I cocked my head to the side. “Did you want to borrow it?”
The lightning bolts turned into electrical discharges.
A loud clap resounded, disrupting the thick tension, and then Lucy exclaimed, “All pack members are asked to make their way to the conference room.”
Reluctantly, August pressed away from the balustrade. “Catch you at dinner?”
I nodded. He’d catch mesooner than that.
Liam’s jaw moved as though he were about to say something. In the end, he backed away without speaking.
I watched the men leave, allowing them a head start. Whether they liked it or not, I descended from this pack, so their decisions would affect my life. I hadn’t had a say in returning to Boulder, but I wanted a say in what would happen now that I was back and out of hiding.
Iforded through the clusters of women sipping drinks from copper goblets, the heady mix of perfumes and spirited juices making my nose twitch.
“Ness?” Someone tapped my shoulder.
I pivoted.
“It’s me. Amanda.”
I studied the brunette with the bluntly cut curly hair, the long-lashed tawny eyes, and the heart-shaped face.
“Amanda Frederick,” she went on.
At last, I placed her. Miss Popular back in elementary and middle school. Not a mean girl. Just someone interested in everything I wasn’t.
Her lips bent into a satisfied smile once she noted the recognition. “Are you back for the summer or longer?”
“Not sure yet.”
Two other girls pushed in beside her. They tossed their names at me. Taryn andSienna. 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 icy blue.
“Who did you come with?” I asked.
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. “Lucas Mason.”
I remembered Lucas: shaggy black hair, serious acne, and surly attitude. He used to be Liam’s best friend. Maybe still was.
Amanda said, “I’m with Matthew Rogers.”
The name conjured up a blond giant.
“Sienna…” Amanda tilted her head toward the delicate blonde. “She’s with August.” It sounded like a warning.
“You and August seem close.” Sienna’s voice gusted softly toward me. I’d never met anyone whose voice matched their appearance until today.
“August is the brother I never had,” I explained.
“You have Everest,” Taryn snapped.
What was that supposed to mean? That I shouldn’t hang out with August? “If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.”
I started back toward the doors of the living room when Lucy stopped me. I was about to utter an exasperated what, when she asked, “Where are you going?”
“To my bedroom.”
She scrutinized my face. “Evelyn could use some help in the kitchen.”
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 mostly annoyance.
“Ness?” my uncle said in a strangled voice. “Is everything all right?”
The salty, tangy scent of male was overpowering.
“Great.” I looked for a free chair but found none. “Sorry I’m late, but Matt’s girl is a talker.”
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 those arms.
“What are you doing here?” Jeb asked me.
“It’s a pack meeting, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“You have to be a member of the pack to sit in on it,” someone said.
“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 the pack.”
“But that was under Heath Kolane. Now that he’s gone, you’ve surely amended your misogynistic ways.”
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 a smile.
“You would have had to pledge yourself before puberty to become part of the pack,” one of the elders said.
The mix of nerves and anger loosened my tongue. “What makes you think I hit puberty?”
Half the room checked me out. In their defense, I’d invited the attention.
“Okay, fine. I hit puberty. But it’s a dumb rule. Besides, I was physically absent from Boulder, so I should get a free pass.”
“Rules are rules.” The declaration delivered by a bald elder was like a whip. Scorching.