Chapter 2

Storm

I was thinking of calling it a night and heading home. As much as I didn’t want to be at home and dealing with my father, along with Mason and his stupid mate, Jewel. I knew that I should leave the party before the men here got even more drunk and became even more difficult to deal with.

Mine and Winter’s relationships with the members of our pack had taken a turn for the worst after the death of our mother. Our pack had turned on the both of us on account of our father’s rumours. Rumours which had painted a dark picture of our mother. Our mother had been well respected by the members of our pack. Many of our pack’s members had pitied our mother for having to put up with a man like our father. But once our father had started spreading rumours about our mother being unfaithful, the pack had forgiven him for all his past indiscretions and had condemned her for daring to try to have a little happiness in her life. Now thanks to my no-good father, Winter and I got treated abysmally by all of them. There was a time when we had only had to deal with our father and Mason torturing us on a regular basis. But now we had to watch out for members of the pack attacking us whenever we were out and about.

Whenever one of the pack members got the nerve to have a go at one of us, Winter and I tag teamed it and fought back with everything we had, determined to cause them as much pain as possible. We obviously didn’t care how much we hurt them. As far as we were concerned, our actions were justified.

 As I was walking away from the bar, my best friend Kat scared me half to death when she grabbed me and dragged me into a big bear hug. She was almost as close to me as a sister. Kat and I had been inseparable ever since childhood.

As the two of us hugged it out, the music continued to reverberate around us, pounding through my bloodstream, and making me feel as though I was on some kind of an adrenaline high. Kat began to slowly move us in a swaying motion, moving us to the beat of the bass. After a while my body took over and soon the two of us were dancing, our bodies moving to the sound of the music pulsing through the speakers.

I had been trying to spend as much time with Kat as I could lately, because I felt guilty for the secret that I had been keeping from her for the past several weeks. She had no idea I was going to be leaving town soon. Winter and I were planning on leaving the country in the next couple of days, and we wouldn’t be coming back. After everything that had happened since our mother’s death, we couldn’t be around our own family or our pack anymore. We knew that we both needed to get out of this place before someone killed us.

Kat had no idea that in less than thirty-six hours, I’d be gone. After years of being around each other every day, I would be out of her life for good. As much as it hurt for me to admit it to myself, Kat and I would never see each other again. I couldn’t come back here. The risk was too great. As we continued to dance to the music, beads of sweat began to gather on my forehead. I had been out here, dancing in the heat of the fires for hours now. It was hot, and the sweat covered my body as my hair stuck to my neck, and my clothing began to stick to my skin. I was sweating so much, that I knew I needed to rehydrate. I needed another drink or five.

As if reading my mind, Kat stepped back away from me and grabbed my hand. A moment later she began to drag me back towards the bar I had gone over to earlier. Leaning on the bar, she yelled, “Vodka and orange juice please.” The bartender nodded to her, before looking at me. “Can of Jim Beam please,” I shouted, over the loud music. The bartender nodded to the both of us, then walked over to the coolers that were behind the bar. As we stood there and waited for our drinks, Kat hugged me to her once again, and leaning in closer to my ear, she said something to me, but I didn’t catch what it was she had said, because her voice was drowned out by the loud music. I looked up to tell her that I hadn’t heard what she had said, and I was surprised to see that on her face there was a smile as big as Texas. Her attention was now on a man who was standing a few feet away from us. The man she was looking at was tall, roughly six foot, and he had brown hair with blonde tips, light blue eyes, and he was of muscular build with a healthy tan. He could be a model gracing the cover of GQ with that body and those looks. And Kat looked absolutely stoked as she gazed at him.

I was aware of movement beside me, and I looked up and found that Asher guy looking at me. Still annoyed with him regarding our earlier conversation, I stepped back away from him, wanting to put a little distance between the two of us. Glancing back over at Kat, I took in her appearance. Kat was what people called a classic beauty. With her long black hair and ivory complexion, coupled with her beautiful emerald, green eyes, rimmed with thick lashes, and a body that women around the world would happily kill for. She was stunning to say the least. No wonder men drooled over her wherever she went. She was gorgeous enough to easily grace the covers of magazines around the globe, and I was proud to call her my friend.

I glanced back at Asher, trying to figure out what was up with him. Why was he hanging around me like a bad smell suddenly?

“Kat, want to play a game of beer pong?” I asked her, breaking into her ogling session. She looked over at me and nodded.

We picked up our drinks off the bar and made our way over to where the table tennis tables had been set up earlier in the day. Two members of our pack, Cameron and his friend Josh were already there playing a game of beer pong. Josh and Cameron, ever the womanizers, were trying to sweet-talk their way into the pants of two blonde bimbos who were hanging onto their every word. They were human, so as far as the boys were concerned, the girls were easy targets for a night of fun. Still, I felt a stab of anger as I watched them. Josh wouldn’t ever change his womanising ways.