Chapter 34: A Plan: Part 1

Meadow whistles at me, almost deafening me with the strength she can emit with just two fingers in her mouth and motioning with her hand in a circling gesture to get me to turn around.

She’s bossy, but there’s something likable about her, and I’m fast warming to her pushy personality.

She’s gone to town on me in a short space of time. My hair is sleek, combed until it is glossy, and pulled up into a high ponytail that she said made my waves come together to an almost ringlet at the back.

She’s blushed, pinched, dabbed, and painted my face with various products and squeezed me into clothes she swears are my size, but the restrictions I feel make me doubt it.

My bust is surprisingly close in size to what she wears, so no doubt she heavily downsizes for extra “oomph” in her breast department.

I’m all cleavage I never knew I had in a fitted white tank with a low-cut V.

Skintight, soft denim jeans display a booty I feel is out on show from sculpted pants, and I’m pulling on the soft mauve velvet hoody she told me to leave open.

My feet are in crisp white sneakers because we’re going for the “casual and didn’t try too hard” look.

She’s thrown some silver hoops in my ears, with a simple, dainty necklace holding a tiny green crystal she said was the color of my eyes.

Honestly, I spent my life dressing in shapeless or loose clothing to feel comfortable and not to draw attention.

And now I feel like I have way too much on show and a bit too dressed up for a wolf pack meeting in their communal.

I know Colton has seen me naked after turning, but this feels more exposed somehow. Maybe because I rarely wear makeup, and what’s done feels strange on my skin.

Even my lids have been doctored, feeling heavier with the lashings of mascara.

Everything is perked and propped up, held in tight fabrics that enhance my curves, and I wish I could see it for myself to tell how bad or good it is.

For all I know, I look like a clown. But no, I only busted every damn mirror in this mansion some hours ago and can only go by Meadow’s reaction, which seems to be positive.

“I would bang you, chica.” She winks, throws me a kiss, and blows it my way dramatically, clicking her fingers and her tongue on the roof of her mouth in unison to make an approval noise.

“Thanks, I guess,” I respond with a half laugh, half-nervous cough, unsure if that’s the right thing to say, but she laughs airily.

“I like you, girl. You’re funny without trying to be. You’re like this little naive, awkward kid, but with a heart of a vixen, waiting to come into her own. Never change that.”

She eyes me over once more, nodding to herself with evident pride at what she’s created, and it warms me to my stomach.

It’s weird to have someone genuinely look at me with a hint of pride and acceptance like this. I mean, Colton doesn’t count when he did it earlier.

He has to feel that way about me as it’s ordained by the Fates to be so.

“I’ll try not to.” I smooth my hands down the soft fabric smothering my legs and do one last check from my viewpoint.

All I can see are boobs.

“You sure I look okay and not too obvious?” Doubt is already swarming me, denting the bit of confidence she’s been building up in the last half hour.

Meadow shakes her head, loosening those beach curls she has going on at the ends as she puts in some oversized gold hoops in her ears.

“Please… I know what I’m doing, and I ain’t no fool when it comes to teasing men. We went for sexy casual.

“Just work it, and trust me on this. One eyeful of that bootylicious and Colton gonna be dry-humping your ass into next week like a wolf in heat.”

She extends a hand, that mischievous glint in those pale-blue sultry eyes as she straightens her fitted white blouse down over her mega breasts with her free hand.

I hop forward to catch her fingers in mine, eager to go before I lose all my nerve and wipe this off.

We’ve only been up here for around twenty-five minutes, maximum, but it feels like hours have passed, and I’m so much more relaxed with her, even if I’m not relaxed with how I’m kitted out.

I guess having her right in my face with various implements she could have gouged my eyes out with has built trust.

I can’t explain and can only go by the memory of what being part of a pack was to compare, but this feels like Meadow is bringing me to her as her pack sister, initiating a bond.

It makes me choke up a little, suddenly so grateful that she’s Colton’s second and has her own kind of bond with him, which has pushed her to invest in me.

It’s nice to have another person who likes me, for whatever reason.

“Let’s go find your man and make Carmen’s face implode.” Meadow sounds like she’s a little too invested in doing that, her accent a tad heavier when she’s smirking, her lips curling like the cat that got the cream.

She speaks in that smug tone, and I can’t deny she’s lifted my mood entirely in terms of that “skanky puta” which I now know means “dirty slut.”

Eloquent. I guess having someone on your side who’s not ordained by the Fates to be so makes a difference. It’s no longer just Colton and me.

Meadow leads the way.

And with a combination of moving fast and giggling at nothing in particular as we play, push, and shove each other around corners and doors and downstairs, back to where we started, we seem to get there in record time.

I barely took in my surroundings at all this time. Who knew a Santo beta wolf could be so fun to hang out with?

The door to the study is shut, but I know before following her in that Colton isn’t here yet.

I can’t feel him anywhere near this room, nor any fresh scent, and I swallow down hard as I step in, right behind her, almost hidden in her shadow.

The rest of them are in various states of lounging, uninterested by our return, and did not miss our presence.

Someone is playing music in the corner on a cell phone or a small device I can’t see, and it seems they have all had a couple or a few drinks in our absence.

The smell of alcohol wafts our way and tints the air with that chemical whiff.

I can’t miss Carmen sitting alone at the desk, sulking. She’s flicking through a large book, something heavy with aging pages, and glances up hatefully as I make eye contact.

She doesn’t say anything and goes back to what she’s reading and pretending we didn’t just walk in.

“I have to admit, she scrubs up well, and I guess I can see why Cole couldn’t keep his hands off her…,” one of the twins remarks as Meadow gets out of my way, exposing me fully to the room.

There’s a cough as Carmen reminds them of her presence and how much she doesn’t like that comment, and Demi shuts up.

Romi pushes his brother in the shoulder playfully, shaking his head at him, and eyes me up too. I can tell by how he flickers over me, nodding with a smile, that he agrees.

“Okay, so like this, maybe I can see the potential. I mean… Ouch.”

He makes a motion with his hands as though touching something hot and then dramatically blows his fingers and makes a sizzling noise with his mouth.

Despite the earlier hostility with these two, I smile slightly, giggling involuntarily, screwing up my nose in shyness at being scrutinized as my cheeks heat with a blush.

“See, chica, they like. My boys, they know sexy when they see it. I think it’s a massive improvement to wearing Cole’s castoffs.”

Meadow walks around me, her final appraisal as though she didn’t spend minutes upstairs admiring her handy work, and then sashays away again, grinning.

She’s congratulating herself on her excellent skills.

“Who likes what?” Colton seems to appear out of thin air while I was too distracted to pick up on him.

I spin in both surprise and instant nervousness, realizing I didn’t have time to prepare myself for him walking in.

I’m just standing here halfway into the room like some awkward kid who’s been asked to model the ugly jumper her grandmother knitted for Christmas.

Our eyes lock as he hits me with that megawatt cute-boy smile, a hint of dimples, and a reminder of how gorgeous Colton is when he relaxes and lets his charms shine.

That’s before breaking contact to let his gaze slide down my outfit and back again.

I can tell by the raised brow expression he likes what he sees, and that smile turns into a full-on, dimple-enhanced, swoon-worthy sexy smile, with an accompanying eye twinkle that melts me to my core.

It does weird things to my insides, and my butterflies rise and set my skin alight with a smoldering fire.

~“Well, I’ll be damned. I thought naked was good.”~

His mental message has me blushing insanely, heat consuming my face, his voice dripping with heightened lust.

But it’s short-lived when I catch his eyes glancing toward Carmen, and he seems to put his tongue away instantly, pulling back his reaction, and yanks on that serious persona once more.

It’s like he got scolded, and I wonder if she mind-linked him and gave him what for. In her head, they’re still trying to work things out, even if I know otherwise.

“My father gave me a schedule of where all the packs, teams, and such are to report at dawn. We meet in the mess hall at first light.

“Our subs are convening on the West River, the old basketball court, and we’ll be in charge of continuing training with the pack members already learning combat... and, of course, Lorey.”

He’s straight into leader mode, pushing that spark between us aside as responsibility kicks in. I don’t know who gasps louder out of literally everyone in the room.

Even I take that last word or two in with a little inhale of “What?”

“She’s training with us? Has she ever done any sort of hand-to-hand or weapons training in her life? We might kill her by mistake!”

I never got a good look at the previous silent member, and he steps forward now from behind the bar area, and I cringe when I catch sight of his face.

He’s older than Colton for sure, hair graying a little at the temples, and he has one utterly white eyeball that suggests he’s partially blind.

The other is so dark brown in comparison that you can’t help but react when you see it.

There’s a raggedy awful-looking scar running from cheek to forehead and passing right through, so deep I can tell he was wounded pretty severely whenever this happened, and it’s the first thing I see.