Page 101 of Marked By the Pack
“Until tomorrow, girlfriend,” he whispered against my lips.
“Until tomorrow, boyfriend.” I gave him one last peck and then he helped hoist me onto the trellis. And by help, I mean he just put his hands on my ass.
All the lights were off downstairs, and I hadn’t brought my keys with me. Otto had offered to pick the lock. But everyone thought I was upstairs sleeping. If someone was still awake, I didn’t want to scare them by breaking in.
Now that I had practice, climbing up the trellis wasn’t so bad. And this time my eyes were adjusted to the dark night.
But my phone ringing in my pocket wasn’t expected. I jumped, almost falling back, but I was somehow able to hold on. I cursed under my breath.
“Are you okay?” Otto called up to me.
“Fine,” I said. But my heart was racing. Who the hell was calling me this late at night? The ringing cut off before I could even decide whether it was worth checking while hanging from the trellis. I started climbing again. My hand landed on the window ledge.
Emma’s head appeared out the window and I almost screamed.
“Zoey? What the fuck are you doing? You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“Sorry, Emma!” Otto called up to her.
Emma jumped.
“Had to borrow my girl for something,” he said.
Emma leaned out the window to see him. She looked back and forth between us.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I said. “Could you please help me up?”
She grabbed my hand and helped pull me through the window. I waved down at Otto. I leaned against the window ledge and sighed as I watched him walk away under the moonlight. I had a boyfriend. Four of them, actually.
“Seriously…what the fuck?” Emma said. “I thought you were in bed but it was just a pillow.” She gestured toward my bed.
Huh.I could see why she was confused. It practically looked like I’d set it up to seem like I was asleep under the sheets. I definitely hadn’t meant to be so sneaky.
“And you literally just called me less than two hours ago screaming for help fromhim. What were you thinking sneaking off like that without telling me?”
I brushed some dirt off my jeans. “I was thinking about what we’d talked about earlier. About whether or not I loved him.”
“Oh.” Emma nodded. “Right. Sorry.” She took a deep breath. “I’m just really revved up right now. I thought maybe they came and kidnapped you or something and took you to their secret lair.”
“Secret lair?” I laughed. “I don’t think they have one of those.” At least, not that I knew of. “I went with Otto willingly. He was trying to climb up and I wasn’t exactly in a good place to tell him about the whole camming thing. So I just did the first thing I could think of and climbed down to him.”
She sat down on the edge of my bed. “Okay. So…then what happened?”
“He told me how he became cursed.” I climbed onto my bed too and sat cross-legged. “He blames himself, Emma. They were all on a trip to Egypt and Ace dared him to touch some relic they weren’t supposed to. And it cursed them.”
Emma nodded. “I thought maybe they were born that way. But that makes sense. Since they’re all just friends. God, that really sucks.”
“He feels so guilty. I hate seeing him hurting.”
“I definitely get that.”
I pressed my lips together. “And then he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes.”
“Wait, I thought you were dating all of them?”
“I am. Well, all of them but Titan apparently. He hates me for some reason. But Otto said they’d probably each ask me officially on their own. It was really sweet. Otto took me to the roof of the bank. The view is amazing up there.”
Emma smiled. “Told you that you knew the real him.”
