Chapter Four #2
“I’ve worked fourteen days in a row, and I’m tired,” Tabian said. “This asshole wouldn’t let me relax so here I am, matching pink shirts with two grown men I barely even like and babysitting a hamster while one of them makes out with one of our enemies in the bathroom.”
“She’s not our enemy, and we didn’t make out,” Vic said low. “She showed me her boobs, kind of, instead.”
Tabian stared at her. “What is wrong with you, lady? This man has a hamster. A hamster. He knitted him a neon pink sweater so they could match. You know how people talk about men with red flags? Vic is a walking red flag.”
The Vic in question didn’t even seem offended. He was eating a brownie out of the cannister he’d clearly secured from Denise before Lyric got here.
Bridger frowned and looked up at her. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Lyric.”
“I’m telling Destiny.” He lowered his attention back to his bingo card and marked off B4.
Great.
In the little clear cage in front of them, a sleepy brown hamster poked his head out from under a miniature orange plastic house and looked around blearily. He was indeed wearing a little pink sweater.
“Where did you learn how to knit?” she asked Vic.
“You can find anything on the internet.”
She snorted and took the lid off her dauber as the caller announced a new game.
Vic was funny, and full of good energy, and was self-deprecating.
He didn’t take himself too seriously, but the scars on his back said he could brawl.
And he had a cute hamster. She saw no red flags other than he was a part of a rival Pack.
And while that was a total deal breaker, she wasn’t going to think about that tonight.
Tonight, she was getting some time off from all the Pack drama, and Eden’s attitude, and the two new members they got this week that would not leave her alone, and she was going to disappear into the moment here and enjoy herself.
And when Vic reached under the table to squeeze her hand, she allowed it. She even squeezed it back right before he intertwined his fingers with hers and held her hand.
The butterflies he conjured in her middle were overwhelming. Oh, she liked his touch.
Big, strong, dominant, funny werewolf who had no shame in introducing her to his Pack?
“Can you send me that picture of us?” she whispered.
“I can’t. I don’t have your number.”
She cleared her throat and leaned closer. “Do you want my number?”
Vic turned the most handsome smile she’d ever seen right onto her. He handed over his phone with a new contact open and ready for her to fill in the information. She typed her name and her number into it and then handed it back.
He opened up a text and typed something out, and her phone vibrated in her purse.
She pulled it out and checked the message. It was a hamster emoji.
She giggled and typed out, Hello Mr. Red Flag. Send.
He put a heart response on it immediately.
She saved his name as ‘Vicious’ in the contact and put her phone away just in time for the caller to start announcing the bingo numbers again.
And do you know what? Lyric got a bingo.
She couldn’t believe it at first. It was a diagonal one, and she stared at it for a few seconds before she looked up at Vic in shock.
“Holy shit, she got a bingo!” he yelled, pointing at her and looking around at the caller. “Say it!” he said excitedly.
“B-bingo!” she said softly.
“What was that?” the caller teased.
“Bingo!” she shouted, her heart pounding.
She stood up and took her card to the caller for him to check her numbers, and yep, she won!
“Denise has your prize over there,” the caller said, pointing to the bake sale table.
A trill of excitement zapped right through Lyric, and she clinched her fists and made a high-pitched squeaking sound as she headed to the bake-sale table.
At the end of it there were two gift baskets.
“You can pick either one,” Denise said through a genuine smile. “I’m glad you won.”
“Me too,” Lyric said breathlessly as she looked over the gift baskets.
One was titled “Girls’ Trip” and was an all-expense paid wine tour to a trio of wineries, and the other was a fancy basket of fancy fruits, cheeses, sausages, and flavored jerky with a bottle of fancy wine and a charcuterie board.
Lyric chewed on the side of her lip. The wine tour actually sounded really fun. It even included a one-night stay at a hotel near the wineries with a huge room with six bunk beds and Girls’ Night themed décor.
But…
She would rather eat a turd than go on one of these trips with her sister. Eden would find a way to ruin it and make her feel bad about herself. Lyric was still very new to town and hadn’t made any friends yet, other than the three werewolves at the table behind them.
“I guess I’ll take this one,” she said, pointing to the snack basket.
Denise frowned slightly. “You sure looked at the wine tour basket for a while. You sure you don’t want that one?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t have anyone to go with—”
“I’ll go,” Vic said from behind her.
She twisted around, startled slightly. She hadn’t heard him approaching over the murmur of the room.
“You’ll go on a girls’ night trip?” she asked, not convinced. “Have you ever tasted wine in your life?” He didn’t strike her as a wine drinker.
Vic lifted up the card of what all was included and shrugged. “Wineries probably serve beer, right?”
Denise shook her head. “Probably not, young man, but perhaps it would be fun for you to dress up and escort this beautiful lady around.” Denise winked. “And be her designated driver if she misses the wine tour shuttle.”
Vic snorted. “I’m taking pictures of you if you are ridiculous.” He swung his gaze to Lyric. “You could take Destiny.”
Lyric froze. “Uuuuh, I’ll just take this basket.” She hugged the huge snack basket to her stomach.
“Look, you can take all the Rogue girls. They’ll have fun.”
Lyric shook her head slightly. “Stop,” she said low.
But Vic was already taking a picture of the information card on the wine tour.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Seeing if any of them want to go.”
“Yeah, but what if I don’t want to go?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to go? There are bunk beds involved. It’s like a slumber party.”
She plastered an empty smile on her face and set the basket down and then pulled him off to the side. “I am Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack,” she whisper-screamed.
“So?”
“So, I can’t go on weekend getaways with an enemy Pack!”
“Who is going to know?”
“My sister. She watches everything I do.”
“Your sister sounds boring. Why doesn’t she go with you then?”
“Because she’s mean as a rattlesnake.”
He pulled a grossed-out face and looked at his phone. “Destiny is in and so is Delta. Whoa, they’re typing so many exclamation marks. Look.” He turned his phone toward her, and indeed, they seemed very excited.”
“Well, wait until they find out I’m going,” she muttered.
“Oh, they know.” He scrolled up. He’d typed out, Lyric needs friends for some girls’ weekend wine tour. All expenses paid. A hotel night is included. Any takers?
“But…they don’t even know me,” she said, baffled.
“Destiny knows you. She told us all about how cool you were when she was taken. You protected her and then you gave her a wolf to defend herself. Plus, I’ve talked about you.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. Bridger told me at the Pack meeting to, and I quote, ‘shut the hell up about Lyric, you fucking potato. She doesn’t even like you.’”
An accidental laugh escaped her. Bridger was kind of mean, but she’d never heard anyone call someone a potato before.
“Okay, well is it for a certain date?”
“I don’t think so. Looks like you just schedule it when you’re ready,” he mumbled, looking over the information card.
“Well…my sister is heading to an Elder meeting this weekend out of town. I can maybe get away from—”
“She’ll take this one,” Vic told Denise, holding up the wine tour card.
Denise was already holding the basket out for Lyric. It had a couple of miniature sample bottles of wine, a set of wine glasses, wine glass charms with sparkly gems, custom corks with the logos of the wineries etched onto them, and a folder with the hotel information on it.
“I think a stress-free getaway would be good for you,” Vic said. “You deserve the break.”
“How do you know? You don’t even know me.”
“Mmm, I can feel it. You’re good. Destiny could feel it too when you Turned her. It’s okay to take a breather from the grief.”
“Grief,” she said softly.
“I was at the war, remember? We all saw what happened to your dad.”
“He’s not really my dad,” she reminded him.
“What better way to escape that confusion for a minute than getting hammered with a bunch of slightly annoying but mostly fun female werewolves for a weekend?”
She snorted. “I don’t think you get hammered on these things. It’s just a small sampling at each vineyard and then you buy the bottles of wine you enjoyed the most. I’ve seen shows on these things.”
“Mmm, well I’m getting hammered.”
“Wait what? You’re going too?” she asked, hope blooming in her chest.
“Lyric. Bunk beds. I’m not missing out on free booze and a bunk bed slumber party. A pillow fight between a bunch of hot girls is on my top three fantasies.” He turned his phone toward her. “Tabian will be there too. He’s already RSVP’d.”
Oh hell she was going on a weekend retreat with the whole Rogue Pack.
If Eden ever found out, she would ban her from the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack indefinitely. Lyric waited for the dread to hit her stomach at the thought, but honestly it didn’t happen. She kind of hated that Pack. She just didn’t know where else to go.
“I guess I’ll call and schedule it,” she said through a smile that was slowly stretching her face.
“Nah, I will. It keeps you from changing your mind if it’s planned already.”
“You think I’ll back out?” she asked.
“I think you’ll get home, your sister will pull some nonsense and get into your head, and you’ll get quiet and still again, and think the weekend is too big of a hassle.”