Talons

Chapter 52: The Reception

Rhea’s POV

I gave in; and I’m now at the small reception meant for Mandy and Carter. Apparently, her alpha is extremely strict with what he calls unnecessary spending, and due to security concerns, he forbade them from hosting the gathering on their own territory. 

Mandy knows that I cannot stay long to avoid issues with the council, and that works in my favor. I haven’t seen Colton, although I know he is here, and I rather not take chances.

Jack is also around, and he is once again drooling over Raven. This time though, I’m unfazed; I refuse to be a second choice to anyone for any reason.

I spend as much time with my cousin as I can before it's time for me to leave. I then steal my nephew from Emma, and she asks me to bring him over to my mother, which I do with great pleasure.

Colton’s POV

Carter and Mandy are having a fun time celebrating their marriage, and while I would have felt better if we could have celebrated it on our own territory, the easy-going nature of the Claw pack is more fitting. 

I’ve already promised them that they can hold a vow renewal on our land, and while Mandy said it wasn’t necessary, it is. My father didn’t just make my beta and his mate feel alienated, but he gave our pack the impression that we don’t belong, or that we don’t want to belong.

I down another drink and Jessica slips her arms around my waist, making me roll my eyes.

“Dance with me,” she whines, and I involuntarily chuckle. The Claw pack is notorious for the way they dance. It was why everyone loved coming to Raven and Robin’s parties. What's better to a hormonal teenage boy than a girl allowing you to dry hump her in public?

“Can you even dance to this?” I point at the air, but she knows I’m talking about the music. Honestly speaking, I don’t even know how because I was typically on my best behavior while visiting Claw. You know, future mate and all.

“Is there any other way?” she asks, and I narrow my eyes at her. I suddenly realize I know nothing about the woman holding me.

“I don’t like dancing,” I reply, and Jessica reluctantly lets me go. “Can you get me another drink?” I ask, hoping to send her away so I can get a moment's peace. She gleefully leaves, and I relax. 

I have been hiding from B the entire party because I don’t want to ruin anything for my beta and his mate. I can’t control myself when I am around her, and I feel like I’m going to do something I will really regret if I ever see her again.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go as planned and I catch sight of B carrying a small pup. I know or rather I hope it isn’t hers, but that would explain her weight gain if it were. My thoughts are immediately corrected when I see Lark kiss the infant as B passes him.

I try to look away from Brain, but I can’t, and the closer she gets, the more I want to stare. I find myself warning my wolf to leave the girl alone. If we do anything to her while she is carrying the heir to Claw, we will start a war.

B is so focused on her nephew that she doesn’t even look in my direction as she passes within feet of me, and I don’t notice Jessica as she holds a drink right underneath my nose.

“Are you okay?” Jessica asks, and my attention is finally pulled away, but not fully.

“What the hell was that?” I ask Orlin.

"We wanted her to see us," he replies, and I find myself unable to dispute his claim.

“Yeah, but why?”

"We wanted to know if she was still scared."

Lark’s POV

Seeing Colt interact with his girlfriend is painful to watch. She keeps clinging to him, caressing him, and even hugging him, and all he is doing is drinking.

Even when the girl tried to make him jealous by dancing with one of the guys from my pack, he didn’t move. The only time I saw his eyes leave his glass is when his girlfriend went to get him a refill. 

I had been watching Colt because Mandy asked me to. I have no idea why, and she said she couldn’t tell me, but the pleading look she gave me told me it was something serious.

However, the only time he gave me the creeps was when he was staring at Baby B. 

He had been watching her so intently that my wolf started to stir, especially when we saw that she was carrying Drake. 

I was going to talk to him about it when I overheard two pack helpers gossiping about my sister. They were having a serious discussion about Emma allowing a rogue prostitute to carry our son, and while I wanted to rip their heads off, I simply sent them away from the reception as punishment.

I approach my sister, and kiss Ducky’s head. That’s the nickname B gave Drake, and while I hated it at first, it has stuck. 

When B tells me that she is bringing the baby to my parents, I let her leave and steal a glance at Colt who has finally looked away. Me and my wolf calm as we realize that he probably thought the child was hers.

Emma and I seldom bring our son to pack gatherings, but we have double security because of Mandy’s reception, and whiskey is being served in moderation. There is no way anything bad is going to happen, but just to be sure I link my mother asking her to meet B halfway.

I approach Colt and sit next to him. His girlfriend is either dense or hasn’t been taught proper etiquette because she doesn’t leave until he asks her to. That is not just embarrassing to her, but it is also embarrassing to him. 

If she is going to become his luna she has to be able to read a situation properly, and since she is barely a ranked pack member, she should have known to excuse herself before being asked.

“So, that is your chosen?” I ask, not really caring, but knowing that he and I have to open some sort of dialogue to prevent the breaking down of our pack relations when he takes over. He chuckles at me, shaking his head as if he is deep in a memory.

“That is my father’s choice. I’m not even twenty-one yet. I still have time to choose.” An awkward silence falls between us before Colt speaks again. “So… What brings you over to me.”

“I saw you staring at my sister, and I wanted to-” Colton cuts me off, which would have normally irritated me, but his opening statement works to calm me.

“I know the rumors aren’t true. I’m a little drunk and I was trying to remember when Brain had a pup. My wolf and I were surprised your mother let her live, but then we saw you and…” Colt taps his temple as if his mind returned to him and I chuckle. 

I remember when he and I used to be friends, and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind getting that back for the good of our packs.

“Whatever happened in the past, can we put it behind us?”  I extend my glass for a toast and Colt duplicates the gesture.

“To better tomorrows,” he says, and we both laugh at the inside joke.

Rhea’s POV

Shortly after Mandy’s reception my brother sent me an invitation to the pack to survey the strawberry fields for the upcoming harvest season. It coincides with spring break, and I’m genuinely excited because Emma has made me her official sitter during that time. That means I get little Ducky all to myself.

My nephew doesn’t do much besides eat, pee, poop, and sleep, but he, just like all infants, is so interesting to me.

We all start out as these mushy little creatures that are completely dependent on the adults around us. Some of us grow into nice people, and some into hateful beings. Not always by choice of course, some people are dealt hands that turn them into the monsters they are.

Right now, Drake is a blank canvas, and he is all I can really think about whenever I close my eyes. I have even gone as far as to not wear blocker around him because I want him to get used to my scent.

I can’t wait for Robin and Raven to have their children because I plan to spoil them rotten too.

"Or we could just have our own." I straight up ignore Sylvia, who knows she said something to irritate me on purpose. She is angry because I’m not giving Mike a second chance, but I really don’t know where to start or how.

He and I have fallen back into the same routine, and I’m almost positive that he already feels like he is living in his second chance, so I see no need to confirm or dispel his belief.

“So, they could become a living target?” I ask my wolf sarcastically. I’m a rogue and if I take a human lover and we have children, the werewolf council could, at any time, take the baby to be raised among its own kind. 

As a rogue, I cannot give a growing wolf the proper education or training necessary to develop healthily. Wolves who are raised ‘wild’ have a higher tendency of going mad during their first shift, hence the eating human hearts stories.

It used to happen a lot in the distant past, but now that our species is more educated about rogues and the various categories of them, we have found ways to circumvent that outcome.

Sadly, there is no way around it, and any loving parent, rogue or human would want to give their child a fighting chance at life.

"We could find a pack; maybe we could take a mate." I have never heard Sylvia mention a mate before and I find myself growing tense.

“Do you want to be fated?” I ask, not even wanting to hear her answer.

"I don’t. I just don’t want us to feel so lonely anymore." I look down at my phone and my mind is telling me to text Mike. My wolf is reaching out to me, but I am not sure that having a physical relationship is what she is asking for either. "It’s not," she says, reading my thoughts as they occur. "I want friends who are like us."