“How do you figure?” Mateo asks
“He’s settled for power as the head of the school board in order to try and manipulate things for him and his daughter. It’s why he keeps pushing her on the twins, why he stalled the building of his home, hoping a forced proximity will help her chances. When we were younger at school she was always paired with Cam and Kota, even though she and I are a year younger than you guys. But she’s not the only girl, have you noticed the amount of female attention that has surrounded the guys lately? It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” I shutter.
“I hope you guys all find your mates quickly, some of these girls are nuts.” Jena grimaces. “I actually heard two people plotting to get pregnant so you would have to take them as chosen mates. You need to watch your backs and make sure you wrap it up tight.”
“Yeah, we’ve started to feel the crazy vibe.” Cam stares into the fire. “I just wish they wanted us for us though, or could even have the smallest respect for the fact that we want our mate.”
“So you’re sure that you will both share a mate?” Lil asks.
They share a look and then nod.
“Do you know who it is?” She questions with an eyebrow raised.
“No one knows, not for certain.” Cam tries to deflect.
“But that look on your face says you do actually have someone in mind.” She points between them. Neither respond or look up from the fire.
“We need a game!!” Sierra shouts suddenly, startling everyone..
“What did you have in mind?” Sam nuzzles her neck.
“The bonfire is supposed to be fun, not depressing and all we talk about is work, which right now is depressing. I want to know about all the new friends Sky has made, since I have lived near them all for years, but I don’t know anything.”
“As long as we can just sit here and keep drinking, I’m okay with that. This week has been rough.” Mateo sighs.
“How about ‘never have I ever?’ or Truth or Dare, but the dare is you have to kiss someone of the questioner’s choosing. We’ll keep it short and simple.”
“I feel like there is nothing of the sort when you are involved.” Lil laughs.
“You are not wrong.” She winks. “Now what are we playing?”
“Never have I ever.” The twins say together, a strange look in their eyes.
“You afraid to have to kiss someone here?” Sierra teases them.
“I’m not really interested in making out with Sam, I’m pretty sure I know where his mouth has been.” Kota winks.
Sierra pretends to be offended and throws her empty cup at him, but he bats it away easily and laughs.
“Fine, I’ll go first. Never have I ever kissed someone in this group.”
Sierra and Sam drink naturally, Oliver and I both drink, but so do Lil and Wyatt.
“What’s the story there?” I ask Lil and Wyatt, ignoring the small growl coming from Cam next to me.
I don’t think that tension went unnoticed, but Lil starts talking like nothing is weird.
“Wyatt and I got our brands at the same time and I was curious about the hormone suppression thing. I mean that’s a weird thing to shut down and oddly specific. I was curious if you could override it somehow like was the suppression to just keep you away from the opposite sex or could it keep you from desiring it at all. There are so many questions.”
“So what happened?” Sierra giggles.
“You know how when your hand falls asleep and you know it’s there but you can’t feel anything just before the tingles start. That’s what it was like. It was hilarious, she kissed me and I knew that our lips were touching, but I couldn’t actually feel it.”
“So you haven’t had sex, or done anything else in almost two years?” Sam sounds appalled.
“None of us have.” He tilts his head to each of us with warrior brands. “It keeps our heads on straight during a mission and keeps us from getting manipulated. Some of our missions have been intense and without the link we have all of us would have died at least once, Midge at least six times.”
Growls surrounded the clearing.
“I see what you did there. Thank you for throwing me under the bus.” I shot through the warrior mindling, so they all heard.
“Do you want to keep talking about your sex life?”
“Sierra will bring it back, just you wait. She’s a force that can’t be derailed.”
“Hey no secret conversations!”
“What does he mean, you would have died at least six times?” It’s Mateo that asks.
“My job is dangerous Mateo. I am a unique size and age for a warrior, so the missions that I go on tend to be more intense. Without the warrior lin, and all the restrictions that come with it, my team would not have been able to find me. That is all. It’s not any different than you all putting your lives on the line each time you run a patrol, knowing that rogues are out there, probably watching and timing everything, just biding their time.”
“NOPE! We are back to depressing. What I really want to know is who did you kiss?” SHe looks at me.
Now I’m confused. “Oliver kissed me, remember?” She looks between Oliver and I and he looks ashamed. Does he regret kissing me?
“Umm, no, I don’t remember that! When did that happen?””
“When we went on lockdown, and they found the fingers of the two Lunas. I was in Luna Ava’s room and the memory of the silver kind of sent me into my head.”
“She stopped breathing and wasn’t responding to anything else. I panicked and my wolf took over, but it broke whatever had her frozen.” He looked right at me.
“That is something else I am so curious about, but we will table it for another drinking session.” Jena says.
“What’s that?” Sierra asks.
“This whole connection with Midge and everyone. I know you all feel it too, but like I said for another drinking session. Never have I ever had sex in a public bathroom.” Everyone but me drinks. Gross.
“Never have I ever received a BJ at school.” Sam asks.
Of course all the guys drank, but I laughed when Lil drank too.
“What? I assume it includes the female equivalent.”
“Of course.” Sam agrees, laughing.
“Oh well in that case…” Sierra says, taking a drink and Jena follows suit. We all laugh again.
The questions keep coming and give me a lot of insight to my friends that I’m not sure I needed.
Finally though Wyatt looks at me, “You are far too sober for this game.”
“Not if you do the math. I did not hang out with anyone until Sierra came to our pack. I was only fourteen, fifteen then. Then I went straight to warrior training that summer and got my warrior brand where all of my teenage raging hormones have been suppressed for almost two years now. Not a lot of time to fool around with anyone.” I shrug.
“Hold on! That was your first kiss? Ever?!” Oliver looks like he’s going to be sick.
Before I can respond, all hell breaks loose.
“Attack on the border, get everyone to safety, we need all warriors at the northern end NOW!”
