On Your Mark

Chapter 3

I sit on one side of the long table with my entire family, looking out at the dozens of loyal pack members. Everyone is eating and laughing. Occasionally, a few older members will approach my parents offering a kind word, many approach my brothers, offering smiles, cleavage, and sometimes even presents. Samuel and his cousin have been here all of five minutes, and they too seem to have collected their own gaggle of females. No one approaches me.

I lean to the left, whispering in Vee's ear, "my my, what a sm-whore-gasbord we have tonight."

She snorts into her glass, bubbles of champagne explode in her nose and splatter onto the tablecloth. My brothers look down the length of the table, laughing hysterically, all except Frederick who hides his amusement behind his glass. My mother, on the other hand, does not hide her displeasure at my joke.

"Alexandria, that is quite enough!"

"Sorry!" I hold my hands up in defense, grinning ear to ear with pride.

I hear my father mutter under his breath to his mate, holding in a chuckle himself, completely flabbergasted, "sm-whore-gasbord? Where does she get this stuff?"

My mother shakes her head with a huff, pushing her hair from her face. "I have no idea. She reminds me of my brothers more and more each day. She's going to get herself into trouble, I'll tell you that much."

Isaac leans back in his chair, balancing on two legs to reach behind Frederick and Veronica, to fist bump me, "nice!"

"Isaac Lysander," my mother scolds, "do not encourage her!"

He winks before sitting up straight in his seat. Samuel sits beside him, smiling widely, clearly amused with my joke. He clears his throat, leaning over the table slightly, to meet my mothers eye, "this is a lovely picnic, Luna."

"Please!" She waves her hand at him, blushing, "call me Kat."

He nods his head, "it's wonderful, Kat."

"This entire party is for Isaac?" His cousin scoffs, "this schmuck deserves all this?"

"Well, we all missed him very much," my mother explains in a harsh tone, not loving the insult casually tossed at her son.

"The girls did," Daniel mumbles.

"This is actually just the beginning." I see Isaac scowl at the older man. He can't be much older than Freddy. "There are an entire month's worth of events."

"A month?"

"Yeah," I sigh. "It's kind of a never ending party slash carnival slash competition."

"You're kidding." Samuel laughs, "that's fantastic!"

"You'll be amazed at how frequently you get lucky this month." Daniel wiggles his eyebrows.

"Daniel Orion!" My mother hits him in the back of the head with a gasp.

"At the games, Ma!" He rubs his head, "where was your mind?"

"It gets pretty competitive," I admit. I lean over the table, smirking, to tease my big brother. "Danny, how many events have you won?"

"None!" Frederick and Isaac say together, laughing and fist bumping.

"How many have you, Little Miss Perfect?"

"Four, if I am remembering correctly," our father chimes in, bragging about me. "She's a very good shot."

"Daddy!" I blush.

"It's true," Veronica adds. "What was it; rifle, bow, darts and ... gin?"

"Gin!" Samuel barks, patting his chest and setting his glass down.