Page 41 of The Hunger
I nodded, understanding completely and wishing there was a way for me to fast-track through this phase of my life as well.
“If I’m lucky, some guy with a sexy accent will take one look at me and howl. At least I’ll get to travel then.”
“You never know, he might be thinking the same thing and want to settle here to soak up some foreign culture.”
She grinned at the same time her stomach growled.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s raid the fridge. I bet we can find something chocolatey that’s on the Council’s disavowed foods list.”
We talked about the unmated in the pack and the varying degrees of excitement and aversion in the other girls as we sat at the table and ate the death by chocolate cake I’d found.
“Cally’s eleven. Technically, she’s too young to run. But she’s had her first period and begged her mom, who said no. I mean, can you imagine having a kid at eleven? ‘Cause that would be what happened if she found her mate now. The determined little trickster went to Raiden, though, and he actually said yes.” Jenna shook her head. “I hope for Cally’s sake that her mate isn’t present or that if he is, the mate run doesn’t kick in. She’s too young.”
“Even after being here for four years, it’s still disturbing to hear how different our reality is. Growing up in the human world, I was programmed to the social norm that we’re children until we hit eighteen years.”
“Yeah, humans are weird, though. Adults can’t even drink alcohol or buy cigarettes until three years after reaching adulthood, yet in some of their states, human children can marry years prior to adulthood with the consent of their parents. As if there’s some kind of magical age when human children can make smart choices for themselves. But, humans and the children of the gods are the same in that aspect. We’ll all make dumb choices until the day we die. Life is about living and learning.”
I grinned.
“I never thought of it like that.”
Jenna jumped when her phone buzzed, and she gave me a sheepish look.
“It doesn’t do that very often,” she admitted as she looked at the screen. She frowned and slid the device toward me so I could read.
Mr. Grr & Purr: Is she in the house with you or did she have Mrs. Quill portal you somewhere again?
“Is that Fenris?” I asked.
Jenna flushed. “Yeah. Sorry. That’s our pet name for him. You know, he makes you want to growl and purr at the same time.”
“So pet names are a werewolf thing?”
“Aren’t they an everybody thing?”
I thought of all the pet names Mom, Dad, and Mrs. Quill had for me and conceded her point.
“If I contact Raiden to tell him that Fenris is here, like I’m supposed to do, whoever is watching the place will start looking for him, which will also tip Fenris off that we’re in here.”
“And they probably won’t find him before he figures out a way to sneak in.”
“Exactly.”
Mr. Grr & Purr: You’re taking too long to answer, which means you’re either trying to think up a clever lie or you’re calling my dad. I vote you go with option C and just tell me the truth.
Mr. Grr & Purr: I’ll make it worth your time. First string runner.
“What does ‘first string runner’ mean?” I asked.
“When these pack gatherings get big, and I mean really big, the alphas don’t send us into the woods all at once. It gets too chaotic, and fights tend to break out. So they send us out in waves. A first string runner means that I’d be in the first group to go out.”
“And that’s good?”
She grinned at me.
“Yeah. That means more chasing and running.”
“Right. You love being chased.”
