Unable to meet their eyes, I stared at the board as if I were about to memorize it. In reality, I didn’t want to see their expressions, which would either be filled with disgust or pity. Each equally as bad.
“Omega!” Hunter’s command had my head jerking up to meet his storm-filled gaze. “You don’t need to feel shame about what was stolen from you. And you don’t have to worry about what you perceive as weaknesses. You were strong for far longer than most wolves would have survived. We see that. We see you. Now… if you feel uncomfortable, we’ll choose another game.”
Kellan offered his support in a squeeze of my hand, and to my surprise, none of the others looked disgusted by me. If anything, there was a complete lack of judgement from the table. No doubt they felt this way due to our scent bond, but it was my first real glimpse of support via a pack, and it was gloriously addicting.
I wanted more.
I wanted it all. And for a second I pretended it could be mine to keep.
“Thank you. I’m completely fine to watch you all play. Who knows, I might learn some new words, especially since I’ve never watchedStar Wars.”
I had heard of it at least, so that was something.
As I calmed, Hunter also relaxed, and that press of his dominance faded around us. “Okay, let’s proceed.”
Each of them drew out seven tiles from the bag, and Kellan placed ours onto that piece of plastic Hunter handed out before.A stand. His letters were E, I, J, H, X, Q, and a D.
After he arranged them, he let out a satisfied whoop. “That’s a nice start.”
He hadn’t let go of my hand yet, not even when Finley made a point of glaring at our joined palms, his whiskey eyes finally swirling with emotions.
“Are you starting or not, pup?” Hunter grumbled. “You know I have the timer on, and you’re almost out.”
Kellan picked up four of the letters and arranged them on the center tile to spell out JEDI. When he was done, he sat back looking smug, while the other three shook their heads. “Oh,” Slade deadpanned, “you just happened to pullJedias your first word? Do you know the statistical probability of that happening?”
My lips were pressed together so hard they were starting to hurt, while Kellan looked adorably smug. “I’d say it’s a hundred percent probability based on today.”
“Has anyone figured out how he cheats so seamlessly?” Finley demanded, looking around the table to the other alphas. His irate gaze even rested on me for a second.
“It’s pure skill,” Kellan said around a chuckle. “You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.”
“I know I’m going to put my foot in your fucking a—”
“Twenty-four points,” Hunter interrupted, jotting the figure into a little notepad I hadn’t noticed until now. “First word gets a double point score.”
Kellan flashed me a slow smile, leaning closer to murmur in my ear. “Who do you think will flip out first? Want to place a bet?”
A snort of laughter finally escaped, and every head snapped in our direction, leaving me barely able to resist pressing my face into Kellan’s neck to hide.
Thankfully, they moved on to the next turn without comment, and I leaned closer and breathed right into Kellan’s ear. “Finley.”
Kellan’s cheeks had to ache with how hard he grinned, and as he looked between his pack, he murmured, “Hunter.”
The entitled alpha heard him and pointed a finger straight in his face. “Don’t fucking start or I’ll let Fin free on you and you’ll be the one wearing the board this time.”
“It’s our third Scrabble board,” Kellan said in a pretend-whisper, like it was a secret.
Slade had the next turn, and he used the D in JEDI for the word DARK.
“Eleven points,” Hunter said, jotting his score down as well.
Both Kellan and Slade had chosen more tiles from the bag after their turns, so they always had seven on their plastic stand. After a while, I started to understand how it all worked. They used a combination of the letters on their stands and the free letters on the board to build words, with the aim to get the higher valued letters on the squares that were either double or triple points.
It astonished me how smart all four of them were, as they continuously found ways to createStar Warswords with seven random letters, half of which I’d never even heard of, though that might have been due to the theme.
They also argued. A lot.
Mostly about whether a word was acceptable under the rules, and in most cases Hunter had final say. It was enjoyable watching them play, and by the time they finished, Kellan was the winner by about forty points with the word TROOPER.
