“Got many exes back in L.A.?” Lucasasked.
“Maybe.”
“You know, Ness, the elders didn’t state this rule, probably ’cause there hasn’t been any girls in the pack for over a century, but there’s no dating among the pack. We don’t shit where we eat, if you get thegist.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “In what screwed up world do you think I’d be interested in datinganyofyou?”
He tipped his long chin toward Everest. “You and your cousin look awfullychummy.”
Shock rushed through me that he would think I would screw my owncousin.
Everest spun and smashed his fist into Lucas’s simpering grin, which had Lucas shooting to hisfeet.
Liam grabbed a fistful of his friend’s t-shirt and yanked him back into his seat. “Enough!” His eyes gleamed dangerously. He probably didn’t want his little friend to be kicked out of the running for Alpha for beinguncivil.
“You punch like a girl, Everest,” Lucas muttered under hisbreath.
“Stop being a dick, Lucas.” August’s retort rumbled likethunder.
The bus had gone extremely quiet, so quiet I could hear Everest’s leaden breaths. I wound my fingers around his wrist, but he ripped his hand away, then sulked the rest of the trip to the paintballarena.
Lucas didn’t try talking to us again, but he did talk. To Liam. Told him about the explosive orgasm he’d given Taryn that morning, which had me wrinkling my nose. And then he asked Liam if they were still on for tonight, ’cause Tamara wasextremelyeager to seeLiam.
I wasn’t the type of person who eavesdropped, but this conversation was in no way a secret. I bet Lucas was thrilled I was hearing it. I bet he thought it made them look appealing. All these girls throwing themselves at shifters because they were muscled and powerful and could turn into fiercecreatures.
Few humans were privy to our existence. Most people still believed we were fictional beings, which packs perpetuated because not everyone was hot and bothered over a person who could morph into a beast. There were those who despised what wewere.
Like the hunter who’d killed my father with a silverbullet.
People often hated what they didn’tunderstand.
No one understood why a girl was born to the pack, and that inspiredhatred.
Chapter Nine
The paintballing arenaresembled a post-apocalyptic junkyard. A rusted old bus with blown-out windows sat at the center of muddy earth strewn with various corroded car parts and scraps of metal tall enough to shield a body—and sharp enough to slice through one, too. A plastic tunnel linked the north part to the south part of the arena. A row of brick walls arranged like a labyrinth ran the length of the western fence. A log cottage sat along the arena’s northern fence. The rooms were dusty, the furniture disemboweled and overturned, the cabinets crooked and broken, their doors flapping like broken birdwings.
On the east side, there was a narrow tower with a winding staircase, and a platform with a plank leading down into a wooden boat that seemed to have washed up from a playground. The round windows were grimy and the corridors tight anddark.
A couple minutes ago, we’d been given long-sleeved overalls, walkie talkies, helmets with visors, heavy guns loaded with paint pellets, and a mission. Besides defeating the enemy team, we had to locate five clues hidden amidst thejunkyard.
Everest’s grumpy mood lifted. Even August seemed somewhat less encumbered. These boys loved playingwargames.
Everest was on my team, but not August. He was on the red team with Lucas. Liam and Matt were greens like me. The teams had been predetermined before we showed up. Not that I would’ve chosen to be on the red team. I was plenty happy to have Lucas on the enemyteam.
I had my back to the brick wall. On the walkie talkie tuned into a special bandwidth only accessible to our team, I heard Liam’s voice crackle, asking for Matt’s position. Matt mentioned the tower. I looked up and spotted him, and then I spotted the barrel of his gun aimed straight at me. Something hard blasted against mystomach.
The bastard shotme!
I was his freaking teammate. He grinned, and then his voice grizzled on the walkie talkie, “Oops. I shot one of ours. Sorry,Clark.”
I glared at him, which just increased his wolfishgrin.
I walked off the field, gun and hands raised to indicate I was on a timeout. Two pellets flew at me. One from a red. The other from a green. Did these assholes not know the rules? I’d never played before, but I’d listened to thebriefing.
I sat in the green camp, waiting for my coach to give me the go-ahead to return to the field—not that I wanted to return. I listened to the voices crackling over the walkie talkies. Heard one of my teammates announce that they’d located item number two and were bringing it back to the camp. Then heard another one announce he was on a timeout. A couple seconds after he walked in, I went back out and raced toward the wooden boat, where I foundEverest.
“Fucking Matt shotme.”
