ECHO

With a whole lot of convincing last evening, the three of them managed to get a disgruntled response from me in the end which meant that I were to stay with them - here.

We were currently in the main city, but the pack owned almost everything in this region. This made me even antsier even though Arlo mentioned that he was going to meet the Alpha tonight and most likely get us his blessing to stay.

"Let's go grab lunch," said Molly as she linked her one of her arms with mine.

"I am not hungry."

"Oh, come on, Echo. You've got to eat, especially since you-," Gemma stopped mid-sentence as she realized what she was saying.

"I didn't mean it like that, I am sorry."

"Gems, it's okay. It's not like I don't know what's happening with my wolf. I made a choice long time ago and have made peace with the consequences. You have nothing to be sorry for," I replied and gave her a quick hug.

I must seem like a fool in everyone's eyes – abandoning my wolf like that and for what?

But the thing was nobody would ever understand my decision. For me, wolves are ruthless creatures always hungry for power and dominance. They made my life miserable. And not just any wolves, my own goddamn pack.

Molly's phone ringed and pulled me out of my thoughts. She excused herself while Gemma and I decided on a place for lunch.

"We should avoid the places where the wolves of this pack would be. We don't want to run into any kind of trouble until Arlo meets the Alpha," Gemma pointed out.

"Make that all of us," Molly corrected as she joined us.

"What do you mean all of us?" I asked confused.

"That was Arlo on the call and he said that Stone, the beta of the pack, has invited all of us to the club at the edge of town. It's apparently owned by the pack itself."

"Firstly, what kind of name is Stone? And second of all, the club is going to be packed with wolves and let's not forget that it's just the four of us."

"Uh, three of us." And just those words flew out of mouth I knew I would be in trouble.

Both of them glared at me, but said nothing and I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn't possibly be involved in another argument involving my hatred of clubs and being almost human at the same time.

~*~

The rest of the afternoon flew by pretty quickly. And much to my dismay, it was late evening. All three of my friends were fussing around getting dressed to meet the Alpha.

I was reading a book and had already made myself comfortable on the couch in the living room. The house that we'd rented was big enough – three storey big - for the four of us with four bedrooms, an additional guestroom, an office, pretty big kitchen with a spacious living room.

To top it off, the house came with a swimming pool and a backyard. Arlo got us a pretty sweet deal here.

"Hey, kiddo," he greeted as he plopped beside me on the couch.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, but he just shrugged. I ain't no kiddo.

He was dressed in black jeans, a black t-shirt and combat boots. His leather jacket was draped at the back of the couch which he would surely wear giving off a bad boy vibes.

Arlo's brown hair fell just above his eyebrows not having being trimmed in a while. He was intently looking at something on his phone and his muscles flexed clearly showing just how much he worked out.

Tattoos covered both his arms and some even peered through his shirt around the neck. They were quite fascinating and each one held a story.

Sounds of bickering put a hold to my adoration of Arlo's tattoos. The voices came from the floor above and I just rolled my eyes.

"I'll go check on them," I told Arlo while he just gave me a curt nod. What was that about? I wondered.

I climbed the stairs two at a time and entered Molly's room without knocking.

"Hey, hey. What's up? Stop yelling."

"Molly is not being reasonable!"

Gemma said as she glared at Molly who wasn't fazed one bit. She turned her back and rummaged through the closet to find the perfect dress for tonight. Her make-up was already done, and let me just put it out there – she looked stunning even without her party clothes on.

"Care to elaborate, sugar plum?" I asked Gems and took a seat on the bed and faced these two.

"She wants me to wear a pink latex skanky dress. I am no Barbie and definitely not a kid who can't make my own choices!"

Boy, she was frustrated.

What was up with Arlo and Gems tonight?

"What's the real reason that's got you all riled up?"

"Gems has been acting up since we left that restaurant," Molly stated.

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"Ladies, be civil and get dressed. Just look presentable. You guys are already late."

"What you do mean by 'you guys,' Echo?"

"Not this again, Molly." I whined.

I didn't want to have another discussion on this topic. I was perfectly fine staying home and out of the werewolf drama, if any.

The further I stayed from the pack, the better it was.

"You're invited too and not showing up would mean disrespecting the Alpha. And don't you always say that we mustn't disrespect anyone unless they deserve it?"

The nerve of them! Using my words against me was no fair game. And they even had the audacity to throw a smirk at me.

"Please remind me to disown you guys," I joked, but grumbled nonetheless.

I left the room and climbed another flight of stairs that led me to my room on the top floor opposite Arlo's.

Switching on the light of my bedroom, I walked over to my closet and sighed. I hated this. The whole meeting the Alpha thing. Everybody always had so many questions about us – who was my birth pack, why did I leave, what have I been doing since I left the pack, so on and so forth.

It was frustrating and upsetting every time I had to answer those questions. And the worst of all? I had to lie to every single one of them.

Nobody could ever know who I was or the pack I left behind. That would either endanger their own pack if they tried to protect me or my friends and I would be if they wanted leverage against my pack.

It was a pretty situation to be in.

After much thought, I settled on white tank top, black jeans, knee length boots and paired the entire outfit with a leather jacket.

Tonight was going to be a long night. I could feel it in my bones.

-

A/N:

Hello, again.

I hope you liked this chapter. I know it's a relatively shorter chapter and I am trying to work on doubling it. :)

Please let me know your thoughts and concerns in the comments below. And again, I would just like to remind that this was written years ago so the editing is extremely slow.

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Love,
Grace Clarke xo