“Ah, awkward tension. My favorite,” Sabrina quips, slipping between Damian and Slade to jump into the deep end of the pool without so much as dipping a toe in the water to check the temperature.
Capitalizing on the moment she’s under water and can’t hear us, I jerk my head from Bo to Sabrina. Of all of them, he’s the least likely to give any pushback, because our interests align. He wants to keep Sabrina safe and happy, and that’s more important to him than pecking order. The others, though, are a different story. The twins are used to listening to Slade, while he, Damian, Kaige, and I are used to navigating dangerous situations and making the calls to keep our packs alive.
“I’ll explain when we have more time, but trust me at least while we’re here. Carina’s right, we cling to our hierarchy or we fall apart. So we need to decide for at least today; do we want to pick one of us to be the primary alpha, at least until Sabrina’s up for it, or switch to voting, using Boden as a tie breaker if necessary?”
At this point, Sabrina’s resurfaced, so we’re all careful to keep our voices barely audible, even the twins that are currently glaring daggers at my face. I get it, I really do, because I’d happily have left them back in Shadow Ridge if it were up to me. But like it or not, we need to actually do the one thing that Sabrina asked us to do if we don’t want to drive her away.
Embrace the clean slate she proposed, even if it’s hard to forgive and forget. If we can leave the stressors that we brought to the table in the past, we’ll be able to focus on our current issues with less distractions. If we can be a united front, we might actually stand a chance of figuring a way out of the web we’re caught in the middle of.
“I pick Kaige,” Cinjin decides, raising an eyebrow as if he thinks he one-upped me, but I only shrug.
“Fine by me. Rest of you?”
Kaige snorts. “No fucking way. I have enough people to look after back home, thank you very much. You can keep these two hellions.”
Reid gestures at the eldest Hawthorne. “Well, we know it won’t be him. Slade needs as much of a break as Sabrina does.” Facing Damian, he narrows his eyes. “And the guy that wanted to use our mate as a bargaining chip is no better than the men that pawn off their daughters to benefit themselves.”
Putting a hard stop to that before it escalates, I snap, “Then it’s me, or all of us. But if you’d pull your head out of your ass for a minute, you’d notice that seven separate relationships are stressing Sabrina out, and she keeps playing peacekeeper between us. So if you want to make her happy, you’ll take the damn olive branch that I’m offering. She didn’t offer a clean slate for our sake, but for hers. Don’t fuck up your one chance at a do-over with her because you don’t like me. You and I both know if we were to go so far as to try and kill each other, whoever came out on top would lose her anyway.”
Locked in a stare off with him, I wait until his pupils recede, ensuring I got past the wolf that has a chokehold on his system to the real Reid; the one that I know can figure out everything that I did about her, but far faster, and with less information to work with.
Though I’d rather stick my hand in a blender, I admit, “I actually respect the hell out of you for what you did to save her, but I can’t forget how you kept hurting Sabrina over and over again while she continued to protect you however she could.” Sighing, I silently curse up a storm while scratching the stubble on my jaw, buying myself a few seconds to spit the words out. “I have to, though. The only way I can put her first like she deserves is by leaving the past where it belongs. So, truce?”
He remains completely silent for long enough that I’m tempted to hit him, but eventually relents, “Fine. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say, so if it’s going to crush someone's skull, it may as well be yours.” Giving us his back, Reid and Cin jump into the pool, swimming over to where Bo is keeping Sabrina distracted.
It breaks the spell and we follow their lead. While the others get in the water, I sit on the edge, only dipping my feet in. If something were to happen, I could intercept quicker than if I had to haul myself out of the pool first. And while it offers a good view of Sabrina, it also gives me a chance to studythem.
The only ones that act anything other than human are those near the couple of women, but that's not surprising. We've been blending in, hiding in plain sight, for centuries. Mates, though, draw our animalistic instincts to the surface. Whatisinteresting are the three claiming bites on one of the women's neck and wrists. They’re the same pearlescent blue as ours are, but onher.Respectfully, I divert my eyes and quickly glance at the other girl, but there isn't a mark to be seen on her or the men swimming beside her.
Doesn't mean they aren't there, just might be more discreet.
"We can’t play Marco Polo, you’d cheat," Sabrina argues, slipping away from Cinjin and leaning back into Slade’s chest where he keeps them both afloat.
The soft smile immediately fades from my face as I go back to watch, finding one of the single men staring back at me with the same scrutiny I’m leveling him with. From his collarbone down, there’s hardly an inch of skin that isn’t covered in tattoos, and with a smirk that speaks volumes, he slowly pushes his sunglasses up to rest on top of his head. I’m sure he means it to be some sort of power move, revealing eyes dark enough that they appear solid black, unreadable, but it falls flat; he doesn’t register as anything other than human to me. Not like Carina, who rendered my wolf, hellhound, or whatever you want to call the tormenting parasite, suspiciously silent like he was afraid of drawing her attention.
Best guess, that would put whatever these people are as beneath us on the danger scale, our wolves unconcerned about the threat they'd pose. The only thing that's making the pressure rise in my chest is the attention this asshole and the other unmated men keep giving Sabrina.
Raising an eyebrow, I roll my eyes and dismiss him. We’re not here to start shit, but I’m not going to humor pissing contests either. Turning my attention back to Sabrina as she, Slade, and Reid are caught in a race from one side to the other on our end of the pool, I catch Damian’s eye, subtly flitting my gaze to the men watching her. He joins in their race, an additional buffer between Sabrina and the rest of the people here.
Bright side, they must be able to pick up on the potential danger, and none have attempted to approach us. Scanning faces, I pause on one of the mated men, who gives me a nearly imperceptible tilt of his head, confirming the unspoken agreement. They stay on their half of the pool, we stay on ours.
“For me being here practically naked, you guys are pretty focused on other guys,” Sabrina comments, calling us out.
It sets the twins off, and within seconds, she’s sandwiched between them. The only real bright side about being surrounded by shifters is not having to worry about anyone here commenting. Her mom haunts her enough as it is, making it difficult for her to get close to anyone. This is the one connection that should be easier than breathing, but it looks like she’s taking Kaige’s words from the other night to heart. It took her breaking to let us past her defenses, so I can’t behappyabout it, but I am relieved that she’s starting to get comfortable with the idea of allowing herself to have things that make her happy.
Slade hooks a finger in her necklace, pulling her closer. “I think Bo might be onto something. It’s embarrassing how much I like the thought of doing something to mark you as mine.”
Haltingly, she states, “Like I told him and Cinjin, I’m not opposed to alittlespoiling as long as it’s within reason.” The only sound to be heard is across the pool until eventually, low, rumbling growls surround her and she groans in annoyance. “It’s incredibly weird how excited you guys get about spending money, you do realize this, right?”
“It’s not about the money,” I point out, since the others are too busy eye-fucking her to think straight. “It’s about you giving us permission to stop holding back.”
Holding my gaze, she swallows. “Then I apologize in advance for whatever I unwittingly unleashed.”
Smirking, I lean forward to brush a drop of water from her cheek. “I’m not.”
Returning to my position, I watch the others drag her into their games, gradually calming down as they simply enjoy having nothing to do, and nowhere they have to be. As time ticks by, someone drags out a volleyball, the group of single men getting carried away enough that the mated ones call it, taking their women back inside and out of the line of fire. Without any humans around to need to worry about hiding their strength, they launch the ball at each other with enough force that I’m shocked it hasn’t popped yet.
A breeze picks up with the next smack, sending it veering off course and across the invisible line to our side. Bo pulls Sabrina out of the way a split second before it hits the water hard enough that it sends a spray of water over me as well.
