Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,14

out at the top of her head. “I kicked Matt’s ass so hard tonight. You couldn’t get me away from that machine,” she brags proudly.

“I saw you guys disappear for an hour to the bathroom,” I say dryly.

She just shrugs. “What can I say? Winning makes me hungry. And not for pizza,” she says, winking.

I roll my eyes.

“Who’s your friend?” she asks, looking over Mario curiously.

“I’m the guy that Addie tried teaching video games to all night,” he says smoothly, holding out his hand for her to shake.

“You must not be very good then,” she replies.

“Hey!” I say indignantly, pinching her on the arm. She swats me away.

“Ready to go?” she asks.

“Yeah. You and Matt up for a double date tomorrow at Dare?”

Her eyes light up. “Ohh they have the best canapes. Can’t wait!”

I turn back to Mario. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yep. Goodnight, ladies,” he offers.

I give Mario a wave and then Zoey and I make our way through the arcade toward the doors. She elbows me as soon as we’re outside. “The human, huh?”

I shrug. “He’s nice enough.”

She smirks at me and pulls out her ponytail, running her fingers through her messed up hair. “Hot enough, too?”

“Shut up. My heatwave isn’t due for another couple of weeks or so.”

She sighs languorously with a dreamy look on her face as we approach her car. “I love being in heat. It’s so…”

“Licentious? Reckless? Slutty?” I supply.

She frowns. “I was gonna say special.”

I snort as I get in the car and she starts it up. “You would, you hornball. You snakes are the reason for the fall of all mankind.”

She lifts a shoulder as she buckles her seatbelt. “What can I say? We like to tempt.” She licks her lip suggestively and wags her eyebrows. She reaches over and puts her hand against my forehead and then makes a weird hissing/clicking sound as she drops her hand. “Yeesh. You’re wrong, girl. You’re going into heat sooner than a couple of weeks.” Zoey is sensitive to temperature, but I’m not convinced. I don’t feel that far gone yet.

“We’ll see,” I say as she pulls out of the parking lot to head back to pack land.

She gives me a superior look. “Yep. We will see. And then I’ll say I told you so and you’ll have to wear your, Addie was wrong sweatshirt for an entire weekend.”

I hated that damn sweatshirt.

I roll my eyes. “If you’re right, then I guess it’s a good thing I met Mario Perez.”

Zoey claps her hands excitedly. “Yay for sexy times!”

My vagina claps with her. She couldn’t agree more.

6

Addie

I’m cheering along with everyone else in the audience as the live band finishes their song. Despite the fact that I usually avoid Dare since it’s such a popular place, the music isn’t bad and Zoey was right—the canapes are delicious. I didn’t even know what a canape was until she ordered them as appetizers, but now I’m hooked.

Zoey and Matt are sitting with me and Mario at a tall circular table. I’m glad I did the whole double date thing. You know, just in case Mario turned out to be a psycho. Or an ass. Or boring. Any of those would’ve been a real downer. Luckily, he’s been pretty fun all night, and I’ve only embarrassed myself once when I accidentally snorted at a joke Matt made about hard drives. Nobody else got it. Such a waste.

The place is packed like I knew it would be, and we’re sitting at a table near the bar where the crowd is a little rowdier, and waitresses keep rushing past us back and forth to serve drinks and food to the rest of the bar. The atmosphere is all navy blue and black, with a waterfall for a wall behind the bar, and exposed steel pipes on the ceiling. The acoustics bounce off the spacious walls despite how many bodies are inside, and there’s a good mix of drinking, eating, and dancing.

I tried to leave the house in jeans and a t-shirt, but Zoey took one look at me and threatened to bite me unless I went back into our closet and let her dress me. And trust me, no one wants to be bitten by Zoey, in snake form or otherwise. Her small, sharp teeth are vicious. The last time she threatened to bite me was over the last cookie in our stash. I ate it. She bit me. She even let a little venom seep into it. She was that serious about