by Morse, Jody
Once all of our pack members were inside the house, he turned to me. “Skye, what were you thinking asking a question like that?”
“I just wondered what they would say. I thought one of them might actually own up to what they did.”
Akar snorted. “It’s ignorant for you to think that the Shondi pack—who are nothing more than strangers to you, right now—would open up about killing someone so early on. Maybe you should have just stayed home. You have no idea how the real world works—how trust must be earned before a person will spill all their secrets to you.”
I swallowed hard, focusing my attention on my white paws that had suddenly become more interesting to me than this conversation, and willed myself not to cry. “I should probably apologize.”
“There’s no ‘probably’ about it. You will apologize, if you know what’s best for you.” Akar shook his head frustratedly, as he sat down on the ground in front of me, but still keeping his distance. “If I were in a different position, I would send you home right now. You embarrassed me tonight, you humiliated our pack, and you could have put us all in danger if any of them let their anger take over. But the unfortunate truth is that I need you. You might not know this, Skye, but you’re one of the strongest wolves we’ve got on our pack right now.”
I eyed him questioningly. “I am?”
“Yeah. It’s hard for me to admit that, since you’re a girl and all, but—”
“Gee, thanks,” I interrupted, glaring at him.
“It’s the truth, Skye. It’s really rare for female wolves to be as strong as you are. And it’s not because you’re more muscular than other werewolves. It’s because you’re so strong-willed.” Akar paused before explaining, “Even though I had a feeling I knew what you were going to ask tonight, I also knew there was nothing I could have done to stop you, even if I wanted to. You were going to ask your question, no matter what.”
I nodded. It was true.
Akar sighed, his features softening a little. “I don’t know why I even wanted you to stay out here. All I know is that, in the future, you can’t make any more outbursts like the one you just made. We all need to earn the Shondi’s trust if they’re going to be a part of our pack. They will be the ones defending you when it’s necessary, Skye. I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you, considering we rarely had conflicts with other packs back in Alaska. Things will be different here, though. We need to watch out for ourselves, but we need to watch out for each other, too. How can the Shondi learn to trust us if they think we’re suspicious of them?”
I sighed. “I know. I’ll try not to ask any more questions.”
Akar didn’t look too convinced. “Even if you’re just dying to know?”
“Even if I’m dying to know,” I agreed. I was going to tell him that half of my worries stemmed from the idea of what might happen to him if Johnny V. was as bad of a person as I suspected, but I decided to keep my mouth closed. Akar didn’t seem too pissed off at me right now, and I didn’t want to say anything that could make matters worse.
“Okay,” he agreed. “You can go on in the house, then.”
“Are you going to come inside?” I questioned.
Akar shook his head and rose to all fours. “No, I’m not. I hate being cooped up in there all night. This? Being outside? It’s what wolves are meant to do at night. You’re the only one who knows this, but I actually never come home until the sun rises. Don’t tell the other guys, though, or they’ll want to do the same. It’s up to them what they do, but it wouldn’t be the best thing for them. They’ll never get through the school day without falling asleep. It’s hard enough to get them to wake up in the morning for school as it is.”
“I won’t say anything,” I promised, watching as Akar turned away from me and dashed across the backyard. He didn’t head off in the same direction as the Shondi pack; he trotted in the other direction, past our neighbors’ backyard, which ran through the forest that led to a dog park at the end of the street.
As I transformed back into my human form, the orange smoke encircled me, clinging to my clothes as I changed. I thought about the fact that Akar had just told me a secret that nobody else knew. It was the first time he’d ever let me in on something like that, even if it was nothing crazy or special. Still, it made me smile a little as I climbed the back porch steps.
I knew that there were still a lot of things that I didn’t know about Akar, but it felt like he had let his guard down to let me in, even if it was just a little.
I wondered if him starting to open up to me was the mark of a new beginning. Maybe now that we were away from our pack in Alaska, I would finally start to see the real Akar.
Chapter 10
The department store was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. There were hundreds of brightly colored shirts, pants, and dresses. We even walked past a few racks displaying bras and panties—two clothing items that I was still wearing hand-made versions of. I’d never seen so many bras and underwear in so many materials, prints, and colors.
Amanda noticed that I was staring at the lingerie section. “Oh, yeah, we should probably get you a new bra. You know, one with a little more of a…boost.” She eyed my cleavage. “We’ll worry about that after we find you something to wear to the party, though. That way, we’ll know if you need a strapless one or not.”
“A strapless…bra?” I asked. I’d never heard of those before.
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Um, yeah.” Then, she began to search through the clothes that hung from the racks.
I began to sift through the clothes, too, but all I could think about was how crazy it was that there were bras without straps out there, and I’d had no idea. It was just another reminder of how sheltered my life with the Koto pack had been.
“What about this?” Jenny asked, pulling a short blue dress off the rack and holding it up in front of me. The dress didn’t look like it had enough material to even cover me.
“I don’t know,” I replied hesitantly. “Isn’t it a little short?”
Amanda laughed, tossing her light brown hair over her shoulder. “You’re so cute sometimes, Skye. Of course the dress is short, but that’s a good thing.”
I raised my brows. “It is?”
“Uh, yeah,” Kristina said, as she pulled a red satin dress off the rack, which was even shorter than the one Jenny had found. “If you want people to notice you, you’re going to have to wear something that’s attention-grabbing. And you have great legs. You could pull one of these off better than most girls.”
“Thanks,” I replied with a small smile, glancing down at my legs. No one had ever told me they were great before, though I had noticed that they were a bit leaner and appeared more muscular than most of the other girls in school. Actually, my whole body did, but that was because I was a werewolf. It was in our genes.
“Your brows are a different story, though. Those need some serious work,” Amanda said, inspecting me from head to toe. “Don’t feel too bad, though. It took us ages to finally find the right salon. Luckily for you, I already made you an appointment.”
I resisted the urge to cover my eyebrows. Girls in the Koto pack were so much different from the ones I’d met here so far. We never really cared about appearances so much, and we never voiced our opinions if we didn’t like something about the way a person looked, the same way we never told any of our girlfriends that we thought they looked nice. I wondered if it was a way girls bonded here. I would have to mention something about their appearances to them later, so they would think that I wanted to bond with them, too.
“And, even though this party is going to be nice and all, we’re also not going to make it too formal,” Amanda went on. “It would just look plain weird if you wore a longer dress. You don’t want to wear a ball gown. It’s not like we’re going to prom or something.”
Prom. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that now that I was in school, I would eventually get to go to prom. Kyana had told me all about her junior prom. She’d gone
with Chris and had worn a stunning light pink dress, which she had sent me pictures of. I knew it wasn’t for a while, but I couldn’t help myself from wondering who I would go with. Would it be Gage?
I scolded myself for thinking about him. I promised myself I wouldn’t let him enter my thoughts. It wasn’t for Thane’s sake, though; it was for mine. I didn’t even know yet if anything would ever happen between Gage and me, but even if it didn’t, I still wanted to—hopefully—find my mate. I couldn’t limit myself to just one person who may or may not have really been interested in me.
“Well, let’s go try these on,” Amanda said, clutching a bunch of dresses against her chest.
Even though I hadn’t even chosen one, I followed the girls to the women’s dressing room at the back of the store.
Once I was behind one of the stalls with a pile of dresses that the other girls had collected for me to try on, I wondered how they even knew my dress size. I guess it was good that they hadn’t asked, though, considering I knew nothing about dress sizes. I knew my body’s width and length in inches and centimeters, but I had no idea what dress size would fit me.
As I pulled on a dress that Jenny had picked out for me, I was surprised that it really was the right size. The dress, which was a bright shade of yellow, fit perfectly. I pulled the door of the stall open, revealing it to the girls.
“Ew, god no!” Amanda exclaimed. “It makes you look like a banana.”
“And too...happy. Like a giant ball of sunshine,” Kristina agreed.
“I thought that was one of the best things about the dress,” Jenny insisted, seeming disappointed that they didn’t like her choice.
“Yeah, well, we all know how much your taste in clothes sucks.” Amanda rolled her eyes and then focused her attention back on me. “Try on one of the other dresses, Skye.”
I tried on the next dress—which Kristina had picked out this time—and we went through the same thing. Amanda didn’t think the dress was nice enough (this one was “too sparkly”), and then she criticized Kristina’s taste in clothing.
We seemed to go through the same cycle as I tried on each of the dresses that Jenny and Kristina had chosen for me to the point where it started to grow tiresome. I wasn’t even sure how the two of them could put up with how rude Amanda was to them, but I decided not to say anything about it. I wanted Amanda on my side, even though I wasn’t sure why. I guess it was for the same reason I tried not to piss off Akar most of the time; you didn’t mess with the leader of a pack if you didn’t need to.
Finally, I tried on one of the dresses that Amanda had picked out: a short, black number. It dipped low on top, but it was slightly longer than the others. This one actually fell at my knees, rather than my thighs, so I knew that I would be comfortable in it—at least in comparison to the other dresses I’d tried on.
“This is the one!” Amanda said excitedly once she saw the dress on me. She turned to Jenny and Kristina. “Doesn’t it look amazing on her?”
“It does look really awesome,” Jenny admitted to me.
Kristina hesitated for a few moments. I think she’d gotten angrier at Amanda than Jenny had, but she, too, agreed. “It does look gorgeous. You should definitely get that one.”
As I turned around to go back into the dressing room, Amanda said, “Wait. Stop right there.”
I turned around slowly. “What is it?”
“You have a tattoo?” Amanda questioned, pointing at my shoulder blade.
I ran a hand over the area of skin that had been imprinted with the Koto pack tattoo of the paw prints. “Yeah, I do.”
“But it’s so…so ugly!” Amanda said, with a wrinkled nose. “If you’re planning on wearing that dress, we better buy some makeup so we can cover that thing up.”
Anger rose to my cheeks. She wasn’t just offending me; she was offending my pack, and it was natural instinct for me to get protective over my pack. I had to try really hard to suppress the urge I felt to release a defensive growl. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my tattoo,” I replied. “I think my hair will probably cover it when I wear the dress, anyway.”
“I don’t think we should risk it. You’re wearing makeup over it,” Amanda replied firmly.
As I stepped back into the dressing room, eyeing my tattoo in the mirror, I sighed. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to convince Amanda to change her mind about this, so I would just need to get used to the idea of covering it up for the night of the party.
When I pulled my own clothes back on and stepped out of the changing room, Kristina was asking Jenny, “What are you wearing to the party?”
“Oh, do you remember that pink dress I got as a sweet sixteen present?” Jenny asked. “I haven’t worn it yet, so I think I’m going to wear that.”
“No. No, you’re not,” Amanda cut in, shaking her head firmly. “I’m wearing a pink dress. And you know our rule. No one in our group can wear the same color to a social event.”
I blinked, confused. “You guys have rules for your friendship?”
Amanda glanced over at me with a small smile. “Yeah, don’t worry, Skye. You’ll pick up on them really quickly. Most of them are pretty simple. Like, for example, we either all have to wear our hair down or up to a social event.”
“Why?” I gawked at her.
“We don’t want anyone to think that one of us looks better than the rest of us,” Amanda explained. “This way, everything is even. Now, don’t worry about it. The good news for you is that we’ve already planned to wear our hair down on Friday. I’m not quite sure how you would look with an up-do.” She examined my face for a few moments before shrugging. “I guess we’ll find out how you’ll look eventually, but not for your first social event.”
I nodded, even though I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the way their group worked. The more I learned about Amanda’s group of friends, the less I was sure that I really wanted to be one of them. They had more rules than our pack did.
But this whole party isn’t about winning their friendship, I reminded myself. I would also get to meet other people who might not have wanted to talk to me otherwise, and who knows? Maybe I would get to meet a few guys, too.
Once we were standing in line to pay for the dress, Amanda whipped her credit card out of her wallet. I raised my eyebrows at her. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Daddy gave me his credit card to use however I want and, since you’re my newest friend, I would like to buy you the dress,” Amanda replied with a smile. “I have to buy a gift for the host of the party.”
Even though I didn’t like the idea of accepting the dress from her, I also knew that it would be one extra expense that I wouldn’t need to explain to Akar. He gave each of us bank accounts with a spending allowance for the month, but I knew that he would probably end up questioning it if I bought this dress, which was something he would have viewed as just a frivolous expense. So, instead of objecting, I told her, “Thank you.”
As Amanda paid for the dress, I got the sense that someone was watching me. Turning around slowly, I spotted Gage standing in the men’s clothing department, staring in my direction.
“I’ll be right back,” I mumbled to Amanda before strolling over to Gage.
“Hey,” I called out as I approached him.
Gage narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you doing talking to Amanda?”
“She’s one of my friends. We’re shopping together? Why?” I asked.
“She’s the one who’s making you throw this ridiculous party tomorrow night, isn’t she?”
I hesitated, wondering how he knew she was the one who had convinced me to have it. “Well, yeah.”
Gage shook his head frustratedly. “I should have fucking known.” His hands balled into fists at his sides.
“Should have known what?” I asked with raised eyebrows. We hadn’t known each other for long, but I’d never seen him act this way before. It was sort of strange, to say the least. It was like h
is inner human had changed him, just the way our inner wolf did sometimes.
“That Amanda was the one who talked you into this whole thing. That’s just like her.” He sighed, meeting my gaze. “Look, I’m sorry. I hope you don’t think I’m taking this out on you. You’re new here. There’s no way you could know what that girl’s like.”
“It’s okay,” I replied, even though I was still confused by his reaction. “So, what are you doing here? Shopping?”
Gage laughed. “No, malls aren’t really my thing. I’m just getting ready to go to work at the arcade. I work there every Thursday and Saturday night. If you’re ever not busy on one of those days, you should stop by.”
“Okay, maybe I will,” I replied, a newfound hope washing over me. Even if Gage wasn’t actually planning to come to my party, maybe he really was still interested in me.
“Actually,” Gage said, as though he were somehow able to read my mind. “I was thinking that I might be able to stop by your party, after all. It won’t be until a little bit later, though, if that’s okay.”
“That sounds great! I’ll be looking forward to it,” I replied with a grin. The truth was, hearing that he was coming over later than everyone else made me feel sort of nervous. I wasn’t sure how late he was thinking. It wouldn’t have mattered so much if I didn’t have to keep Akar out of the house during the whole duration of the party. I still hadn’t even gotten a chance to ask Thane if he’d come up with plans to get him out of the house for a while, which was going to be hard enough. Now I was going to have to make sure that he would be able to keep him out until later than I’d expected.
Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed that Amanda was finished paying for my dress. Even though I loved talking to Gage (so much that I could probably do it all day, if I let myself), I knew that I should probably get back to my friends. We were supposed to go for manicures and pedicures next—which would be another first for me. I told Gage, “I should probably get going.”
“Okay,” he replied, nodding. He ran a hand over his spiky blue-tipped hair. “I need to get to work anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow.”