Page 10 of Holiday Surprise

I didn’t usually drink this much, but I couldn’t help it. I rarely disagreed with Lily and Thomas about much regarding pack politics, but they were going too far this time and I wasn’t the only one who thought it.

I kept my back to them at all times. Them, the Larken wolves. I was still in shock that they were invited to not only work on our ranch, but now all of them, here for a pack run. It was too much, and I was practically biting my tongue off trying not to cause a scene and embarrass my friends.

Lily laughed and I felt an odd tingling sensation crawl up my spine. I didn’t turn around and confirm it, but somehow, I knew one of them was staring at me and I’d probably rip his throat out if I caught him gawking at me.

The Larkens had caused so much trouble over the years it wasn’t even funny. They trespassed on our land. They chased our females. They had threatened Lily and Lizzy and others over the years. Hell, we caught them red-handed making moonshine in our territory. And now we’re supposed to welcome them with open arms?

“You’re stewing again?” Lily leaned over and whispered.

“I warned you I shouldn’t have come. I’m trying very hard to keep my composure and not make a scene, but only because I love you,” I told her through gritted teeth.

She sighed. “They aren’t so bad. You just have to give them a chance.” Of course my best friend would know exactly what I was thinking.

“How can you not remember how they tried to kill Thomas in cold blood?”

“That was Jedidiah. Things are different now that he’s gone,” she insisted.

“Are you sure about that? Willing to stake your mate’s life on that?” I was being harsher and more stubborn than I normally would have. Liquid courage will do that to a girl.

She sighed. “You’re drunk. We’ll talk after you sober up,” she said prying my beer from my hands.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Cutting you off. Something I should have done an hour ago from the looks of it.” She walked over to the bartender and actually told him not to serve me again for the night unless it was plain water.

“You did not just do that?” I challenged, recognizing that my words were a little slurred.

“You would have done the same for me, and you’ll thank me later.”

It was true. I would have done the same for her, but I didn’t want to hear that right now.

Lily Westin had strolled into Collier Pack with a chip on her shoulder. She had grown up best friends with Thomas’s sister Madelyn. When Maddie went missing at age sixteen, everything around this place had changed, Thomas most of all.

We had dated and broken up twice before that happened. Which was saying something because really, we were just pups still. Thomas is less than a year younger than Maddie, so we were only fifteen when she ran away. No one heard from her again for a long time, not until she met her true mate and he brought her home. I shuddered thinking of all she had been through.

In the meantime, Thomas and I were on again off again right up until the moment Lily waltzed into Collier with Madelyn and her family for the first time since she had left all those years ago.

No one had ever considered that anyone would truly take my place next to Thomas. I had been groomed to be the Pack Mother for as long as I could remember, and truth was, I loved Thomas and I knew he loved me.

I could have fought for him. I could have fought for us and my pack position, but one look at how his eyes lit up when he’d finally confessed to me that she was his one true mate, and I knew I had lost him forever. The thing was, I couldn’t blame him. I had never once seen him look like that at me.

So, I had bowed out gracefully. It helped a lot that I really liked Lily and we became fast friends. I know Thomas better than almost anyone, so when Lily needs to vent, she always comes to me. It’s gotten easier as time goes by, but right now, all I could think was that if I was his mate this would never have happened. We would not be eating with our enemy

“Stop sulking,” Lily finally said.

“I’m not sulking, I’m just disgusted.”

“Are you going to tell Peyton that?” Lily asked.

I cringed. Peyton was another of Thomas’s sisters. There were six Collier sisters and then Thomas. Peyton had mated a Larken and she and her mate were working with Thomas and Luke Larken to restore relations between the packs.

I understood why that would be important to Peyton. It couldn’t be easy living in a divided household having her family torn between two packs. What I couldn’t fathom was why anyone else in their right mind thought it was a good idea.

“That’s not fair. I get her reasonings. I don’t get yours.”

Lily sighed. “I’ll explain it later, when you are sober and can talk rationally.”

“I’m rational,” I tried to say but even I knew it didn’t come out very coherently.

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