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“Have fun with your other girlfriends.” She laughed as he groaned.
“Tell Esther and Vera we miss them!” I chimed in, smiling wide. “Show them the abs, Declan. They haven’t seen them in a while.”
“No.”
“Oh! There’s a carrier in my car.” Nolan chased after us.
“Oh, she’s fine,” Raven dismissed. Clover was half asleep in the crook of her arm, which was fine. For now. But when she woke up? Well, I’d been around enough cats to know she was better off in a carrier. Chaos would ensue if she wasn’t. Granted, I firmly believed Raven’s middle name was chaos, so she wouldn’t mind.
“This wasn’t my best idea,” Raven muttered, making me laugh. “I can’t hold coffee, hold a cat, and push a shopping cart.”
“I can help,” I offered and took a sip from my coffee. Freaking orgasmic. There was no better way to describe the sweet and savory pumpkin spice concoction. I wasn’t even sure there was coffee in it, but I didn’t care.
“No, I’ve got it,” she said in her true stubborn fashion despite how she struggled to balance all three. Her need for control was a legendary beast. Not that I was one to talk. I had my own issues. We were a hell of a pair. So, I let her while still casually resting a hand on the far corner of the cart. If she noticed, she didn’t say anything about it.
We wandered up and down aisles with Raven tossing things in the cart while I silently helped. The level of unwillingness to disturb the sleeping kitten reminded me of Nolan. I’d made this exact same trip with Nolan more times than I could count. And while he’d suggested a cat carrier, he’d also hand-carried Wutherford and Barry into more stores than I could count.
“Have you been to this Fall Games thing?” Raven asked.
“A few times,” I said.
“Declan says it’s just drinking, partying, and more drinking.”
“It is.” I snorted into my coffee. “Look, the Stones, Ironwoods, and Byrnes are all full of shit.”
“Oh, bold words.” She laughed.
“They are!” I exclaimed. “We’ll end up driving to Colorado, where they’re going to big up and boast all about doing their little wolf scavenger hunt in the desert canyons. The Stones win that every year. Cole runs a search and rescue team in the desert. He’s the best tracker out of the lot of them just because he knows the area. But before that is two days of drinking, partying, and hanging out. One night for the scavenger hunt, and then it’s another day of drinking chaos followed by everyone heading to the Ironwoods. Where they keep drinking, partying, and hanging out. I will say it gets pretty intense because they end up doing fight club. The Byrnes don’t end up participating often. Sometimes Lucas or Sam might, but it’s not their thing. The Stones and the Ironwoods enjoy beating up each other—even Alice kicks some people’s asses from time to time. It’s a big part of where the joke between Alice and Declan comes from.”
“What joke?”
“The one where Alice could take on Declan in a fight.”
“I don’t think Declan could throw a punch, even if they wanted him to,” she commented. Oh, sweet Raven. I’d grown up with those boys. For as gentle as Declan was, he’d still been a teenage boy once. I’d seen many fights break out between the Byrne boys when they were younger.
“After all is said and done,” I continued, “they’ll have one wild night of karaoke between the pack leaders to see who’s best. The Ironwoods clear out the bar, so it’s just wolves and no humans. It’s rowdy and wild and Cole Stone wins every year. He has a band. No one is beating that.”
“Oh, well that’s just cheating,” Raven replied. “Do you sing?”
“There’s not a chance in the world that anyone is getting me up on that stage to sing,” I answered quickly. “Not unless I’m very drunk.”
“Duly noted.” The hint of trouble in her voice wasn’t lost on me.
“And then they all pack up and come here,” I said. “They do the track run through the woods. Nolan competes every year, but his social anxiety gets the better of him, and he loses. Usually, the Stones bring it home every year. Alice and Danica are wicked fast. They usually trade off who does the race every year.”
“Not faster than me,” she replied with pride, and I grinned. Nolan had been training Raven to do the run this year. According to Nolan, Raven was a beast in the woods and hard to keep up with. I was excited to see what would happen with the Fall Games. The Stones had won for years. This might be the first year the Byrnes win.
Winning was really just a proverbial right to say we were better. That was it. There was nothing else involved.
“After that, it’ll be drinking, cookouts, and hanging out until everyone goes home,” I finished.
“So, basically it’s like a two-state, three-pack house party,” she summed up.
“It’s exactly that.” The Fall Games were always absolute chaos. I loved it, even when I only participated in whatever happened at the Byrne pack house. “You’ll love it.”
Honestly, I was more excited for the Fall Games than I’d been for anything in a long time. Nolan and I were making a whole trip of it—dirty audiobooks, snack foods, the works. Raven and Declan planned to be right behind us. We even had halfway plans. It was exactly the vacation I needed.
Chapter 04
