Rise of the Werechipmunks (ONC 2022)

In Which Sophie Tries to Kill Her Soulmate!

"After we explode Zach-Xavier-Xane, can we get pizza? I feel like we've earned pizza." Irienna—who was no longer allowed anywhere near the driver's seat—stretched out her arms in the back seat until she was practically leaning on Sophie. "Or coffee. A library. Somewhere with Wi-Fi."

Sophie pushed Irienna's arm off of her. Jaxon had claimed shotgun and Cora sat in the driver's seat. The seven of them—Irienna, Sophie, the Beta, whose name they'd learned was Ryker, and four hungry-looking werechipmunks—were crammed into the two back rows. "Um... Why?" Sophie asked.

"I just feel really strongly that we remain connected to the internet. There are so much important things on it... Werebook, Werestagram, Wolf-Tok... A new chapter of The First Chance Mate Returns and There's a Love Triangle..."

"There isn't a werewolf Wattpad, is there?" Because that would be wonderful. Sophie wondered briefly if they had a 'human' genre on Werewolf Wattpad. Werepad?

"I want to set it up, but no one wants to work with me!" Irienna sighed. "They all hate me. I didn't shift until I was much older, so I'm probably cursed in some way. It can get a little depressing." Her eyes brightened slightly. "Although it'll all be worth it when I find my equally emotionally traumatized mate!"

Jaxon frowned. "Werewolves make no sense."

Sophie could see Cora's eyes widen in the rearview mirror. Her friend cleared her throat. In a somewhat pinched voice, she said, "You know, I actually agree with you."

Jaxon's face lit up.

"Although you're still an idiot," Cora said. She fixed her eyes on the road.

Jaxon's shoulders slumped.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Even with Cora's tendency to stop and carefully, slowly, look to each side every time they came upon an intersection, Sophie worried. The tires slipped on the gravel every couple of minutes, and the engine would whir and click like a broken blender. The headlights were running low on batteries. The tunnel, if anything, seemed to get steeper the higher they went. What if they just slid backwards? What if they ran out of gas? Sophie pictured them wandering the tunnels endlessly, drinking pee to stay alive and eventually resorting to cannibalism, until they died alone, unhappy, and in the dark.

That got grim fast, Silver said. So... You excited to see fake mate again?

"Zach-Xavier-Xane? No." Sophie shook her head. "We don't like him, remember?"

You've got so many soulmates. I forget which ones we like and don't like... 

"Talking to your wolf?" Irienna nodded understandingly. "Have you told her about Cora yet?"

Sophie blinked. "Um...What about Cora?"

"You know." Irienna grinned. "The thing. With feelings."

Cora glanced back at Irienna. "What thing?"

"Is your wolf okay with it?" Irienna asked. "Because I kind of thought that you and Zach-Xavier-Xane would have an epic enemies-to-lovers romance. I'm actually writing a Wattpad story about it! You get married in the fourth chapter, but you don't fall in love until your seventeenth child. And then, at the very end, in the third book of the second saga, you give up your wolf and your memories to save the life of your unborn twenty-second child, and then you have to fall in love all over again!"

"That's..." Slightly disturbing. A single kid with Zach-Xavier-Xane would be one too many; Sophie didn't even want to picture twenty-two. "Very elaborate."

"I know! I've already got a solid reader base. They call you guys Sophiach-Soxier-Sophane. It's a lengthy ship name to reflect your long-term, epic love story!"