~ ~ Chapter Sixteen ~ ~
Brody walked in ahead of me, swinging the front door open with enough force to slam it into the wall behind it, and I cringed a little as I heard the handle hit and damage the tough interior. He cursed quietly as he quickly rushed around the door to inspect what he had done, and by the time I poked my head around to see – his hand was covering it as he leant against the wall in a not so casual way, smiling nervously.
Raising an eyebrow as I took his posture in, “You’re in trouble,” I sang quietly and teasingly.
Brody scowled, “Nu-uh, I’ll just tell Dad that you did it.”
Shaking my head as I walked further into the front foyer; dropping my bag on the ground as I caught a whiff of Chris’s fresh scent, “I'm the favourite now, remember?”
“Exactly,” Brody smirked when I glanced back at him, “Dad won’t tell you off as much as he would me.”
Rolling my eyes as I shook my head again, “Not going to happen bucko.”
“I’ll love you forever,” Brody tried to use a cute voice with me, but all it managed to do was make me cringe.
“Eww, never do that again, besides you have to love me forever,” and I childishly poked my tongue out before heading towards the stairs, “Creepy Chris!” I sang loudly, smiling to myself a little as I started up the stairway in search of him and an explanation.
“Oh come on Eva! I’d take the blame for you!” Brody protested loudly as he started walking up the steps behind me.
Turning my head to look back at him over my shoulder with a frown, “No you wouldn’t, you already think Dad won’t yell at me, so why would you take the blame if you think I won’t get in trouble? Huh?”
He scowled again, “Fine, I’ll get Grant to do it then. At least he is a good sibling.”
I scoffed loudly, “Grant won’t, not unless you give him something first and we all know that boys favours don’t come cheap,” I grunted at the end, remembering the time I had to give him all the money I had stashed under my mattress just so he wouldn’t dob me into Stevie for accidently melting his favourite army men set. Then the second Stevie started yelling about them, Grant dobbed right away! “I’ll get him back for that,” I muttered as the old memory resurfaced again.
“I’ve already got something he wants,” Brody muttered casually and I turned to look at him again, and he simply shrugged, “What? I do.”
Nodding, “I'm sure you do, never said I didn’t believe you,” I yawned and rubbed the side of my face to wake up a bit. Maybe it was a good thing we left school early, now I can get an afternoon sleep in.
“I bet Chris is hiding from you right now,” Brody chuckled as I looked down along the hallway once we reached the top, just to see no sign of him.
“Chris! Answer time! Come on boy!” I called out loudly and even whistled as I started walking forward.
Travis stepped out of the games room, his eyes looking me up and down with concern in them and I groaned internally – I didn’t like that look because it usually meant a lecture was soon to follow.
“Pack meeting,” he spoke in his Alpha tone before grinning, “I love being in charge of you lot.”
“Mature, real mature bro’,” Brody grumbled, probably a little sour that he isn’t the Alpha, but then again – I personally don’t think anyone else would have been able to handle the job and be so fair about everything in the same way as Travis is.
“Respect your Alpha,” I whispered teasingly at Brody as we walked down the hallway at a faster pace than just moments ago.
Brody scoffed, “The Alpha stole my bowl of cereal this morning.”
“I was hungry,” Travis grinned as he held the door open for us as we each quickly walked in. My eyes landing on Chris immediately who smiled sheepishly, which put me on edge right away.
“What have you said?” I whisper yelled at him once I sat down within arm’s reach of the guy.
He pretended to zip his mouth shut and shook his head while making mumbling noises as if he was trying to speak to me, but literally couldn’t. My eyes narrowed a little as I glared at him with accusations, he has totally said something.
“Eva, you look exhausted,” Emily spoke up softly and I turned my gaze away from Chris to look over at her.
Smiling a little because honestly, you can’t look at Emily without smiling, “I'm fine Em, really.” She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe me.
“We’re discussing that in a minute Emily,” Travis smiled dotingly down at her before looking up and meeting my eyes, waiting for my reaction.
“What? No we’re not, I demand an Eva free conversation in this meeting,” I scoffed loudly, trying to desperately think up of a bunch of good and believable lies before he brings me up – because, let’s face it, he is going to ignore what I just said and he will be discussing this.
“It’s already decided, but first we are discussing the new wolves,” Travis’s voice spoke with authority as his eyes circled the room, looking at each and every one of us in here right now.
I followed his gaze and could see Grant smirking in Brody’s direction – which means Brody has already asked for his favour and Grant is thinking of what he wants out of it. Stevie was grinning at me in an ‘I know what’s going on and you don’t’ way, which was annoying, so I poked my tongue out.
Emily had her eyes glued to Travis as well as Chris, but we all know Chris was just avoiding looking at me. While Harper’s eyes kept glancing back to the TV which had a paused game on the screen and I had to bite back a laugh over that.
“According to a reliable informant, these wolves aren’t here for fun and games – they have a purpose and we need to decided – yes, Eva?” Travis groaned on the end as he looked at me and my silently raised hand.
I smiled sweetly, “I’d like to object over this reliable informant because I believe Chris lies.”
“I do not!” Chris scoffed loudly as he glared my way, finally looking at me as I glared back.
“Do so.”
“Do not.”
“Do so,” I growled.
“Do not!” he growled back, but louder.
“Enough!” Travis yelled over top of us and we both grudgingly turned and looked at our leader, “Chris obviously isn’t lying Eva and I believe you had no intentions of even telling me about this?” he raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Actually,” I smirked, “I planned on telling you the truth.”
Chris scoffed loudly again, ‘Liar.’
‘Don’t think so CC, you’re just overreacting,’ I muttered back, purposely not looking at him now.
“Which is?” Travis questioned and I swallowed nervously, I hate it when I’m under his Alpha gaze – it’s too intimidating for my liking.
“Um...that they are just new wolves trying to become the school bullies?” I asked, hoping he would believe me.
He rolled his eyes – so I take that as a no.
“Anyway, Chris thinks-,” he was cut off.
“I thought you had an informant? When was Chris brought into this?” Harper piped up as he finally unglued his eyes from the TV screen and looked over at Travis in confusion.
A low growl vibrated through Travis’s chest as he closed his eyes and pinched his nose, “Why do I feel like I am dealing with children?” he asked himself quietly. Emily reached out and slipped her small hand around Travis’s free one and gave it a little squeeze. “Chris is the informant, okay Harper?”
Harper nodded slowly as he looked over at Chris, “Cool,” he grinned.
I shook my head while the rest all groaned at his stupidity or rolled their eyes.
“Chris suggested we inform Saxon, he believes they are here to try and take over the Redford pack while their true Alpha is currently away,” Travis sighed out, obviously getting frustrated with us all interrupting him.
I raised my hand slowly, trying to not smile because I didn’t want to purposely interrupt, but I had something serious to say about this.
“What?” Travis groaned again, while moving his eyes to meet mine once again and I lowered my gaze.
“I personally don’t think we should inform the Redford Alpha, he’s not exactly a nice person,” I spoke with a serious tone because right now, I really couldn’t care less if these new wolves tried to take over or not. Honestly, they can try, but even without Saxon here, I doubt they will succeed.
Harper, Brody and Stevie all roared into laughter, Brody especially while the rest just shook their heads at me. Chris had the meanest look on his face though – bully. “I get you hate him right now, but he’s a neighbouring pack after all,” he grunted.
I snapped my head in his direction, “I never said I hated him.”
Chris rolled his eyes, “You act it.”
“Uh, did you not hear what he said to me? Were your ears switched off when you were standing right there or something?” I demanded, getting worked up over this.
“Stop laughing; don’t encourage her,” Travis scolded the others while I had a glaring match with Chris, “We all know her emotions are going haywire.”
My head snapped in his direction, “Alpha says what now?”
Travis smiled apologetically at me, “Sorry Eva, but not only are you getting weaker – your emotions are going to be all over the place. I know you don’t want to hear it, but you need Saxon back and he is going to need you too.”
I scoffed loudly as I sat back roughly on the lounge with my arms folded over stubbornly, “I'm not going to let him, if the only reason he comes back is to become strong again – than he is sorely mistaken. I'm not a mat to be walked all over.”
“We got in contact with him before,” Grant spoke up and my eyes darted over to him, my heart missing a few beats and anticipation filled my body – what did he say? What did they say to him? My wolf reared her ugly head and began whining loudly inside of me, she was thrilled at this news, and I have to admit I was a bit too.
I did miss him, but he hurt me and I wasn’t going to make anything easy for him. He should have known that when he did what he did.
“Grant!” Travis shouted in disbelief, “We were going to wait to tell her that!”
Grant shrugged casually, in the way he always does, “It slipped,” and he smirked a little at the end, we all know that it did not just ‘slip’, he said it on purpose.
“What do all of you not understand about the words ‘pack meeting’? This isn’t a family discussion, so from now on start listening,” Travis snapped with annoyance and I held back a chuckle....we really should take this more seriously, but it can’t be helped.
“What did the douche say?” Brody asked, turning to look at Grant as he completely ignored Travis’s little mini rant – who growled loudly at Brody, but once again Brody ignored him.
Grant shrugged, “Not much really, he isn’t happy with Eva sending his reinforcements off in the wrong direction,” and he glanced at me, chuckling silently while I grinned sheepishly. That was a little mean, but the gorilla deserved it.
“That was classic though,” Brody grinned as well, “So he had nothing to say about the wolves?”
Travis spoke up this time, “He is getting his pack to look further into it, and that’s it from what I can tell.”
Chris frowned, “So, he’s not coming back?” My heart skipped a beat again as I waited for Travis’s answer.
He shook his head silently and my heart sank a little more, why am I even letting him effect me so much for?
“I bet he will when he realises who their Alpha is,” Chris muttered angrily and I noticed his hands clenching up a little, which caused all of our attention to turn on him.
“I'm curious as to why you snuck out and made me distract them,” I raised an eyebrow, “You did say I would get an explanation,” I pointed out to jog his memory in case he forgot that bit or something.
Chris sighed loudly, “He’s just a blast from the past, use to be Alpha of a neighbouring state pack, but he was over ruled for being too ruthless. So he made his way here with a few fellow loyal members and tried to take over then, but Saxon’s Dad shut him down within seconds. My guess is he is back to try again.”
Nodding slowly, I frowned a little, “So, why did you run? Scared?”
Harper snickered quietly from his corner as he looked our way before looking back at the TV again – that boy is too game obsessed, he needs to get out and have some fresh air or something like that at least.
“I am not scared of him,” Chris growled defensively and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to stir him up, but decided to leave it alone. I simply couldn’t be bothered teasing him – which is odd. “I just didn’t want him seeing me with you, he knows I was to be Beta and it would have made him suspicious,” he muttered before his tone turned extremely serious, “He isn’t to find out you are Saxon’s mate.”
Rolling my eyes as I yawned loudly, covering my mouth I mumbled, “I had no intentions of letting him know before anyway.”
“What is his name?” Stevie asked with curiosity and I smiled at him, which he returned.
“Troy Dallas, and he was pretty strong when we ran into him last time – I can only guess he is stronger now,” Chris muttered.
“Yeah, the dude reeked of power,” Brody agreed grudgingly.
Chris nodded while everyone silently listened about the newbie’s, I guess the more we knew, the better prepared we could be if they decided to take us on first...since we are the smaller pack and may seem weak and defenceless in another’s eyes.
“Peter – his Beta, is ruthless. Has no care for who he attacks, but the other one that was with him, I’ve never seen him before so can’t tell you anything,” Chris continued.
“Just how powerful is Troy, more than Saxon?” Grant asked slowly, thinking to himself as he did.
Chris shrugged as he leant back into the lounge like I was, “Couldn’t tell you, they both smell extremely powerful, but without Sax right here, I don’t actually know.”
“Peter is a wimp,” I mumbled and they all looked at me with questioning gazes, “What? He is, the dude didn’t even see my ninja foot strike out in class this morning, and I tripped his fat butt up.”
Travis groaned quietly, “Eva, please don’t tell me you were starting stuff on your first day back – again?”
Smiling, I did a Chris move and pretended to zip my mouth shut.
“Trav, we need to get going soon,” Emily quietly spoke and I looked over at her, she was rubbing her small belly and I wondered if she even knew she was doing that half of the time?
“Right,” Travis nodded before raising his head and glancing at us all again, “Meetings finished...not that it was actually a proper meeting anyway," he grumbled hotly and I smiled a little, “Anyway, Eva – you need to get some sleep and I don’t want you attending school anymore, not until we know more. I don’t want any of you guys attending school until we figure this out.” And with that said, he reached down and took Emily’s hand to help her to her feet.
“Um, where are you two going?” Brody asked loudly.
Emily turned and smiled widely, “Ultrasound, we get a picture this time and find out exactly how far along I am,” she couldn’t contain the excitement from her voice and if I had more energy right now, then I would have been jumping to my feet and insisting I come along.
“That’s great Em, show me when you get back?”
“Of course, rest up,” she smiled back sweetly and the two of them left.
They weren’t even gone for a minute before Harper had the TV going again and his game continuing, his eyes glued to the screen while I rolled over so I was laying down on the lounge and just staring at it blankly. Chris got up and walked out along with Grant, both muttering something about a game of football. I didn’t really pay attention.
“And you said I needed to respect him, you interrupted more than what anyone else did," Brody scoffed loudly and I looked over in his direction at his grinning face.
Rolling my eyes, “I'm allowed to have opinions Brody.”
“He was getting so angry with us, maybe he is picking up on Emily’s crazy hormones?” Harper chuckled, his eyes never straying from the screen as he joined our conversation.
“Wow, the zombie has finally found his voice, huh?” Brody teased as he snatched up the free controller and started harassing Harper to switch it to two player mode.
I have been stuck in this house for three long days, and I was over it. I wanted out and had decided that shopping for a gift for Emily was a great excuse to get away for awhile. The doctors told her she was six months along and according to Travis, she is having a normal human pregnancy, so she still has three months to go before we get to meet the little ankle biter – they both purposely didn’t find out what they were having.
According to them, they didn’t care either way, as long as the baby was healthy and everything went smoothly.
In my opinion, I wanted to know. We needed more girls in this family since we are seriously outnumbered and plus, it would have made picking a gift a heck of a lot easier, but they are the parents. Annoying and secretive parents mind you.
Pulling on an old and ratty baseball cap with the hood of my jumper yanked over top of it, I finally found my other sneaker and yanked it on as I hopped towards my bedroom door. Travis only told me I wasn’t allowed to go to school, so I didn’t actually see any reason as to why I can’t go to the shops.
Walking down the hallway, I passed Stevie’s open door and stopped to look in; he was sprawled out on his bed with a pile of car magazines spread out. Raising an eyebrow, “Sure you got enough there?”
His head snapped up and he grinned, “Can never have too many, where are you off to?” he frowned as he took in my fully dressed appearance – shoes haven’t been a necessity for me lately.
“Shops, I need out and figured I’d buy Em a six month gift,” I laughed gently, I have no idea if people buy gifts for that kind of thing or not, but either way, she deserves something nice. Plus I still owe her for calling her crazy.
Stevie jumped off his bed and grabbed a pair of dirty shoes off the floor instantly, “I'm coming, I want the newest edition of my magazine,” he grinned and I nodded, chuckling a little at his enthusiasm.
“You and your picture books," I shook my head teasingly and he stopped what he was doing, with one shoe half yanked on and scowled at me.
“Mag-a-zines Eva, say it with me, magazines, not picture books,” he defended.
Rolling my eyes, “Fine, fine, magazines then,” I muttered before walking back out of his room and towards the stairs, “Not – it’s still picture books,” I whispered to myself, snickering a little.
“Heard that!” he called out and a moment later he came running out of his room, throwing stinky week old socks in my direction.
Growling as I spun around and charged down the stairs towards the front door, “I'm too young to die!” I cried out dramatically with his loud laughter following right behind.
“Magazines!” Stevie shouted as I yanked the front door open, briefly noticing Brody’s or Grant's dodge attempt at fixing the wall Brody had damaged by placing a big fern in front of it, and I ran out to the driveway with Stevie hot on my trail, still throwing stinky socks at the back of my head.
“Darn, how many do you have?” I shouted back, shocked at the amount of putrid missiles that were flying my way.
One last sock hit my head and he laughed loudly, “That’s it, I'm all out now.”
I instantly slowed down to a stop, I had only just managed to make it to the front gates and I was puffed out. Which was worrying considering I can run a marathon and still keep on going; Stevie was by my side in seconds, a concerned look on his face as he gently placed one hand on my shoulder, “Hey, you okay?” he asked quietly.
Raising my head to look up at him as I straightened up and plastered a fake smile on my face, “Yeah, of course, just must be...tired,” I frowned at the end, knowing how lame that sound, but I turned and started walking down the road before he could argue about it.
The walk to the nearest shopping centre took us about forty five minutes, when usually it’s only a twenty minute walk, but we were just dawdling, taking our sweet time. Stevie was listing off all the brilliant pranks he pulled on the others, and told me how Travis was literally jumping around the house screaming ‘Emily’s pregnant!’ with so much excitement in his voice – which Grant had to ruin by asking if it was actually Travis’s...that question caused him to receive a punch to the face and a black eye.
“Oh yeah, I have a bone to pick with you mister,” I glared up at Stevie as we walked through the front doors of the shopping centre and the different smells all hit me at once, which was almost nauseating.
“Um....I may have a really good excuse for it,” Stevie scratched the back of his head, looking a little apprehensive.
“Really? So there actually is a good excuse for why you and Grant would enter my room and more than once too?” I growled lowly, knowing I didn’t have enough energy right now to follow through with whatever threats I make, but I will make sure I get them.
“Uh...well....you see.....it was all Grant’s idea! He even went through your clothes too – which is borderline creepy and stepping over the female male boundaries,” he rushed out, averting his eyes which means he is dead set lying and it wasn’t just Grant’s idea, “Not to mention ignoring the clear threat you left behind as you walked out the front door, that boy has a death wish, it’s the only answer to it and he wanted me to die young with him!”
“Payback will be sweet and it will be soon, so stay on guard Stevie,” I warned lowly before noticing the baby store, “Come on, in here,” I grinned and grabbed his hand to pull him in the direction I wanted to go.
“Maybe dying young isn’t such a bad idea after all?” he grumbled out loud to himself, but I just rolled my eyes and ignored him.
“What if it’s a boy?” Stevie asked, scrunching his face up as he held the tiny jumpsuit in front of him, we had finished buying baby things and were now making our way through the mall towards a bigger store which stocks everything – including things for Emily and Stevie’s picture books.
“Uh, that’s why it's yellow, duh?” I asked sarcastically as I snatched it back from him and shoved it into the bag, keeping it away from his dirty fingers.
“Yellow is a girls colour,” he muttered, “Poor little dude is going to get picked on.”
Groaning as my eyes scanned the people all around us; I noticed a lady pushing a pram with a baby in it and guess what? The kid was wearing yellow; pointing at them discreetly, as I nodded for Stevie to turn and look, “See? Boys do wear yellow.”
Stevie glanced over and pulled a face, “Who said it was even a boy?”
“Puh-lease, as if a girl could be that ugly,” I rolled my eyes and continued walking past.
“You’re so horrible; I'm never introducing you to any of my kids. You’ll just call them ugly,” he muttered as we walked into the next store.
“You’re kids will be cute, don’t worry – they will have the same genes as I do, after all,” I grinned back at him before walking off to the section loaded with pampering products. Emily’s into this kind of stuff, right?
Blueberry, Mango, Citrus, Honey, how many different bath salts do they want? Gross, Lime grass...who would even buy that? Sounds like something a horse with no taste buds would eat.
Moving onto perfumes, I picked up a purple bottle and sprayed it onto the shelf, I didn’t need to spray hundreds of different smells on myself because with my keen senses, I would just reek and it would probably give me a headache.
“I suggest the light pink bottle, sweet and innocent like you.”
I didn’t need to turn my head and face who the voice belonged to – I could smell him and it made my back teeth grind together. Troy Dallas.
“Didn’t know you wore girl’s perfume,” I muttered, smirking a little as I put the purple bottle back – it was disgusting. Picking up a blue bottle and purposely ignoring his suggestion of the pink one, I sprayed it again and smiled a little – not too bad.
He scoffed loudly, “Didn’t know you did either, your smell was natural last time we met and just so you know – you don’t need to change it, you smell divine all on your own, princess.”
I shuddered at the closeness between us, but couldn’t fight the small smile. Did he seriously think hitting onto me with cheesy lines was going to work? Boys are so stupid these days, they know absolutely nothing.
“Nawww, how sweet of you,” I cooed gently then hardened my face within the next second, “But you better start backing the heck up from me before I rip your limbs off,” I growled threateningly.
Troy smirked, but held his hands up in a ‘truce’ manner and took an agonising slow step backwards, “No harm done princess.”
I growled again at the stupid pet name, I hate pet names. “My name's Eva, not freaking princess, so learn it before I shove my imaginary crown up somewhere the sun don’t shine, bucko,” and with that said, I held the blue bottle of perfume tight in my hands and shoved by him roughly, glaring one last time before I walked around the corner of the shelves.
Jerk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alrighty, will edit this a bit later tonight =)
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