Page 3 of Pack Larsen

All expression from my face falls and I can feel Pace and Aero knowingly staring at me. I’m pretty sure I’d have a hole in the side of my head if they had the ability to beam me with the lasers I can feel shooting out of their eyes.

“No. Absolutely not,” I rush, already shaking my head.

“Wait, what?” Aero inserts quickly. “Who is it? What’s going on?”

“I think I already know,” Pace sighs, rubbing his hands over his face. “Does she even have space at hers?”

Juniper snorts as though she has a secret, confirming what I already know.

Narrowing my eyes on her, I forget my filter when I blur, “Silver got you this truck, didn’t she? She’s the one you’ve been secretive about.”

She shrugs. “I was held to secrecy, but fuck it, she’ll understand.”

“Silver?” Aero perks up instantly, his sugary, frosted-plum scent thickening ever so slightly. What the hell is that about? “As in, the pretty, little bubblegum baddie?”

“The one and only,” Juniper laughs, already pulling out her cell. She doesn’t even bother glancing at me, looking in the mirror as she addresses Pace and asks, “So, what do you say? Want to risk catching a disease from any of the places you’ve checked out today, or are you willing to let me actually help in some way or form?”

Pace watches her closely, likely weighing up the pros and cons as he so often does, and finally asks, “What do you know about her place?”

“Oh, it’snice. Like,fancy-pantskind of nice. If I didn’t already have a rockin’ home to live in, I’d be frothing at the cooter to have her house. It’s huge, has plenty of rooms that you won’t all be up one another’s asses, and she keeps the fridge stockedalways. She’s been holding interviews for roommates for the past two weeks with no luck. She called last night and stated that the last pack were, and I quote, ‘a bunch of jock, frat boys looking to get their dicks wet and their brains fucked by drugs and I’d be damned all the way to hell and back before I allow that cesspool of herpes and chlamydia into my home.’ I was in awe at the creativeness,” Juniper explains, nodding like she was genuinely impressed.

Lowkey—like, super fucking lowkey—I’m impressed with that shit, too. I won’t utter a word about it, though. I’ve been burned enough in the past that I simply won’t allow another being to hurt me.

“I mean, we’re not jocks, frat boys, or riddled with sexually transmitted diseases, so we already have one foot in the door, right?” Aero hurries to say, almost like he’s chomping at the bit to snag a place at Silver’s. Seriously, what the hell is his deal?

Juno shrugs, though. “She’ll take you guys over the jackwads she’s seen all week. There was a female pack that wanted to rent the rooms as a makeshift brothel. I was there when she kicked them all out and it was glorious. Pretty sure she yelled something like, ‘if a whorehouse is what you wanted, then you should have gone to your mothers,’ as they were leaving, but sure she was having a really bad day that time.”

The truck descends into silence for a long moment after that and I turn in my seat, my own face filled with pleading when I look at Pace dead in the eye and say, “I don’t beg, ever, but I’ll do it right now if it means Juno doesn't call Silver.”

“Dude, seriously, what the hell is your problem?” the little, matching thundercloud beside me grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest.

I lovingly ignore the little shit, staring at Pace as he stares back. I see the moment he makes his decision, and I want to punch him square in the nose before he even utters a single word. “Make the call, kid. What harm could it do to check it out?”

“Victoryyyyyy!” Juniper screeches before I get the chance to throttle my pack mate.

“You’re dead to me,” I hiss at him, and he shrugs with a shake of his head and a tired sigh.

“We’re out of options, Ro, and you know it. What could be so bad about this, anyway? You don’t have to like the girl to live with her, at least until we find something suitable that won’t cost us our souls and health.”

“Whatever,” I grumble, turning to scowl out the window. “This is a bad idea, and I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ when I’m proven right.”

“Oh, get over yourself,” Juniper laughs, shoving at me like a kid sister. “It’ll be great. Just you watch.”

Then she makes the phone call and seals my fate, plummeting me head deep into a bad mood that I don’t bother to shake, even long after I’ve locked myself away in the motel room with a shitty box TV to keep my brain occupied from the vibrant, lively, bubblegum princess I’ve been trying to avoid, forget, and stop fucking thinking about.

Chapter 2

Silver

“I’m sorry, I think I misheard you. You want me towhat?” I repeat, sure my ears are deceiving me.

I can hear how unimpressed my beautiful, badass bestie is when she sighs and repeats herself for the fourth time. “I would like you to interview the Larsen pack for the rooms at your house.”

“So, I did hear you right?” I wonder, genuinely stunned.

Not in all the years of my existence would I have believed pack Larsen would come to me for help. Never. In fact, I’m confident enough to say that I’m sure they’d prefer to remain ablaze instead of allowing me to douse them in water.

Fucking assholes.

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