by Yara Gharios
Excited again, I lift myself up from her legs and lean toward her face. I hear her sharp intake of breath in surprise. For a moment, I'm distracted a little. I can't remember what I was going to say because suddenly I want to kiss her. From the way she's looking at me and her heart is beating, she does too.
I get close enough that our lips touch just a little bit, and I wait to see how she will react. She doesn't move away, even though I stay still for several seconds. But when I go for it, she suddenly puts her hands on my shoulders and pulls back.
"Um," she shakily says. "You, uh... you haven't... told me your secret."
Just like that, I remember what it is I was going to say, and I completely forget that I was this close to kissing her. I'm excited again about telling her my secret. But I don't want anyone to hear, so I put my hand and mouth to her ear.
"My secret is… my twin is a girl," I whisper to her, and then immediately pull away to look at her face.
She frowns at me, disappointed and confused. "I was wrong. You really are drunk."
"Nope," I deny, popping the ‘p’. "It’s the truth."
She blinks as it fully registers. "That’s impossible."
I shrug again and am about to explain to her how this happened when I hear the rhythm of the music change into a familiar song.
"Oh I love this song!" I cheer and stand up. "Let’s go dance!"
She’s still distracted and shakes her head to clear the confusion. "I need a drink."
She grabs a beer on the way down and gulps down half of it at once. I tug at her arm as I wait for her to finish.
"Come on, you said we’d dance," I whine.
I take the beer from her hand and she follows me to where everyone is. We dance face to face first, and I take a few sips from her drink every now and then. But then, she gets bold somehow –I’m guessing because the beer is kicking in. She turns her back on me and leans into me. Now this is what I’m used to. The child in me disappears as we start moving together sensually in a way that excites me on a completely different level. I want to kiss her again.
I lean my head over her shoulder to speak in her ear so she could hear me. I’m probably going to get back to being a jerk when I’m sober, so I might as well ask her out now.
"Do you want t-? Oof!" I’m cut off by a hand grabbing me and yanking me away from her.
"Hey!" she protests.
I sway in place for a little, and my vision dances the way I was seconds ago, before I look for the source.
"Mickey!" I enthuse. I want to introduce him to my new friend, but then I realize I don’t know her name. "Have you met Sadie’s sister?" is what I settle for.
He throws a simple glance in her direction before getting closer to scream in my ear. "Danny, your friends are upstairs. We have to go and get them back to Nico's place."
My friends?!
"What?" I yell back.
What friends? The only friend I have right now is this girl whose name I don’t know that I was dancing with and whom I want to make out with.
When I turn to ask her what her name is, I find her sitting on the couch a few feet away with a distant look on her face. I take a step toward her before I stumble on someone else’s foot and surge forward, landing face down next to her on the couch and passing out immediately.
Chapter 11
Michael
The house is alive with music, lights and bodies dancing all around. The party barely even started an hour ago, and already, people are dancing like their life depends on it. I make a vow to myself that I would only hang around Sadie or my brothers all night. Pack or no pack, I'm still me, and I still hate parties just as much as I always have.
Sadie has shown me around the house. On the outside, it's kind of nice looking, with brick walls and a flat ceiling. Inside, it's even better. There are three levels and a basement. In the basement, a game room is set up, with video games and televisions. A narrow wooden spiral staircase leads the way down there.
The top two floors are bedrooms. There are fourteen in total, and eight bathrooms are spread out on all four levels. The first level is where the party is mostly taking place. The living room furniture has apparently been emptied out to make room for a dance floor and setup a sound system,. And also to get all the breakables out of harm's way. There's already a bar in the back that's being used for the party.
The kitchen is also on this floor. Compared to ours, it is gigantic. There are three fridges at the right side decorated with magnets, one of which has a piece of paper magnetized to the door with the word "drinks" written on it in. The other two are for food.
Two big stainless stoves are at the wall adjacent to the one where the fridges are. The rest of the kitchen is lined with closets, cupboards and counter-tops. There are two rectangular tables of about seven feet long by three feet wide, each in the middle of the room, with about twenty eight chairs around it. I'm guessing that even though only one pair of the adults live here, the parents must all come over for meals.
Very few people are sitting at the table. A couple of werewolves are rummaging through the food fridge, while three are searching for drinks. I am suddenly reminded of the strange sight we drove into when my brothers and I first got here.
"Hey, why are there humans here outside?" I ask Sadie.
Her lips twist up with amusement. "Oh, they're just crashing the party."
She says it so calmly that it takes me by surprise. Doesn't the pack care that humans have intruded on their private Welcome Home party? "And... that doesn't bother you guys?"
She shrugs. "The bigger the crowd, the better the party."
"So... you don't actually care about keeping it private?" I ask skeptically.
"If we didn't want anyone crashing, do you really think they would have been able to?"
I pause, considering it. "I guess not. But why?"
"How old do you think most of us are?" she asks teasingly. "A few of the guys found their mates at some of these things."
I crack a smile. "Yeah, I'm sure plenty of guys have fallen in love during parties," I say with sarcasm.
Sadie pretends to be offended. "Hey, I will have you know that my first night with Cade happened at a party not much different than this one, and it was magical!"
I cringe in disgust. "Why the hell did you feel the need to share that with me?!"
She smirks. "Because I knew it would bother you, obviously. You ooze virgin out of your ears, and knowing you're not like other shallow guys who only care about getting laid gives me enough reason to torture you."
Whoa! Is this really the same sweet and innocent Sadie that I met at the beginning of the week?
"Who are you and what have you done to my friend?"
She laughs loudly. "Oh this is going to be fun!"
"What is?"
"You and I being best friends."
For a second, I think my ears ring with shock. Did she really just call me that?
"Is that what we are?"
"Not completely yet, but we will be," she swears, winking. "I can tell; I have a sixth sense about these things."
Ignoring the joke, I blink at her a couple of times. "Won't it bother your boyfriend that you have a guy best friend?"
She sighs at the mention of his name. "I love Cade," she says dreamily, although there's still a rebuttal in her voice. "But he doesn't control me. He knows that he can trust me, even if he gets jealous. Besides, you're not really my type."
I grin. "Good, 'cause you're not my type either."
She cocks one hip to the side and jabs her fist over it. "Are you saying I'm not good enough for you?"
I pretend to study her from head to toe and then shrug. "Meh, I could do a whole lot better."
She throws her head back and laughs. Then she grabs my arm and starts to drag me out of the kitchen. "Come on, let's go. I need to have a drink in my hand."
The first drink Sadie has is a punch. By the smell of it, I'm guessing there's some vodka in there. She introduces me to
some of the pack members as we walk around and strikes up conversation with a few of them while I stand awkwardly to the side.
Music is blasting from all around me and basically making my ears bleed. I don't know whatever song is playing, but I don't care to know, for once. I'm not really having a great time. Sadie is much too friendly to hang out with one person all night, regardless of her initial complaints when she begged me to come.
Sometime after that, I see two of my brothers; Nate is dirty dancing with a blonde girl and Connor is sitting on the couch next to a short-looking redhead. They seem to be having a very serious conversation. The very fact that he's sitting down instead of dancing just proves to me that he really does care about what's-her-face.
Sadie then drags me to the keg and pours herself a drink. Time passes and she starts moving with the music. Then she has another. Then another. Before I know it, she forces me onto the dance floor, giggling like crazy. It doesn't take a genius to see that she's a little more than just tipsy. I wonder again what's so important that Cade has to leave her to fend for herself.
After a couple of minutes, as Sadie dances around next to me, I see him coming through the front door with Logan. I wave around to catch his attention. When they see me, the two of them walk over.
"How many drinks did she have?" he yells when he sees his mate, for once not the least bit hostile.
"Enough that you should get her out of here," I yell back.
He nods and grabs her arm. She stops dancing and looks up at him, her face immediately lighting up. "Cadey!" she squeals and throws her arms around his neck. "You're here!"
"Come on, Sade, let's go somewhere more quiet," he tells her.
He puts his arm around her waist and leads her away. I'm left standing there with Logan, who is staring at me like he's expecting me to start dancing next. It's too awkward for me, so I decide to walk around and find something to do.
"I'm going to look for my brothers," I let him know.
He nods but doesn't move and continues to stare me down. I turn my back on him and walk up the stairs, intending to search the rooms for my brothers. When I get to the top, I glance back behind my shoulder, and he's still standing in the same position like an unmoving stone, his eyes on me. This guy gives me the creeps without even trying. It's totally unfair.
The upstairs level is more difficult to maneuver around, basically because there's no difference between bathroom doors and bedroom doors. It's impossible to follow my nose for my brothers' scent because of all the different smells in the air and the alcohol overpowering everything else. I'm going to have to check them all.
The first door opens up to a couple making out on a bed. In the second one, I find Mason vomiting at the toilet.
"Man, we haven't even been here that long," I comment, keeping my voice normal since music is more muffled up here. "How are you so drunk already?"
He mumbles out something I can't catch; I only make out the words "what" and "time" and conclude what he wants to know. I check my watch and am surprised that it's almost ten thirty. Have we really been here more than an hour? I didn't even feel the time passing, yet I was bored for most of it.
Before I have a chance to answer his question, he grabs the toilet seat again and empties whatever's left in his stomach. I lock the door and rush to his side.
"Mason," I sigh. "Why would you do that to yourself?"
He slurs something else of which I only understand "miss her."
"Seriously?" I ask with exasperation. "You think that poisoning yourself like that will make you miss her any less?" He groans and puts his hands to his forehead. "Alright, fine. I'll find the others and we'll go home."
I lift him as carefully as possible and lay him against the bathtub. His eyes close and his head falls back against the edge of the tub. When I'm sure that he's okay, I leave and close the door behind me, hoping to God that it will be enough to keep people out of it. I have to be fast.
It doesn't take too long to find Nathan; he's in one of the rooms playing strip poker with a couple of girls. From their lack of clothing and non-stop giggling, and his single discarded shirt on the side, I'm guessing he's winning.
"Yo, Nate," I call out to him, and he looks up at me and laughs like a true drunken idiot. "Get your shirt on, we're leaving once I find the other two."
"Aw," the girls say in disappointment.
Before he can complain and waste some of the time I can spend locating my remaining brothers, I get out of the room and close the door. The second I'm out in the hallway again, a hand grabs my arm and yanks me towards the person to whom it belongs.
"You look like you're lost," a girl's voice slurs.
We're at eye level, and it doesn't take me more than a moment to see who it is.
"What do you want, Reena?" I ask impatiently. I need to get out of here.
She smiles and trails a finger down the length of my other arm. "Well, that's a very good question," she says. "I could use a little help with something. Can you meet me in that room in about ten minutes?"
Disgusted, I rip my arm out of her reach. Nell, I could have handled, but this girl is seriously slut-material when she's drunk.
"I'm busy," I snap and stomp off with anger.
How can any werewolf, and an alpha of all people, pick this... thing as a mate?
Shaking my head, I focus back on my task. Connor is the one I locate next; he's with the same girl I saw him with downstairs, and she's topless -but thankfully has her bra on. My first instinct is to mentally gag, but then I notice he's passed out and the girl is sitting next to him, a very angry look on her face. She turns her glare onto me when she sees me.
"What happened?" I ask, bewildered.
"We were just having some fun," she whines. "I only snuck in here because he asked me to. He was doing very well, I mean he's a great kisser and I was totally willing to go all the way. But then I turned away for a second to lock the door, and he just fell asleep! I mean, like, seriously? Am I that horrible?"
I'm so uncomfortable that I don't even know what to say for a moment. "I'll be back in a minute," I blurt.
The girl calls out for me to wait, so I hurry out of there. Connor is completely in love with his girlfriend, I say to myself, the surprise of it making me halt in my step for a second.
I don't find Danny in any of the other rooms on this floor, but I do find some other people we both know sprawled on the ground with a couple of passed out werewolves.
"Michael!" Nell squeals, having a giggling fit. "You want to dance with me?"
Furious, I stare at them one by one. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"
Nell and her friend put their hands over their mouths like they're holding in their laughter. Brad just has a ridiculously dopey smile on his face as he stares at me, and Nico is talking like a hippie on pot.
"Told you we're sneak in, dude," he says. "Guess you changed your mind about joining us. Hey, do you know where Danny is?"
"How did you guys even get here?" I hiss, hoping to God the two werewolves don't wake up anytime soon.
The girls laugh out loud, and I struggle against the urge to slap them into sobriety. Nico explains how his house is so close to the compound that they all simply walked over here, waited for the guard at the gate to be distracted and snuck in.
This changes my plan radically. No one else in the party is going to care whether or not they get home safely, and they can't even walk straight to go back to Nico's place. I'm going to have to take them myself, but how are they going to fit in Connor's car with my four gigantic brothers?
I'll worry about that after I find Daniel, I decide, exasperation starting to make my blood boil.
I leave Danny's friends and go back downstairs, praying with all my might that he doesn't take too long to show himself. It takes a couple of minutes, but I do find him in the middle of the dance floor, grinding on some girl. He's got a bottle of beer in his hand that he keeps drinking from.
This whole night is turning
into the worst of my life. I rush through the mass of bodies to reach my twin. He surprisingly doesn't put up much of a fight when I grab him and pull him away; he's too far gone to be able to fight back, anyway. The girl actually seems more upset than he is and lets out a 'Hey!' of protest.
"Mickey! Have you met Sadie's sister?" he asks with a smile on his face.
That's when I notice that it's Zoey he's dancing with. She doesn't look as wasted as he does, but she is a little tipsy. She frowns disappointingly at me, which I ignore.
"Danny, your friends are upstairs," I shout in his ear. "We have to go and get them back to Nico's place."
He squints at me. "What?" he yells.
He turns around, looking for Zoey. I'm about to grab him and literally drag him away when someone comes up behind me.
"Is there a problem?" a voice asks.
I spin on my heels and come face to face with Logan. He's wearing his usual stoic mask. In the back of my head, I wonder why he's always so cold-looking. He may not have been back for long, but it doesn't take much to have a good time, at least according to my brothers. Hasn't he even tried to have fun? It's his party after all.
"We have to go," I find myself blurting out without even thinking about it, something urging me to be honest with him. "But there are some humans here that I need to drive home with us, and we can't all fit in our car."
Stupid stupid Michael! I mentally berate myself. How can you admit this out loud to someone who is practically a stranger?
I try to fix my slip up and say something to explain that I can handle it. However, I don't get a chance to do that.
"Come on, I'll give you a lift."
I blanch. "Um, I-" I stutter.
By this point, there's about half a dozen people listening in on our conversation.
My brothers and I have an agreement that we'd never leave one of our own too drunk at a party. Unfortunately, with Danny's friends also in the picture, I feel responsible for them too. Although I don't like having to go back and forth for two trips, I can't very well fit all eight of them in the car, so I'm going to have to.