Page 79 of Mates: Posy

Waving Emerson over, I told him our plan.

"Sounds good, little luna bunny. We'll escort you to the vehicles, then you follow the lead car again, okay?"

I nodded and smiled, and, within ten minutes, we pulled into a gravel parking lot. The diner was a rectangular building painted bright red with a block-letter sign in dark blue. It was an isolated location, surrounded by open fields that were backed by the woods. When I got out of the SUV, I lifted my nose and smelled water nearby.

I wonder if there's a stream running along the treeline.

"Let's get inside, please, luna," Tyler said.

His eyes roved the whole area as he stood next to me, and his shoulders were tense.

"Do you smell something?" I asked him with a frown.

He shook his head.

"A feeling, that's all."

"Do the other betas also have this 'feeling'?"

"Crew's uneasy, and Tris and Em are on alert. I have no idea about Matthew."

As we walked into the diner, I laid my hand on his bicep. He looked down at me with raised eyebrows.

"How bad does he bully you? And has he always done so, or only since you became a beta?"

"Don't worry about it, luna."

"Well, Iamworried about it. So tell me."

"He and my predecessor were best friends. I don't think it's me so much as whoever was going to take Everett Breckenridge's place."

"Hmm."

"Posy, Posy! Let's grab the big booth in the back!" Keeley came over, linked her arm with mine, and towed me along.

Once we were seated, the waitress came over and took our drinks order. We read over the menu and decided what we wanted, so we were ready when she returned. Taking a long sip of my soda, I looked around the place. It was decorated in a sports-theme, which didn't do anything for me, but it was clean and tidy.

The betas stood around the room, looking like presidential security without the suits. Their eyes never stopped scanning inside and out. I felt bad that they weren't eating lunch, but Peri said they wouldn't join us even if we asked them to.

"They are guarding you, Posy, and that is a great honor to them. Since it's the first time, they're going to be especially careful not to make mistakes."

Our food arrived, and we dug in while still chatting.

"So why were you with the three brides of hell yesterday?" Peri asked the twins.

They looked at each other, then at me with embarrassment painting their faces pink.

"We chose the wrong humans to try to befriend."

"I don't know why you even tried with that trio." Peri made a disgusted sound. "They've been mean since middle school and don't seem likely to change."

"We thought if we did something nice for them, they'd return the favor." Callie shook her head. "They made last year rough for us at school, and we wanted to avoid a repeat for our senior year."

"You go to school with humans?" I asked, tilting my head. "Why don't we have our own school?"

"An excellent question! One you should bring up with your mates!" Keeley chirped. "There are nursery and elementary schools, but no middle or high school on pack territory. If there were, so much drama would evaporate."

"Hmm. I'll bring it up and see what they say," I promised.

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