by Morse, Jody
Before I had time to think more about it, though, the document had already moved to Oliver, who then handed it to me.
As I dipped the feather pen into the container of blood—trying to be careful not to drip any of it onto my clothes—I found that I seemed to be struggling with signing my life away to the Koto pack, unlike everyone else who’d already signed. Blood made it seem so final.
I knew that I wanted to stay with the Koto, but how could I eventually come to consider Charlotte a part of my new family after the way she’d been treating me?
I glanced up, finding that Akar was staring at me intently.
Did he think I was going to back out of the initiation now? Probably. And, truthfully, if I backed out now, he would have thought that I was weak.
Well, I wouldn’t let him think that. I wasn’t weak. I was strong-willed. That was the difference between me and all of the other girls from our pack that had chosen to stay in Alaska; I was stronger than all of them, and I was going to prove it.
Without even thinking about what I was doing or what the consequences would be once I was on the same pack as Charlotte, I signed my name to the document.
As I passed the clipboard to Chance, I tried to avoid Charlotte’s gaze, even though I could feel her watching me closely. For some reason, I found myself looking over at Akar again.
I could have sworn that I noticed the hint of a smile touch his lips, but it quickly disappeared. His dark eyes remained locked on mine, though, until everyone had signed the pack initiation paper.
Once it finally came back to him, he said, “Now, here’s the next part of our initiation—the one that I forgot to mention earlier.” He picked up the container of blood and then poured the remaining contents into the fire. The flames danced around a little more rapidly than they had before, but after a few moments, they settled again.
I could feel the change taking place in me. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before—a much more intense feeling than the one I’d had during my first initiation into the Koto pack when I’d turned sixteen.
A knot tightened in my stomach, but it wasn’t from nerves. I wasn’t sure what it was caused by, but I was immediately forced into my wolf form without even willing myself to change.
My head spun, too, as I watched as the rest of my pack members were changed into their wolf forms.
I heard one of them yelp in pain. I wasn’t sure who had made the noise, but it sounded like it had come from the other side of the circle, so it was probably either Thane or Akar.
Almost as soon as I had completed the transformation from human to wolf, I willed myself back to my human form. Once I was back on my own two feet again, I watched as the other members of my pack morphed back, too.
“Holy, shit!” Johnny exclaimed, glancing down at his arms, which were now covered in orange tattoos. He turned to Charlotte. “I’m Alpha, baby!”
“No freakin’ way,” Charlotte said, the disbelief written all over her face. She narrowed her eyes at him as she examined his arms. “Here, take off your shirt, so I can see if you have any tattoos on your back.”
“I don’t need to take my shirt off to know that I’m Alpha,” Johnny replied, shaking his head. “I can hear everyone’s thoughts. Right now, you’re thinking about how sexy it would be if your mate really was Alpha.”
“Well, maybe I am, but…you also just know me really well,” Charlotte replied, eyeing him suspiciously. “I don’t think I believe you.”
Johnny glanced over at Oliver, who shrank back nervously. I think he worried that Johnny would tell us all what he’d been thinking, too. “Ollie, think of a number from one to ten and then show everyone on your fingers. I’ll turn around so I can’t see you.”
“Okay,” Oliver said, his voice cracking a little. He held up four fingers.
“Did everyone see how many fingers he held up?” Johnny questioned. When we all said we had, he turned back around. “He was thinking of the number four.”
“Oh my god!” Charlotte squealed. “You really are Alpha!”
“Told you,” Johnny replied, grinning proudly. He swept Charlotte into his arms, kissing her passionately.
I turned away from them, not wanting to intrude on the private moment they were having. I glanced over at Thane, who was watching me closely. I wondered which one of my thoughts he’d overheard, and what he was thinking.
Glancing away from him, possibly too quickly, my gaze fell on Akar. His face was stony.
I wondered how he felt about no longer being Alpha of the Koto pack. I knew that it was probably a horrible thing for me to wonder, but I couldn’t help but question whether he would have gone through with this whole pack initiation if he’d known that, by the end of the night, Johnny was the one who would be our pack’s Alpha now.
I held in the groan I wanted to let out. Could fate have assigned us a worse pack Alpha? Johnny had probably killed his own cousin, just to become Alpha, and now he was going to lead our pack? I was almost afraid to know what sort of power-trip he was going to go on. The last thing we needed was an Alpha who was going to abuse his authority.
Once Johnny and Charlotte finally broke their embrace, he glanced over at Akar. “Look, I’m sorry that you lost your spot and all. It wasn’t up to us to decide who Alpha was going to be, but I think it’s safe to say that fate chose the best man to lead the Koto.”
“It’s alright. We all knew that this was a risk,” Akar said, staring at him evenly. Even though it looked like he genuinely didn’t care that he was no longer Alpha, I knew that it had to have been bothering him. He was probably just trying to play it cool in front of the new members of our pack and, more importantly, in front of our new pack Alpha. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up punching holes into his bedroom walls later on.
“Yeah, we did.” Johnny nodded and, then, his lips spread into a big grin. “I think we’re all done here for tonight, but our pack will reconvene at my place on Thursday at eight o’clock. Don’t be late.” He glanced at each of us. “I’m not sure what rules you had in place before, but lateness is one thing I won’t tolerate.”
Without saying another word, he turned back into his wolf form, the orange smoke billowing around him, and then darted through the woods. Charlotte didn’t say anything, but she shot a glare in my direction before changing, too, and following after her mate.
“Bye, guys,” Oliver said nervously, giving us a small wave, before joining the other former Shondi members.
“Goodnight, everyone,” Jade said. Even though she was talking to everyone, her eyes were locked on Chance’s.
“Goodnight, Jade,” Chance said in response, one side of his mouth quirking up in a wolfish smile.
She smiled back at him, before morphing back into a wolf, and prancing across the grass. It looked like she was wagging her furry behind at him provocatively as she followed after the others.
I glanced over to see Chance’s reaction, just as Hunter smacked him upside his head. “Stop drooling. It’s not polite.”
Ashton spoke up, preventing what we all knew would turn into an argument between the twins. “Guys, you need to block him out of your thoughts for a minute, so we can discuss what just happened.” By that point, the four of them were out of sight.
He didn’t have to specify who “he” was; we all knew that it was Johnny.
I tried harder than I ever had before to put up a mental barrier so that my new Alpha couldn’t hear me. I wasn’t sure if he had a way of breaking through that barrier easier than Akar did, but I was pretty sure that he couldn’t hear me.
“I think this shit is really fucked up,” Ashton said. “We’re the original Koto members, so it should have been one of us who was Alpha.”
“It should have been Akar,” Thane agreed, speaking up for the first time all night. I noticed the way his honey brown eyes sparkled under the light from the crescent moon. It drew me to him, the same way it always had. I knew it was possible to be attracted to someone without being their ma
te, though, so I tried to force myself to ignore it.
“Yeah, we want Akar as our Alpha,” Hunter agreed. “This isn’t fair.”
“Guys, I’m flattered that you all feel that way about me,” Akar spoke up. “But, you all need to be respectful of the fact that Johnny is your new Alpha. What I told him is the truth. We all knew there was a possibility that one of the Shondi would be our new Alpha. I’m not sure that I really believed it was going to happen, but…it doesn’t matter. It did happen, so now we need to obey by Johnny’s rules.” He paused for a moment before adding, “I might not be your Alpha anymore, but I want you to make me proud. Your behavior still reflects on me, even if I’m no longer in charge.” He glanced over at me with scrutinizing eyes.
I wanted to shrink down to the size of the mouse Johnny had killed and scurry away. It was embarrassing for me to think that Akar really believed that I was the one, out of all the members of our pack, who had the potential to embarrass him. I knew that I’d acted out before, but…was I really someone to be ashamed of?
“I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight,” Akar said, turning away from us and heading into the house. He slammed the screen door behind him.
Chance glanced over at the rest of us. “Poor Akar. I feel really bad for him.”
“Yeah, he lost his dad and then his sister to another pack. And now this,” Hunter said sympathetically. He turned to me. “Do you think he’ll be okay, Skye?”
I stared at the door he’d slammed shut, shaking my head. “I don’t know, guys. I really don’t know.”
Chapter 21
On Sunday, I tried to hang out with Amanda, Kristina, and Jenny again, mostly because I wanted to try to dig up some dirt on Charlotte, but they all had things to do with their families. Since Ashton had gone to hang out with the guys from the poetry club, that left me alone with Chance, Hunter, and Thane.
The boys spent the day playing video games, while I borrowed Thane’s laptop to do my homework at the kitchen island. Just as I was halfway through typing up my essay—which had taken what felt like forever since I was still getting used to using the laptop—Hunter strolled over to the freezer.
“Skye, can we have dinner now?” he asked, holding up a package of chicken patties, buns, and French fries.
“It’s not even three-thirty yet. It’s too early for dinner.” I wondered if he would be this excited for dinner every night, or if he wouldn’t care once the excitement of human food had worn off.
“Yeah, but we’re hungry,” Hunter insisted.
“Yeah, we are. In fact, we’re so hungry that we were wondering if you could make us some extra chicken sandwiches,” Chance said, glancing over at his brother with a smirk.
I raised an eyebrow at them. “You only just ate lunch a few hours ago, and I had to make you extra food then, too. Akar is going to freak once he sees our grocery bill.”
“We can’t help it.” Hunter shrugged. “We’re growing boys.”
Chance laughed at what seemed like some sort of inside joke that I didn’t even bother to try to understand. I stepped into the living room, where Thane was still playing video games. “Are you ready for dinner, too?”
“Yeah, why not?” Thane asked, his eyes locked on the game.
Reluctantly, I headed back into the kitchen and prepared the food to put into the oven and then went back to my essay. When the timer went off about twenty minutes later, I put the chicken patties and the French fries on platters.
I had barely set them on the dining room table when Hunter rushed into the room and scooped up two of the sandwiches. Putting them on a plate, he ran out of the room and rushed up the stairs.
“Where’s he going?” I asked.
“Oh, just to the bathroom,” Chance replied nonchalantly, as he took a small bite of his own sandwich.
I raised my eyebrows. “He’s going to eat his dinner in the bathroom?”
Chance shrugged. “Guess so. You gotta do what you gotta do. He is really hungry.”
“Boys,” I muttered under my breath as I put a chicken patty in a bun and took a bite of it. It was the first time we’d ever tried them, and they actually weren’t half bad. “Thane, are you going to eat with us?”
“Yeah, sorry,” he mumbled, before pausing the game and strolling over to the dining room table. As he began to eat his sandwich, Hunter came back downstairs, carrying the sandwiches that he’d taken upstairs with him.
A worried look crossed Chance’s face. “Why didn’t you eat your sandwiches while you were in the bathroom?”
“I couldn’t,” Hunter replied, his face twisted into an odd expression.
“Oh, no,” Chance said as he shot up from the table. “I’ll be right back.” He had the sliding glass door to the porch open when Hunter chuckled. Chance shot him a glare, to which he pretended he was zipping his lips and tossing the key over his shoulder. That didn’t stop him from his giggle fit, though.
Chance shook his head, annoyed at him, before stepping onto the porch and sliding the door shut. He shifted, then darted across the backyard and out of sight.
“Where’s he going?” I asked, beyond confused at that point.
“I don’t know,” his brother responded with a sly grin.
“You do know,” I insisted. “What are you two up to?”
“Skye, it’s Chance and Hunter. When aren’t they up to something?” Thane chuckled. “So, I was doing some thinking. Maybe all of us should go see a movie or do something that will make us seem more like humans. I feel like our neighbors might be keeping tabs on us.”
Noticing how quickly he’d changed the subject, I chose to ignore the comment he’d made about our neighbors. I was pretty sure that he was making it up. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know what they’re hiding, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t,” Thane replied, holding his hands up defensively.
“So—” I started to say, just as Hunter cut me off.
“Yes, Thane, let’s all go see a movie. Maybe we can do that once Chance gets in from outside. Though, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a while.”
This time, Thane laughed right along with him.
*
I began to clear off the table, leaving Chance’s plate for when he decided to come back. After I’d started on the dishes, he finally walked in through the front door. When he was halfway up the stairs, I asked, “Are you going to finish your chicken sandwiches?”
Chance shook his head. “No, thank you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were practically starving, and now you don’t want to eat?”
He shrugged. “I’m just really stressed out, I think. Stress will make you lose your appetite.”
I didn’t have a chance to question him about what he had to be stressed about, because he was upstairs within seconds.
“Skye, there’s no movies I want to see,” Thane complained as he looked for movie times on his laptop. “They’re all part two’s of movies I’ve never even heard of before.”
“Oh.” My face fell a little. I couldn’t wait to go to a human movie theater. Even though some of the wolves from the Alaskan Koto pack snuck off to see movies sometimes, I, of course, hadn’t been one of them. My mother never would have allowed that to happen, along with all of the other things I’d missed out on back home.
He glanced up at me. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll go another time. And maybe we can leave Chance and Hunter at home.”
“You mean, just the two of us should go?” I asked, drying one of the dishes off with a towel.
“Yeah, why not?” Thane didn’t have to say that it was a date, but judging from the hopeful look in his eyes, I knew that was what he was implying.
Going to the movies with just Thane wouldn’t be that bad, would it? Just because I wasn’t really sure about us didn’t mean that I couldn’t spend time alone with him…did it? Before I even came up with an answer to those questions, though, the thought of Gage entered my mind. How could I agree to go on a date with Tha
ne when I was already supposed to go on one with someone else?
“Actually, I think the twins probably want to go to a movie sometime, too,” I replied. “You’re right. We need to find ways to make ourselves seem more like humans.”
“Oh.” Thane looked mildly disappointed, but he nodded. “Yeah. We do.”
After I’d finished with the dishes, I headed up the stairs. I noticed, right away, that the bathroom light was on and the door was left open. I could hear the twins talking, but I wasn’t sure what exactly was being said. I headed down the hallway and poked my head into the bathroom.
They were standing next to the sink; a bowl of water was resting on it. When Chance saw me, a nervous look filled his eyes, and he turned back to Hunter.
“I’ll show you again, just to prove it to you,” Chance said, grabbing the bowl and pouring its contents into the toilet. He pressed down on the handle. “See? It didn’t explode. It just sounded like it did.”
Explode? “What are you guys doing in here?”
Chance glanced over at me with a wide grin. “I’m just showing Hunter how the toilet works. He’s been sort of scared of it.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Hunter smiled sheepishly, and nodded. “Yeah, I’m scared of the toilet. That’s why I couldn’t eat in here, too. I was so hungry, but I also had to keep coming up here to check on the toilet, in case it blew up when all of us were downstairs. I was going to sit up here and watch it, but it kept gurgling. And I figured I didn’t want to ruin the food that you worked so hard to prepare for me, so I brought it back downstairs. Don’t worry, though. I still don’t trust the thing, so from now on, I’ll keep an eye on it—especially around mealtimes.”
“And I’ll keep an eye on it when Hunter can’t, so you’ll always be safe,” Chance chimed in. Then, giving me a sly grin, he tugged at his brother’s arm. “Come on, Hunter. Let’s go check the radiator in our room now to make sure it’s still...functioning.”
As the two of them headed for their room, I shook my head confusedly. I didn’t think I would ever really understand the two of them.