Prepared to die? That was the first thought that came to mind. “I don’t think we’ll ever be prepared enough for what’s coming, Maze. Things don’t always go as planned; it just seems too perfectly laid out. I don’t know—I just have a feeling something bad is going to happen, and I haven’t been able to shake it for months.”
Denver flashed his eyes at me. “Don’t say that. You can’t go around saying stuff like that. You’ll jinx us.”
Maizy slapped his arm. “Don’t be so obtuse.”
He quirked a brow and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Don’t go using all those fancy university words on me. You know how it turns me on.”
I hadn’t even realized I was holding my breath until I let it go. I backed up against the doorframe, and Maizy gripped my arm.
“Lexi, what’s wrong?”
For the first time, I felt pain in my womb.
Chapter 21
“This is the dumbest thing we’ve ever done,” I mused to myself. I gripped the railing on the front porch, watching the pack of wolves in our yard. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Austin and Axel had decided that before anyone left, they needed to introduce the two packs in wolf form to make sure we didn’t end up killing each other in battle. It was something we had also done with Lorenzo’s pack a couple of months ago, and a few fights broke out before everyone settled down and submitted to their respective Packmaster.
Naya rested her forearms on the flat ledge and leaned forward, the wind ruffling the dark curls in her hair. “Darling, dumb will be when it’s my turn to shift in front of those poor boys. What are the odds that half of them will run away with their tail between their legs?”
I laughed at the thought. “I hope you fed your panther.”
Jericho shifted back to human form and cockily strutted away from the pack. He lifted his Pink Floyd T-shirt off the grass and left his pants behind.
“Why does he always plan this kind of shit when I have on my good shirt?” he complained, heading up the steps and into the house.
Axel and Austin looked like ringleaders at a circus. Axel had stripped out of his leathers and was bent over with his hands on his knees so he could look each of his packmates in the eye to maintain control.
“But I want to watch!” Melody complained from inside.
“Skedaddle!” Denver barked as he came out the door.
He eased up on my right, and a dribble of milk splashed on my hand.
I glanced down at the dried milk on his chest and stains on his grey sweats. “How can you eat cereal when it’s almost time for dinner?”
He slurped up a big spoonful of the colorful rings and crunched. “This is just an appetizer. Standing over that grill makes a man hungry. So, who’s pussied out so far?”
“No one. Did you call your boss?”
Jake didn’t like his staff calling in last-minute since it was hard to get someone to fill in, especially since Frank was the only other full-time bartender.
“Let’s just say I owe Frank big-time. He was chowing down at the hot-sauce festival when I called him, and now he has to tend bar all night with a raging colon. You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, it was nothing,” I said, waving my hand.
The pain that had hit me outside Denver’s bedroom was so fleeting that I figured the baby had stepped on a nerve. This was my first pregnancy, so it’s not as though I knew all the normal feelings that went along with it. If it happened again, I’d call my Relic, but there was no sense in worrying Austin. He was too preoccupied with building a new strategy with Axel at the last minute, and one distraction could affect his decisions. The pack needed him at one hundred percent.
We watched Izzy go next. Her flaming-red hair swirled around her head like a vortex of fire when she shifted into a beautiful white wolf with black paws. The other wolves lifted their noses, and Austin stood very close to her, throwing off his alpha power as a warning to the other wolves. They came up to her in groups, whining, licking her muzzle, and some wagging their tails.
“Easy,” Axel said. “She’s mated, so don’t get any ideas, you horny bastards.”
Naya chuckled. “Like that’s going to happen.”
When Izzy’s wolf lifted her leg and peed on a wolf, Austin belted out a laugh. Axel didn’t look as amused.
Izzy shifted back to human form and gracefully stood up. Her red hair cascaded over her shoulders, a stunning contrast against her porcelain complexion. She quickly stepped into her jeans and grabbed her shirt. “I did that on purpose,” she said, flouncing off and holding her chin high.
When I heard giggling, I turned my attention to the balcony on the second floor.
“I know you’re up there, boys,” Izzy said, climbing up the porch steps. “And you better be gone in about five seconds.”