whispers to Ginny. But if I can hear the question, surely everyone present can since werewolf ears have the acuity of bats.
“Remember,” Ginny murmurs back, staring around the room with all the wonder of the girl from Princess Diaries who learns she’s not in fact your average human but is in actuality a princess who stands to inherit a whole kingdom she never knew anything about, “Deek made the comment that back home, the wolves call each other mutts affectionately.”
“Ohh, that’s right,” Charlotte says, voice much relaxed.
“That was ‘mot,’ not mutt,” Finn corrects. He’s watching Ginny, but sensing my attention, he focuses on me. “How’s she doing?” he mouths.
I shrug. “Fine,” I whisper, aware that even in this supernatural mayhem, he’ll hear me perfectly. He’s proven it at the pub every day. “She’s been a little nervous the closer we got to being here, but for her, nothing has changed yet, you know?”
He nods thoughtfully. Then he sets his werewolf friend down. The animal stretches hugely, it’s body lengthening, showing off its muscle and grace—and then it lopes up to Deek and nips him on the leg.
In the middle of conversing with the woman who announced lunch, Deek yelps, turns to the werewolf—and supporting Maggie in one arm, he hauls his packmate off the ground by its ruff. He gives it a one-armed bear hug of a squeeze—then he tosses the unbelievably large beast like it weighs nothing, harmlessly sending it flying onto a nearby couch.
The wolf—Colin—bounces off of the furniture like a ferret, bounding back over, fur rising playfully, if the low-swaying tail is any indication.
“All right, quit screwing around,” the lunch announcer calls. “Hello, guests. Hello, Ginny. Welcome back, Deek! Are you hungry?”
Deek, to my surprise, looks over his shoulder at me.
Finn nudges me. “Say yes. Come in and eat with us. It’ll be good for Ginny.”
“We just had breakfast like three hours ago,” I murmur.
“So? We’ll have you all walking it off. Besides, Deek’ll probably want to go up to the big house to get a few more of his things.”
I turn to him fully. “‘The big house?’”
Finn is unconcerned at the way I’m cocking my head at him like I’m not sure I heard him right. “Well, yeah. Why do you think we call it the dens? There’s no way the whole pack could fit together in one place, so we’ve split everyone up into houses. This is Half Moon House, and Deek lives at Night Howl.” He turns to the woman. “They’re joining us for lunch!”
Around us, werewolves—human and wolf form—send up deafening howls of delight.
CHAPTER 19
LUCAN
Our sweeping beam-style trestle table seats forty in the kitchen, and we have to pull three beat-up dining room chairs from the pantry in order to fit the lunch crowd in the Half Moon House.
Maggie is sitting next to me, Charlotte is on my other side, then Ginny, then Susan, then Finn. Next to Finn are Josh, Logan, Colin, and Harper—the wolves who greeted us when we arrived. We went down the line introducing everyone, but it was clear the humans were a bit overwhelmed at the sheer amount of people (and the submissives in the room, who are sensitive to the state of being overwhelmed, were sympathetic), and Ginny was wide-eyed trying to memorize all of us.
Finn had gently clapped her on the back. “Don’t worry. You’ll get to meet us again and again. Soon, you’ll know everyone here. You’re Pack.”
Ginny had sat up a little straighter. I’m not sure if she was eased by Finn’s pronouncement though, or if she looked more like she was readying herself to take a very important test.
Perhaps in deference to her obvious nerves, the Tíódéls present haven’t done anything more than nod a hello to Ginny. Everyone is treading around her gently, not wanting to scare her. If she were an adult, I think they’d feel more pressed to establish dominance. Being that she’s as young as she is, everyone is content to simply have her settle in.
“When’s the corned beef going to be ready?” Rory spews around a mouthful of food.
Jennifer, Rhyannon, and Gail all groan in unison.
Finn smacks him upside the head affectionately before his mother can reach him to do it. “Chew with your trap closed.”
“You and the friggin’ corned beef,” Rhyannon says, pointing at Rory but keeping her eyes lowered—because, even young, Rory is an alpha to her submissive. “We’ve told you it takes a week in the brine and if ye ask again, you are getting