Page 33 of Home: Posy 5

"All right, now let's talk about ideas." She tapped her chin with her fingers as she thought. "Some pranks take time and supplies to set up. I can give you some basic gear to get started with, but I need to know a little bit about your mates. Are they super smart? Gullible? Do they have fears? Weaknesses?"

"They're all intelligent, but Mason and Jayden are the most observant." I gnawed on my bottom lip as I thought. "Let's see. Jayden's afraid of vampires. Wyatt doesn't like small, closed spaces. Cole won't admit it, but I've seen him leave a room rather than kill a spider. As for Ash, he's super easy to get distracted and off topic and is obsessed with his hair."

"And Mason?" Eden asked when I paused. "He's the quiet one with gray eyes, right?"

"Yeah. He doesn't have too many weaknesses, and none I'm comfortable using for a joke," I admitted, thinking of his relationship with his dad.No waywas I going there just for a laugh. "The only one I can think of is, when he was little, he was afraid to poop."

"Poop? I can work with poop, but I think he'll be the hardest one to prank," she said, and I nodded in agreement. "Does he sleep like the dead? My dad does. Once he's out, he'sout. Evan and I duct-taped him to the couch one time, and he never woke up while we were doing it."

"Not Mason, but Ash is!" Excited, I bounced on the bed. "Once he crashes, that's it for a solid eight hours."

"Perfect. We'll start there. I know two really good ones for him. He's the super tall one, right?"

"Yep! My waffle!" I giggled, then explained when she stared at me. "His mate scent is maple syrup."

"Aww! What are the others' scents? And what do you smell like to them?"

"Wyatt vanilla, Mason campfire, Cole pine, and Jayden roses. They said I smell like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies."

"I can't wait to find my mate!" she squealed and pressed a hand to her heart. "That sounds so beautiful."

"How much longer until you're eighteen?"

"February seventeenth," she pouted. "Months and months away, and even then, it could be years until I find her!"

I blinked, then blinked again.

Did Eden like girls like Emerson and Angelo liked boys? Was she gay, too?

"Um, does that bother you?" she asked as she tucked a piece of her long, dark hair behind her ear. "That I like girls?"

"Oh! No! Not at all!" This time it was my turn to squish her in a hug. "One of my best friends is gay. My beta Emerson. I was just surprised, that's all. You don't hear of too many gay female shifters."

"There are never very many, which is going to make it super hard for me to find my mate." Her shoulders dropped as a glum look crossed her face. "It's all about making pups. There are thirty to thirty-five percent more male shifters than females at any given time. That's why identical male twins and triplets usually share a mate, but female twins almost always have separate mates. Got to spread the birth-givers around, you know?"

"No, I didn't know." My forehead scrunched up as I thought. "What about if there's a boy and girl twin, like you and Evan, or a mix of genders in triplets? Mason had a twin sister, Willow. Although she died in the sickness, I kind of wondered how that would have worked with their mates."

"Fraternal multiples are very rare, and mixed genders even more so, but we never share a mate. Like our dads. They each had their own mate, right?” She made an icky face. “And it would be weird for a brother and sister to share a mate, don't you think?"

"Unless they're— Um, what's the word? To be into both boys and girls?"

Mason had told me the term when Gamma Reuben made a comment about liking both genders, but I'd forgotten it.

"Bisexual. Still, I think it would be ... uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to be with Evan while he and our mate were, um,together, or see him like that, you know? He's my brother! Who wants to seethatnaked?"

I laughed as I wrinkled my nose.

"Yeah, I can't see myself wanting to do that with Aiden or James, either. Brothers and sisters are never mates, right?"

"Eww, girl! Never! That's called incest. Not only is it illegal in shifter and human societies, but both also see it as immoral." She made a face. "Human history is full of ancient people who inter-married brothers and sisters and all kinds of crazy deformities came from it, so obviously even nature is against it."

"Makes sense," I agreed, then got back on topic. "Anyway, did I give you enough information to help you come up with prank ideas for me?"

"Oh, yeah! I haveloadsof ideas!"

She leapt off the bed and ran to her closet, pulled out a clear plastic container and hustled back. After flipping off the lid, she plunked it down between us and started going through it, showing me items and explaining how to use them. As for me, I paid close attention, wanting to be a good student for the master.

"Perfect!" I grinned at her when she was done. "My mates are in for it now!"

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