“Ask me out?”
“Yeah, like on a date, silly.”
“Who’s Thorne?” Lux turns around half in her dress. “Spill.”
“There’s nothing to spill.”
“Liar,” Clover laughs.
I point a finger at her. “Keep it up and I’ll run out of here with no makeup on.”
“Fine but only because I have a vision.”
I sigh and throw up my hands but there’s a smile on my face. “I know, I know.”
Clover’s vision for the night is to make me look like someone I don’t even recognize. I look like me but…better. I never got to wear makeup and didn’t think much of it when I got to Red River, everything else was more important but seeing myself in the mirror has me rethinking that. Clover’s made everything I like about myself that much better. My eyes are ringed with smokey eyeliner, cheeks dusted with bronzer and blush that give me a flushed look. My lips are painted red and holy hells do I look good with it. I lean close to the mirror and check my face out.
“I’ll never question your vision again,” I tell her.
“See that you don’t. Now, do you want to wait for us or are you good to head to the dance on your own?”
The dance is being held on the third floor of the Keep, where we had the pack meeting and already I can hear the base beats of the band she was talking about.
“I’ll go on without you,” I tell her and look at Nova and Lux who are still getting ready. “I’ll see you up there.”
The women wave me out the door and I head straight for the stairs. When I enter the main hall I see everyone is dressed to the nines. I say a silent prayer of thanks that Clover intervened when she did. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t.
I’m on the stairs heading up to the dance when an alpha falls into step beside me. “Are you excited for tonight?” he asks me, although it takes me a minute to realize that he’s talking to me.
“Oh, yeah, of course I am,” I splutter when he gives me a questioning look. I give him a nervous smile as we continue to walk up the stairs with everyone else. “I, ah, I heard the band is great.”
He brightens and nods. “They are. Best band around. They’re from Oak Fast.”
“I heard.”
An awkward silence falls between us and I let out a silent scream. Why am I so bad at socializing with strangers? I thought I was getting better at this. I was okay when pack members came to see me in the Healing Rooms and I got along with Clover and Piper easily enough. Luna. I should have waited for them to come with me. They would know exactly what to say to the alpha.
The alpha gives me a look that says he knows I’m bad at this. “Have you heard them before?” he tries. Poor guy looks like he’s about to walk in front of a firing squad talking to me. I have to help him.
I plaster a big smile on my face. “No! What are they called?” I ask as enthusiastically as I can.
“The Roaming Howlers.”
That’s an interesting name. “Oh, are they shifters?”
“Half and half from what I hear. Oak Fast is pretty open-minded about all of that.”
He’s not wrong. The people I met from Oak Fast were completely open-minded. “Yeah, I do. They’re really great people there.”
The alpha nods and starts to go on about the band’s music style but we’ve reached the top floor and we’re standing in front of the meeting hall doors. I can see lights flashing from the inside. There must be a whole set up for the band. Other pack members pass us by, they’re all in a hurry to get inside to dance and mingle. I think I would be too if I wasn’t thinking about Thorne. Dancing is the furthest thing from my mind, it’s the Enforcer that I’m thinking about.
Is he inside already?
Oh gods, what if he’s waiting for me?
Would he be waiting for me?
I bite my lip and think it over. He left before I woke the night he stayed with me, and of course I haven't heard from him since he’s been gone. Clover and Piper swear he likes me, and it feels like he does, but still…the fear of rejection hangs low over me. Keiran showing up here again ripped open wounds that had only just stopped bleeding. What if I’m reading this all wrong?
