Chapter 39
WARREN
Vivian saw him from across the terminal and ran at him with a squeal.
“We’re in Disney World!” The shout could be heard throughout the terminal.
Warren caught her in a hug, feeling self-conscious at the spectacle they made.
“We are,” he agreed. Besides a few amused glances, no one was batting an eye at Vivian’s over-the-top enthusiasm. An excited nineteen-year-old wearing Mickey ears at the Orlando airport wasn’t such an unusual sight, Warren supposed.
Pulling back from the hug, Warren looked down and wondered where Vivian's suitcase was.
“This is going to be the best trip ever!” Vivian gushed, adjusting her ears.
“It is,” Warren agreed. “Did you not bring a bag?”
Vivian’s eyes widened and she looked down. “Fuck!” she exclaimed, running back from where she came.
Warren followed at a slow jog, watching as she located her bag next to the bench where she’d left it.
“That was the first time I forgot my bag, I swear,” Vivian said, obviously lying.
Warren laughed and reached out to take it from her. “Well, you got it here. I say that’s a win. How was your flight?”
Vivian glanced down at her phone and started walking out of the terminal, forcing Warren to fall into step next to her or be left behind.
“Pretty good. I slept pretty much the whole way, and then when I got here, I slept on the bench back there. I’m fully rested and ready to go.
” She looked around. “Our shuttle leaves from… somewhere down that way.”
With Vivian’s bag rolling behind him and his overnight bag tossed over his shoulder, Warren followed his sister outside.
The weather was perfect. Not too hot or humid, with a light breeze, it made Warren wonder why he’d chosen to go to school up north when places like this existed.
He waited while Vivian checked them in for the shuttle – a remarkably efficient process – and then the next thing he knew, they were on the bus and on their way.
Vivian was practically vibrating out of her skin, she was so excited.
“Okay, so we don’t have Fastpass – that costs money now – but I have a plan for how we’re going to ride every ride in Magic Kingdom, and then tonight we’re going to go watch the fireworks. If we have time-”
Overwhelmed, Warren listened as his sister laid out a detailed plan for the next three days. It sounded exhausting. She wanted to go on every single ride. Warren had downloaded the app for the park the day before, and he had seen the wait-time estimates.
Most of the rides had over an hour wait, and the longest line was more than twice that.
When dropping him off at the airport, Harland had taken Warren’s phone and added his credit card to Warren’s Apple Pay. He’d said to warn him if he needed to spend more than fifty thousand dollars in a single transaction, because Harland would have to notify his bank to approve the charge.
Warren had been so sure that he wouldn’t take advantage. Having an emergency card on his phone was nice, but Warren wasn’t going to go on some crazy spending spree – or any spending spree.
Or so he’d thought.
Harland was rich, and he’d told Warren to spend his money as he pleased.
Hesitating, feeling like he was giving up on some of his hard-earned independence, Warren decided to give in and allow himself to be spoiled.
“Do you have our tickets linked to your account?” Warren asked, interrupting his sister mid-sentence as she detailed her strategy to ride the Peter Pan ride.
She looked at him like he’d asked if she’d ever tried to drink Diet Coke. “Of course.”
“Can you log in on my phone?”
Vivian took his phone and logged into the app and handed it back to him, all the while laying out her plan for day two.
As she talked, Warren browsed through the options.
The old Fastpass system seemed to be alive and well, except now it cost money.
Warren was about to pay when he saw another option.
It was absurdly expensive, but it would let them skip every line in the park without having to use the complicated Fastpass booking system.
If Harland were there, Warren knew which option he’d tell him to book. He bit his lip, his heart racing.
“Which park are we hitting when?”
Vivian paused in the middle of talking about the rides in Epcot. “Hollywood Studios today, Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and then Animal Kingdom and Epcot on Tuesday.”
Warren bought the absurdly expensive passes – one for Hollywood Studios for that day, Magic Kingdom for the next, and then for Animal Kingdom on Tuesday.
He’d never spent so much money on something so stupid.
“What are you doing?” Vivian looked down at his phone. She snatched it out of his hands and looked at the confirmation for the Premier Passes.
The bus nearly crashed because of the sound she let out.
“Warren, do you not see how much this costs?” Vivian punched his arm. “We could go on a two-week trip for this! We could have stayed at a Disney hotel! I could buy so much merch!”
Warren rubbed his arm. His sister looked wild-eyed, tapping on Warren’s phone like a crazy person. She glared at him. “Warren, these passes are non-refundable! How are you going to pay for this?”
Warren licked his lips and confessed, “I’m not.”
Vivian hit him again. “You have to pay your credit card bills.” A horrified look came over her face. “Oh no, are you in trouble? Do you have massive credit card debt and so now you don’t even care?”
Warren rushed to reassure her. “It’s not my card!”
“Fraud?” she exclaimed, looking around and lowering her voice. “Warren, Jesus Christ, I will not be arrested in Disney World. That is my Disney account. If you used a stolen credit card on my account, I will kill you!”
“It’s not stolen, it belongs to my boyfriend.”
Vivian’s mouth fell open. “You have a boyfriend?”
Warren nodded. He swallowed, hoping that his sister wouldn’t think he was a freak when he said, “Three of them. They’re werewolves.”
“They’re-”
“Well, two of them are werewolves,” Warren interrupted. “One of them used to be a werewolf, but now he’s a vampire.”
Vivian stared at him, her mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. Finally, she gathered her thoughts enough to ask, “What the fuck?”
Vivian stared at him like he’d sprouted horns and wings, and Warren could tell the exact moment she spotted the bitemarks on his throat.
“Are those claiming bites?” she shrieked.
“How do you know about those?” Warren asked.
Vivian immediately looked defensive. “I like to read werewolf romance smut books, sue me. Now answer the question.”
Warren hadn’t known that there were smut books about werewolves. Why hadn’t he ever read any of those?
He was actually a little miffed at Vivian for hiding something like that from him.
“I mean, yeah?” Warren said.
Vivian looked like she was struggling to figure out how she felt about that. “And when did this happen?”
“Like two weeks ago,” Warren said. “It’s pretty new.”
“And is it anything like it is in the books?”
Warren frowned. “I haven’t read any books. I don’t know what it’s like in them.”
Vivian poked his chest. “In the books, a werewolf giving a human a claiming bite is a declaration that they’re mates. It’s permanent. In other words: Warren, did you get werewolf married without telling me?”
Warren thought back to everything Marcus, Max and Harland had said about their claiming bites. From what he’d understood, it was a declaration to other werewolves that he was spoken for. Marcus had said that it didn’t mean that Warren had any obligation toward him.
But Marcus, Max and Harland had been very careful not to make him feel trapped. Had they werewolf married him and just not told him?
He grabbed his phone back from his sister and called Marcus.
“Are we werewolf married?” he asked without preamble, not giving Marcus a chance to speak.
After a startled silence, Marcus chuckled. “Werewolves don’t get married. We find our mates and claim them.”
“And you claimed me,” Warren stated.
“I did,” Marcus said, his voice possessive and darkly pleased. “Now the ball is in your court.”
Warren licked his lips. “Okay, that’s all I wanted to know. I’ll see you when I get home.”
He hung up the phone and looked back at his sister.
“I think I might be werewolf married.”
Warren wasn’t actually surprised. Despite what Marcus and Harland had said, he’d known that things were serious.
Everything was happening so fast, but every time Warren spent time with his three alphas, it felt like everything was right in the world.
The idea of not choosing them was impossible.
“And how do you feel about that?” Vivian asked. She was much calmer now, her focus on Warren’s wellbeing.
“Pretty good,” Warren said. “Pretty great, maybe?”
Warren was smiling. This might all blow up in his face horribly, but in the moment, examining his feelings, Warren was happy.
“So how did you meet them?”
Warren blushed.
“They sniffed me out, basically. I was just minding my business and they came up to me all like, ‘You smell nice, go on a date with me.’”
Vivian laughed, incredulous. “Just like that? They smelled your pheromones and were like, ‘Yup, he’s the one.’?”
Warren nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Okay, show me pictures and tell me all about them. I can't believe you didn’t tell me about this the second it happened.”
Warren didn’t have pictures, except for the selfie Marcus had taken when he added his contact information. He showed it to Vivian.
“This is the only one I’ve got. I haven’t taken any pictures.”
Vivian studied Marcus’s photo. It was taken from below, Marcus’s wide chin featuring prominently, a cocky smirk on his lips. She shook her head. “This guy looks like bad news.”
“What?” Warren grabbed the phone back. Vivian couldn’t make that kind of judgment based on one picture. That was completely unreasonable. He was so offended he could barely speak.
That was his alpha.
“He’s too pretty. No one takes a picture from that angle unless they don’t care how they look, or they know that they’re pretty enough to pull it off. That little smirk? He’s full of himself. I can tell.”
Warren couldn't exactly argue against that—Marcus was full of himself, but he had reason to be. He was very impressive. He was the alpha of the largest, most powerful pack in the country, and he had the cock and body of a god.
Vivian made a face.
Warren was immediately on the defensive. “What?”
“You’re into it,” she said, looking like she’d just realized something horrible about him. “He’s an arrogant, cocky, alpha-male douchebag and you love it.”
“He’s not a douchebag.” Warren gave her a furious look. “He’s actually very sweet.”
“Are the others conceited alpha-male douchebags, too?” Vivian asked.
Warren gave her a stern glare. “Don’t be a dick. Marcus is wonderful, and though Harland can be stoic, he’s actually very sensitive and sweet, and Max is ridiculously enthusiastic, nice and fun. They’re great. All of them.”
Vivian smiled at him. “You like them.”
Warren narrowed his eyes at her. “Obviously.”
Had she just pretended to be a bitch to get a reaction out of him? Was that a test?
“Okay. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until New Year's when I can see for myself,” Vivian said, laughing.
“You’re visiting me for New Year's?” Warren asked, forgetting his annoyance at Vivian even pretending to say that Marcus was a douchebag. He was thrilled, but he’d thought that she had plans with her roommates for the break.
“I am. I don’t want to talk about why, so don’t ask. Let’s just say that Amy is a cunt and I hope her parents cut off her credit card.”
“Please don’t use language like that,” Warren said, exasperated.
He hoped that this was the last time he had to hear about Amy, but he knew better. Vivian and Amy always made up.
The chances of Vivian actually visiting him over break were about fifty-fifty. If she and Amy made up, her original plans would be back on. Warren would save his excitement for when she bought a ticket.
“You’re really happy?” Vivian asked, ignoring his chastisement.
Warren nodded.
“If you’re happy, I’m happy for you. I’m going to ask you a million questions over the next few days. This is huge. I can’t believe you have me all distracted when we’re in fucking Disney World.”
He let out a little laugh. “Sorry.”
Vivian looked up at the little screen that showed the names of the next stops. “I think we’re the next stop. Are you ready?”
“I am,” Warren said, putting his phone in his pocket.
The bus pulled up to the hotel lobby and came to a stop. Warren and Vivian disembarked. As the driver helped them get their bags out of the storage area under the bus, he gave them a stern look.
“I know you’re excited, but screaming on the bus is not appropriate. It’s very distracting to me as your driver. Please be more mindful.” He gave them their bags. “Enjoy your vacation.”
For a Disney bus driver, that was the equivalent of screaming at them and telling them they were uncivilized animals.
Warren and Vivian stood stock-still, the very polite dressing-down making Warren feel like a little kid. He nodded.
“Sorry, sir,” Vivian said, shamefaced.
“It’s all right,” the driver said. “Have fun on your vacation.”
He climbed back on board the bus and drove away. Warren and Vivian looked at each other.
“Well, that was embarrassing,” Vivian said.
“Humiliating,” Warren seconded.
Vivian suddenly perked up. She grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt. “Warren, we have Premier Passes and the park has been open for four hours. We need to go!”
Warren laughed, following Vivian as she sprinted into the hotel.