Page 9 of A Pack of Lies and a Big Bad Wolf

“No, we do not! I do not agree!” she splutters.

I grin at her. She’s cute when she’s mad. She’s cute all the time. I like that fate has given me a feisty mate.

“I have a wolf!” Stephen blurts out.

“What?” Olivia’s jaw drops.

“It’s weak and faint, but I have it, and if I stay here the ley line energy might help activate it!” he says eagerly. His whole demeanor changes as he says that. His eyes shine with hope.

“Stephen! That’s incredible!” Olivia’s eyes brighten with tears, and she embraces her brother.

The door opens, and Rose strolls in. “What do you mean you’re considering extending my grounding another week?” she snaps at me. She waves at Gemma and Peyton. “Hello. My brother’s a dick-face.”

Gemma bends over her notebook and pretends to be studying something interesting on the page. Peyton puts her hands over her ears.

I fix my sister with a cold smile. “Hello, sister dear. It’s so wonderful to see your smiling face. You had a self-defense lesson with Bram scheduled for this morning. You missed your lesson yesterday. Don’t do it again.”

She glares at me. “I’m a healer. I don’t want to learn how to hurt people. Except you. For you, I’ll make an exception. Because you’re special.”

Amaryllis and Stephen are both watching this interchange with interest. Gemma and Peyton are looking for escape routes.

Olivia’s mouth twitches in amusement. She’s struggling not to laugh.

I narrow my eyes in annoyance. My younger sister is a naive, bratty, over-protected twit. She wants to leave pack grounds by herself someday. Shifters are a war-like species and as the Alpha’s sister, she’s practically begging to be kidnapped and held as leverage. She’s also a healer. Even if she’s not a very strong one, any healing power at all makes her valuable. So if she ever wants me to allow her to leave the pack without a protective detail, she needs to learn to kick some serious ass.

I could explain that to her, but I don’t have to. I’m the Alpha. If I tell her to do something, she’ll do it.

“Take the lesson. Or sit in your room until you do.”

Her eyes blaze with rage. She draws in a furious breath.

“Rose!” Olivia interjects. “Are these self-defense lessons any good?”

Rose flashes her a startled look, and the angry breath rushes out of her in a whoosh. “I guess? I mean...I don’t honestly pay a lot of attention to them.” That earns her a ferocious scowl from me, which she ignores.

“If I took the class with you this morning, is there any chance at all that I’d learn a technique which would show me how to kick your brother’s furry ass?” Olivia asks, her tone hopeful.

Rose goes from angry to amused. “Probably not, but…maybe?” I see a look of interest sparking in her eyes. “Hmm. It’s possible.”

The thought of my reed-slender sister hurting me in a fight makes me burst into laughter, which earns me glares from Rose and Olivia, who are suddenly apparently besties.

“We’ll never know until we try,” Olivia says to Rose. “I’d say that you and I are both highly motivated.”

Rose nods vigorously. “That’s it. You and me are booking a double training session today.”

My jaw drops. I shut my mouth quickly. Rose has never, ever shown any interest in self-defense training before.

Rose smirks at me. “And whatever we learn, we are allowed to use against you.”

To my enormous credit, I refrain from howling with laughter. Instead, I nod gravely. “I will agree to that, if you start taking your lessons seriously.”

“Stephen, let’s have lunch together. We can meet at the pack canteen,” Olivia says. The pack canteen is in the pack meeting building, which is connected to our grade school and also has our gym and our craft lore area where healers teach the next generation.

Rose and Olivia flounce out of the office together, and Rose bangs the door shut behind her.

“What just happened?” Amaryllis asks me. “Should I be worried for you?”

Well, my fated mate and my bratty little sister are now BFFs and are probably going to braid each other’s hair and swap takedown strategies against me, so…maybe?