“It is perfect. I’m supposed to be the anxious one, not you.”
Devon comes in and grabs my shoulders. His fingers dig in deep, but I welcome the pain.
“Relax. She’s going to choose us.”
“What if she doesn’t?” I whisper.
“Then we will deal with it and win her over another way.”
“How?”
“We’ll convince her somehow. I’m not giving up. She is ours,” Devon says with a conviction I envy.
Elijah grabs the bouquet of red roses he went out and got her at dawn this morning when he couldn’t sleep. They are beautiful.
“Come on, let’s go. It’s time,” Devon says.
One way or another, today is going to change my life.
I drive us there. I don’t know if I’ll need my car, but it will be better to have that option. As soon as we get close, I find the whole of Main Street closed off, and it has been transformed. I don’t even recognise it.
There are banners with Smitten Knot Bitten across the roads, pink and red hearts dangling from everywhere. There’s gold paint in the middle of the road, and as we get close, I see a massive area with tables cordoned off near the beach.
“Wow.”
“The Pack Makers go all out, don’t they?” I murmur.
“Yeah, they really do. It’s incredible,” Devon says, looking around.
Crowds of people are gathering, taking photos and pointing. I lick my lips, nervously looking at all the newcomers. Why are there so many people here?
“Excuse me, can you tell me what everyone is doing here?” I ask the girl closest to me.
She turns with an excited look in her grey eyes. “The Pack Maker’s Event. We’ve all been watching and following the event online.” She turns back to her friend that looks remarkably similar to her.
That catches Elijah’s attention. “Excuse me, what?”
“Yeah, see?” her friend says and holds out her phone.
I lean over to look, and it shows basic bios and introductions of everyone, along with a whole heap of photos and some video.
“Everyone wants to be part of the next Pack Maker event. They are supposed to be announcing another one at today’s conclusion.”
She squints up at Devon, then looks to me, I can see the comprehension rushing across her face. When she looks at Elijah, she squeals.
“Your Pack Hart! We love Sofia. We are totally rooting for you! You guys make the perfect pack!”
“Oh, uh, thanks,” Elijah murmurs.
“Come on, we need to get over there and find out what’s going on,” I mutter and say goodbye to the girls before anyone else recognises us.
Devon leads the way, and I follow close behind.
“Lorelei, what is going on?” he snarls at her.
She looks up, her eyes spitting fire. “Don’t you worry, I had strong words with Sara about this. But she just made a video showing some of the highlights, and people came. And it just got a little bit out of hand.”
“Yeah, they want to be included in the Pack Maker’s next event,” I say with warning.
