Two other girls pushed in beside her. They tossed their names at me.TarynandSienna. Sienna reminded me of a piece of pale silk with her wispy blonde hair, latte-colored eyes, and flawless complexion. Taryn, on the other hand, was all harsh angles and stark contrasts. Her face was as narrow as an axe blade, her hair tar-black, and her eyes an icyblue.
“Who did you come with?” Iasked.
The pack didn’t have daughters—hadn’t had any for over a century until me—so these girls had to be plus-ones.
Taryn raised her pointed chin. “LucasMason.”
I remembered Lucas: shaggy black hair, serious acne, and surly attitude. He used to be Liam’s best friend. Maybe stillwas.
Amanda said, “I’m with MatthewRogers.”
The name conjured up a blondgiant.
“Sienna…” Amanda tilted her head toward the delicate blonde. “She’s with August.” It sounded like awarning.
“You and August seem close.” Sienna’s voice gusted softly toward me. I’d never met anyone whose voice matched their appearance untiltoday.
“August is the brother I never had,” Iexplained.
“You have Everest,” Tarynsnapped.
What was that supposed to mean? That I shouldn’t hang out with August? “If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere tobe.”
I started back toward the doors of the living room when Lucy stopped me. I was about to utter an exasperatedwhat, when she asked, “Where are yougoing?”
“To mybedroom.”
She scrutinized my face. “Evelyn could use some help in thekitchen.”
Without a fight, I walked in the direction of the kitchen until Lucy moved to the buffet. Then I doubled-back and set course for the basement. When I burst into the conference room, forty faces spun my way. Expressions ran the gamut: I got annoyance, anger, shock,curiosity.
But mostlyannoyance.
“Ness?” my uncle said in a strangled voice. “Is everything allright?”
The salty, tangy scent of male wasoverpowering.
“Great.” I looked for a free chair but found none. “Sorry I’m late, but Matt’s girl is atalker.”
A large blond boy with a neck as thick as his face crossed his beefy arms in front of his fridge-sized chest. I suspected he could crush a tree trunk with thosearms.
“What are you doing here?” Jeb askedme.
“It’s a pack meeting, isn’tit?”
“Itis.”
“You have to be a member of the pack to sit in on it,” someonesaid.
“Good thing I am,then.”
An elder with bushy white hair and bushier white eyebrows linked his hands together before him in a business-like manner. “Ness Clark, you’re not part of thepack.”
“But that was under Heath Kolane. Now that he’s gone, you’ve surely amended your misogynisticways.”
Everest made a little sound in the back of his throat. He wasn’t the only one. Matt turned a shade darker, as though soaked with wood stain. August and his father gaped at me. Where Nelson tapped his fingers nervously against the laminated wood, August fought off asmile.
“You would have had to pledge yourself before puberty to become part of the pack,” one of the elderssaid.
