“We believe what allowed you to be minimally affected was that you were already on the pack lands when the incantation was set and complete. Your friend Robbie said something about needing to cross into the pentagram for it to take effect. That might be a literal need for the spell to work. None of you have left the barrier since you have been here and you have your protection bracelets. When you finally came for me, the spell had been tainted due to the passing of the Alpha, who’s life force was maintaining the spell. That was a mistake on the caster’s part.” Elena explains.
“Or the whole point.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“If the spell was tied to and using the Alpha, the plan was probably to eliminate him no matter what. Now whether that was to elevate Cameron and Dakota to the Alpha position or to make an attempt to weaken the pack. We don’t know. But, what it did is make everyone suspicious which puts a strain on the pack.” Gentry finishes, just adding to the many questions we don’t have answers to.
We all talk a little while longer. Osiston has been sticking close to the whole Royal family while Nickolas has been tending to Gentry, but Reggie is with them now to give him a break. It sounds like Gentry is actually considering going through with the full mating. Especially after just having Nickolas close sped up her healing from all of the poisons and abuse she took while in Mike’s camp. I wonder what her elders will say since they were the ones with all the objections in the first place. And, I wonder if she will move her whole coven to the Royal pack or just herself and travel back and forth since she is their leader. Witches are not like wolves. They are close but don’t need the closeness of being with each other all of the time like we do. They tend to travel and move around as their lives and training need them to. Someone clears their throat to get everyones’ attention.
“We will be leaving in the morning, we need to get Mina to safety as soon as possible. We are all on edge right now having her here. And she is about as happy as Skylar is when confined, and ready to kill all of us.” Osiston says, and I can almost see him vibrating while everyone is laughing at me. I wonder if he has slept at all since being here. “Once she is safe I plan on coming back and helping out Little One, but before we go we wanted to celebrate all of you coming of age.” He looks at the guys and then stands up to go grab a cooler I didn’t even notice was sitting behind his chair. “I know Oliver and Mateo had birthdays recently and Sam’s is almost upon us. I don’t know if we will be back before Cameron and Dakota have theirs and Mina actually threatened me within an inch of my life if I did not bring you all a beer to celebrate before we go since Xander just about shifted in their room when she fought him to come down herself. For obvious reasons she’s not allowed anywhere near this damn fire.” He chuckles, handing a bottle to everyone. “So cheers to you all from your future Luna Queen and Alpha King.” He raises his beer and we all follow suit.
After finishing their drinks the adults all filed out and we were left sitting together in a comfortable silence.
“Finally! It is about time. I thought they would never leave. We have traditions to uphold and I for one am not missing another one.” Sierra jumps up.
“What are you talking about?” Lil asks, concerned and rightly so. Typically when Sierra is excited late at night it means many of us are getting pushed out of our comfort zones.
“I mean there is a tradition of swimming in the pool until midnight and celebrating birthdays here at the packhouse. The last time we all did that together was for Sky’s fifteenth birthday. So chop chop, it’s time to strip and swim.”
“YES! I’m so in!” Sam jumps up, ripping his shirt off. “Let’s go.”
“And Sky, tell Wyatt and Nathaniel to get their asses out here too, put another warrior on surveillance for a couple hours. They both need a break and your whole team deserves to be here.”
“There’s no getting out of this is there?” Lil asks, but she is smiling.
“Nope, she will hunt you down and force you to have fun.” I laugh. “Trust me, I tried and I got thrown in fully dressed.”
“I forgot about that.” Kota mumbled.
“Let’s go, woman.” Mateo looks at Jena and pulls her up from her seat.
“I am not stripping for any of you idiots.” She tries pulling away from him.
“You asked for it.” He picks her up, squealing and runs for the pool.
“Don’t you even think about it.” Cam says sternly and I look over at him as he pulls his dress shirt and pants off. You got your turn last time. He’s looking over my head at Kota.
“Wha…” I am swept up, roughly and wrap my arms and legs around Cam as he runs and goes flying before we hit the bathwarm pool. My black dress floats around me. We come up and I wipe the water out of my eyes. “You do know that you can just ask me to jump in right? The manhandling isn’t always necessary.”
“There’s no fun in that though, and you definitely hold on tighter this way.” He winks.
“You know that I’m still mad at you right?”
“Yes, but I figure we should take advantage of when you are in a good mood every time we can.”
More splashing lets me know that more of my friends have joined us.
“WHOA SH*T!” Lil yells before hitting the water. She comes up and is flailing a bit before Oliver grabs her. She scrambles onto his back. “Don’t you let me go! I hate swimming. I’m like a brick and just sink.” “Well, it’s nice to finally find a weakness. I was starting to feel inadequate around all of you ladies.” Oliver laughs.
We swam around joking and laughing for a long time, then Sierra and I got another volleyball game going. Lil was more than happy to watch from the side of the pool and play ref. Somehow it ended up my warriors versus my guys which became a very playful but intense round of sh*t talking more than actual play. My guys have always been like a well oiled machine the way that they work together, but my team and I are no different. None of us actually have to talk to each other while we play, it just happens naturally. We anticipate the moves that are coming next. So of course that would make the game boring if no one reverted to cheating.
I set Jena up for a spike and Mateo grabbed her by the legs under the net to pull her into the water. Sierra was able to save it though and we kept playing, then someone grabbed my leg, but the guys were splashing so much I couldn’t see who it was.
