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A couple of people jumped in to offer comfort while a few others voiced their concerns. Soon, the room was full of overlapping chatter, suggestions flying left and right that made my left ear ache and my right ear shudder. I winced against the oncoming tinnitus. Yep, my days standing in front of speakers with no ear protection were about to catch up with me.
Static grew louder as the crowd became inconsolable. It took some time for the alphas to get them under control, but eventually the rec center fell into the steadiness that usually existed while a meeting was happening. I set my phone on the table in front of me and started typing up some notes. Mom loved a riotous meeting. More drama meant more gossip for her.
The reason I was reporting such nonsense to my mother was born purely out of boredom at this point. Builders had plenty of gossip too, and I heard enough of it to fill novels. I wouldn’t consider myself a spy, and I certainly wouldn’t say I reported people’s secrets or anything like that. But I definitely kept my ear to the ground for the nitty-gritty weird stuff.
My right fist clenched abruptly.Like how there’s a Walsh living among us.
Rumors were rumors, but rumors likethatwere how intra-pack fights started. If Blake knew about the rumor he never made it apparent, and anybody who talked about it just seemed to want to flap their gums more than provide clarity. I didn’t want to rouse any suspicion by inquiring, so I kept to the wallpaper about it, perking up anytime the rumor slid through the room.
At this point, there wasn’t much to it. Somebody somewhere mentioned that a Walsh was in our midst, that he was a recluse, and that nobody wanted anything to do with him. If it was true, then it was a useless bit of information, since the only Walsh I was concerned about running into was a deceptive woman who had long since left my life.
“…time for the next pairings now.”
I sat up straight with my forefinger perched over my phone. This was more important than some stupid history with some stupid pack family from forever ago.
“Slater Duff and Virginia Denton.”
The curvy woman shot to her feet. Was that her?Virginia. What a lovely name. It would probably slide right off my tongue after I kissed her.
Troy motioned for her to calm down. My smile grew as I realized she had a fiery passion to her, a volcanic energy that made me want to drag her to the nearest room to tame it. No one had spoken to my soul like this in ages. This one must have been a keeper. She didn’t even glance in my direction as I stood up, tucked my phone into my pocket, and started approaching her.
I tuned in to her vocalized concerns. “…absurd, Alpha. I don’t need a mate. I’m doing just fine by myself.”
“It’s the name that spoke to me,” Troy announced. “I’m sure if you try you can find amiability.”
She turned around, forcing me to stop in my tracks. Reckless gods, shewasterribly familiar. Those hazel-brown eyes spattered with yellow were unmistakable. But her hair was all wrong. Her makeup was flawless, heavy, different from what I remembered. The punky chick I’d known back then was hardly comparable to this buxom goddess.
“I’m not interested,” she claimed. Her voice carried a familiarity. Why couldn’t I place it yet? “I’m just not interested, okay?”
The man from two tables over hopped up and slammed his fists into the table. “I object!”
Gasps echoed around us. I stood like a fool in the aisle with my hands in my pockets and my attention firmly fixed on this woman’s face. Too familiar.Dangerously familiar.
“Bentley, we’re sorry we haven’t paired you yet,” Blake said. “But you can’t claim someone who isn’t yours.”
Bentley, the weirdo who had been drilling holes into Virginia for the past thirty minutes, pointed an accusatory finger at her. “I don’t want her—I just want you to know that the rumors are true.”
More gasps ripped through the crowd.
My heart chirped in my chest. “What rumors?”
Bentley looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. I could have sworn I recognized a distinct spark of delight in his eyes, but it must have been a trick of the light. “You don’t know?” He laughed suddenly. “My man, she’s aWalsh.”
Virginia sank into her seat and wrapped her arms around her two kids. Voices broke through the strange static, clearing away the wreckage of the past ten years to reveal precisely why this woman was so familiar to me.
Her name wasn’t Virginia. It was Sara.
And she had a lot of explaining to do as to why the hell she was here.
Chapter 2 - Virginia
“What’s a Walsh?”
“Why does she look like she’s hiding aterriblesecret?”
“She’sthe Walsh? No wonder no one is sitting with her!”
Great—today just had to be awful. Adhara was running a low-grade fever from her ear infection, Anthony was sharing that pain because of their twin-tuition thing they had going on, and I was feeling under the weather from that cold I had last week. My throat was still scratchy. My chest hurt. Juice didn’t taste the same.
