The girl observed me quietly, like most of herpack.
I stood my ground even though I wanted to back up a little. “Poppy orPenny?”
“Poppy. Penny’s the uglyone.”
Her twin sister smacked her arm. “Bitch.”
Poppygrinned.
“You’re twins, right?” I asked, even though it seemedobvious.
“Yup.”
I wondered how old they were. Nineteen,maybe?
“Just call them Pee. They both answer to that,” their older brother said, ruffling Penny’shair.
“So not funny, Sam,” shesaid.
Their familiarity slackened some of the tension in mybody.
“We don’t respond to Pee. Or Pee-wee. Or any derivative of that nickname,” Poppyadded.
“Yeah, they do.” A girl with brown hair down to her waist came up to us. “I’m the last Burley child. Or rather the first. Ingrid.” She extended her hand, and I shookit.
“Now that you’ve met the whole clan, it’s time to take your seats and dig in.” Zack gestured to the table that stretched the length of the structure and that was heaped with bowls of creamed corn, crisp salads, barbecued meat, and pitchers of freshjuice.
In a rush of excessive affability, Jane hooked her arm through mine and towed me toward one of the benches propped under the table, chattering on about how hungry she always was. I looked over my shoulder toward Liam, wondering where he would besitting.
You okay?heasked.
I didn’t need him to hold my hand, or want him to, for that matter, so Inodded.
“So, how come you’re the only female in your pack?” Ingrid asked, taking a seat across the table fromme.
Lowering my backpack to the ground, I bit my lip, wondering if I was allowed to disclose this. I supposed it was no longer a secret. “Because of a fossilized tree root concoction they had the males in my pack ingest. It destroyed femalesperm.”
Her eyes grew as round as the burger patty she’d put on her plate. Her sisters’ gazes widenedtoo.
“Whoa,” Samuel said, ladling some creamed corn onto his plate and then onto mine without asking if I wantedany.
“We’re not going to have any females for another decade or so, since Liam’s generation took it,” Iadded.
“Unless you absorb the Creeks,” Ingrid pointedout.
“Unlessthat.”
“I hate those bastards,” Samuel said, adding three skewers of cubed meat to his plate. He deposited one on my plate too. “Well, not the whole pack. Just the OCs. You eat meat,right?”
“Yes.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Who are theOCs?”
“The Original Creeks,” Janesaid.
“What about the Aspens?” I asked, spearing some corn onto my forktines.
“The Aspens are chill—werechill,” one of the twinssaid.
I still couldn’t believe the Burleys were seven kids. No family in my pack had more than two sons. Was that because Boulder wives were all human? As I pondered this, I studied the other Rivers seated at the long table. Most of the people I looked at looked right back with just as much unabashedcuriosity.
