Unattainable Fruit

Chapter 8: Irritation & Accidents

   Sloan rolls his eyes, but his attention quickly shifts from me towards the pearly white limo with gold accents that rolls into the long driveway leading to the pack house parking lot. I can feel Sloan swooning, his appreciation for Artemis' status and privileges growing every time she decides to spoil us all. I walk up towards the door of the limousine and open it, sliding into the beige leather seats comfortably before closing the door behind me. I turn with a smile, a bit of my bad mood lifting- that is, until I see who's sitting beside Jasper on the other side of the limo. Susanna fucking Rosewater, cousin of Artemis, second in line for the Faerie Throne, and my arch rival since the third grade. More accurately, Sloan's, but his battles are my battles. Or so he claims.

   'James you already have a strike against you. Keep fucking with me and I'll dye our wolf fur pink. We'll see what Alex and the pack thinks of that.' He challenges, always threatening to do something that's just crazy enough that Sloan would actually do it.

   'I really hate you.' I tell him sweetly, but I'm not even on his radar, his focus strictly on the Royal Faerie that has always been competing  with Sloan to see who was the best. The only thing they haven't measured is looks, because I refuse to be subjected to that, no matter how much Sloan threatens me.

    "James." Susie acknowledges cooly, I go to respond, but I can almost feel Sloan breathing down my neck, daring me to so much as make eye contact with her. I sigh and roll my eyes, only giving a barely perceived nod in acknowledgment. She scoffs but doesn't answer, knowing that saying anything to me would just start something with Sloan. Though I swear sometimes that has to be her exact purpose.

   I see Jasper and Artemis trying to hide their snickers of amusement, the Prince and Princess always finding some sort of joy in forcing other into the type of skywards situations they endure as royals.

   It's one of Artemis' favorite things to do, and all I can say is more power to her for having the sage control to deal with this shit all the time.

  When I look out the window I see that we're slowing down next to Alex's house, the man taking forever to appear at the front door before striding towards the car. I scoot over to make room for him and end up next to Jasper, the Faerie Prince raising an eye of  annoyance before shifting over to give me more room.

   Alex slides into the limo and shuts the door behind him before turning towards Art. "I am forever in your debt, Your Majesty." He claims dramatically, gesturing wildly as he does a mock bow in the contained space.

  Art frowns, reaching for the closest thing she can find, a pen, and flinging  it  right into his chest, and from the sound of the impact, she throw with some force. I chuckle to myself at their interaction, Alex always doing what he can on peoples nerves and Art almost one prank away from turning everyone into plant zombies.

   Not that she can do that... I hope not anyway.

  'You're such coward. I would say pussy, but that would be disrespectful to my queens.' Sloan chastises solemnly, and I think about how much work it would take to try to get this wolf removed just so I could beat him and get him back for all the shit he gives me.

    As Alex settled down from teasing Artemis, I watch as he turns to look towards the left of her and finds Susie there. His face immediately goes red before he bursts out laughing, a knowing look crossing his face as he looks from me towards her. "Oh man, you Greymont siblings are ruthless. Poor man's going through enough." He tells them, but his continued laughter says he fully supports their villainy.

   "You're all dead to me so it's okay." I tell them and this time they all laugh. And as much as she would never admit it, even Susie cracked a smile, though Sloan resents the fact that I made her smile. How rude of me, I know.