have it in there.”
“This covers the whole pack,” Freddy said. “We can’t omit important events.”
Analie grinned wider. “Like you in board shorts.”
“With a grass skirt,” Freddy interjected.
“And a coconut bra.” Analie laughed when Christoph covered his face. “Okay, now Mouse needs to see this.”
Both Christoph and Freddy looked uncomfortable. Analie rolled her eyes.
“Get over yourselves. Mouse! Come see a picture of Christoph in a coconut bra!”
“The whole house can hear you!” Christoph snarled, reaching out to grab her. Analie easily deflected his arms.
“Seriously, this is historical stuff!”
* * *
Mouse stayed right where she was, frozen in discomfited terror that they would see her like this.
* * *
Wesley wanted to get back to the paperback he’d been reading. When Analie’s voice echoed through the walls, he grimaced and threw the book across the room, rising to his feet with a great deal of irritation for the third time today. Admittedly, he was curious about the pic, but his concern for Mouse overrode his need for a laugh.
He stalked down the hall, didn’t bother knocking, and poked his head in Mouse’s apartment to growl half-heartedly at the three on the couch.
“Now’s probably not the best time for that, Analie. Though I’ll bet Ken and Reece will get a good laugh over it when they get back from work tonight.”
Analie and Freddy shrank back, nodding to Wesley, acknowledging the higher-ranking person in the room. Christoph glanced between them and settled back as well.
“Don’t show Ken,” Christoph murmured to Analie.
“I’m so showing Ken.”
Wesley hung in the door, torn between the temptation of joining them and being too surly to sink to looking at a photo album. Eventually, he slunk inside, telling himself it was because he was concerned for Mouse and wanted to make sure someone was here for her if she needed it, and not because he wanted to snicker over a picture of Christoph in a coconut bra.
Analie held up the photo album at an angle so Wesley could see. “Christoph would have you believe he was drunk.”
“I was.”
“He wasn’t,” Freddy piped up.
“The pack had a luau-style party,” Analie explained. “Everyone came in bathing suits and trunks and stuff. And then there was a hula competition—”
Christoph tried to cover her mouth, but Analie swatted him away.
“—and it was supposed to be girls only because the guys were going to have a dance competition—”
“War dance,” Freddy elaborated.
“Yeah, and we had the war dance first, because we figured the hula would calm everyone down because there is nothing worse than a whole beach full of battle-ready Goliaths—”
Freddy nodded.
“—and when the dance was over, everyone was wondering where Christoph, Roman, Matik, Gavin, and Hawk were because they do the war dance the best, and when the hula competition started, they all came out with the skirts and coconut bras—”
“Come on,” Christoph groaned.
“—and Hawk had a little ukulele—you can see him in this picture, the guy with the ukulele and the mohawk—and they all started singing in their really deep voices Aloha Oe and sort of swaying their hips around and doing the hula arms thing.”
Christoph was doubled over, his face in his hands, groaning. “Oh my God, why won’t that night die? Why can’t everyone just forget it?”
“I don’t think anyone can forget it,” Analie said, patting his shoulder.
There was an entire page in the album dedicated to the epic hula performance with the picture in the center of the collage. It was a full-body shot of Christoph, grinning from ear to ear and striking a Marilyn Monroe pose, blowing a kiss to the camera in his shiny coconut bra and grass skirt over Hawaiian-print board shorts. He hadn’t shaved and there was two day’s worth of Were-level stubble on his face.
The other photos were of Gavin, Malik, Hawk, and Roman. In the background of each picture, it was apparent that it was just past sundown. The photos would have looked like any other beach party, save that everyone’s eyes reflected gold.
Wesley cracked a smile, though it didn’t touch his eyes. He saw very plainly what they were; the claws and the eyes, the hints of their nature as Others. That was an absolute army of werewolves gathered in those pictures, and it made him nervous as all get out to see it. For future reference, he memorized faces, names, and numbers of Weres visible in the photos.
“Cute. I’ll bet Ken will love that one,” he said, unable to bite back on the comment. He couldn’t repress a snort of laughter at the thought of