Pack, page 19
part #3 of Five Fangs Series
Jayden? Mason? Cole? Wyatt? I asked in the mate link. Are you busy? Would you like to join us?
Their responses were also happy, eager and enthusiastic.
Hurry, I whispered. I miss my mates.
"You shouldn't have said that." Ash shook his head and gave me a pitying look. "You've started a stampede of hungry alphas, and they're going to try to cram through that bedroom door any second now. I bet it won't be standing tomorrow."
"Let them come." Shrugging, I sank my hands into his curls and toyed with them.
"Oh, I know they will," he smirked. "Probably more than once tonight. I bet you won't be standing tomorrow, either, cupcake."
Finally understanding what I said and how he took it to a dirty place, I covered my bright red face with my hands and kicked his shin as he laughed and laughed.
I had to admit, though, that all of his predictions came true.
22: School
Posy
On Friday morning, I woke up alone, which confused me for a moment. I almost always woke up with Wyatt's face smooshed into my neck and his heavy arm curled around my boobs or stomach.
Wyatt? I linked.
You finally awake, cutie? he answered right away. I'm in the kitchen. Mason made breakfast. Waffles and bacon. We saved some for you. Should I heat up your plate?
No! I'll do it when I'm ready, I hurried to tell him.
I hadn't recovered yet from his attempt to boil spaghetti noodles a couple days ago. The kitchen still smelled faintly of smoke.
Why am I waking up alone, fifth star?
We have a lot to do today, cutie, remember? We're going to get you registered for school, introduce you to the gammas, and begin self-defense lessons.
Oh, yeah! I grinned, excited about school. And you're already showered and dressed?
Yep! I'm here in the kitchen whenever you're ready.
I frowned. Wyatt was not a morning person and rarely got out of bed voluntarily. Then I remembered my other four mates kissing a sleepy me goodbye at sunrise, and a smile spread across my face.
Wonder which one of them dragged Wyatt out of bed so we wouldn't oversleep? I giggled. Ten bucks says it was Mason.
Telling Wyatt I'd be down soon, I stretched, then rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom, grateful that Ash had helped me put together an outfit last night. I wanted to look super-cute, and he'd made sure I would. All I needed to do now was shower, brush my teeth, and dry my hair, and I'd be ready to go.
Twenty minutes later, I went down the stairs and made a beeline for the kitchen. Wyatt sat on a bar stool by the window, writing in a book with a pencil.
"What're you doing?" I asked as I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed him.
"Just sketching." He put down his pencil and swiveled toward me. "Wow, cutie! You look gorgeous! Ash was right; those shoes are adorable on your tiny feet!"
"Thank you, my fifth star." I pecked his lips.
He pulled out his phone, told me to pose, and snapped a couple of photos while I clasped my hands in front of me and smiled.
"Um, what is sketching?" I asked after he put his phone away.
"Drawing, baby."
"Can I see your drawing?" I bounced up and down and clapped my hands. "Mason said you're awesome at drawing!"
"He did?" Wyatt's eyebrows flew up.
"Yeah. He said you designed his mechanical arm tattoo, which is amazing, by the way."
Wyatt looked happy as a clam to hear Mason had praised him, and I hid my smile.
"Well, I don't really like someone looking at it before it's finished," he hesitated, then grinned. "How about I show you some in my other sketchbooks?"
"You have more than one?"
"Yep! Three completely filled up." He stood and pulled me along with him toward the living room. "I used to just doodle on anything. Scraps of paper, napkins, the backs of envelopes. Then, for my sixteenth birthday, Papa gave me a real sketchbook. He was the first one to encourage me to take sketching seriously."
Every time I heard one of the boys say something good about Papa, conflict squeezed my heart. I didn't understand why Papa had been so cruel to Mason, but so kind and caring to the other boys.
Mama had told me how wild Papa was as a boy and that Mason's grandfather did what he had to do to curb that behavior before it got Papa killed or imprisoned. It may have worked for Papa, but I didn't know why he'd thought his son needed similar treatment when 'wild' was the last word anyone would ever use to describe Mason Price.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, Wyatt stopped at the bookshelf that held the family album Ash had shown me the other day. On the top shelf were three black-bound, hardcover books with dates hand-written on the spines in white. He pulled down one book and flipped through it as if he were looking for something specific while holding it up too high for me to see.
"Can I see all of the books?" I asked, greedy to learn about my mate through his art.
"Um, let me make sure the other two are ... clean."
"Huh? Clean?" I scrunched my face up as I stared at him.
"I took art in high school, and we studied human anatomy to learn how the body moves so we could draw it better."
"What's anatomy mean, anyway? Ash said I needed an anatomy lesson."
"He did?" Wyatt snorted. "Anatomy means the human body. Do I want to know why you need an anatomy lesson?"
"Never mind that," I muttered with a red face. Asking for more details about making pups was not a conversation I wanted to have with Wyatt, of all my mates. "So you drew a bunch of bodies in your sketchbook?"
"Yeah." His cheeks flushed, raising my curiosity.
For as much as he enjoyed embarrassing me, Wyatt himself did not get embarrassed easily.
So what about drawing bodies would make him blush—
"Oh!" Realization hit me, and I giggled. "The models were naky-naky?"
"Not completely, but my imagination filled in a lot of details," Wyatt giggled, too.
"I bet it did." I rolled my eyes, then took the sketchbook he held out to me and hugged it to my chest. "This one is clean?"
"Yep! I started that one last December and finished it a few days before we went to Tall Pines." He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "And now we need to get you some breakfast so we can leave. We're meeting Em, Gelo, and Reau at the school in half an hour."
"Yay! Some of my favorite people! After my mates, of course," I chirped as we walked back to the kitchen.
Wyatt chuckled and motioned toward the microwave.
"Okay, while you're eating your breakfast, I'm going to go pack a bag of workout gear for you."
I nodded, remembering the plan he'd told me yesterday. After we were done at the school, we were going to meet the gammas. There were showers and changing rooms at the training center, so I could switch my dress for shorts and a t-shirt and my sandals for sneakers before my first lesson in self-defense.
"Thanks, Wyatt." I gave him a dimpled smile and laid his sketchbook on the counter, reminding myself to grab it before we left so I could look through it as he drove.
"Of course." He turned to go upstairs, then spun back to face me. "Um. You do have your spandex under that dress, right?"
"Yep!" I flipped up the hem to show him the silky little shorts.
During our conversation about me going to school, the boys had asked me to wear them any time I had on a dress or skirt that came above my knees. They'd said it was in case some boy tried something stupid, like flipping my skirt up or trying to look up my dress when I was on the stairs. With worried eyes, I'd asked them how often that happened.
"Not often, but some boys do dumb things," Cole had said with a scowl. "It'll just give us peace of mind, honey, while we're not by your side."
Since I wanted to avoid any conflict, I'd agreed. Besides, wearing the little shorts would give me peace of mind, too.
"Don't flip your dress up to anyone else," Wyatt growled now as he pulled me in and kissed me breathless.
"Of course not, silly." I giggled, then sent him on his way so I could heat up my waffle.
#
A big hand covered the page I was studying, making me blink.
Looking up, then over at Wyatt, I realized he'd already parked in front of the school. I'd been so interested in his sketches, I hadn't even noticed we'd arrived. Reluctantly, I closed the sketchbook and laid it on my lap.
"Now, remember," he said, "Emerson and Reau are your brothers, and you all moved here last spring to escape your parents."
"I remember the story. I won't mess up," I assured him.
"I know you won't, cutie." He grabbed my hand, raised it to his mouth, and kissed my palm. "Em and Gelo prepped Reau as best they could, but I might have to alpha-command him if he begins rambling or revealing things he shouldn't."
I nodded to show I heard him.
I was a little nervous to meet the principal and guidance counselor, who were both humans and had no knowledge of the shifter world, but I wasn't too anxious because Wyatt said they were good people. It also helped that there weren't going to be many students around since it was July.
"They're here!" I clapped my hands as Angelo's truck pulled up next to our car.
Wyatt got out and came around to open my door, and a curly-haired whirlwind engulfed me in a hug as soon as I was on my feet.
"Luna! Alpha!" Thoreau shouted, then caught himself. "Oops! Sorry. Too loud."
"It's okay when we're outside," I told him. "Are you excited to go to school, little brother?"
"Yes, big sister." He tried to wink at me, but ended up blinking both eyes, and I giggled.
"Wow, little luna bunny." Emerson stood in front of us, holding Angelo's hand. "You clean up good!"
"You look gorgeous, luna," Angelo echoed.
"Oh, yes, you do!" Thoreau's eyes went up and down me, then he squealed, "I love your shoes!"
"And pink diamonds look fantastic with your skin tone," Emerson added.
"Thanks." I smiled at each of them as my cheeks grew warm. I still didn't handle compliments well. Turning to Wyatt, I tilted my head. "This necklace has a real diamond?"
"Three real diamonds," he smirked.
"Wyatt," I swallowed hard. "I thought it was glass or something. It's too expensive to wear!"
"Cutie, what's the point of having good jewelry just to keep in a drawer?" He touched his finger to the heart-shaped pendant that lay just below my collar bones. "I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to get it for you. And Em's right. Pink diamonds are perfect for you."
"Now I feel way too dressed up for school," I mumbled.
"Well, I doubt many high school seniors around here wear diamonds and carry Louis Vuitton handbags," Emerson laughed, "but you look adorable, so don't worry about it."
"Louis who?" I blinked up at him.
"That $2,000 designer bag you're carrying," Angelo pointed to it with a chuckle.
"What?" I stared at the pink purse hanging from my elbow. "How much?"
"Baby, we don't buy cheap stuff." Wyatt chuckled now, too. "And we warned you that we were going to spoil you."
Biting my bottom lip, I took a deep breath in through my nose. I was more nervous being the guardian of such expensive items than I was about starting school!
Laughing, Wyatt tugged me along, and the others followed us into the school and down the hall to the main office.
"Well, as I live and breathe," chirped an older blonde woman at the counter. "Wyatt Black, and without a discipline referral in his hand."
"Hey, Mrs. Grizzard." Wyatt smiled at her and tugged me closer. "No referral, but a bride. This is my wife, Posy."
That's right. I was legally married to Wyatt in the human world.
Their laws didn't allow for more than two people in a marriage, or I would have married all of my mates. In the end, we decided Wyatt would be a good choice for a few reasons. Many people at school would remember him as the popular football and wrestling team captain, and he had a reputation for being someone you didn't want to mess with. The boys hoped that would add a layer of protection, just like my wedding rings and having pack members in all my classes.
And he won Rock-Paper-Scissors.
So the six of us dressed in our fancy clothes from the luna ceremony, went to the Justice of the Peace in the human town, signed some paperwork, and went out to lunch. Mason had the marriage certificate framed and hung in the home office next to the photo of all of us standing outside the courthouse.
So now we had our legal bases covered in the human world, although marriage meant little compared to marking and mating each other.
"Oh, my!" Mrs. Grizzard put her hands on her cheeks as her eyes widened. "Congratulations! It's lovely to meet you, dear. I got to know Wyatt quite well during his four years here."
"Thank you," I murmured. "And I'm sure he kept everyone on their toes."
"You have no idea," she laughed, "especially if Ash Mitchell was involved."
"Posy and her younger brother are enrolling here, Mrs. Grizzard." Wyatt tipped his head toward Thoreau. "We have an appointment with Mr. Varner and Ms. Terrell to get them set up and talk about their schedules."
"Yes, I have the small conference room ready for your meeting. Let's get you all settled there, then I'll fetch the others."
"Thank you, Mrs. Grizzard."
She was as good as her word, sitting us around a long table in comfy black chairs with wheels. Thoreau spun his around and around until Emerson made him stop, and just in time for Mrs. Grizzard to come back with two older adults.
"Wyatt Black." The man smiled and held out his hand. "I hear congratulations are in order?"
"That's right." Wyatt stood and shook his hand, his chest puffed out proudly as he turned to me. "This is my wife, Posy."
"Pleasure to meet you," I said quietly and kept my hands folded in my lap.
"Likewise, Mrs. Black. I'm Principal Edwin Varner."
He didn't look concerned that we were married. Unlike that clerk at the courthouse, who'd lectured us about being too young, Mr. Varner looked genuinely happy for us. That made me like him a little bit. When he turned toward Emerson and Angelo and didn't even blink at their clasped hands, I decided I liked him even more.
"I take it one of you is Posy's older brother?" he asked them.
"That's right." Emerson stood and shook the principal's hand. "I'm Emerson del Vecchio. This is my husband, Angelo, and my baby brother, Thoreau. He's fifteen, but we have no idea where he is academically because he hasn't been in school for several years now."
I was still getting used to hearing Emerson introduce himself that way, but he'd told me that he took Angelo's last name because he wanted no connection to his parents, and I couldn't blame him.
"Yes, when Wyatt made the appointment, he said there were unusual circumstances."
Mr. Varner introduced his companion, Mrs. Shanique Terrell, who was a guidance counselor that would be helping get our classes sorted out.
Wyatt and I left most of the talking up to Emerson, who explained that he'd managed to get us younger siblings out of the home of our abusive parents earlier this spring. We'd taken the summer to heal our injuries, move here, find a therapist, and begin rebuilding our mental and emotional health.
He also explained a bit about Thoreau, and Mrs. Terrell seemed to know what he was talking about. In fact, when Thoreau started to have a meltdown, she left the conference room for a few minutes and came back with a small bin of toys.
"Here, Reau," she said kindly. "Try playing with these and see if you like them."
He immediately reached in and grabbed two round metal balls that were shiny and reflective. I didn't understand what was so interesting about them, but he was fascinated for the rest of the meeting.
"We'll need to do a child study to have him formally identified and see what level he's on in reading and math," Mrs. Terrell said. "We need to have an official diagnosis, then we can assign a case manager who will create an IEP - an individualized education plan. This will include accommodations for in class, testing, and more."
"This is something you've seen and worked with before?" Emerson asked.
"Yes. I'm not a pediatrician or a psychologist. I can't and won't make any kind of diagnosis, but I have twenty-five years of experience working with students like Reau. I can tell some things just by observing and talking with him. You said he goes to a private psychologist?"
"Yes. Dr. Alonzo York," Angelo said. "He also moved to the area recently."
"I'm sure Dr. York can give you some advice on sensory toys like those reflective balls he's playing with right now, but his case manager will also have some information for you as he or she works up his plan. Does he struggle with anger or violent outbursts?"
"No. Not at all." Angelo shook his head. "He gets loud when he's excited, but does not like loud noises. He can also become quite fearful, which we believe stems from the abuse he suffered."
"He's a pretty happy kid most of the time, though," Emerson added, "and is usually content ticking along in his own little world. He has some quirks, but nothing I consider unmanageable."
Mrs. Terrell nodded, then said, "If you would prefer, your Dr. York can do the work up and that will save time. Otherwise, we can arrange for our school psychologist to meet and test him in a couple of months or so."
"Months?" Emerson's eyebrows shot up. "School will be started by then and he won't have a plan in place."
"I'm sorry." Mrs. Terrell gave him a gentle smile. "We have one psychologist for the entire district, and he had appointments and testing scheduled for well into December. That's one of the drawbacks of a public school, I'm afraid."
"Dr. York will do whatever needs to be done by the end of next week," Wyatt said, and reached into his pocket for his phone. "You can contact him directly to set it up. He also has years and years of experience, so he's probably done similar testing in the past. Do you have a piece of paper?"
She slid her notebook and pen over to him, and he copied Dr. York's number from his phone, then also listed his number, Emerson's number, and Angelo's number and labeled each.
"Now, let's talk about classes." Wyatt drew a line under the phone numbers. "Here is a list of people that I trust. So long as at least one of them is in each of Posy's classes, I'll be happy. As for Reau, he's great friends with my little brother, Wayne, and Cole's little brother, Archer Barlow. You remember Cole, right?"
