Forgotten

Chapter 19: Meetings

Tucker:

I smiled as Lexi sat down next to me. She offered me a cookie that she'd swiped off the bed, but I shook my head. As much as I'd love to stay here, I was hoping to have some of my mom's amazing stew tonight.

She bit into the cookie and closed her eyes with a quiet moan. I knew how she felt. Sasha made the best fucking cookies on the planet. My mouth watered slightly, and I had to look away. Rylan cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention up to the bed. "First, we need to discuss Lexi's lack of clothing."

Lexi Bear choked on her cookie and I pounded her back, "Are you okay." She nodded and coughed once more.

Cedric was lying on his stomach on the other side of Lexi and gently laid his hand on her knee. Rylan scratched his head and I knew he was searching for a delicate way to break the news to her. Before he could speak again, Paris responded to Rylan's announcement. "We get to go shopping with her? Yes!" He pumped his fist for emphasis.

Lexi blinked a couple of times, "I don't have any money."

Rylan sighed at the way Paris had explained things. Sometimes Paris was like a bull in a china shop. "We're part of the reason that you now only have the clothes you're wearing. You're a lot smaller than all of the females in our pack-"

"Except for Julia and Rose." Paris interrupted.

Rylan rolled his eyes, "Julia and Rose are ten. I highly doubt she wants to wear the same clothes as a ten year old."

"I'm just saying, at least the twins are close to her size."

Lexi's cheeks were bright red and she fanned herself with her hand. Cedric gently pulled at her sweatshirt until she finally stood up. She grabbed the bottom of it and tugged it off, exposing the outfit we'd found in the back of her closet that morning.

Rylan cleared his throat again as Kane muttered a curse. A small part of me felt bad that Cedric and I were the only ones who could see how well these pants hugged her ass. It was almost like these clothes had been made for her and sewn together while she was wearing them. I suddenly decided that bright red was my absolute favorite color. I had to keep myself from running my fingers along the strip of skin showing between the top of her pants and the bottom of her shirt.

"Hot damn." Paris whispered from the other side of the room. I already thought that she was beautiful, but wearing clothes that left nothing to the imagination made me realize that she was fucking sexy as well.

Rylan coughed once, "As I said, she needs new clothes... asap. Because of our inability to be around your clothes, we'll take you clothes shopping. It's the least we can do."

Lexi Bear dropped to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, "I'm sure I can find some way to fix my clothes..."

She trailed off as Rylan interrupted, "There's no way to fix them, Lexi, but money is no object. Please allow us to buy you something to take the place of all the clothes we had destroyed already."

Lexi frowned, "You had my clothes destroyed?"

"Only some of them." Paris pipped up, trying to be helpful.

Rylan continued before Lexi had a chance to say anything else, "Which is why we want to fix it for you. Please?"

She scowled, "Fine, but only because you destroyed my clothes already."

Rylan's lips tilted up slightly, meaning he was amused. "Next, my dad has people looking for Lexi's parents. They've run into a couple of dead ends, but they have a couple new leads to follow. At least, that was the news my dad had for me this morning. I'll meet with him again this evening."

Lexi frowned, "Why doesn't he tell me this? I mean, they are my parents."

Rylan's brows rose in surprise, as if a meeting between his dad and Alex hadn't even occurred to him. "He tells me, I tell you. That's how my dad does things."

"It's a stupid way to do things," she muttered under her breath.

I snorted as I tried not to laugh. I had to agree with her, but Rylan was in charge, and I wasn't going to challenge him about this. Rylan closed his eyes, as if praying for patience. "Finally, we're supposed to teach Lexi about being a shifter."

Cedric's gaze flew up to our leader, "How are we supposed to teach her about being a shifter when we know nothing about being one. From what I've seen so far, being a shifter is a lot different than being a werewolf."

Rylan grabbed a book off his nightstand and held it up. It was the same book he'd given Lexi Bear yesterday. "According to my dad, this is all we have to help us. He said he'd try to track down an old friend of his, but this friend never stays in one place for long, so it might take him a while to find him. Until then, all we have is this book."

"But, reading a book about it is so fucking boring." Kane blurted out. He looked appalled at the thought of reading.

Rylan rubbed the bridge of his nose, "That's why I started reading this last night, and I'll continue reading it tonight. Then, I'll try to help her figure it out."

Paris snorted, and then held up a hand. "Sorry, Ry. You plan to teach her this shit? You're an excellent leader... but it might be better to have someone else help you teach her"

Rylan glared at Paris, but after a moment, he recognized the wisdom in Paris' words. "Fine. I'll read, and we'll all try to teach."

I finally spoke up, "When do we start?"

Rylan glanced around the room, "Tomorrow. I know it's stew night at your house. That should give me enough time to read through this book. Anyone who wants to help, you're welcome to come over after school, I don't want anyone feeling like they're obligated to stay, though."

"What about shopping?" Paris inquired.

"This weekend. We were able to salvage enough clothes for her for the rest of the week... unless you need to go shopping before then?" Rylan turned his attention to Lexi Bear.

Lexi sighed heavily, "I guess if I have enough clothes to last until this weekend, I can wait until then."

Rylan nodded his head decisively, "Good, then it's decided. Tomorrow we start training and this weekend we go shopping."

We were all silent for a moment before I asked, "What about celebrating her birthday?"

Rylan nodded, "We'll need to come up with ideas for that, too. We'll sleep on it tonight, though. During training, we'll see if we can decide on somewhere to go for Lexi's birthday." As Alex started to speak up, probably to argue with Rylan, he shook his head, "It's not open for debate. We're celebrating your birthday this weekend. You need to do something fun to relax and recharge. We're simply going to make sure that happens."

Alex saluted him, "Yes, sir."

Rylan nodded, "Good. Meeting adjurned."