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Chapter Eleven
Onyx
Dinner was later, tonight. Although the official celebrations had not begun, a few guests had trickled in early, and that meant the family only rules were suspended for the holiday. Our first meal had been in what I’d learned was the breakfast room or “little” dining room. It was the size of our apartment but had a cozy atmosphere, I had to admit. The table was round, the cloth a cheerful robin’s-egg blue, and the number of pieces of silverware at each place an unintimidating five. Knife, fork, teaspoon, salad fork, and soup spoon. The silverware for dessert arrived with the actual sweet treat. The food had been very good, but no more courses than at a steak house. The dishes were served family style, even on large platters in the middle of the table to be passed around.
That was over with.
I found that out as my mates and I were headed down for dinner at nine. Oh, the time I did know about, but not the change of venue. I started toward the place we’d eaten until now, but Asher caught my arm. “This way, mate. We’re in the big dining room tonight.”
“That wasn’t…how big?”
Raven’s laughter had me worried.
Big was a conservative term for what we walked into. “It won’t be filled up tonight, but when it’s anyone but family and the closest of our friends, my dad prefers toput on the wolfas he likes to say. It’s a power trip thing.”
“Your father was so nice. He doesn’t seem like he’d do that.” He’d hugged me before we went to our room last night and welcomed me to the family even.
This time, Raven’s laugh sounded more like she was choking. Asher cast her a stern look before addressing my question. “You will be surprised. When it’s just us, he’s Dad, but when others—barring a few very close friends, of course— he is 100 percent pack alpha.”
“I remember,” Raven agreed. “When the prominent families get together, it’s amazing some of the males wait to shift to pee on things.”
“Raven.” Asher shook his head. “I know you aren’t into all this stuff, and neither am I, but we have to do what we have to do if we are going to have a pleasant stay. My parents are very fond of you, but it’s our job to help Onyx to feel comfortable. Nobody pees on anyone.”
“Not lately, at least,” Raven grumbled.
“Ra—” But Asher couldn’t continue without clearing his throat. “That was a long time ago, and unlikely to be repeated.”
I looked from one of them to the other, my eyes probably wide enough to see the white all around. My father might have been a murderous bastard, but he’d never peed on anyone, so far as I knew. Hell, maybe he had. Probably in an open wound. I gave a little shudder and held out a hand to each of them. “Well, it sounds interesting, but hopefully there will be none of that tonight. I am going to need the two of you to help me navigate this evening though. I suspect there will be silverware I don’t recognize.”
“We’re here for you, mate.” Asher took my hand and lifted it to his lips. “You’ll be fine, and we’ll sit on either side of you, and you can follow what we do.”
“Won’t there be a seating chart?”
He blinked at me. “No. Only for very formal political sorts of events. However, if there is more than one table, family is at the head. Tonight, I think”—he looked around—“no, I know, there’s only one long table set up and we can sit where we like.”
There were maybe two dozen people there, all of whom seemed to know both Raven and Asher, which made sense, and all of whom eyed me with curiosity and a spattering of other emotions that made me feeling perfectly comfortable unlikely. But it wasn’t too bad. We sat toward the middle of the table, across from Blaze and some others who were close to our age, and I concentrated on letting my mate’s table manners guide me while they visited with their friends. Dinner was served by uniformed waiters who came to each place and offered the various courses. It was probably all delicious, but when we stood up to leave the table, I could barely remember what we ate.
Outside the door, we stepped to the side and let the others pass us. “I wonder how many of them know my family hates me?” Raven said. “They didn’t say a thing about it.”
“Your family doesn’t hate you,” I protested. “You just need to give them time.”
“You don’t understand,” she snapped, all the tension I’d learned to see in her when she was ready to fight; but then she sagged, and a single tear tipped out of her eye.
If her parents had been anywhere near, I’d have turned them into toads. I’d never attempted toads, but I was pretty sure I could make them the extra-warty version.
“All right, gang, it’s almost Yule, and we can’t be sad.” Asher wrapped an arm around Raven. “Let’s go to the playroom, okay? We’ll game for a while and hang out with our friends who, even if they do know what rats your parents decided to become, don’t care a whit.”
Raven tipped her chin up. “You’re right. Let’s go and screw them. I’ll never have to see them again if I’m lucky.”
“Why would you?” he soothed. “Come on, Onyx.”
I held back. “I want to check in with Valentina and the crew at the Midnight if that’s okay? Join you in a few?”
“Okay, we’ll leave a trail of breadcrumbs,” Raven teased, much more like herself.
But panic frilled in my breast. “Seriously? You joke about getting lost in this huge place? You might never see me again.”
Asher kissed me on the cheek. “Anyone who works here can direct you or even bring you if you like. It’s not like that big-box hardware store I like.”
