Cry wolf! (Sequel of 7 mates for 7 brothers)

practice

“So, have you had a lot of fun these last few days?”  Mandy had an indulgent smile on her face as she looked up in thanks when Tyler handed her a tall cool drink.

Tyler chuckled.  He could still feel the excitement his cousins and a few others; buzzing at the outer edge of his perception like insect song on a warm day.  The challenge of learning a new skill had all of his cousins find some or other excuse to come and see what all the fuss was about.  His smile broadened as he thought of how much his parents enjoyed having the family drop in on them like this.  He seriously couldn’t remember how many times one of the uncles or aunts said that it was just like old times; and then his mother would add that it was just a teeny bit busier now with all the kids.  Knowing how much she truly loved having them all over he tried to drag all of this out for as long as he could.

Dennis and Amanda; quite unofficially, got to meet their future daughter-in-law.  Poor Abigail was pretty flustered at the rather overwhelming warm greeting she received from Amanda; and Quinn had to play it down a bit; saying that he had never really had an ‘almost’ girlfriend before.  They had both agreed to get to know each other for a while before Quinn would get to meet her parents.  He felt almost like she did not trust him enough; but given the fact that she was human and he had not told her yet that they were mates; he could not blame her for being cautious after all the other boy trouble she had.  Of all the cousins that came along to Yellow Stone; he spent the most of his time keeping the mates entertained; that is the ones who did not insist on their turns target practicing, so that he could spend more time with Abigail.

He was the one to let Tyler know that Mandy was experiencing a lot of the later signs of changing because he was there to see it the one time she blew her top when an unfamiliar female wolf interrupted their family time with a trivial matter that she had already been told how to deal with.  It seemed that this Vanessa did not like being told what to do and had been acting more like a bitch everyday since Alex and Shaun gave her a month to decide whether she would be joining the pack or not.  The fact that Mandy was the only pack member present when Vanessa questioned her instructions did not help because Quinn could see straight away that she did not like take orders from ‘children’; then she made the mistake in telling Mandy exactly what she thought.

Mandy calmly told her that she should do as she was instructed by Cassy but of course Vanessa did not have the good sense to leave the matter as it was, or to go and look for Cassy.  Instead she told Mandy that she did not get to boss her around at which Mandy got all cranky and told her that for an old wolf, she had lousy hearing.

It took Vanessa almost a whole minute to realize she had been insulted twice; her hearing, and being told she was ‘old’.  As soon as she did though; all hell broke loose and she was only seconds away from attacking Mandy when Cassy came in.  With one word she sent Vanessa running with her tail between her legs while she took Mandy away to have a chat with her.  Quinn did not know what it was all about; but when Mandy joined them later on she was not upset or anything, so he expected that Cassy had managed to diffuse the situation.

Tyler still wondered what his mother and Mandy talked about that day.  Quinn had not been able to give him any other information; and because he had decided to trust Mandy to know when she should talk to him about things if she were having a problem, he did not take it up with her or his mother.  But it still worried him that Mandy could have been attacked by a wolf while she was not one yet.  While he was grateful that she had not changed yet because of what it would mean to him; he was rather glad that she would soon be on equal terms when she changed.  Her safety was much more important than his peace of mind.

Tyler smiled back at her as she downed her cool drink, it was incredibly hot and the weather promised to get even warmer during the next few days.  This was one of the worst heat waves in this area according to the locals and they were all hoping for some early rain to relieve the almost unbearable heat.