“The others don’t need a team?” I asked, looking between them.
Finley remained expressionless, his arms crossed over his chest, stretching his white shirt to the full extent of its capabilities. The massive bear didn’t give much away, but his scent was bitter, indicating he was more than a little unhappy to be here.
Today, his eyes were flat, without the chasm of pain I’d seen on that first night.
“Kellan’s the only one who needs help,” Slade said, his tone so dry I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “All brawn and no brains.”
The dragon shifter sprawled into a large chair on one side of the table, and I noticed Kellan discreetly flipping him off when he wasn’t looking. I barely managed not to laugh, because the last thing I wanted was to draw more attention to myself. Or get Kellan murdered.
Slade settled back, the legs of the chair groaning, and if there was ever an advertisement for the strength of furniture, it was this piece holding up to a near seven-foot-tall, buff-as-fuck dragon.
Finley reluctantly took the seat opposite Slade, leaving Kellan and I to sit across from Hunter, who was ignoring us all and unpacking the game.
I studied the board, noticing that it was separated into squares which were different colors, and some even had words written in them. It took a few seconds of silently sounding out,but I managed to figure out they saidDouble letter scoreandDouble word score.
Hunter dropped a clinking bag in the middle of the board, and then handed out a small brown piece of plastic to each of the alphas.
“You guys know the rules of choosing the theme,” Kellan said, rubbing his hands together. “Emme, think of a number between one and twenty. We’ll each try and guess, and whoever is the closest gets to choose the theme.”
Against my leg, Kellan pressed seven times, and I barely caught another laugh that would have given us away. “Yep, no worries. I’ve got my number.”
Slade went first, in his raspy, slightly accented drawl that sent shivers down my spine. “Thirteen.”
Finley was next with a flat: “One.”
Hunter took a second to assess me before he drawled, “Eighteen.”
Kellan was last of course. “My guess from the beautiful Shortcake is six.”
Pressing my lips together to hide my amusement, I said, “My number was seven, so Kel is the winner.”
Finley’s calm broke as he groaned and rubbed a hand through his hair, sending the thick brown strands into disarray. “Ah fuck. Here we go. That bastard is always cheating. Every fucking games day. And now he’s even roped the omega into it.”
Kellan threw his head back and laughed, clutching his flat stomach. “Aw, come on, bro. It’s too early to be a sore loser. If you weren’t such a grouch, you could also have a mind meld connection with Emme.”
Finley opened his mouth with a snarl, but Kellan interrupted him to add, “And the theme for the day isStar Wars. May the force be with you.”
Hunter was the only one who looked pleased by this announcement, and I was reminded of his secret nerd-isms. “I don’t know why it’s necessary to have a theme,” Slade rumbled with a huff that was heavily scented in ash.
“Got to add some spice to life, S. You know that.”
Slade ignored Kellan, reaching out to pick up the clinking bag. He pulled out a square tile, and turned it around to show the letter “H.” The others did the same, and when Kellan pulled out a B for his first letter, I swear steam seeped from Finley’s ears.
HisGrouchy Bearpersona had never been more obvious and appropriate.
Hunter explained to me that whoever pulled out the letter closest to “A” goes first. I could only assume Kellan had cheated again, and I loved that he was riling them all up this way. Weirdly, I couldn’t wait to see how this day ended up, especially since no one generally fucked with alphas. It was about to be a great lesson in humility for them.
“Okay, the aim of this game,” Hunter continued explaining it all to me, “is to get the highest point score by using the letters you pick to form words across the board.” He pointed toward the center tile. “You start here, and if you don’t have a word initially, you can swap out some of your letters for others.”
I was following along easily enough, but as soon as he mentioned forming words, I had a mini-panic attack. Even if I were a proficient reader, letters always mixed around the wrong way when I tried to spell, leaving me looking like an idiot.
Thank the goddess I was on Kellan’s team and not on my own. The thought of demonstrating my stupidity to these alphas, half of whom hated me, had bitter shame rising in my body until heat infused my cheeks.
Hunter, who’d been in the middle of explaining how letters held different values, stopped suddenly, and I was once again the center of their attentions.
“What’s wrong, Shortcake?” Kellan took my hand, but I was too tense to unfurl my fingers. “Your scent went from sweet to bitter in seconds. What happened?”
My frazzled brain couldn’t come up with anything but the truth. “I’m not great with words, sorry. I’m not going to be much use to you.” Kellan’s eyes softened, and before he could offer sympathy thatI really didn’t want, I added, “I’ve mentioned it before, but I haven’t had much schooling. The best I can do is moral support.”
