Page 5 of Pack Nightmare

“Works for me,” Jared replies with a wink.

I dash off another text to Roxanne about our new Lit professor and wanting to discuss it with her, and the reply takes longer to come in. “Huh. Apparently Roxanne has some functions to attend tonight, so she doesn’t have time to chat with me about Derrek.”

“If it’s important, just order her.” Milo’s tone is matter-of-fact, as if I should know this. “You’re the alpha, after all. Use the alpha command. I thought she serves you?”

“Well, I don’t think it works over text message, but… you’re right. If I’m the alpha, things should be on my schedule. Besides, if she’s attending important functions, shouldn’t I attend, or at least know about them?” My indignation up, I text her back, saying as much with a slightly more respectful tone.

Roxanne’s reply is curt; she’ll meet me in the office as soon as I arrive at home.

Once I tell the guys about her response, Jared’s expression turns mischievous. “Well, if you’re going to have an alpha meeting as soon as we get home, I suppose we ought to discuss this now.”

My eyes dart to him curiously. “Discuss what?”

Landon pipes up from the back seat. “Homecoming!”

“Homecoming?” I echo. “Isn’t that, like, a high school thing?”

“Yes and no,” Milo answers. “It is a high school thing, but it’s also a college thing. Typically, it’s when alums of the school come back for a game with some big rival, and the school hosts a weekend of events. Since people in Smoky Falls never leave, it’s sort of a big community festival.”

“Oh, well, that’s cool I guess.” It’s interesting, but not much. Unless… “Is there some special thing that I’m supposed to do, as alpha or something?”

“You probably have some hands to shake and babies to kiss, but most importantly-”

Jared cuts Landon off. “There’s a dance!”

I blink twice at him, confused. “A dance? Like a square dance?”

He barks a laugh. “No, like a homecoming dance. Normal colleges have fraternities that host formals, but we don’t have any Greek organizations, for obvious reasons. Since we’re a small town and even smaller college, SFC puts on a dance every year for homecoming.”

“It’s really nice, at least based on the photos I’ve seen.” Landon picks back up. “They have it at the community center, and the town goes all out. I think it’s part of the way they make up for the fact that we’re all stuck here.”

“But didn’t you guys have dances in high school?” I’m honestly confused—don’t boys hate school dances?

“We did, but they weren’t very fun. Everyone goes with their fated, and those that don’t have a fated are quick to pair up with each other.”

“… and since you three had a fated, but I wasn’t here, you had no one to go with,” I finish for him with a guilty pang in my chest. I know it’s not my fault, but I feel terrible they missed out on so much just because I didn’t even know about this place. Obviously, I would have loved to be here attending fancy dances instead of sleeping under a bridge.

“Pretty much,” Milo agrees. “We went to prom freshman year and then decided we would not subject ourselves to that again.”

“Which means that we all get to experience this together for the first time!” Jared grins. “Since you never got to go to dances, and we didn’t really either, this seemed like a great way for us to make up for lost time.”

“But it’s more than just a dance.” Milo draws my attention back to the rear seat. “Like I was saying earlier, it’s an entire fall festival. There’s a marketplace in town, hayrides, and of course the football game. Then the dance is the next night.”

“So, when is this all happening?” I ask, confused. “And why haven’t I heard anything about it?”

Jared sounds slightly apprehensive. “Well, there're posters and stuff up all over campus. I’m sure you’ve seen one. But we didn’t bring it up because you had so much on your plate already with the alpha challenge. Now that we’re past that, we figured it was time to make plans.”

“You still haven’t told me when this is,” I remind him.

“It’s in two weeks, the last weekend in September. Well, really it’s more like a week and a half, since today is Monday and it starts Thursday next week, with the dance on Saturday.”

“Two weeks? That’s hardly enough time to plan for all of this… isn’t it?” Not having attended a formal dance ever, I really have no idea what is or isn’t enough time. But movies always make it seem like something people plan for months.

Jared just laughs. “I’d be willing to bet my auntie has already made most of the arrangements. I don’t think we need to go out to eat anywhere, unless you want to? There’s no better chef in town than William, and the alpha usually hosts a dinner party in the formal dining room on Homecoming, so we can all just eat here, then go into town for the dance.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose that makes it simple.” Knowing Roxanne, she’s already picked out my dress and shoes. It’s probably waiting for me in my closet and I didn’t even notice. “I guess I’ll ask her about that at our little meeting today.”

We pass through the security gate with ease, pull up to Harridan House, and I hesitate before hopping out of Jared’s enormous pickup.

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