Wolf Among Us

22 Anarchic

22 Anarchic

"If I'm going to be honest," said Adam as he leaned across the table and reached for Laurel's plate of food, "I'm beginning to see the pros of you true werewolves over what we're used too."

"Like what?" Laurel scoffed, slapping his wrist away.

Reece, Avery, and Sawyer leaned back into the booth and watched with near identical smirks as Adam nervously glanced around, suddenly finding himself in the spotlight.

He gave a weak chuckle, trying to shrug off the narrowed gaze from the broody people in the clan. "Well," he waved his hand dramatically, "no rogues. You decide to live outside a pack, you aren't labeled as a bad guy."

Leaning on his elbows, Sawyer raised a quizzical eyebrow at the chirper Adam. "I guess free will kinda balances out the whole no control on the full moon—"

"Which can take hours to change, every bone breaking," Avery pointed, smirking smugly as Adam slowly deflated.

Laurel nodded along, "Facing extinction, maybe manageable right?"

Smiling as if he'd just won a bet, Reece shook his head at his best friend. "And you have to take a life first before you get all that perks."

Sawyer chuckled as each pointed out the disadvantages, Adam growing more and more disgruntled. "But no rogues, yeah. That's the real bonus."

"You guys suck," Adam pouted, quickly reaching for Laurel's plate of food again. "Excuse me for being Mr. Optimistic."

"It's why we keep you around, kid," Sawyer joked, clapping Adam on the back.

Poking his tongue out, Adam shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth, just as Laurel realized her plate had disappeared. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, quickly swallowing as much food as he could before Laurel reached across the table and grabbed his hair, knocking him against the table.

"Quit stealing my food," she seethed, swiping back her plate.

"Children," Reece sighed. He shoved Adam back, blocking any attempts at retaliation and fixed his eyes onto Avery and Sawyer. "So the big bad wolf should be getting here in a few hours, what do we do?"

Sawyer immediately straightened, the early good humor slipping off his shoulders. Nervously he glanced down at the table, around the out of place diner they choose to meet at, before gazing back to his brother with a sigh.

"No," Avery quickly leaned forward, placing a hand on Sawyer's shoulder. "No," she repeated, more firm this time and took a moment to meet everyone's frowns.

"You lot aren't doing anything, not today."

"You're kidding, right?" Reece asked, his tone sharp enough that Sawyer flinched under Avery's touch.

Feeling the cutting tremor in his voice, Avery couldn't help the rise of anger that stirred. Narrowing her eyes at Reece, it was hard not to bite her tongue. "No, I'm not kidding. You lot lay low when Luke Andrews comes into town, nurse your non-existent hangovers or whatever."

A round of defiant twitches and jerks traveled through their little group. Too many hotheads, a part of her thought, feeling Sawyer pull away from her and turned to stare incredulously at her.

"You're going to bench me too?"

With every second growing more and more tense, Avery had tried to ignore the hurt in his voice.

"Listen," she tried calmly, "Luke's headed here with the impression that Sawyer's about to hand me over, which isn't true. When he finds out you lied, I don't want you in the same room as him."