The Hunt is On

The Meeting

The beach party lasted a few hours. There was loud music, crazy dancing and tournaments of volleyball and surfing.
Ember, Tori, Colt, Gage and I won the volleyball tournament, to nobody's surprise. We had been playing volleyball together since we were ten years old.

Towards the end, Alpha Joseph came forward and made the announcement that his son was now the Alpha of the Silver Oak Pack. Our pack members went crazy, cheering and yelling. Acton looked slightly embarrassed, but his mother and father were proud.
Iona also presented baby Marco, who was a day old.
Thankfully, she left out my name when she mentioned the nurses who helped save his life, she knew how much I hated huge amounts of attention.

Finally, at almost midnight, the party calmed down and we began to drift inside. I was exhausted, having had only a couple hours of sleep the night before.
I said goodnight to my friends and the new Alpha and went upstairs.

Crawling into my bed after unchanging, I fell asleep instantly.

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The next morning, or should I say afternoon, I opened my eyes at exactly 1:00 am. Normally on Saturdays I sleep late, but not this late. I guessed I had just been very tired from the nights before.
I changed into some shorts and a tank top and pulled my hair up into a messy bun. Then I grabbed my phone and went downstairs to find Tori and Ember.

Ember was sitting with Gage on the couch in the living room, watching a movie.
I realized it was World War Z, and Gage looked very excited by the whole thing. Looking at Ember, I noted that she was probably only watching it because Brad Pitt was in it.
"Hey Sole! You finally decided you were alive!" Ember laughed as I sat down next to her on the couch.
"Last night was awesome." I said. Gage and Ember laughed together.
"Yeah well, you should have been there for the second half of it." Gage smirked, looking at Ember with wide eyes.
I smiled nervously.
"Why, what happened?"
Ember cleared her throat. "Nothing important really."
Gage laughed loudly, making me jump. "Nothing important?" He sounded astonished, and laughed again.
I looked at my best friend.
"Ember, what happened?" I asked her, now very interested.

She shot Gage a look and smiled at me. "I told you. Nothing happened."
"If nothing happened, Gage wouldn't be acting like that. Why can't you tell me?" I smiled at her, in a knowing way. That broke her.
"Okay fine, you remember the guy I told you I was going to wrap around my finger last night?"
I nodded at her. "Yeah. What about him? Did you hook up with- OH MY GOD YOU-" Ember slammed her hand over my mouth, cutting me off.

Besides me, Gage was going into fits of laughter, and could barely hold himself upright.
I peeled Ember's hand from my mouth. "Sorry." I said. "But did you?"
She hesitated, then nodded.

Ember had always been the flirtatious one, and I had gotten used to it. She would always pull guys into her, and then leave them when she saw another one.
I didn't exactly agree with her ways, but it was her life. But she had never hooked up with a guy before. I guess she too had her limits.

I looked at her, a little concerned. "Do you regret it?" She shook her head after a while, her blue hair waving.
"No, I don't. But I sort of wish I was more sober." I smiled. "Wow Ember. You are nineteen, got drunk and had sex for your first time without your mate." I shoved her playfully. "You rebel."
She smiled and shoved me back. "I just didn't want to you to get mad. You have such strict rules about waiting for your mate." I frowned at her and got up, walking over to the fridge.
"I'm never mad." I called to her.
Gage snorted. "Yes you are. Around Kylie." I rolled my eyes. "And you, of course, are not."

He frowned. "What does that mean?"
I shrugged and bit into an apple. "Nothing at all."

Gage looked like he was about to retort with something smart when the new Alpha walked in.
The three of us smiled at him and I gave him a mock bow. "Anything for the Alpha?" I joked, smiling at him.
Acton rolled one of his eyes the way he always did, making me scrunch my nose in disgust.
"Yes, actually," he said. "there is a meeting in two hours in the Assembly Room. The whole pack is to be there."
There was a pause.