“Dammit!” Sally barked. “Cram another one in. She swallowed the first one too quickly.”
Bethany started cackling and pointed at Sally. “Someone please take advantage of that. It was the perfect setup.”
“Tham wuf a goon one,” Jen said around the mouthful of cookies she was attempting to chew.
Jacque took a swig of her milk , then picked up another cookie. Sure, it might have been her tenth, but like Jen had just pointed out, they could die tonight. She might as well get her fill of the cream-filled goodness now.Good thing I didn’t say that one out loud.Jacque had no clue if cookies were on the snack list during the afterlife. Better to be safe than sorry.
After each couple had spent time with their respective children, Rachel, Gavril, and Sally’s parents had, as usual, promised to watch them while the others were on their missions. Also as usual, the babysitters had promised to defend the most precious members of their pack with their lives. Now it was time for everyone else to focus on the tasks before them.
Sally licked her fingers clean. “I’m with Jen on the whole hour thing.” She paused and licked the other hand. “But we gotta stick to the code sometimes. Hoes before bros.”
“Dude, you’re the one of us that doesn’t have a beast living inside of her, and yet your manners are like that of a rabid kangaroo.” Crina scrunched her face up while watching Sally eat.
“And how do you know what a rabid kangaroo looks like?” Sally asked before continuing to purposefully lick her fingers with exaggerated thoroughness.
Adam’s mate shrugged. “Sometimes when hunting, your wolf wants a challenge.”
Jen laughed. “Is the challenge to not become infected with rabies? Because you know that’s what happens if you ingest the blood of an animal infected with rabies, right?”
“Not us, you dork.” Crina pointed between herself and Jen. “Werewolf blood. We don’t get blood-borne diseases.”
Jen’s brow furrowed, and her eyes crossed as if hard in thought. “Huh?” She huffed. “That means I could have had tons of meaningless sex and not worried about any STDs.”
“It also means you would have attended a lot of funerals because I would have hunted them all down.” Decebel’s voice came from outside of the door.
Jen grabbed a shoe lying next to her on the floor and chunked it at the door. It hit with a loud thud. “Do you really want to go there with me, B?” Jen yelled. “Because I distinctly remember asking you if you’d had any lovers before me. Would you like me to share the answer?”
Jacque’s eyes widened, as did the eyes of the other females in the room. Maybe in the human culture, being free with the number of partners you took to bed was acceptable, but that wasn’t the case in theCanis lupusworld.Usually.
“Jennifer.” Decebel growled.
She reached for another shoe.
“Oi,” Bethany snapped. “Throw your own freaking shoes if you’re going to bust out the claws. You ripped a hole in this first one.” She held up the first shoe that Jen had tossed. Three claw marks were slashed across the toe. Jacque looked at her friend’s hands and saw that her human fingers sported wolf claws. Apparently, her mate had hit a major nerve.
“My bad.” Jen dropped the other shoe she’d been about to throw. “But the dude needs to move it along.” Her voice rose, even though her mate would have heard if she had whispered. “He knows this is girls’ time. It’s sacred. It’s like a freaking institution that should never be infiltrated by—” Jen’s voice cracked, and she suddenly sat up. Her hand flew up and covered her mouth. And to Jacque’s complete shock, tears began running down her face.
“Jen?” She leaned toward her friend.
Jen’s shoulders shook, and she rocked back and forth as if attempting to console herself. From what, Jacque couldn’t guess.
“Did I miss something?” Crina’s head whipped back and forth between Jacque and Jen, whose tears streamed faster down her red face. Though Jen had seemed a little emotional lately, at no point had she broken down like this. The worst she’d seen was Jen destroying Decebel’s clothes, which really wasn’tthatout of character.
Jacque shrugged. “I’m at a loss.” She closed her eyes and used the pack connection to reach out to Jen and saw that the chord that connected her to Decebel was bright and strong. The one that tethered her to Thia was equally bright and secure. She looked closer and saw a smaller chord, a new one.
“I don’t know.” She heard Jen sob.
Jacque’s eyes snapped back open to see that Sally had crawled over to their BFF and held her close.
“Open this damn door.” Decebel growled as his fist pounded against the wood with such force that Jacque was shocked it hadn’t already come crashing in. Apparently it had been locked, most likely by Jen herself.
“I’ve been a freaking mess inside.” Jen tapped her head. “I mean, like, seriously unstable, and don’t any of you bitches say that is how I always am.” She hiccupped. “This is… It’s… Damn, it’s so much worse than usual.” She swiped angrily at the tears. “I mean, I had a bloody meltdown in our bathroom yesterday, and I’m talking about a meltdown of epic proportion. I felt like I would shatter. And then I woke up, and I was okay. Not great”—she shook her head—“but not a sniffling puddle on the floor, you know?” She looked around the room at them.
“Dammit, Jennifer.” Decebel snarled.
“Wait, Dec,” she hollered back. “Justwait!” Her hands slammed down on the floor on either side of her. “Give me a freaking minute to get this out, and then you can rush in and be all crazy fur buttish.”
“Jen.” Though her friend was falling apart before Jacque’s eyes, the alpha couldn’t help but smile.
