Page 5 of Truth or Pack

Book boyfriends only.

Bea

Girl, you need to let your hair down and get a little wild.

Taryn

Oh, I am. I brought a non-fiction book.

Bea

Bobby came back with my drink and I thanked him before I sent one more message to Bea.

Taryn

Going dark for the night. Love you, bitch.

Bea

Love you more, jerk.

I quickly traded my phone for the book. Despite my joke to Bea about non fiction, I was more than ready to get lost in a fictional world and get out of my own head.

This book sucked me in right away. Give me a charismatic pack, magic, and a bit of fate and I was happy. Just as I was about to turn the page, Bobby came back with my food.

"Don't tell me you're one of those book nerds," Bobby joked as he slid the plates closer and dropped a stack of napkins to soak up the grease.

"Oh no, I amthebook nerd," I shot back, owning every bit of my nerdiness with pride. If I learned anything in high school when those assholes bullied me, it was that their opinions never got to influence what I thought of myself.

And I wasn’t going to let anyone, even my own mother, change that.

“Do you think she’s going to be a good fit?” Mathias asked as he leaned between the front seats of the car.

I groaned and shared a look at Holt, our other packmate, before shaking my head.

“You’re going to find out in about thirty minutes,” I reminded him. It was better if I answered. The other alpha was a bit too grumpy sometimes and our beta packmate was already struggling to keep it together.

Then again, we’d been a pack since high school and had yet to find a mate.

We’d all dated, separately back then, together since our mid-twenties. The problem was, once we started dating as a group, we struck out too many times to count. Either I was too tattooed or ‘scary’ to bring home to their parents, or Holt was too cold, or Mathias too needy.

Fuck them.

We weren’t going to change for anyone. Our pack had gone down in flames the last time we let someone try to do that. They wanted us all at first, then tried to make us compete to be her favorite. It drove wedges between us that we’d never dealt with before. After we broke it off, Mathias ended up in a depressionthat almost needed intervention, Holt threw himself in his work, and I took one too many risks on late-night drives.

We’d finally resorted to a matchmaking service. The Pack Services team had compiled extensive profiles and scent cards for us.

It felt so… clinical.

But if it put us one step closer to being an actual pack, who was I to argue. We needed an omega to balance us and my alpha craved the connection that came with it.

I wanted to feel needed, to have someone to take care of and worship. My days of partying and casual hookups were far behind me.

Hell, we were all over thirty now and more than ready to have a real pack. Having each other only went so far and there was never any romantic interest involved to make the absence easier.

Thunder cracked outside of the car loud enough to make Mathias jolt back to his seat. I glanced back and chuckled as he gave me a sheepish grin, buckling up before Holt could yell.

“Check the radar. I thought it was just some rain,” Holt said, glaring at the road ahead like it would chase away the impending rain.

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