“If I’m Alpha, doesn’t that mean I get to make the rules? And Scout’s rule is, no things. I don’t like things.”
“Well, that’s sad. Things are quite fond of you.” Liam came into the kitchen, making a point to walk past Scout and brush his hand across her shoulder before parking himself in a chair on the other side of the table and snagging a sandwich from the stack of food Mrs. Donovan had left out for them.
Jase, who came in on Liam’s heels like a good Stratego, grabbed one of the three remaining sandwiches. “What kind of things is Scout hating on today?” he asked, dragging a chair all the way around the table so he could sit it next to Talley. “Unicorns? Puppies? The laughter of newborn babies?”
Scout looked at where Jase and Talley’s hands were joined and made a face of exaggerated disgust. “Siblings, actually. Brothers in particular, if you must know.”
“Scout doesn’t want to confirm our mating,” Talley answered.
“You have to stop being squeamish about this. For the love of all things holy, you’ve got your own mate now. Can’t you be normal and focus on getting all naked with him and quit obsessing over Talley and me getting naked?”
“Oh my God! You two are not getting naked!” Jase opened his mouth to say something, but Scout stopped him with a pointed finger. “No. No way. In my head, you have never been naked and you will never be naked. Do you understand?”
Talley was turning about fifty shades of red, she could feel each of them on her face, but Jase was completely unfazed by all this talk about getting naked. In fact, he really seemed to be enjoying himself. “If I can’t ever be naked, how am I supposed to shower?”
“That’s why God invented swim trunks.”
Liam, who had been methodically peeling the cheese off of his sandwich while ignoring the conversation around him, reached out for another sandwich. “Do you really not want to do their mating ceremony?” he asked Scout.
“I just don’t understand why it’s necessary. They know they’re mates. We know they’re mates. Anyone with eyeballs can see they’re mates. Why do we have to stand in front of a bunch of people and say some archaic words to make it official?” Scout picked at the bread on her plate, rolling up the small pieces into tiny bread balls. “I mean, we didn’t do any sort of crazy mating ceremony and no one makes a big deal about it.”
Liam froze with his sandwich halfway to his lips. “You want a mating ceremony?”
Scout glared up at him through her eyelashes. “No.”
“If you want—”
“I said no.”
The bewilderment in Liam’s eyes made Talley feel sorry for him. He and Scout were born to be together, possibly quite literally, but it was hard for them. They had a lot of past to overcome. They’d spent ten months with no one but each other for company and had grown an unbreakable bond during that time, but when it came to group dynamics, they were still testing the waters. They didn’t know how to be Scout and Liam when other people were in the room, and the long months Liam was spending in Romania running the Den weren’t helping matters.
Talley couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for them. Since that night in his dorm room, she and Jase were practically inseparable. She’d tried living with her mother over the summer in an attempt to rebuild their relationship, but being fifteen minutes away was too much for Jase. He snuck in through her bedroom window every night until the morning that shall forever be known as Mama Matthews’s Fit Of Epic Rage. Talley blamed herself for forgetting to lock the bedroom door, but Jase was adamant that her mother was at fault for not knocking before entering like a decent person. Neither of them even considered the possibility that they shouldn’t have conducted secret sleep-overs in the first place.
Scout and Liam didn’t have the luxury of conducting secret sleep-overs or coordinating lunch breaks so they could be together. Their relationship had to survive on video-chats and late night phone calls. And while Scout wasn’t a touchy-feely, display-all-your-affection-in-public person, Talley knew Scout was jealous of the way she and Jase couldn’t seem to keep their hands to themselves around each other, which was basically always. Of course, she also knew Liam felt the exact same way. She wanted to scream at them to get over themselves and talk it out, but she’d learned quickly that people didn’t like you using the information you gleaned from Seeing them to try your hand at being an amateur couples therapist.
“An Alpha mating ceremony would be a great way to start off the first Hustings under a new regime,” Talley said, unable to stay completely out of it. “Everyone would remember that declaring one another as a mate was your first official act as Alphas, and it would send the message that you’re to be seen as equals.”
“We are equals,” Scout said, rolling her bit of bread so harshly it crumbled between her fingers.
“I know you’re equals, and Talley knows you’re equals,” Jase said to his sister, “but to a lot of people out there, this is the Liam Cole Show, featuring a special guest appearance by Scout, the Amazing Female Shifter. They think of you as a novelty instead of a leader.”
“And a mating ceremony is going to change that?”
Talley’s “maybe” was overshadowed by Jase’s “yes”.
Neither answer made Scout happy.
“I Challenged Sarvarna and won, but I have to go through a mating ceremony before people will start taking me seriously?”
“You and Liam are going ahead and doing the mating ceremony today? Awesome.” Charlie’s limp was even more pronounced than normal as he came through the back door and into the kitchen. “That will make things so much better.”
“The geriatrics are grumbling?” Liam guessed.
“I don’t know if we talked to anyone in the Atric Pack, but every Jerry, Jane, Joe, and Josephine I met today asked me if you two were really mates and if you were really going to let Scout be the Alpha Female.”
“Let me be the Alpha Female? I am the freaking Alpha Female!”
Joshua, who had wandered in with Charlie, hauled himself up on the Donovan’s kitchen counter. “Weren’t you just saying this morning that you didn’t want to be the Alpha Female? I really wish you’d make up your mind. It’s very confusing to those of us with testosterone who lack a woman’s prerogative.”
Before Scout could respond, the door leading from the kitchen to the dining room swung open so hard it bounced off the wall. The room was filled with the new Alpha Pack, which included not only the Alpha Male and Female, but an Immortal and the person the Alpha Pack recognized as the Stella Polaris, regardless of the fact that she refused the title. Even the Shifters and Seers who didn’t like being ruled by a female Shifter or a group of teenagers went out of their way to show respect when surrounded by them. There was only one person in the world with enough courage to walk into that room as if she owned the place and regard them all with equal amounts of contempt and adoration.
“Why are there always a hundred people in this kitchen?” Angel asked, hands on her hips as she huffed at the labyrinth of chairs and bodies between her and the refrigerator.
“Your math skills are seriously lacking, Munchkin,” Jase said to his baby sister. “Let’s count together now. One… two…”
Angel gave Jase a look that was a perfect imitation of the one Scout had been giving him most of the morning. “I’m eight. I know my multiplication tables, thank you very much. I was being ironical.”
“What I don’t get,” Joshua said, rummaging through the candy-filled cookie jar, “is how two people as nice as Mr. and Mrs. Donovan could raise three obnoxiously sarcastic children. Munchkin is barely out of diapers and she already speaks ironical as her primary language. Do you think it’s something in the water here?”
“My name is Angel, and you’re going to get in trouble for sitting up there.”
“I’m not scared of you,” Joshua said.
“I’ll holler for my mom.”
“I’m not scared of her either.”
Angel took a deep breath and
pursed her lips together.
“Okay, okay.” Joshua slid off the counter. “Geez, Louise.”
“You talk funny.”
“You look funny.”
Angel’s eyes narrowed so far you couldn’t see even a hint of blue peeking out and her lips disappeared into a thin line of nothingness. Talley braced herself for a full-on tantrum, knowing exactly how much fury that tiny body could hold.
Scout was obviously expecting the same outcome. “Could you please make them stop?” she asked Liam from across the table.
The Alpha Male quirked an eyebrow. “Me? I thought you were the Alpha Female. Surely you can handle a little kid and an old man.”
“I’m not old!” Joshua asserted, and then mumbled, “I’ve just been alive a really long time.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” Liam said to his mate. “If you can force those two to act civil to one another until this evening, then we’ll forego any and all mating ceremonies. But if you can’t…” Liam shrugged. “Mating ceremonies all around.”
Talley couldn’t be sure if Joshua hadn’t been paying attention to what Liam was saying or if he was being his normal interfere-with-the-matings-of-Shifters self, but Liam barely finished his ultimatum when a spray of water arched from the sink where he stood to drench the front Angel’s shirt, which sent her into a bout of hysterics.
Scout closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Be glad I’m not telling you exactly how I feel about you right now,” she said to Liam.
“You don’t have to. I can remember exactly what you said last night as I was—”
“Okay, time to break this party up!” Scout said, jumping up from her chair so quickly it would have toppled over if she hadn’t used her Shifter reflexes to snag it with her foot and set it back on all four legs. “Charlie and Joshua, you’re on Aunt Rachel duty.” Charlie nodded as if he was accepting a suicide mission, and Joshua did a fist-pump and hissed the word yes through his teeth. “Jase and Talley, you’re with us in Gertrude,” which is what Scout named the Humvee with bullet-proof glass that Liam insisted she drive. “And Angel…”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
Talley thought she might have heard Scout mutter “thank God” under her breath before turning to her little sister. “I was just going to tell you that I don’t know when we’ll get home tonight, but if it’s early enough, we’ll go grab some ice cream, so don’t eat a lot of junk food after supper.”
Angel looked wary. “Ice cream?”
“I’ll let you get whatever flavor you want,” Scout said, walking across the room and sweeping her sister up in a hug. “I love you, kid.”
The wariness turned to fear. “You’re not leaving again are you?”
If the wrinkled foreheads and shifty eyes were anything to go by, the guys couldn’t figure out where this seemingly random burst of serious emotion was coming from, but Talley understood. It wasn’t unreasonable for her friend to think the night would turn into a fight for her life. After all, it was rare that Scout found herself in a room filled with unknown Shifters and her untimely death didn’t seem imminent.
“I don’t think so. But if I don’t come home tonight, know that it wasn’t something I could control.” She squeezed her little sister even harder. “Be a good girl for Mom and Dad, okay?”
The rest of the farewells were decidedly less dramatic, although Scout’s sense of doom and gloom was spreading across the entire group. Even Joshua was subdued as he told Angel goodbye and headed out the door. Talley, Jase, Scout, and Liam were already halfway to the car when Angel ran out on the porch.
“Hey!” she called out to Liam. “You better bring my sister home.”
Liam looked at Scout, and in that look, Talley saw enough love that it made her heart ache. “Always,” he said.
Having the new Alpha’s first ever Hustings at the same place as Scout’s trial may not have been the best idea in the world. The nervousness and unease Scout had been feeling all day was at a critical level. Normally that would have been detrimental for someone who was making their first official appearance as an Alpha, but “nervous” and “uneasy” on Scout looked a whole lot like “I’m going to eat your face off”, which was exactly the look she needed to oversee the Shifters and Seers version of a Supreme Court proceeding.
Jase wasn’t exactly loving the location either. The place held too many bad memories, but it was the only place that could hold a decent number of people without attracting a lot of attention. Not that everyone who came to the Hustings could actually fit into the activity building at the same time. The massive cabin and grounds were serving as a waiting room for the various Shifters and Seers who had issues to bring before the new, and hopefully improved, Alpha Pack. Liam had assigned Charlie and Joshua with vetting the crowd and setting up a schedule. The two of them were sort of the unofficial private security detail for the Alpha Female - Charlie because he felt like he owed a life debt to both Scout and Liam, and Joshua because… Well, because if someone chopped off his head, they could just reattach it and he would be okay. Being unkillable made him the perfect guy for front line defense.
Although, if you asked Scout, she didn’t need a security detail, which is why they worked in an unofficial capacity.
At least the room is set up differently, Jase thought, taking his seat at the u-shaped table at the front of the room. Neither Liam nor Scout were big on the whole royalty aspect of being Alphas, which meant they’d quickly vetoed the idea of having a dais like Sarvarna and Stefan had sat on. Instead, they’d thrown some long tables together with some folding chairs and called the set-up aspect done. Jase had made a few jokes about feeling like the Wal-Mart version of one of the Knights of the Round Table. “Come on, lady. I can totally save you from this dragon. King Liam and the Knights of the U-Shaped Table are just as good as the originals, but only require half the gold,” he had teased. But in reality, he really did feel like one of Lancelot and the boys. He’d seen the way Sarvarna and Stefan ran their Alpha Pack, and this wasn’t it. Liam and Scout weren’t in this for Liam and Scout, but to genuinely do the right thing. Jase was proud of his sister, and proud to be a part of it. He just hoped he didn’t screw it up like he did every other thing in this life.
“When Charlie said ‘nearly every Shifter in existence’, I thought he was exaggerating,” Talley said, taking her seat between Jase and Scout.
Not everything, Jase thought. I haven’t screwed this up. And while he often questioned whether or not he actually deserved her, he never questioned whether it would last. It wasn’t just that they were mates. Talley’s parents were all the proof anyone needed that a successful mating ceremony didn’t necessarily lead to a successful life together. Being mates doesn’t stop a couple from being selfish or keeping secrets. Agreeing to be someone’s mate doesn’t mean you agree to love them. In Shifter and Seer culture, matings were just formal, unbreakable alliances.
But for Jase and Talley, becoming mates was just an added layer of the relationship. They didn’t care about joining two powerful families or gaining positions in the Shifter hierarchy. They loved each other. For them, being together was all that mattered. If it took making a claim and going through a mating ceremony to ensure they got to stay together, then so be it. Jase would walk across hot coals and have his lip stretched out by a system involving a giant hook and heavy stones if that was what it took to be with Talley.
“They’re here for our mating ceremony,” he said with a put-upon sigh. “I hate breaking so many hearts, but a guy’s got to settle down at some point, you know?
Talley gave her head a sympathetic shake. “I almost feel bad for all those women crying themselves to sleep tonight.”
“Don’t forget the men who will be trying to drown their sorrow with a case of beer,” Jase said, knowing no self-respecting Shifter would ever cry over a woman. No, intoxication and acting like an ass in public was much more dignified. “Maybe I should mail Walker Helkamp some money for the liquor store.”
“Or you could just hand it to him.” At his arched eyebrows, Talley nodded to the left of the room where a exceptionally boring looking guy was doing a fairly amazing job of blending into the wall. He caught Talley’s eye and gave a small wave. “I’m sure he’s crying on the inside,” she said. “And I’m sure that puppy-dog look he’s giving the girl on his arm is just to mask his pain.”
Jase looked, and sure enough, Walker’s arm was draped around a girl who looked like she was trying to burrow into his side. She wasn’t one of the prettiest girls in the room, but he could tell by the way the other Seers were glancing at her that she must be packing some pretty significant power.
“Do you have any regrets?” Jase wasn’t quite sure where the question came from, but his insides froze as he waited for a response.
“About what? Walker?” Talley looked at the Shifter in question. “No. Not at all. He’s got a Seer willing to bear his children, and I’ve got you. I think things worked out like they were supposed to.”
“And us? Do you have any regrets there?”
Since she was Talley, she actually took the time to think about it instead of telling him what he wanted to hear. Although, for the record, Jase thought he would much rather her lie and tell him everything was perfect than to admit there were problems.
“Only one,” she finally said.
“Is it a big one, or a small one?” He needed to prepare himself.
“A huge one, actually.”
He locked his muscles, preparing for the impact of her next words. “And that would be…?”
“That we waited so long to admit what we were feeling to each other,” she said, and Jase thought he might slide out of his chair from pure relief.
“If I’m not mistaken, we only figured it out for ourselves a few weeks before.”
She leaned in, and despite the fact they were sitting in front of at least a hundred people, kissed him long and hard. “And when I’m lying on my death bed, looking up into the wrinkles surrounding your eyes, it’ll be those weeks that I’ll want to go back and fix.”
All We See & Seem (Timber Wolves) Page 10
