Touch Me (boyxboy)

20. Little Nuggets of Gold

Casper

I felt more than a little smug that my little Cub had managed to do so much damage to Archie's beta. We may have been reforming our alliance with the Hartley pack, but it still felt good to get one over on them.

Nathan was a fairly new recruit to the Huntley pack. He was not born into the pack, like most beta's are. The previous beta had no offspring, so there was no natural replacement, and apparently none of the other wolves had met up to Archie's standards.

And then one day Nathan turned up. And Nathan was your perfect beta. He was very strong, fiercely loyal, and upheld every value that traditional wolf packs had.

My dad had been quite jealous of Nathan. He often commented that he would make a better beta than Jamie.

I disagreed. As good as Nathan was, he was a little too perfect for me. There was no spark to his personality. In fact, scratch that, there was no personality. I found his company incredibly dull.

Once I'd straightened out Nathan's nose (something else I took pleasure in doing) and gave him an ice pack, we headed back into the lounge.

I noticed that Nathan discarded the ice pack the moment we entered the room, presumably not to show any sign of weakness.

After a few moments, we were called to the dining hall for dinner.

Once everyone was seated, my dad banged on his glass and stood up.

"I would like to thank everyone for coming today, and to join me in congratulating Casper and Emily on their recent engagement."

My dad started clapping and a ripple of applause went round the room.

I smiled at Emily, and she smiled back.

Even if it wasn't exactly the future we would have both chosen, if felt nice to be making everyone happy. It sounds pathetic, but I felt good that I was making my father proud.

My dad continued with his speech.

"I know that things haven't been easy for the pair of them over the last 5 years, but I like to think that everything happens for a reason. This engagement has allowed us to show everyone that we are united once again. And not through a mating bond, but through choice. Casper has chosen Emily just has Emily has chosen Casper and I know that they will make the perfect pairing together."

Various voices 'arrrrred' and I had to fight hard to control my blush. I'd never heard my dad speak like this before and it made me squirm slightly.

"I know that it will take time, but when those two feel that rush of being with the person that means most to them in the world, those five years of waiting will seem like nothing."

As my dad carried on talking about the joys of love, I found my eyes naturally scanning around the room.

It wasn't till I spotted him, that I actually realised that I was looking for him.

He was stood off to one side, casually leaning against the wall, listening to my dad, with a scowl on his face.

I fought off a smile, knowing that he had no idea that he was being watched while he looked like a moody teenager ready to storm off to his bedroom. I hated to say it, but he looked cute.

I had no idea what made him scowl like that, but I wanted nothing more than to go and gently rub the creases out of his forehead with my thumb.

I suddenly felt eyes on me, and looked to the side to see Star staring at me with her eyebrows slightly raised.