did it happen? Here? In your room? Oh my god, at school? Zara, you didn't!”
I laughed and tilted my head back, studying the swaying limbs of the pine trees, the snow melting in slow, careful drips from the branches. The air smelt crisp and fresh, like each breath I took was soothing some of my anxiety.
Mother Earth was a powerful force to be reckoned with.
“I didn't,” I said, dropping my chin to look at her. “It was in Nic's room, and I started it.”
“You vixen!” she breathed, taking my hand and squeezing it hard. “I knew it. I knew it would be you. Holy shit, was it good?”
“Fantastic,” I whispered back and then … remembered that there was a high probability that all the boys inside that house were listening to us talk. Fucking werewolf hearing.
“I say we skip school today and go out for coffee,” she said, biting her lip and practically bouncing up and down. “I need to know the exact date and time—down to the minute—and how many times since and which boxes you've checked off the universal sexual to-do list.” Faith paused and glanced over at the Pairing House as Che stepped out onto the deck. “Oh, and why the hell he's not beating the crap out of all these hangers-on.”
“They live here, Faith,” I said, pulling the metaphorical bandage off and trying not to wince.
Alpha's don't wince.
“They live here?” she asked, looking completely puzzled. “Like a fraternity or something?” With another glance back at the Pairing House, I could tell she was analyzing the size. For a cabin, it was roomy. But nobody in their right mind would believe eight people could live in it together.
“They live here with me and Nic,” I continued, my mind frantically putting together a stupid but hopefully b
elievable story. “My mom's promised that if I live here with them for a year, she'll keep paying my college tuition and living expenses through grad school.”
“Zara …” Faith began, getting ready for a lecture. I could see it brewing in her eyes like a storm. “Are you listening to yourself? Your mom is making you live with a bunch of strange guys for … what? … some slim chance that you'll stop being in love with your childhood friend and suddenly want one of them instead? To try and set up some sort of powerhouse rich people family legacy thing? Are you insane?”
“It's an investment in my future,” I argued and Faith threw up her hands.
“I can't even believe this. Zara, come the fuck on! I mean, I'm super excited that you screwed Nic, but there's so much wrong with this scenario that I'm having a hard time focusing on the good news.”
Che plodded down the steps, a pair of black leather Converse in one hand. He paused next to us and smiled.
“It was nice to meet you, Faith,” he purred in that deliciously decadent voice of his, winking one purple eye and then meandering over to the SUV.
“And who is that again?” Faith asked as she watched Tidus and Nic come out of the house next. We were running late and today, I needed everything to be perfect. Julian might know—via Coven Triad—that I was aware the witches had something to do with my missing pack members, but that didn't mean he was aware I was onto him, either as the witches' ally or as a daywalking vampire.
And I needed to get as close to Selena as I could—traitor or not.
“And Tidus?” Faith added slowly, watching the blonde surfer boy with interest.
“Tidus and Che are … they're both my suitors,” I said with a small sigh, this guilty nibble taking over my tummy and making it churn. I had too many lies to contend with; I didn't want anymore.
“Hey Faith,” I started, meeting her stare dead-on. It still irked me a little sometimes, how easily humans made eye contact. I fought my instincts and took a deep breath. “The other day … after I slept with Nic …” A long pregnant pause, speckled with snow and ice. “I slept with Che, too.”
Pack Violet Shadow Page 7