Page 111 of This Pack of Ours

“Still think she doesn’t need rescuing?” I didn’t wait for their answer as I stalked towards the minivan. Jhin’s snarl told me all I needed to know.

JUNIPER

“Little Juni,” Valerie said. I stirred, the nickname cutting through the webbing of numbness that fluttered around me.

Kit?

I lifted my head. We were… still at the mall. Sitting in the courtyard by the exit—the one by the massive, steel and coloured glass art maze that matched my mood.

I was tucked back into Valerie’s lap wearing one of the new outfits she’d picked for me, tight pants and a shiny, itchy top. And she’d just called meJuni.

She was back to looking at her phone, so I tugged on her arm.

“Please, don’t call me that,” I said. She waved her hand dismissively.

“Oh, come on. Juni suits you.” The name was like a tiny bullet, white hot, streaking through me.

“Don’t call me that,” I repeated, a little more desperate. No one called me that except Kit. It was grounding me, making me present. Kit couldn’t exist in this world where I sat silently on Valerie’s lap as she stroked my hair. Where I let predators take me. I’d been ready to let them take me when we’d met, all those years ago.

My dad had believed I deserved better; he’d died fighting for it. But I hadn’t been convinced until I met Kit.You can’t go,he’d said, as if it were true, and he’d somehow made me believe it.

Valerie put down her phone with a huff of annoyance, before plastering her smile back on.

“Oh, Juni. You’ve got a lot to learn. In this pack, I get what I want. And Idon’twant to have to keep saying Juniper. It’s such a mouthful.” She popped a grape into her mouth.

She couldn’t keep calling me that.

My hands clenched into fists, and I tried desperately to school my face into neutral.

“It’s my name,” I said flatly.

“That’s enough,” she said, waving her hand. I could feel something tugging at me to back off.

Fuck. That.

“If you want me to join your pack, you’ll call me Juniper,” I said, getting to my feet and glaring at her.

Everyone froze, staring at me as I came to life. Jake had a handful of grapes halfway to his mouth.

Shit.

This hurt.

I didn’t want to be here, alone, watching Lewis as he spat on the floor.

Gross.

But she’d woken me up. She’d kept calling me Juni.

The pack had recovered from the shock. Valerie’s expression was cool and her arms folded. The rest of them looked disturbingly… amused. Lewis had put up his feet, a grin on his face, and Jake had raised an eyebrow, glancing between Valerie and me. Rick smirked, miming a gunshot to his foot.

Valerie rose to her feet, and she was a good couple of inches taller than me.

”You’re joking,” she said, her voice light.

I was not backing down.

“I’m fuckingnot,” I said, fingernails digging into my palms.

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