They’d all gone back to playing. Including August. He had his back to me, as though to avoid facing me. More than ever, I hated our link because suddenly I feared it might erase our years of shared history and render us both bitterstrangers.
I felt Sarah eyeing me. Whatever she was thinking, she kept it toherself.
Between greasy, ketchup-laden bites, she said, “I’m going to be an aunt soon. My brother and Margaux areexpecting.”
I blinked ather.
“Twins. They’re having twins. A girl and a boy.” She took a big bite of herburger.
“The wedding was last week. She didn’t even lookpregnant.”
“She was. Just not showing yet. It’s early though—like six weeks or something—so they’re not really telling peopleyet.”
“Six weeks! And she already knows thegender?”
Sarah cocked up one of her dark eyebrows. “We don’t need ultrasounds to know these things.” She wiped her fingers on her checkered paper napkin before tapping her nose with herindex.
“We can smell the gender of thebaby?”
“No. We can smell pregnancies. The gender’s purely maternal instinct. She could be wrong, but shifter mamas are rarelywrong.”
So if my mom had been a werewolf, she would’ve known I was a girl before I came into this world. My parents had never done an ultrasound, so convinced I would be a boy. Why would a baby born to the Boulder pack be anything else? I wondered what would have happened if someone had found out I was the wrong gender before being born. Then I stopped wondering because it was an answer I never wanted to findout.
“Did you ever date someone in your pack?” Iasked.
“Yeah. Back in high school, I went out with this dude called Channing. Then I picked guys who weren’t in the pack, mostly kids from UCB.” She swallowed a long gulp of her soda. “My mom will probably force me to marry a wolf, so I’m getting my fix of human boys. They’re less conceited than packboys.”
“UCB? Do you attendUCB?”
“Starting year two in a couple weeks. Why? Are you consideringenrolling?”
“Apparently Ican.”
“What do you mean,youcan?”
“Liam told me the pack sets money aside to covertuition.”
Her eyes lit up. “So you’reapplying?”
Inodded.
She squealed, which made everyone look our way again. “Oh my God, that’ssoexciting! I’ll finally have afriend.”
“Oh, come on.Youdon’t have any friendsthere?”
“Hun, I’m opinionated. Most people don’t like opinionated girls. Most people like them submissive and pleasant. Mom’s always on my case about being more pleasant.” She smirked. “You’re, like, my firstfriend.”
I peeled a strip of bacon off my mayo-soaked bread roll. “Does that mean I get full access to yourcloset?”
She tossed her head back and laughed, but then shot me anice-trylook.
I grinned. Even though it was thundering outside, and I was nervous as hell about what was happening within my pack, I felt momentarily happy. “You’re my firstgirl-friendtoo.”
She raised her glass and held it up, waiting for me to clink it with hers. “Tofirsts.”
I tipped my glass into hers just as Lucas slid his empty plate onto the table and reached out between us to grab a handful ofnapkins.
“Didn’t strike me as a virgin, Sarah,” hesaid.
