Pack Ivory Emerald

by Stunich, C. M.

  This particular part of the course had a medieval theme with faux turrets just slightly taller than I was, sculpted dragons on huge boulders, and tiny princesses waving from painted windows on the stone retaining wall that surrounded the property. To sink this one, we’d need to get the ball down the winding green lane and into a hole painted to look like a wishing well.

  “You’ve been so busy,” Faith continued, making me wish for a split-second that I could just tell her everything. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if she just knew? It was a selfish thought, one that made me bite my tongue against the truth that so desperately wanted to come out. Telling Faith would clean my conscious, not make hers any lighter. “And now you have all these boyfriends …”

  “Mates,” Jax corrected with a wolfy smile before hitting his own ball and continuing down the path with the rest of the guys. Faith stuck her tongue out at his back and gave me a look with a single arched brow, brushed and powdered to perfection. Her makeup was flawless tonight.

  “Mates?” she asked, but I just rolled my eyes, shrugged my shoulders, and stepped forward to take my own shot, lining the red rubber head of my club up with the matching ball.

  “He’s a homeschooler,” I explained and to Faith, that was pretty much all she needed to know. She’d been homeschooled for a few years before we’d met in sixth grade and she was convinced that homeschoolers lacked social interaction and were always a bit off.

  I tapped the ball and sent it straight down the center of the curved path, choosing a different tactic than most everyone else. I sunk a hole-in-one, too, and smiled, stepping aside for Faith.

  “Hurry up, babe! I’m like two holes ahead of you now!” Owen called, doing what Nic liked to call his ‘bro’ laugh, this annoying raucous that echoed around the True Fantasies Mini Golf Park. There was an arcade with laser tag as well as a low-key restaurant at the end and then a whole separate course on the other side. At this rate, we’d be lucky to finish this one before Owen was done with both. I didn’t want to say anything to Faith, but the man nudged the ball with his foot or even picked it up and moved it when he thought no one was looking.

  “Total douche move,” Tidus chuckled, standing under the fat white blooms of a snowball bush that shouldn’t rightfully be so full and lush just yet—our doing, I was certain. My boyfriends had waited for me at the next hole, all seven of them. But there was no stopping Owen Tiaffay. He just sort of did whatever he wanted, the rest of the world be damned.

  Tidus and I exchanged a look and a wink—well, he winked, I smiled wider—before he scooted away a few steps to give me and Faith more privacy.

  “I’m sorry you feel like you can’t count on me anymore,” I said as Faith dropped her ball, toed it into place, and then whacked it without really thinking about the consequences. That was sort of her personality in a nutshell. “I never wanted that for our friendship.”

  “Oh, don’t be so serious and formal all the time, Zara,” she said with a roll of her eyes, following her ball down the lane and hitting it a second, third, fourth, and fifth time. Anubis was doing his best to keep score with a tiny pencil and a little card, but I was pretty sure after about two holes he’d give up on Faith. I was certain he’d already given up on Owen. Neither of them liked to keep score until the end when they’d suddenly come up with these miraculously low numbers. It was cute when Faith did it, not so much when Owen did. “I’m not saying our friendship is falling apart or anything, just … that you’ve been busy is all.” She exhaled and pushed some strands of hair from her forehead, as black as India ink. “You have all those … new friends,” she growled out which made me smile.

  “You’re not jealous of the seven boyfriends, just the new girls I’ve been hanging out with?” I asked and Faith gave me an obvious no shit, Sherlock look that made me chuckle. “You don’t like Aeron then?” The faerie princess was definitely arrogant, gruff, and totally took some getting used to.

  “She’s … interesting,” Faith continued, picking her ball up and following me to the next hole. The boys had just started to take a stab at the mechanical drawbridge. It opened slowly, leaving a ramp for the ball, and then snapped shut again. Nic’d missed (he always seemed to miss this one) and so had Che. But Monty? He stepped up, waited for several, long minutes, and then calmly tapped the ball right through to the other side.

  “Teach me your magic!” Tidus whispered, and if we hadn’t been in public, I was damn near certain his tail would’ve been wagging in that moment. He ran his fingers through his golden hair and pretended to bow down at Montgomery’s feet.

  “It’s just patience,” Monty said, his white braid and black trench billowing in the wind. He looked regal and strong, a pillar to lean on.

  “Seventeen-year-olds aren’t supposed to be patient,” Tidus laughed, putting his arm around Monty’s neck and dragging him close. “How did you get so mature? And where can I get some of that?”

  I grinned as I watched the boys tease each other playfully. In our culture, werewolves mated for life, pairings strict and unyielding, lifelong. These men had been trained from birth to lead, to find an alpha female and make her theirs, and yet … they were all mine. Although there were still issues to be ironed out, I was surprised at how smoothly things were going between them. Maybe that was why everything else was going to hell in a handbasket? The universe would not give without taking, too.

  “How did you meet that Aeron girl anyway? I’m surprised you didn’t bring her along tonight.” Faith’s attempt at nonchalance was laughable, but I just kept a smile on my face, watching as she paused her golfing journey to pull out a compact and touch up concealer on her red-brown face. Mine was as white as snow, no color to be seen. I might’ve blamed that on the Forest Spirit if my mother, grandmother, and sisters didn’t all look the same.

  “She’s the daughter of one of Nikolina’s contacts, remember?” I said as Faith rolled her eyes at me. “And I didn’t bring her along because this is our night, ours and our boys.” A soon as she put her compact away, I squeezed her hand and gave her what I hoped was a meaningful look.

  This night, this belonged to us and Goddess forbid the person who dared interrupt it.

  “Montgomery and Zara are tied,” Anubis said, peering over the scorecard as we sat in the restaurant and waited for Silas and Che to sign us up for the next round of laser tag. I don’t think poor Jax had any idea what laser tag was, but I caught him looking it up on his phone while we waited for our food.

  Faith was the only one of us who’d taken advantage of the salad bar, so she ate while Owen played a bunch of silly games in the arcade. I could see him from here, shaking one of those claw machines with the stuffed animals inside of them.

  ‘We need to introduce your friend to a nice werewolf boy or something,’ Silas said, reappearing on my right side and sinking into the wooden chair. When he pulled me onto his lap, I didn’t resist. I wanted to sit with him, be close to him, breathe in his unique scent. He’d smoked a fresh cigarette on the course, and when I leaned in, pressing my nose to his hair, I could smell tobacco, cloves, and cherries. ‘Hell, maybe you should turn her?’

  ‘Don’t even joke about that,’ Anubis said, his wolfspeak voice strained as he glanced up from the scorecard to glare at Silas. ‘You know how that usually turns out.’

  ‘Actually, I don’t,’ Silas continued, his hands sliding up the front of my red tank top toward my breasts. Faith was watching with a strange expression on her face. Oops. We were doing it again, having another silent conversation. ‘I’ve never seen anyone try. Fuck, I don’t even know if the rumors are true, if it can even be done.’

  ‘Humans are basic, so unremarkable in their DNA that they can be manipulated into a transformation. You see it happen all the time with vampires.’ Anubis pushed the scorecard into the center of the table as Faith’s perplexed facial expression scrunched up even further.

  “Tell us again the order of the competition,” I said with a grin, snuggli
ng back against Silas in his black t-shirt and jeans, his tattooed arms bright as they wrapped around my midsection and propped up my breasts. That was as close to feeling them up in public as he was going to get. When around humans, different rules applied. Sometimes, I wondered if I was the only one who remembered that.

  “You and Monty are tied,” Anubis repeated as our pizzas were delivered to the table on silver trays. “Then me, Nic, Silas, Che, Tidus, Jax … and then Faith and Owen.”

  “That’s such bull!” Faith said, grabbing the scorecard and yanking it close to her. She studied it as she finished her salad and then rolled her eyes. “I’m in at least third place, based on my own calculations.”

  “Are those the same calculations that tell you to keep dating Owen? Because if so, then I’m definitely going to have to trust Anubis on this one,” Nic said, wrinkling his nose up at Faith, who’d scooted one seat over and was now sitting on my left side. He took up the chair next to her, dressed casually in black jeans and a red t-shirt. Just like me—Pack Ebon Red colors. And he was handsome as hell in them.

  ‘Your guard pissed all over the bathroom wall,’ Che tattled as he draped himself into the chair opposite me and Silas, all loose and lazy, more cat than wolf. His violet eyes were drawing a lot of attention. Slightly less than the swords on Monty’s back, but well, this was a pretty hip, forward thinking area. Still, we were getting on by the skin of our teeth here.

  ‘I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t tried to do it first,’ Nic growled back, yanking a slice of pepperoni from one of the trays and dousing it in parmesan cheese.

  ‘The pissing thing is cute in certain situations—like on trees or bushes. Please no scent marking in public places,’ I said with a small sigh. But in reality, I was doing my best to hold back a giggle. A giggle! Me! I wasn’t usually one for it either. As a female werewolf, the thought of my males marking territory all over the damn place was kind of … hot?

  Mother Earth, what would Faith think of me if she knew that was the kind of thing that got me off? Male wolf urine. Yep. It was pretty obvious that I wasn’t human.

  “What kind of pizza do you want?” I asked Silas, leaning forward to grab myself two slices of chicken with white sauce and roasted garlic while Owen sauntered up and frowned at the lack of seating near his girlfriend. He gave Nic a suspicious glare and then took up the last chair at the end of the table as Silas stole one of my slices.

  “Hey babe,” he said as he sat down, and then tossed a small stuffed heart in her direction. It said Be Mine in white stitching. Pretty sure he’d blown a good twenty bucks trying to get it from one of those claw machines. Faith, though, she held it tight to her chest like it was the world’s greatest treasure. I tried not to judge; I knew as well as anyone that romantic love was not rational. All the things Nic and I had wanted, craved from one another were so intense. We’d even briefly considered running away together. “So, you all ready to kick some ass in laser tag?”

  “Ooo,” Che said with a faux cringe and a sharp, arrogant little smirk. He tore the end off a piece of sausage pizza as he locked his violet eyes on Owen’s brown ones. “Red team filled up as we were signing in, so … you’re actually on the opposing team.” He took another bite of his food as Owen stared at him, chewing so slowly it was almost maddening.

  “Wait, whose team am I on then?” Faith asked, drawing the Pack Violet Shadow boy’s attention over to her.

  “Ours. Red.” He shrugged and snatched Jax’s phone from his hands. Jaxson growled, full lip curl and everything, but he let the other alpha male to check the time before he snatched it back. “Round starts in ten minutes. You have what it takes?”

  Owen just shrugged and picked all the ham and pineapple off a slice of Hawaiian pizza, making Anubis and me frown. So … essentially it was cheese then? Yet he ignored the actual cheese pizza in favor of the Hawaiian.

  “Just remember when we’re in there, the only thing that matters is the vest.” Owen grinned and shoved most of the food in his mouth, making my nose crinkle. Even Faith was giving him a bit of a look for a moment there. It was always nice to know that, at least on occasion, she could recognize his … idiosyncrasies.

  We finished eating and then lined up for laser tag, shrugging into our vests, and taking the big plastic guns in hand. The attendant had politely tried to ask Montgomery to remove his weapons, but he’d managed to weasel out of it by using the cosplay line again.

  “Your seventeen year old boyfriend is a bit addicted to the whole ‘werewolf prince’ thing, don’t you think?” she asked as we filed into the dark room and took up our positions on the right half, hiding behind big faux boulders and half-walls. I just shrugged again and put a finger to my lips, crouching low and waiting for the timer to count down to zero.

  As soon as it did, several people exploded into the open, firing off random shots and, in Owen’s case, making little laser ping-ping-ping sound effects under his breath. It was a tad disturbing, to say the least. Faith waited with me, watching for clues as I took in the terrain and then backed up against the far wall, moving along the faux Styrofoam bricks and towards Montgomery, lying on his belly under a small bridge.

  There were ten people on each team which I found hilarious. Without even asking, I knew that Che and Silas had purposely moved Owen over to the other team. And why shouldn’t they? It was pack money that’d paid his eleven bucks to play anyway—not to mention the food and drinks. The only cash he had, he’d blown on arcade games.

  Oh, Owen. It was hard to believe he was twenty-one while Monty was only seventeen.

  “What’s our next move?” Faith stage-whispered, giggling and then doing her best to school her expression into something serious. “Should we kill Owen right away?”

  “Nobody dies in this game,” I said, which actually sounded pretty heavenly right about now. Wouldn’t that be nice, if nobody died in the game I was playing with my mates, this awful tug-of-war between the werewolves, witches, and vampires. Nic had been given one chance to beat death; he would not get another. “Each time someone gets shot, it’s recorded on the vest and then added to the scoreboard.” I pointed up at the wall and then ducked low when another man in a blue vest came charging our way.

  He seemed to know exactly where he was going though and that, that brought up chills all across my body.

  ‘Is there something off about that guy?’ I asked Monty, lifting my face and flaring my nostrils as I tried to take in his scent. The room was ripe with the smell of human sweat, the scents of a few other Numinous blended into the mix—like the long-ago perfume of a ‘were’ from Pack Sapphire Rose—but I didn’t smell anything immediate or dangerous.

  But we all knew that with witch hazel as a tool on this gameboard, it was no longer safe to trust scent and scent alone.

  The man came trudging toward us, and I burst out from beneath the bridge, cutting him off mid-stride and curling my lip back in challenge. Montgomery was only seconds behind him, stepping between me and the stranger. The dark-haired man just gave us both a wary look.

  “Whoa there, it’s just a game,” he said, moving away, the smell of soap and human clinging to his skin as he passed by.

  I let out a long, tired exhale as Monty glanced over his shoulder with green eyes and gave me a sympathetic look.

  ‘Better safe than sorry,’ he told me as I turned back to Faith … and found her missing. I looked up just in time to see her giggling and falling into Owen’s arms. He made sure to fire off a good half-dozen shots before he dragged her into the base of a faux tower. I could smell their arousal from here, and it was honestly pretty gross. ‘Are you alright?’ Monty asked in wolfspeak, smoothly sliding in front of me and intercepting a shot from the rival team. He lifted his gun up and managed to fire off several impossible shots that all found their marks.

  Up above us, on the larger bridge that spanned the room, I saw Nic, Silas, and Che moving forward boldly, no fear. I could tell by their body language and
their scents that they were having fun. I wanted that for them. After all, the oldest of us was twenty-one years old; we deserved to have a little fun every now and again, didn’t we?

  ‘I’m fine,’ I told Monty, forcing myself to smile. This constant danger, the never-ending threat and anxiety of my life was starting to get to me. Montgomery understood that though, better than anyone else. ‘I just feel like I could crawl into bed with you guys and sleep for a week solid.’

  ‘As soon as this is over, I’ll make that happen,’ he told me, grabbing my hand and pulling me back beneath the small bridge. Instead of focusing on the game, we ended up staring into one another’s eyes, leaning in close for a kiss.

  Monty’s lips were warm and solid as they pressed against mine, this soothing touch of heat and want and need, a base desire that was so easily understood by my wolf brain. Pure enjoyment. If he could relax enough to give me a kiss like that while his parents were still missing, then I owed it to him to try for the same. We didn’t have to let our guards down, but we didn’t have to live every second in fear either, right?

  We kissed for several long, languorous moments, the space between my thighs calling out to be filled, promising that my core was slick and hot and ready. We were interrupted by Jax, popping underneath the bridge and shooting me in the shoulder.

  “Friendly fire doesn’t count,” I said as I pulled away from Monty, but I was smiling when I turned to face Jax. He had Anubis and Tidus behind him.

  “I’m not exactly used to this, and these two are no good.” He narrowed his eyes and held out a hand, helping me out from underneath the bridge. A quick glance at the scoreboard showed we were actually only two points ahead of the competition. As I watched, the blue team’s points jumped up even further. My guess? Owen was shooting Faith’s vest while they made out.