“Seeing if any of them want to go.”
“Yeah, but what if I don’t want to go?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to go? There are bunk beds involved. It’s like a slumber party.”
She plastered an empty smile on her face and set the basket down and then pulled him off to the side. “I am Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack,” she whisper-screamed.
“So?”
“So, I can’t go on weekend getaways with an enemy Pack!”
“Who is going to know?”
“My sister. She watches everything I do.”
“Your sister sounds boring. Why doesn’t she go with you then?”
“Because she’s mean as a rattlesnake.”
He pulled a grossed-out face and looked at his phone. “Destiny is in and so is Delta. Whoa, they’re typing so many exclamation marks. Look.” He turned his phone toward her, and indeed, they seemed very excited.”
“Well, wait until they find out I’m going,” she muttered.
“Oh, they know.” He scrolled up. He’d typed out,Lyric needs friends for some girls’ weekend wine tour. All expenses paid. A hotel night is included. Any takers?
“But…they don’t even know me,” she said, baffled.
“Destiny knows you. She told us all about how cool you were when she was taken. You protected her and then you gave her a wolf to defend herself. Plus, I’ve talked about you.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. Bridger told me at the Pack meeting to, and I quote, ‘shut the hell up about Lyric, you fucking potato. She doesn’t even like you.’”
An accidental laugh escaped her. Bridger was kind of mean, but she’d never heard anyone call someone a potato before.
“Okay, well is it for a certain date?”
“I don’t think so. Looks like you just schedule it when you’re ready,” he mumbled, looking over the information card.
“Well…my sister is heading to an Elder meeting this weekend out of town. I can maybe get away from—”
“She’ll take this one,” Vic told Denise, holding up the wine tour card.
Denise was already holding the basket out for Lyric. It had a couple of miniature sample bottles of wine, a set of wine glasses,wine glass charms with sparkly gems, custom corks with the logos of the wineries etched onto them, and a folder with the hotel information on it.
“I think a stress-free getaway would be good for you,” Vic said. “You deserve the break.”
“How do you know? You don’t even know me.”
“Mmm, I can feel it. You’re good. Destiny could feel it too when you Turned her. It’s okay to take a breather from the grief.”
“Grief,” she said softly.
“I was at the war, remember? We all saw what happened to your dad.”
“He’s not really my dad,” she reminded him.
“What better way to escape that confusion for a minute than getting hammered with a bunch of slightly annoying but mostly fun female werewolves for a weekend?”
