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Chey gazes at me thoughtfully, tilting her head in consideration. “Well good thing we’re planning to stick around then, huh?” she asks, nudging my foot with hers. “Though there’s only so long you can keep this a secret. If you seal the bond, she’ll become part of the pack. She’ll be Luna.”
“I know,” I mutter. “I just have to figure out how to play it. There’s a lot more involved here than just finding my mate. There’s my mom, the pack, settling here…”
She nods sympathetically.
It’s funny, I’d hesitated to tell Cheyenne about me and Lo because I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be. It felt unfair for me to get a fated mate when it was all she ever wanted, but there’s no hint of bitterness in her tone, no tinge of jealousy in her words. In short, I should’ve given my friend more credit. She’s never been anything but encouraging and supportive.
“Has she told her people?” Chey asks.
I shake my head. “Like I said, she works in IT, so she’s got her own reasons for keeping this under wraps. She’s supposed to be investigating our pack for the council. I actually ran into her the day of the full moon when she was out here with her laptop…”
“Careful, Javi,” Chey interrupts, her lips pursed in concern. “She could be playing you.”
“She’s not like that,” I reply defensively.
She sits back, studying my expression for a long moment. “Dang, you’ve really got it bad, don’t you?”
My lips quirk into a sheepish grin.
“Okay, I love this,” she declares, now grinning from ear to ear. “I honestly never thought I’d see the day that our big bad alpha got swept off his feet, but I’m totally here for it. And I want to meet her!”
“You will. Sometime. I just have to figure out…”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” she groans, waving a hand.
“But I promise you’ll meet her.”
“I can’t wait.”
My phone chimes from across the clearing and I push up to stand, dusting off my athletic shorts as I make my way over to grab it. Chey gets up too, following me over to the base of the tree where we left our phones and water bottles when we came out here to train. I stoop to pick up my phone, expecting a message from Lo since she never replied to my latest text, but that’s not what’s waiting for me. Instead, there’s a message from Maddox, one of the six-pack alphas, and when I read what it says, I’m intrigued, to say the least.
12
“So youarealive!” a familiar voice calls out, and I swivel on my barstool to see the unmistakable fiery red hair of my best friend as she approaches our table.
Damn, I totally forgot to call her back.
Andie rushes up to me, throwing her arms around my body and almost knocking me over with a hug. “Where the hell have you been, Lolo?” she demands, squeezing the air out of my lungs with her grip before pulling back to give me an assessing once-over. “I was about to send out a search party!”
“Eh, you know she’s a workaholic,” Tristan remarks from the other side of the table, patting the empty barstool next to him in silent invitation. Andie either misses it or totally blows him off, sinking down onto the one beside me, instead.
All of the squad leaders are out tonight- Archer and Ares Raines, my brother Iver, Madd and Sloane and her brother Tristan. Avery’s around here somewhere, too, but she disappeared to grab drinks at some point. This little bar on the edge of Goldenleaf stays busy because it’s only a half a mile walk from the squad complex, and though it’s jam-packed on Saturdays, it still draws in a healthy crowd on weeknights.
I don’t really remember how or when Thursdays became our weekly bar night, but my friends and I have kept this routine going for years, pushing our usual two tables together near the back of the room and crowding in. It’s something I typically look forward to, but I’ve got too much weighing on my mind right now to really be present in the moment and enjoy it.
“Who’s thirsty?” Avery calls out, returning to the table with a bunch of shots in her grasp.
Andie wrinkles her nose as she eyes the shot glasses Avery’s setting down. They’re rimmed in sugar with a lemon wedge, and I’ve taken enough of them at Avery’s behest over the years to know that this night’s about to take a turn.
“Lemon drops? Really, Aves?” Andie questions with a grimace.
Avery feigns ignorance, her brown eyes widening. “Shoot, I always forget that you don’t like them,” she says with a wince, lying through her teeth. “Though to be fair, you weren’t here yet when I went up to order, so…” she trails off with an innocent shrug.
Andie rolls her eyes, not buying Avery’s bullshit for a second and turning her attention back on me. “So is that really why you’ve been ditching my calls? Work?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s been crazy,” I mumble.
I mean, it’s nottechnicallya lie, right? I’ve used the info I’ve gotten from hanging out with Javi to try to track down more about his pack. Though unfortunately, my leads have only yielded more dead ends so far.
