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She shakes her head slightly and signals for me to straighten out my button-down shirt, like I’m still a pup. “There you are. We can’t have you being late for events such as this.” Somehow, it’s easier for me to express my apologies to her than it is to my father. I’m sure any decent therapist could figure it out, but therapy isn’t exactly my thing. It’s not something we do.
Something else we don’t typically do: intermingle. I don’t know if we were supposed to mix a bit during this ceremony, but it’s not happening so far. The males stay within our little groups, eyeing each other as we do. If the alpha of the Star Moon Pack intended for this to be a mixer of sorts, he’s going to be disappointed.
As if he hears me thinking of him, the alpha steps up onto a stage at the front of the room, gesturing with both arms to the rows of chairs set up before him. “Please, everyone, take your seats and make yourselves comfortable. There seem to be a few last-minute stragglers, but once we have everyone gathered, we’ll get down to business.”
Forrest snickers at my side. “I thought this was supposed to be a welcoming ceremony, not business.” Dad shoots him a warning look—there’s no getting anything past him, something we’ve both known from our earliest days. It’s still a little unnerving, though, the way he seems to hear everything. I’m glad Thorne, his beta, pulls him aside to ask him a question.
There’s some sort of disruption at the back of the hall, and I turn around out of curiosity to see what all the noise is about. All of them walk in with their heads held high, and I know without being told these are the high-ranking members of the Star Moon Pack, our hosts. The other pack members already waiting around practically bow in their presence, casting their eyes to the floor, nodding in acknowledgment, the whole nine yards.
It’s not them I’m interested in. It’s the girl walking behind them, a girl with hair so white it’s almost silver. I only saw her once, but I would know her anywhere. She’s clothed now, wearing a dress that skims the curves of her body. Curves I was so close to seeing completely uncovered, dripping lake water. Somehow, something is even more appealing about her now, seeing her covered up like this. Knowing it would be so easy to strip her bare and do any number of things to her.
A growl begins to stir in my chest before I can think to stop it—a glance at my mother from the corner of my eye reveals her curiosity. She quirks an eyebrow, looking my way, and I have to pretend not to notice.
The girl must be someone of importance to the pack if she’s walking with the pack council, yet she isn’t given the same respect the others are. No, in fact, the deferential murmuring has turned to something dark. Something judgmental, nasty, even bordering on hateful.
Yet, she walks with her head held high, ignoring them, though I’m sure she has to hear them. Even someone without a wolf’s heightened senses would be able to hear it. They aren’t taking pains to spare her feelings. But she may as well be a queen sailing into court, their hateful muttering glancing off her like she’s wearing armor.
They take their place near the front of the room, across the center aisle from where I sit. She’s hanging close to the pack beta. Is she his daughter? It would explain why she’s with the pack’s leaders. There’s another female, slightly smaller than the girl I can’t take my eyes off of, and a third who must be her mother.
The girl from the lake sticks close to them even though she doesn’t look at all like she belongs. They’re a pair of petite, curvy brunettes with plastic smiles and the type of attitude I’d fuck and then walk away from. A dime a dozen. Lake Girl is unique, with that silver hair and those wide, piercing blue eyes. She possesses an icy sort of beauty that leaves me wondering what it would take to melt her. What I could do to keep her tied to my bed for a month before I let her go.
The beta—Benedict, if I remember from the information we reviewed—must be her father. So she’s the beta’s daughter. It would explain her almost haughty confidence. She doesn’t look much like him, either, though she must have inherited his blue eyes. Eyes which crinkle at the corners as he looks over the assembled crowd with pride.
Until a single word is muttered in the distance, and he flinches ever so slightly. “Freak.” I hear from somewhere in the room, and immediately I scan the crowd to find out who said it.
