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“The guys are all there,” Buddie said, as if to reassure me I’d have at least a few people who’d be acting normal if I needed to buffer myself.
“Okay, but give me a few seconds to straighten up.”
If I was going to make an appearance, I wasn’t going like this, with stained jeans and my blond hair sticking out in every direction. I went into the back bedroom, the one Duncan had used that I’d moved into after he left.
I flipped through three pairs of jeans and four sweaters, determined to get myself to a store soon. I choose the least-worn options. I dragged a brush through honey-blond hair and it immediately rebelled, frizzing to twice its normal size. My last hair band had snapped yesterday. I’d add that to my shopping list if I had paper here. Instead, I made use of the pencil, shoving it through a quick bun.
“Let’s go,” I said as I walked back into the kitchen.
Buddie eyed me up and down. “I thought you wanted to…”
I raised my eyebrows, daring him to finish.
He rubbed his jaw. “You look great.”
“Thank you.”
Who was I looking to impress, anyway? The pack had hated me before they became mesmerized by me. Nothing I ever tried to do made a whit of difference anyway.
Was I really going to try to prance around, prettying myself up because Duncan had kissed me and then mated with some other woman? Nope. I wasn’t going to bethatperson.
We headed out the door just as the guys were piling out of their cabin. Birdie, who didn’t say much, gave me a nod. Trevor gave me a wide smile, and I hoped he didn’t speak to me. He wasn’t exactlyoff, but he sure wasn’t fully on, either. The first time I’d seen him, he’d been ambushing the ambushers alone just for giggles.
Rastin headed right to my side, shaking his head. “We’re going to have to schedule some time together.”
“I’m not waxing your back anymore.” As much as I enjoyed his girlish screams, there was way too much hair to get through in one afternoon. Maybe if he could find someone to trim it down first or something.
“Oh, I’m not talking about my grooming needs.” He waved both of his hands at me. “I get it. It’s the end of the world, and then, to make matters worse, you got dumped and now you’redepressed. And maybe even before all of that, your standards weren’t that good. Doesn’t matter. You gotta do something about this. I am not getting stuck with thatwomanas my alpha, so you need to break this shit up, and it’s not happening with the way you’ve been walking around. You look like you barely brush your hair anymore.”
I let the grooming remarks go because I had a mirror in the cottage. It was hard to deny the obvious. Was I depressed? I wasn’t sure I could debate that one well either, because this didn’t feel like happiness.
I hung my hat on the only thing left. “She’s co-alpha, I thought.”
“That’s fifty percent. One percent would be too much. She’sintolerable.”
Birdie shot Rastin a look and then nodded toward the gathering we were approaching.
“It’s not like it’s a secret,” Rastin said, staring ahead at Birdie.
Birdie shook his head and continued to walk.
“I’m sorry you don’t like her, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” I said.
“Oh, but there is. You’re going to seduce him and get him tossed out of this mating,” Rastin said.
Charlie turned around, looking at Rastin. “What’s seduce mean?”
I glared at Rastin.
“I meant deuce him. It’s a card game.” Rastin smiled at him.
“It doesn’t matter, because I don’t like Rastin’s games and I’m not playing them.”
The crowd was nearly upon us, finally forcing Rastin to shut up, if they hadn’t heard what he was saying already anyway.Shifters had incredibly good hearing.
It wasn’t like his words could make things more awkward. That was impossible. As we neared the gathering, they all beganto stare, the way they did whenever I was spotted out and about. One would turn to another and whisper, and they’d turn to the next until the whole pack was staring at me. Joke was on them, though. As much as everyone thought I was so special now, I was the same old Piper they loved to hate. They’d just gotten confused with the new title and some mumblings about my feeling weird or something.
“There’s Paz and Minks!” Charlie took off toward his friends.
