Greatest Curse (Book 2)

A Messy Gala

(Asher)

"Yes, Asher!" Isaiah snapped sternly, pinning me with a firm stare.

He usually never was this harsh unless we were being pests and irritating the living crap out of him. For that matter, Isaiah hadn't snapped at either Dale, Carter, Sky or me in years; the last time being when we were about twelve. When we were little, we used to follow Isaiah around Marcana. Everywhere he went, we did. Anything he did, we did. We used to try and walk like him, talk like him, act like him...even eat like him.

Sometimes it got to be too much, Isaiah would fake 'illness' if it meant he could lock himself away in his study and not have us bother him.

Until we figured out that werewolves didn't easily fall sick, it had returned to Isaiah having four little wolf pups running after him wherever he went.

It had always been like that. The girls would flock to Nicole and try to spend their every waking minute with their luna, while us boys, irritated our alpha until he either single handedly deposited us into our fathers' arms and ran tail, gave Dale to his mother, or scolded us and sent us home.

"Are you one hundred percent positive?" I interrogated, not missing the silent glare my alpha was sending me. Our conversation, though it involved the four prominent families and their future successors, had mostly been between Isaiah and me; the rest of the prominent families looking on in mild curiosity and concern.

Marcana was hosting the gala and since our pack was the largest in Jasper Falls, we would have more than enough space to accommodate each pack. Even though the other packs wouldn't send everyone, only a handful- mainly prominent families- showing up to the gala.

Marcana had a large banquet hall used for such occasions along with birthday parties thrown for the prominent leaders and their successors, or anyone with influential pack status.

Despite everyone running about helter-skelter preparing the hall for the gala, the pack's heads were currently in a feud with Jace's parents, David and Kathryn. Jace would be turning eighteen in a few weeks come this November and while the heads were insistent that Jace get a large, showy birthday party where Sky can show him off even more, Jace and his parents were completely against it. He didn't want a large party for his birthday. He wanted something small and nothing extravagant, yet Isaiah, Nicole, and even Sky argued the pros of Jace's eighteenth birthday.

Basically, he would be legal. Usually, wolves are legally allowed to mate at the age of eighteen; the purpose of throwing such a large party to celebrate this fact. But since Sky and Jace had already mated, not a lot of us saw the need for throwing a huge birthday bash.

I had come to the banquet hall in hopes of catching the prominent families, since my parents had already left this morning to help oversee preparations. Luckily for me, all four prominent families were there, including Sky and his uncle- his mother's brother from her home pack- who had come to live with Sky for a while. He had shown up a few weeks after Black Rock showed up. He would have come by sooner for his nephew if his home pack's alpha hadn't been giving him beans about 'neglecting' his duties as a beta.

Without giving them a moment to spare, I had grabbed them all and dragged them over to a corner of the hall to discuss a very urgent matter.

"We know how you feel about getting shoved in the spotlight for a having a mate." my father spoke up, patting my shoulder gently. "We made sure no one outside the prominent families knew of it."

I nibbled my lip in thought, ignoring everyone's curious stares. Should I take their word for it? I mean, it's my dad; and I know he's not lying. But still, what are the chances they slipped? Then again, what if Jaxon and I hadn't been as discreet about our relationship as we'd figured? I mean, he did let Hunter tell all of Black Rock.