Page 67 of Luna: Posy 2

"What are you watching?" Angelo asked, as if our choice would determine him staying or not.

After a few minutes of scrolling through the horror section, Cole clicked onPrey for the Devil, and Angelo frowned and shook his head.

"Too scary for the Angel of Death?" King Julian teased with a smirk.

Angelo flipped him off, said he was going to do some meal planning in the kitchen, and left the room. Chuckling, the king rested his head back on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table, and his foggy eyes were all the evidence we needed to know he was linking his lovely lady.

Ten minutes into the movie, I realized Angelo had the right idea. The movie had an interesting premise, but was just a rehash of other exorcist movies. Bored now, I started throwing popcorn for Wyatt to catch in his mouth and wasn't paying much attention to anything else.

Fortunately, Sid was.

Ashy, something up with the witchies!

Lifting my head, I looked over and saw Sara and Maria slowly turn in unison toward the east. Their eyes began to glow with an eerie light, which made Sid pace anxiously.

Witchies are scary, Ashy!

They won't hurt us, buddy. Magic is new to you, to both of us, which can make it seem scary. Since Ariel's going to be in our pack now, we'll be around it more and can get used to it. Then it won't be scary anymore.

"Gelo!" Sara shouted. When he popped his head around the doorway, she said, "Go shower and put on fresh clothes. And no weapons! You want to make a good impression, not be intimidating."

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"Our mates approach," they chorus in a monotone, which weirded Sid out again.

"If your mates can't handle meeting me as I am—"

"Gelo," Maria cut him off in a gentle tone, "yourmate approaches, too."

17: Risks and Rewards

~Three years ago~

Emerson

Wretched cheap boots,I thought as I trudged toward the well-lit diner on this lonely stretch of road. My feet are freezing!

I could sense I was near a pack, so I didn't dare shift. Cove might be mistaken for a rogue instead of a lone wolf. We were strong and had gotten tough surviving on our own during the last year and a half, but we couldn't take on a patrol of warriors intent on killing a rogue.

I'd heard about an enormous pack formed out of what remained of five others after the sickness decimated them. Since every alpha had declined my request to join, I had decided to head north and see if Five Fangs would be more open-minded.

Which was how I found myself outside Roger's Diner at dusk on an early October evening. Looking through the windows, I saw the place was nearly empty except for a big table at the back where some guys were cutting up.

When I first saw the diner, I'd hoped I could get a job there; my cash was running dangerously low, and I needed those new boots before winter hit. Seeing the guys inside, however, I hesitated with my hand on the door. If they were humans, I wasn't going to have a problem. If they were shifters, they'd smell that I was, too, and who knew how that would go down?

I studied them a little closer. There were six of them, and they all looked about my age or a little younger. I was fairly sure they were shifters, since they were taller and much more built than normal human teen males. As they stole food from each other, they laughed loud enough for me to hear outside and seemed so happy and carefree, it made me jealous.

Try, Cove encouraged me.They don't look mean.

They're probably shifters.It could be dangerous.

I'm lonely, Em. You are, too. Try. Please?

I sighed. Neither of us were cut out to be lone wolves. We missed having a pack, the bond it brought, and friends.

All right, but if we get killed, I'm blaming you.

Going inside, I heard a little bell jingle over my head, and the smell of wolves went right up my nose. Definitely shifters, then. I scented both alpha and beta blood and felt a ton of power, which told me at least one of them already led a pack.

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