Second Chance Mates Festival

Chapter 11: Party Preparation

Emery’s POV

“Where have you been the whole afternoon?” Lacy asked Cameron as soon as she walked into the cabin.

“Out,” Cameron replied curtly.

Lacy and I were standing over her bed where her open suitcase had its contents on display. The bag contained all sorts of outfits that Lacy deemed more suitable for a night out than what she had seen in my suitcase.

I didn’t bring anything that was up to her taste since I wasn’t expecting to go out clubbing when I was packing. I don't know what I was thinking though since a typical activity at a festival is partying.

Cameron on the other hand was acting suspiciously. I would have thought that she would at least be interested in the contents of Lacy’s bag since she and Lacy had an almost similar style but she was making it a point to stay as far away from us as possible by sitting on the corner of my bed, which would put her the farthest she could go from us in the small cabin.

Lacy must have noticed too because she turned around to fully face her. “How was your date? You went rock climbing right?” She asked Cameron.

“Yeah.”

“But why don’t you look sweaty? There isn’t even a speck of dirt on you.” Lacy asked her.

Lacy must have been a detective in her past life because she was really good at questioning people. I was thankful that I wasn't on the other side of the interrogation this time.

Cameron looked almost as put together as when we had parted in the morning. Her hair was styled neatly, she didn’t look like someone who had put on rock climbing gear and been up the side of a mountain.

“I did climb stuff though,” Cameron mumbled.

I looked at her quizzically before taking a step closer to her and then I smelt it.

When I had first met Cameron, she had a tropical smell like a light coconut smell, but as I moved closer to her I could smell a new element to her scent. It was faint but there was a more spicy smell around her now, it was definitely a manly scent. There was also a strong smell of soap showing that she had showered pretty recently.

“No way,” Lacy said out loud, obviously having caught the change in Cameron’s scent too. Cameron started looking everywhere but us. Suddenly the lines in the wood flooring were more interesting than her roommates. “What did you get up to the whole day?” Lacy said laughing as Cameron’s cheeks flared.

“You just met him, Cameron,” I said to her. I thought the whole s*x-at-first-sight was something that only happened to mates.

Clearly, I was wrong.

“I know this seems like I rushed into it but I think he’s the one,” Cameron said to us. Now finally being able to hold our eyes although her cheeks were still red. "We clicked on the first day."

“So when you said you climbed something you meant-“ I cut myself of by slapping my hand over my mouth. This caused both Lacy and Cameron to c***k up laughing. I was the youngest in our trio so the two of them had made it a point to tease me throughout our stay.

No matter how naïve I am, how could I have not thought that s*x was something that could happen if you place a group of unmated wolves together for the sole purpose of finding a mate. “How did you even find a place to do it? Everyone is sharing rooms.” I asked her.

“Where there is a will there is way,” Cameron said to me shrugging. She was a bit more calmed down now.

 “Clearly our girl had all the will to make the things happen,” Lacy said chiming in. She was clearly going to tease Cameron about this for the rest of the festival. "I can't believe you two. One is dating a scammer and the other one is trying to have a festival baby." 

I didn't want to laugh but a chuckle escaped from my lips at Lacy's words. A festival baby was the term given to children that were conceived at the festival or shortly after it. 

“Enough about me, how were your dates?” Cameron asked trying to change the topic.

“Mine wasn’t as exciting as yours, but I think he’s a good match for me,” Lacy said smiling. When I didn’t make a move to tell Cameron about mine, Lacy added. “Emery was stood up.”

“I wasn’t stood up. Rodney had to leave early to attend to pack stuff. I’ll be meeting him tonight at the party.” I said in a huff turning away from them which brought me back to staring at the open suitcase. 

I had trouble weaselling my way out of this conversation at lunch and I wasn’t looking to be sucked back in again. Luckily Cameron who had also been a victim of Lacy’s endless questioning knew how I felt so she didn’t pursue the conversation any further.

Cameron clapped her hands together and got up from the bed. “Let’s see what our options are for tonight.”

I smiled as she moved towards Lacy and me. Hopefully, she could help me convince Lacy that the baby pink body-con dress wasn’t made for me.

Sin’s POV

I had to leave in a rush during Emery and I’s date. 

I was a bit sad that I didn’t get to finish our date and see what masterpiece she had painted but the Pack came first.

The warriors who had been patrolling our borders had discovered a few dead animal bodies littered around near where the rogues had been spotted last week.

One of the ways my pack made money was through tourism, so we made it a point to conserve all types of animals on our territory which is what drew humans to visit our pack lands. So anybody purposefully killing our animals and potentially messing with the cash flow of our pack when we had so many construction projects going on was not something I took lightly.

We needed to deal with the problem now before it grew out of control so that I could focus my energy on other things. 

Like Emery. I was looking forward to seeing her again. 

My wolf was still fawning over her and he was planting thoughts about her into my head throughout the day while we were apart. I didn’t like it but there was nothing I could do to stop him especially since we shared a mind. 

I was worried though that when she finally discovered my lies she would break things off with me. Although I'm sure it would break my wolf’s heart, it needed to be done since I wasn't looking for a mate. 

I quickly finished off the meeting with Michael and my gamma Chester and made a move to push them out of my office, otherwise, they would have me stuck in my office the whole night talking strategies.

They left after a lot of persuasion from me and I finally went to change my shirt in my suite which was upstairs in the packhouse. I would have liked to shower since I had been holed up in my office the whole afternoon but my wolf thought it would be a waste of time. After I was done freshening up as much as my wolf would allow I raced down the stairs and was out the door.

I had to give my wolf his Emery fix.