I reminded myself it was probably because he was a shifter, even if he didn’t appear to have long claws and fur sprouting from every inch of him. My gaze slid around to the other young men. Some of them drank, eyes glazed over. A couple tossed a ball back and forth, but there was no heart in the game. And many studied us, but with an almost complete lack of interest. I looked back at the man heading toward me. What was this place? Some kind of Neverland where kids grew to become young men without any goals or guidance?
“The alpha died. This is his son and the new alpha,” Deva whispered, as if reading my thoughts.
“That’s right,” he said in a growly voice, even though he should’ve been too far away to hear her quiet words. “So show some respect.” He bared his teeth like a dog about to attack.
Show him some respect, because he inherited a position? Unlikely. I arched one eyebrow. Sure, he was big and scary, but he was also like twenty. He should’ve been showing me some respect. He had nothing on me when it came to life experience. Hell, most of these guys were still dressed like they were in college or high school. All hoodies, baseball caps, and torn jeans.
Evidently raising an eyebrow wasn't showing respect, though. He noticed my facial expression and snapped one finger. The rest of the guys, mostly his age or younger, jumped to their feet and the next thing I knew, we were surrounded, with the boys—totally not men, boys—slowly closing the circle.
Fear bloomed in my gut. Damn my resting bitch face! It wasn't bad enough that even when I wasn't particularly upset I looked pissed but why did my every single damn emotion have to show on my face? I could never play poker.
The thought reminded me why we were there in the first place. Henry. The group he'd sicced after us moved ever closer, and the alpha’s expression was purely murderous, even though he was still standing well back.
Oh man, we’d made a huge mistake coming here.
If Deva or Carol got hurt because of me and my bullheadedness or my resting bitch face, I'd never forgive myself. They had only just come back into my life. I wasn't ready for them to be gone, or for me to bite it at the jaws of some punkass shifter kids. I could feel my heart galloping in my chest as though it was trying to break through my ribs and take the shifters on itself, or run away. Actually, probably the latter. It was the urge to turn and run that I was having trouble ignoring at that moment. But if running from a shifter was anything like running from a wild animal, especially a wolf or something like that, then my actions would only increase the danger we were in. It was that fact that kept my feet firmly planted where they were.
“Enough of this,” Deva snapped as she stepped forward. “Have you lost your damn mind?”
The alpha stopped and I realized that he'd been emitting a low growl the entire time. It was only as he stopped and stared at Deva in shock that I noticed the lack of it. When he hesitated, so did the rest of his pack.
Deva wasn’t done. “You stop this right now.” She strode forward, shouldering her way through the circle of shifters that had been advancing on us, and put her finger right in his face, and the enormous, towering man-child actually shrank back. “Your father would be ashamed of you, Nathan. Absolutely mortified. He never ran his pack like this. It’s not a party.”
She turned and looked at each of them, stacking her hands on her hips. No one escaped her glare. If she was my mom, her flip-flop would have been off and in her hand as an unspoken threat, but that may have been taking it a little too far with these shifters. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
If I hadn’t been standing here watching it happen, I wouldn’t have believed it. I glanced at Carol just to make sure we were seeing the same thing, and she had a knowing smile on her face. They took off their hats, dropped their heads, displaying their epic hat hair, and from what I could tell, each of them mumbled apologies.
“Now,” Deva continued. “Get this bullshit cleaned up before I go find all of yall’s mamas. I can’t believe how badly you’re disrespecting nature. Get that paint off the trees. You think mother nature will put up with your shit forever? Don't make her have to tan your hides.”
All of the pack stood frozen until Deva pointed at two of them and snapped her fingers. “You two, clean the paint off the trees.” She pointed at two more. “You two, get all the trash up and in bags. Now. And make sure to sort out the recycling.”
Everyone ran into action, except for the alpha, Nathan. He stood as if waiting for further direction. “Go help,” Deva said, sounding exasperated. “You’re not above cleaning up your mess!”
The three of us moved to one side and sat on their yard chairs as we watched while they scurried around the clearing. The guys who had jumped off the cliff came up and saw all the hullabaloo, then immediately ducked their heads and got busy. It didn't matter that they were dripping wet, they just joined in and started cleaning.
When it looked quite a bit better, Deva sat up. “Nathan,” she called. “We have a question for you.”
He walked up, pulling his ball cap off once more and flexing his hand around the bill, curving it even more, looking all contrite. “Yes?”
One arched eyebrow from Deva was all it
