Her alpha smirked at her. “You look like a fairy princess. It suits you.”
“Steven wanted to go over the Trials since he couldn’t attend, so he’s taking me out to dinner,” she said, turning back to the mirror and wiping at the corner of her mouth. Her lipstick was slightly uneven and it was driving her crazy, but it was the kind that lasted for twenty-four hours even if you went through an actual hurricane. There was no budging it now. She sighed, she’d just wanted to look…perfect.
“A date?” Amber asked, cocking her head to the side.
She stiffened and whipped around. “No, of course not. That’s old news, we’re just friends now.”
“Whatever you say,” Amber said, turning away with a laugh.
“Gen has a date?” Tommy parroted from his bedroom. “With Steven?”
“No! It’s just DINNER!” she shouted back.
The doorbell rang, and for a half second, everyone froze. Then they ran for the front door. Amber was already halfway down the stairs, but she jumped off the balcony, landing past the couch. Genevieve sprinted for the door, throwing an elbow to keep Amber from passing her. When she tried to stop, her heel slipped on the new hall rug, and she slammed against the door.
Shoving off with a huff, she adjust her hair and plastered on a smile, then yanked the door open. “Steven, let’s—”
He was standing on their porch holding…flowers. A lot of them. A whole freaking bouquet of a dozen different kinds of pink flowers.
He shifted on his feet and swallowed nervously. “You look really nice. And I, uh…got these. For you, of course. Not myself. That’d be weird.”
She snatched the flowers out of his hand and stomped back down the hallway. After a moment he followed.
Amber was doubled over with silent laughter in the living room. When she heard Steven coming, she dropped down behind the couch. She could smell Tommy hiding back there, too. They were both nosy brats.
Realizing Steven was standing there looking like a kicked puppy, she sighed. “Thank you. They’re nice.”
He brightened. “For a second, I thought you were going to murder me with them.”
She turned away to hide her grin and heard a snort from across the room. Steven turned around. “Is your pack—”
“Can you trim the ends for me while I find a vase?” she said frantically.
“Oh, sure,” he said, hurrying over.
She handed him the scissors and positioned him in front of the sink. As soon as he wasn’t looking, Tommy’s head popped up. She gestured at him sharply, trying to get them both to go away, but he just grinned at her evilly. And to think she had ever believed he was a nice person.
“So, uh, the Trials. They went well?” he asked.
“Yep,” she said, looking through a cabinet for a vase. She wasn’t sure there even was one in the house, but she had to put the flowers in something, or Steven would get that look on his face. That look was the worst.
“Yesterday you said you were choosing to stay a werewolf? Why? I thought you hated it,” he said, pausing in his snipping and turning to look at her.
She swallowed, uncomfortably aware the others were listening. She hadn’t even told Amber yet, figured her alpha would just figure it out when she never asked for the cure. “Well, I like it.”
“That’s it? You like it?”
“Yeah,” she said, turning away again. That wasn’t the whole truth. The rest was…awkward to say aloud, but Amber deserved to know why. She cleared her throat. “Because I feel like I belong. I never felt that before. I don’t have a sob story like them. I just—you know. I push people away. I don’t want to push them away.”
She spotted a big vase at the back of the cabinet under a dusty old waffle-maker. Reaching back, she grabbed it and pulled it out.
When she stood, Steven was giving her an odd look, like he hadn’t expected her to share that much. “I’m glad you feel like you belong.”
“Yeah, me too,” she agreed with a smile.
Chapter 51
CERI
Ceri woke up in a cold sweat. She touched her fingers to her cheek and found them wet with tears. Rubbing her face with the palm of her hands, she tried to remember what the dream had been about. The details were already slipping out of her mind, but she remembered fear, fire, and a cool touch, like water in the desert.
She swung her legs over the edge of her bed and hopped down. These strange dreams had started the night she’d moved in. Sometimes they were scary, like tonight, but other times they just felt…important. Like someone was trying to tell her something.
Woggy was laying on her dresser in his favorite tuna can, which she had lined with felt, snoring. She watched him sleep for a second, then padded quietly out of the bedroom. It was always hard to get back to sleep after these dreams, and since it was five a.m., there was no point in even trying this time. Coffee would have to suffice.
Grabbing her book off the end table next to the couch, she headed toward the kitchen. The coffee pot was set to brew the coffee automatically at seven a.m., so she just hit the start button and got it started early.
Leaning back against the counter, she cracked open the book and scanned for the spot she’d left off. A sound from the door pulled her attention away from the novel. Using her finger as a bookmark, she shut it and crept around the island.
The front door opened slowly, and Genevieve walked inside, freezing when she saw her.
Ceri smiled and winked at her. “Did you have a good date?” she whispered.
Genevieve blushed furiously, but straightened and nodded. “I remember why I dated him for so long now.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Ohhhh, is he…talented?”
“And imaginative,” Genevieve confirmed with a nod. She sniffed once. “Is that coffee?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t sleep much either. I’m going to need it.”
“Perfect,” Gen said, hurrying forward and dumping her stuff on the couch. “There’s no point in going to sleep now. Coffee will have to sustain me.”
They watched the coffee drip into the pot slowly. She yawned, then brushed her unruly curls away from her face. Most of them had come out of the braid she slept in. It never liked staying bound so she mostly let it do whatever it wanted.
“I know why I’m up so late…early, whatever. What’s your excuse?” Gen asked, leaning against the counter and yawning.
“Just bad dreams,” she said with a shrug.
Gen’s brows pinched together, catching the undercurrent of her response. “Magical bad dreams? Or just normal nightmares?”
She shifted on her feet uncomfortably. She’d been avoiding asking herself that very question. “I don’t know.”
“But you’re worried they are?”
“Yeah, it…sometimes curses are insidious. It could be something my mother is doing, but it doesn’t feel like that. It could be nothing, but my gut is telling me that this is something…weird.”
The coffee pot clicked over, and Gen poured them each a cup. “Is there anything you can do to stop them?”
Ceri accepted her cup and took a deep breath of the hot, rich drink. “No. It might be dumb, but I’m curious. If it’s not malevolent, then I want to figure out what they mean.”
Tommy walked down the stairs, bleary-eyed. His hair was sticking up in every direction. “What’s wrong? Why is everyone awake?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” she said with a smile. “Gen just happened to wake up and we decided to get coffee.”
Genevieve blushed and mouth thank you.
Tommy just grunted and flopped on the couch, falling back asleep almost instantly.
“He’s like a puppy,” Genevieve said looking at him fondly.
Amber’s bedroom door opened and she trudged down the hall as well. “Is that coffee?”
Ceri nodded and poured her a cup. “Here, you look like you need it too.”
Amber accepted the coffee, but got the milk out of the fridge and poured in
so much you could barely tell it was still coffee. Then she added three spoonfuls of sugar.
“You could just eat the sugar straight,” she teased.
Amber gave her a half-hearted glare then took a long sip, her eyes closing in satisfaction. “I prefer my sugar coffee-flavored, thank you very much.”
She laughed and leaned back against the counter, taking in the group. In less than a month, four completely different people had been brought together by one man’s power grab. They still weren’t sure why Donovan had been so desperate to gain more power, but he was being punished, so maybe motive didn’t matter.
Amber met her gaze and smiled. Some of the tension went out of her shoulders. Whatever these dreams meant, she didn’t have to be afraid. Her pack wouldn’t let her down.
TOMMY
Tommy did a fast walk to the dining room. The pot holder was too thin, and he’d taken this dish right out of the oven. Instead of using the big, formal dining room, they liked to eat in the smaller one. It had a round table just big enough for them to each have a seat and elbow room.
“Sunday family dinners should be a new tradition,” Amber said as he set it on the table, waving his fingers around to cool them off.
“Just as long as someone else does the dishes.” He’d left a huge mess behind in the kitchen, and there was no way he was cleaning it up alone.
“That seems fair,” Amber said with a grin.
“Genevieve, food!” he shouted over his shoulder. Amber wouldn’t let them eat until everyone was there, and he was starving.
“Sorry!” Genevieve shouted. She ran through the doorway and plopped down in her chair. “I just got off the phone with my new employer.”
“New employer?” Amber asked, surprised.
“Yeah, I…I’m actually a lawyer. I passed the bar over a year ago. I just hadn’t wanted to actually work as a lawyer because if you screw up, well, that’s someone’s whole life.” She started picking at her napkin, tearing off tiny pieces. “But I really want to do it. I think I could help people.”
“That’s awesome,” he said, beaming at her. Gen was wicked smart, but she normally played it down. She would kick ass in the courtroom.
“What will you being doing now?” Ceri asked, digging into the closest dish. Woggy hopped off her shoulder and pounced on the spoon. She dragged him off and set his serving on the small plate next to her to distract him.
“I’m starting out as part of a legal team that deals with inter-species disputes. Every race has their own rules, and trying to balance those with actual laws can gets messy. I really liked this firm because they make it a point to take on more than the minimum mandated pro bono cases per year,” Genevieve explained as she buttered one of the fresh rolls he’d made.
“Have you thought any more about getting your GED, Tommy?” Ceri asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, I want to get it before the beginning of the year so I can start applying to colleges for the fall.”
Amber visibly tensed, but took a deep breath and deliberately unwound her shoulders. “What colleges are you thinking about applying to?”
“Yale,” he said with a grin, just to watch her freak out. She didn’t disappoint. Her head snapped up, and that fake calm she tried to project shattered.
“That’s on the other side—” she snapped her mouth shut when his expression finally registered. “You’re just screwing with me, aren’t you?”
He laughed and shook his head at her. “There’s a college in Portland I’m applying too, but my first choice is in Seattle.”
“Seattle is close! Barely a three hour drive away,” Ceri said, beaming at him. There was a thunk under the table, and Amber flinched, then nodded.
“Yeah, that’s great, super close,” she said through gritted teeth.
He leaned over and fed Woggy a vegetable. The pixie got the whole bite in his mouth, then glared at him and spit it out. He signed no, which was his new favorite word.
“Oh, did you hear that they found another spot where magic isn’t working in Portland?” Ceri asked, changing the subject. “There’s one out near Tillamook, too. They think it might have been there for months before someone noticed.”
“Are they sure the spots haven’t always been there?” Amber asked.
“I thought that at first too, but they’re popping up in places where people know magic used to work. It’s super weird,” Ceri said with a shrug.
Tommy shoved a forkful of food in his mouth, but worry gnawed in his gut. He was always a little worried in the back of his head that one day he’d lose this newfound peace. The no-magic spots could turn out to be nothing, but they gave him a sense of foreboding.
“Well, I’m sure every major coven is trying to figure it out and fix it. Not to mention the elves. This could be a natural thing,” Amber said, reassuringly.
He wondered what would happen if a werewolf stumbled into one of those. The pack bond was magic, and the thing that allowed them to change forms was as well. Would it come back as soon as you moved out of the spot? Or was it permanent?
“How’s your job search going?” Gen asked Amber.
She shrugged. “Not great, to be honest. But I’ll figure something out after my trip.”
Every time the trip came up, Amber got tense and quiet. He knew he bottled stuff up, but she took it to a whole different level.
“What’s your family like?” he asked, pushing some food around on his plate. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked. But he knew everyone was curious, and maybe if she wasn’t trying to hard to avoid the topic, it wouldn’t bother her so much.
Amber looked a little surprised by the question. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat. “Well, I grew up with four brothers. I had a twin, Dylan. We were the youngest, so we were kind of spoiled compared to the others I guess. My dad owns a diesel mechanic shop, and we all grew up helping out there. Went to a small high school, small town, that whole stereotypical Texas thing.”
“Had a twin?” he asked quietly. Ceri and Genevieve were listening intently, not saying a word, like if someone spoke too soon it’d shatter the moment.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. Right after we graduated, we both applied to a local werewolf pack. He got accepted, I didn’t.” She set down her fork and stared hard at her plate. “It’s rare. One in a million, but some people can’t handle the bite. It kills them.”
Genevieve’s eyes went wide. “That’s who you were talking about the night of the full moon when you said you knew someone that hadn’t survived the change.”
Amber nodded. “I guess I didn’t handle being changed into a werewolf after all that very well. Thanks for sticking with me, even though I’m a little crazy.”
That explained a lot. Everything, really. He wished she’d just told them earlier, but it looked like it was still hard for her to talk about.
“Sorry,” he said.
She shrugged. “It’s okay. Y’all needed to know.”
“Did you like working with your father?” Ceri asked, changing the subject. Amber’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Yeah, it was a pretty good way to grow up,” she said with a smile. “Me and Dylan used to take out dog and go hunt squirrels. We tried to cook one once, and it was awful.”
“What kind of dog did you have?” he asked.
Amber shrugged. “A mutt we got for free in the supermarket parking lot. My parents didn’t believe in paying for pets.”
“I never had a pet,” he said. His mom had said she’d get him one before she got sick. But after that, well…lots of promises got broken.
“We should get a dog!” Genevieve announced with a grin. “Maybe a cat and a dog. I like cats better.”
Amber looked horrified. “What? No!”
“There’s a rescue shelter in town that’s waiving adoption fees right now,” Ceri said, jumping on board just like he knew she would.
He grinned at Amber. “You know you’ve already lost, right?”
She groaned a
nd put her head in her hands, but he could tell she was hiding a grin. “Y’all are going to be the death of me.”
“Pshh, you love it,” Genevieve said, smiling with a mouthful of food.
“I guess,” Amber said, dropping her hands and looking at the pack fondly. She stood and picked up her beer, lifting it in a toast. “To our pack, our future, and happiness.”
He lifted his glass and let himself feel optimistic for the first time in years.
Chapter 52
AMBER
“Are you sure? I can always wait until next month, or—”
“Oh my god,” Genevieve exclaimed, cutting her off. “Go. Get out. We’re going to be fine. It’s a week. We are adults, and we will not starve to death, I promise.”
Amber sighed and let Genevieve shove her out of the front door. Ceri was already in the truck, waiting to take her to to airport.
“Have fun!” Tommy shouted from the couch. He was more concerned with his tv show than with her leaving. It was almost insulting, but she was just glad he had gotten so comfortable. The days of worrying about him leaving were long gone.
Ceri honked and rolled down the passenger side window. “Come on, we’re going to be late!”
“Fine,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. She jogged to the truck and tossed her backpack on the floorboard before climbing inside. Looking at her friend, she sighed. “This is a terrible idea. What if something happens while I’m gone?”
Ceri leaned over and put her hands on both sides of her head. “Then we will handle it, and you will come back early.”
“Ugh, fine.”
Laughing at her, Ceri dropped her hands and put the truck in reverse. “Now, Tommy might come pick you up from the airport—”
“Tommy?” she asked, alarmed. “He doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet!”
“He’s getting one while you’re gone,” Ceri beamed. “Genevieve has been teaching him, and he’s going to take his test tomorrow.”
Misfit Pack (The Misfit Series) Page 21