“I can’t believe you’re all here.” Toby, Jase, Charlie, Talley, and a handful of other Hagans, including a guy my age I’d never seen before, stood on the front porch of the Safe House.
“We heard some crazy kid was Challenging the Alphas and wanted to get in on it,” Toby said, pulling himself up onto the railing of the porch. Sitting up there he was above everyone else, just like a Pack Leader is supposed to be.
I hopped up to sit beside him.
“Sensei.”
“Scout.”
“It’s been a while.” I hadn’t seen Charlie’s older brother since he basically offered his life in exchange for mine at the trial back in July.
“It has,” he agreed. His eyes trailed critically over me. “You look like crap, kid. And that hair… not the best look for you.”
Because it was Toby who always made me feel like a five year old, I stuck out my tongue while pulling up my nose so it would resemble a pig’s snout.
“That’s very mature and classy, Scout. I hope you use it during your Challenge to the Alpha Female.”
“Yeah, about that,” I said. “How did you know we were here getting ready for that?”
Toby raised his eyebrows and looked at Liam, who was leaning against the door frame. So much for mine and Toby’s play for Dominance. Liam was the uncontested winner even when he was slouching.
“I thought it was time to start gathering the troops,” Liam said.
God, I loved him at that moment.
Not that I loved loved him.
Or maybe I did.
Crap. This was so not the time to be doing the angsty teenage boy problems thing.
“I thought we were going to wait until we were ready?”
“You are ready,” Liam said.
Did I say “love”? I think I meant “hate”.
“Ummm… No. I’m not.”
“Ummm… Yeah. You are.” For someone who hadn’t been able to look at me since Friday, he sure wasn’t having trouble maintaining eye contact now. “You’re lifting 200 pounds twice a day, running five miles, and can do more push-ups in under a minute than most Americans can in an hour. You’re fine.”
Jase laughed, although I’m not sure what he found so funny. “Good to see you two worked out all your differences over the past few months.”
“She’s who we want to be our new Alpha?” That shining endorsement came from Makya, Jase’s cousin who was ranked somewhere below foot fungus in Things Scout Finds Awesome. Not only had the annoying brat from childhood grown into an even brattier teenager, but he was also turning into a total skeeze ball. I always felt the need to shower after all of our run-ins over the past year. “Someone remind me why.”
“It probably has something to do with that whole Scout being Jesus’s sister thing,” Liam said ever-so-helpfully.
“I’m Jesus?”
“Jase!” Talley smacked his arm, eyes wide. “Don’t be sacrilegious.”
“Hey, he started it!”
“I didn’t know Jesus had a sister.” Charlie was propped up against the banister. I pretended I didn’t see the cane he was trying to hide behind the post.
“He doesn’t,” I said. “Liam and his family just happen to be suffering from a case of inherited delusion.”
“What, pray tell, does this delusion include?” Charlie asked.
“Oh, the usual. I’m the actual child of God, who used to be the moon but got turned into the first Shifter, and have now been reincarnated to lead my people out of bondage and set up heaven on earth, or some such nonsense.”
“Heaven on earth. Would that be anything like an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet?”
“I was thinking more like Disney Land without the lines.”
“I would’ve gone with Universal,” the new-to-me guy said. “They have that cool Spider-Man ride and Butterbeer.”
I actually took the time to look at him and realized he wasn’t a part of the Hagan Pack. Hagan men are on the short side of average height, solid without the word heavy ever crossing your mind, and green eyed. This guy was like a six foot tall bean pole with big brown eyes bugging out of his narrow face. I decided he had to be from another Pack, although part of me rejected the idea of him being a Shifter at all. There was something off about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“Who are you?” It wasn’t the most polite introduction ever. My grandmothers, all four of them, would have been appalled.
“Joshua,” he said, holding out a huge bony hand. “I’m Jase’s roommate.”
Surely I heard that wrong...
“Jase’s roommate? From college?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Jase somehow magically got paired with a Shifter roommate?”
“Me? A Shifter?” Joshua snorted.
I wheeled on my brother. “I know I said you needed to be more honest about all this Shifter stuff, but I was talking about with me, the sister you’ve known your whole life. Not some guy you met in August. And I certainly didn’t mean to bring him to my cage match with Sarvarna.”
Jase leaned back against the glider he and Talley were sitting in front of and pulled his mate against his chest. “Liam said we needed people.”
“Shifter people. Not human people.”
“Oh, well, if it helps, I’m not human.” Crazy not-a-Shifter say what? “Maybe I should retry that introduction.” He stuck out his hand again. “Hi, I’m Joshua, an Immortal.”
I waited, but no one laughed.
“There are no such things as Immortals.”
Joshua reached up and tugged on his ear. “Am I supposed to pinch you, or are you supposed to pinch me to prove my existence?”
“Either of those will only prove you’re corporeal.” I pulled out the pocket knife I had found in the kangaroo pouch of the Harley hoodie. Using a move Liam drilled into my head over the winter, I pinned Joshua to one of the porch posts and aimed the knife at his jugular. “That isn’t what I need to know. Now, do I stab you, or do you stab yourself?” I pushed the tip a little further into his neck, but not enough to even nick him. I may be prepared to take on the entire Alpha Pack if I have to, but there was no way I could really stab a guy who looked like a Muppet. But I could scare him a little, especially if it would end whatever stupid joke he and Jase were having at my expense.