“Want to come out?” asked Lexi. “I could go for some fresh air.”
“God, same,” said Shana. “And, um, to see Sam, of course.”
“You know,” said Lexi with a smile. “Sam’s the one you should be marrying. I mean, it’s not long before you’re going to be twenty-one yourself.”
Shana’s face turned tomato red. “What? I don’t like him like that, you know.”
“Sure,” said Lexi, her tone suggesting she didn’t believe it one bit.
“I mean, it doesn’t matter anyway,” said Shana. “I’m marrying whoever the pack wants, and it’s not like I get any say on the subject.”
Lexi did her best to hold back a smile. The two of them got up and headed out. Lexi made sure to not look at Chad, but as she left, she could feel his eyes burning into the back of her. Among all of his other charming traits, Chad was possessive, always wanting to know where Lexi was and who she was with. And she hated it.
The two of them stepped out into the cool evening, the bar surrounded by trees, the moon bright and silver above.
“Hey!”
Lexi turned in the direction of the voice, recognizing it as Sam’s.
Sam Whitecrest was tall and lean, but still well-built and handsome. He wore thick-framed dark glasses, his hair auburn and shaggy around his lean face. And tucked under his arm was the book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, that Lexi had lent him.
“Hey, Sam!” said Lexi, hurrying over to him. She was so relieved to see a man who wasn’t a brain-dead thug that she couldn’t resist throwing her arms around him.
“Whoa!” said Sam. “Good to see you too, Lex.”
He hugged her back, and when she let go, she felt more than a little silly about what she’d done. Sam turned his attention to Shana.
Shana was short and lean, with a black pixie-cut and a cute, elfish face. She was dressed in her usual tight jeans and rock band T-shirt, a pair of black Chuck Taylors finishing her look.
And she was totally flustered.
“Hey, Shana,” said Sam, his face a tinge red.
“Hey, Sam.”
And then neither of them said anything else. Lexi couldn’t help but find it totally charming.
“Next is that one of you asks the other how they are,” she said with a smile.
Sam’s eyes went wide as if he’d realized he’d made a misstep. “Um, how are you, Shana?”
“Good,” she said, grinning happily.
Then more adorably awkward silence.
Sam cleared his throat, sticking out the book toward Lexi. “Anyway, I was in the area and I wanted to drop this off for you.”
“You read Unbearable Lightness of Being?” asked Shana before Lexi could say a word.
“For, like, the tenth time,” said Sam. “I need to buy my own copy already.”
“You can have one of mine,” said Shana. “I have a couple.”
“Really?” asked Sam.
“Really. It’s one of my favorites.”
Lexi said nothing, instead watching the two of them clumsily but charmingly flirt.
“Anyway,” said Sam, glancing toward the bar. “How is it in there? How’s Chad?” There was total disdain as he said the name. It was no secret that Sam didn’t care for Chad one bit, or his impending marriage to his best friend.
“Chad-ing it up, as usual,” said Lexi, shaking her head. “I swear, it’s like he loses an IQ point every day.”
Shana and Sam laughed.
“Well,” said Sam. “You fight as much as he does, take that many blows to the head, and you’re not exactly going to be a mathalete.”
More laughs.
“So,” said Lexi. “When’s the big day?”
“Wait,” said Shana. “What big day?”
“Someone’s going off to college in Seattle,” said Lexi.
“What?” asked Shana. “Are you serious?”
The pack was stuck in their ways, but every year, they picked a few betas to go off into the nearby city of Seattle to attend college. There, they could get a sense of what was going on in the rest of the world, along with being able to pick up intel on the goings-on of the city shifters.
“Serious as it gets. Leaving next month.”
“Oh,” said Shana, clearly disappointed. “Well, maybe we can hang out sometime before then.”
“Really?” asked Sam, sounding excited. He caught himself and spoke in a more easy-going voice. “I mean, that would be fun. And it’d be even better if you and Lexi could come with me.”
“Not a chance of that happening,” said Lexi.
“I don’t know,” said Sam. “You could always...”
“Always what?”
“Just run away. Leave all this behind. With as smart as you are, I bet you could graduate in no time and get a job in the city.”