Page 1 of Secrets and S'mores
1 Kissing the Enemy
Ember
String lights hang low, illuminating a sea of bobbing heads as the crowd of wolf shifters sways to the music. The barn wood is cold against my back as I watch, bitterness souring my stomach as I sip a stolen drink. Young adults from all five local wolf packs dance and drink.
Of all the “pack relations” schemes my brother has devised, this might be the only tolerable one. But as I’m newly single, my mood is too morose to allow for any sort of fun.
What would Hawk be doing if he was still here? I’m not naive enough to believe he would be dancing with me. He was loyal, but not really romantic. As myIntended, he should have claimed me as his mate on my eighteenth birthday. Instead, he returned to his family’s pack several hours north of us.
Not that I blame him. The arrangement between our parents didn’t account for sudden upheaval. Why would he want to join a pack where one Alpha murdered the other?
The blame lies with Slate, the Alpha of our rival pack and my half-brother. My father was fighting him and my mother took drastic action to protect her child. It’s his fault I lost both a parent and later my future mate.
My eyes search the crowd for his dark head. Slate lifts a glass bottle and takes a long drink. His other arm wraps across the chest of his mate who leans against him while she laughs. They look ridiculously happy and it makes me want to claw out my eyes. Hawk never looked at me the way Hazel gazes up at him.
“You should come join us,” Jasper says. His lean frame is clothed in black, making his pale hair and eyes stand out. He might be my full-blooded brother, but we are opposites in every way.
“Fuck off,” I say, grateful for the darkness that hides the embarrassed flush crawling up my neck. I’d rather he didn’t see me watching his friends like a despondent stalker.
“Some day, you’ll get tired of being pissy all the time.” Jasper’s tone is resigned and it makes my skin prickle with irritation. Without a glance back, he crosses the clearing and rejoins his friends. His beautiful mate, Marigold, greets him with a sloppy kiss as he wraps his arms around her waist. She is sunshine, strawberry-blonde curls, and everything I could never be.
I can’t fault Jasper for defecting from our pack and joining theirs. He seems happy against all odds. If I had someone looking at me the way Marigold stares at him, maybe I would be happy too. But since childhood, I was pitted against my brother, told I was second best. Being four years younger, I never stood a chance when we sparred.
Watching them only worsens my mood, but because I am full of self-loathing, I follow his path until I’m hovering awkwardly a few feet away from that golden circle of friends.
Another of Jasper and Slate’s friends, the twin with dirty blonde hair named Onyx, observes me with narrowed eyes. I glare back. He’s always watching me at these events, like he’s hungry for revenge. His hand moves to his ribs and the scar I gave him the last time our packs went to war.
His navy eyes are heavy across my shoulders, so I straighten and raise my chin. The slightest curl to his lip gives away his disdain. Well, fuck him too.
“Ember!” Marigold cries, pulling free from Jasper and seizing my arm. She tugs me forward into their group.
“I swear, I saw Vale sneak off behind the gym with that girl from the Raven Pack,” Hazel says, her words slightly slurred. Damn, how many drinks has she had? I suppose it doesn’t matter. With a protective mate at her back, she’s safe to indulge. I wouldn’t dare to let my guard down by getting noticeably drunk like that. There’s no one watching over me.
“Good for him!” Marigold giggles.
“Marigold,” Jasper says, his brows furrowing.
“This is exactly what you wanted when you set these parties up,” Hazel argues.
Slate’s face is buried in her neck, his lips tracing lower over the circle of pale scars that mark her as claimed. His loose t-shirt neckline reveals the edge of his matching set.
The sight makes me squirm. It reminds me of everything I don’t have. No mate. No true guarantee of my future ranking. Everything feels like it’s teetering on the edge of a blade and if I slip, it’ll be the end.
“I don’t think he had random hookups in mind,” Slate says, lifting his head to smile indulgently at her. Hazel scowls back at him.
“You don’t know it’s just a hookup. Maybe we will gain a lovely new packmate. Remember all the shit you guys gave us?” Marigold says, patronizingly.
“Yeah, well, you guys could have just jumped right to dating,” Hazel says, crossing her arms and bumping the glass bottle in her hand against Slate’s with a jarring clink.
My weight shifts from one foot to another. I shouldn’t have come over here.
“Ember, where is your beau?” Marigold asks.
“Not here.” I clear my throat. “Hawk went back to his family.”
Hazel and Marigold let out sympathetic noises of understanding. Unfortunately, the boys are slower.
“So did you break up?” Jasper asks.
