Page 7 of Fallen Wolf
“Hello, you must be Ada. I’m Jack.” This guy was rocking the silver fox thing, salt and pepper hair and a nice tan. And that smile. He held his hand out to me and I shook it. Then I saw the taller, bigger built Grayson come up behind him and wrap his arm around Jack. Dang, they were a hot couple.
“Come in Ada don’t wait out there. I was going to bake some cupcakes… any preference?” I liked this guy; Grayson knew the way to my heart was through cake and muffins.
“Chocolate with vanilla frosting?” I asked.
He smiled and winked, “Your wish is my command. Lexi is just in her room waiting for you, she has all the movie watching goodies with her.” He pointed to the hallway where Lexi’s room was. Raff’s was down there too, like directly opposite. I wondered if he was home. He was a little… intense. I didn’t know how to put it. He seemed very stiff and uncomfortable when I had seen him. Maybe he was still getting use to being here or away from his family.
I nodded to both foster dads and stepped inside their house dragging my suitcase and bag behind me. I could see Jack looking at my bag, but before he could say something to me, we were interrupted by two other young boys. I didn’t see them last time and they ran around the living room screaming, they looked at me then ran out to what I assume was the back yard. Grayson laughed as Jack followed me into the house. I turned to both of them. I was going to plead our case, because it was now a “our” case, because I couldn’t go without her and I wouldn’t want to. I wanted to go to a party with my best friend. Because being a teenager was already hard, a curfew made it harder.
“Actually, I was wondering if it would be okay for Lexi to come to the Lovell party with me later? She was invited and she told me how she has a curfew. So, I was hoping that if you knew she was with me, that she could come. I would watch out for her and drive her straight back home...”
I watched as Jack’s brow furrowed as he looked to Grayson, I was hoping this was a good look, not a “this girl is crazy,” look.
“We didn’t know, she didn’t tell us she was invited. Of course, she can go. That would be fine with us.”
I squealed and almost hugged Jack. I raced down to Lexi’s room and knocked on the door. When she called to come in, I practically barreled into her room, I dropped the suitcase and bag and bounced up and down in excitement.
“Oh my gosh, Grayson and Jack said you can go to the party. You didn’t even ask them silly.” I had a dumb grin on my face as I plopped down on the end of her bed, I was going to a Lovell party. Holy shit! Lexi looked over to my suitcase and bag, but before she could speak Jack appeared at the door.
“Lexi, you aren’t tied to this house, love. You can go to the party. You should’ve just asked…we knew about it. The Lovell’s have a party twice a month. It’d be good for you to get out… meet some of your classmates.” Jack was smiling. When Lexi didn’t answer he nodded and closed the door.
“This is so great,” I squealed. I was finally going to go to a party and not just any party, a Lovell one. I had a best friends, I wasn’t going to graduate high school without going to a party. I was going to go to the most talked about party ever with Lexi. Because I will talk about it a lot. I just knew I would.
Lexi started to shake her head and said she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to go? I didn’t know what to say. My mouth dropped open, then closed… this was the ultimate party. The one that every girl at Port Willow High dreamt to be invited too. But then Lexi had only just moved here, she didn’t know how big this was…for me.I hadn’t even thought about how she might not want to go. Oh shit… I was so selfish. I didn’t even read into her words when she was shutting me down, I was not good at reading body language as I thought. She was trying to be nice about it, oh god, I can see it now. Her telling me that because of her curfew she couldn’t go, but she just didn’t want to be there. I was a bad friend.
“Okay…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you so much. I sometimes get fixated on something, and I don’t consider others thoughts. My parents tell me this all the time, and I did it again… I don’t want to do that with you. I’m really sorry, Lexi.”
I felt so bad, how could I have not seen this. She didn’t even like Ranger, it made sense why she didn’t want to go. Did she hate me? When she moved in and wrapped her arms around me in a hug I sighed in relief. I hugged her back and when we broke apart, I giggled a little nervously.
“Did you still want to watch romantic comedies and eat ice cream and chocolate?”
Please say yes, please say yes. She smiled at me, “Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome.”
And it was. Up until she changed her mind about the party. We were watchingTwilightand she just randomly said she wanted to go. I wasn’t sure if it was for me and I had been feeling really guilty about the whole thing, but when she said it was to show the Lovell twins she wasn’t afraid of them. They had been rude to her, and I was all for her showing them she would be intimidated by them. I got excited and showed her my suitcase.
She laughed when I opened the suitcase and all the clothes I shoved in there started to spill out. I offered her a choice to wear or have any of the clothes, anything she wanted. I knew she didn’t have a lot. Mom and Destiny thought it would be nice to offer them too her if she wanted, most were brand new. I showed her the dresses and all these colorful tops, but she said she was fine and put on black skinny jeans and the same black hoodie I saw her wear every day.
“Don’t you have like…a different one? In color? Like you know for the party it would be nice to wear something different, dress up and everything.” I really wanted her to have these clothes. But she wasn’t interested in them, I guess they really weren’t her style. She shook her head and laughed.
Then I knew what would look great on her, I moved back to the suitcase and pulled out a black leather jacket that Destiny left behind for me.
“When I was packing for night, I saw it in my closet and just knew it was meant for you. I’ll never wear it, and it’ll go on living in there until my parents give it to Goodwill or something. I want you to have it.” Oh, that sounded a bit pushy. “That’s if you want it, of course.” I placed it in her lap, and she looked down at it and stroked the soft leather. When she took her hoodie off, I got excited, she would look so cool wearing it.
It fit her perfectly. “Oh my god! See, I knew it! It was meant to be yours. This is like destiny.” Then I realized what I said and started laughing. Oh god that was too funny. It was Lexi’s destiny that Destiny left that for me.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, and I was trying to stop the giggles that had taken over.
“My sister– “I giggled a little more, “Her name is Destiny.”
9
Saint
The newsin Kiba was all about the foster girl who smelled. Well she smelled like a mate. A shifters’ mate, which was impossible. There were no female shifters born, and all the ones who were shifters had mates already. And they didn’t smell like a mate to anyone other than their mates.
Ranger was convinced this girl—Alexis— was his mate and had invited her to the Lovell’s party. I’d laughed and wanted to meet her even more, so I could see this for myself. Ranger, the biggest tail-chaser here besides me wanted to have a mate. I couldn’t think of anything worse. Fuck that, I wasn’t just going to settle down. I loved these parties; I’d graduated last year, but the rest of the pack didn’t. Hopefully we would still have these parties. New girls came to these things every time, so that I didn’t have to go out looking for them. They were here and were always up for a good time.
I took a mouthful of my bourbon and coke, looking out at the party from inside the Lovell’s house. I could smell anything from up to two miles away, I had a great nose. One of the best in Kiba, that was why, when I graduated high school, I moved straight over into security with the pack. I worked for Alaric, he was the alpha of Pack Kiba, and my best friend Maverick’s father.
