Tiger's Mate

Chapter 17

•Ethan•

"Why are we here again?" I groaned for the millionth time, turning to look at Maia in the driver's seat two days later.

She sat beside me with a smile on her face, dressed in a pair of tight black leggings that clung to her legs, a midnight blue shirt that only went to just above her belly button, and a light slightly oversized jean jacket to top it off. In other words, she was dressed for the party — the very party I said I didn't want to go to — that she was dragging me to.

"Because E, I want to experience what a teenage human party is like." She answered.

I rolled my eyes. "Loud. Flashy. Surrounded by drunk idiots. What more do you see here?" I asked with a flat tone, gesturing outside.

Maia just huffed in response, sending me a look for my lack of shared enthusiasm. To be honest I don't even know how she found out about it to begin with, but as soon as I got home from school Wednesday she was dragging me to her room and forcing me to help her pick her outfit for the night, saying that we were going and that was final.

So much for my plans to shut myself in my room.

"Forgive me if I don't trust your word on it," Maia said, "but I know it's got to be more than that. Besides, you hardly ever interact with anyone at parties so of course that's all you see. How about we just go and you can actually have some fun tonight."

"Doubt it," I muttered, but by then the girl wasn't even listening to me anymore. She was already stepping out of the car and closing the door behind her. I sighed to myself, then had no choice but to follow her out.

Before we got here, Maia had made sure to have a whole outfit already picked out for me so that I would have no reason not to go with her. Because I guess just not wanting to go didn't count.

I wore a pair of black jeans and the slim white tee that she had picked out for me. I had also made sure to grab my jacket — the black leather one that I rather liked — before we left, knowing that with Maia we would definitely be out late.

As soon as I was out Maia grabbed my hand, and in all her excitement, practically dragged me up the driveway to the large house. The exterior was impressive I'll admit — not as big as our packhouse but nice all the same — pretty much the perfect place to hold a party like this one. Music was blasting loudly from somewhere inside the house as we passed by a group of other townie kids already reeling with the scent of beer.

Yep, I was totally looking forward to tonight.

I wasn't surprised when I spotted a few wolves here as well, mingling with the humans and getting high on the free booze set up along the tables and the mini bar in the back patio. After all, this was a town party. We weren't going to be the only werewolves that showed up.

And I even recognized some of them familiarly as we got closer to the centre of the main room.

"Yo, Maia, Ethan," Jared — one of our pack members — hollered over the music as he grinned and waved the two of us over. He was about a year or two older than the two of us, putting him at his first-year college age, in mortal terms anyway. He was taller than me as well, but with darker hair and skin, and green eyes like Maia.

"Hey you guys," Maia greeted him and the other two beside him, Sage and Chris. She had always been more sociable in the pack than I ever had, meaning she knew them a lot better than I did. But still, being the Alpha's son and having a reputation like mine earned you respect. So while Maia was hugging her Sage tightly, the others and I shared a brief nod of acknowledgement.