My Taken Mate

Party Prep

Hayley

The week passed by uneventfully. Cody and his friends are settling into their new pack jobs easily enough. My brothers degree in accounting of all things puts him in charge of the pack finances. He'll over see the books for our main sources of income, J & T Construction and Hanes Auto Body. Grayson will be working under uncle Jeremy and uncle Greg who run our family Auto Body shop. His Art degree will help them take their customizations to the next level. Eric and Phoenix will be working under both uncle Jared and uncle Austin in our shared packs construction company. Though uncle Jared still runs the Southern territory and my dad the Northern, a few of the businesses in between are shared. The construction company my dad and uncle built from the ground up after coming back home from college was the first. Grayson and Phoenix both graduated with degrees in Business but have worked over their Summers doing various construction jobs. Evidently that's how they met, so working there is perfect for them.

Phoenix and his mate are arriving today and as soon as they get here dad will be officially accepting them into our pack. Lucky for me I won't be needed at this ceremony. Only the Alpha, Luna, Beta, and Enforcers are required to be in attendance which leaves me spare time to find something to wear to the party tonight.

Sam texts me to let me know she's waiting outside, so I throw my dark brown hair into a messy bun, stick my wallet and phone in my mini back pack and leave my room. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I almost run into Grayson who steadies me with two hands on my shoulders.

"Where's the fire short stack?"

I'm by no means short at 5'6", but being surrounded by male wolves who are all over 6' means I fall into the shorter than them category resulting in nicknames like short stack. Not something I'm fond of, especially when my two best friends make it their life mission to constantly remind me of my height difference, but hearing it said with a flirty lilt and coming from a hottie like Grayson, I'll let it slide.

"Hey Gray, Sam's waiting for me and if I take too long she'll leave."

He raises a questioning brow, "Seriously?"

Hunter joins us then, coming from the direction of dads office which is probably where Grayson was. "Definitely, Hayley takes forever to get ready. I'd leave her too if I didn't fear my sisters payback."

Offended I argue, "I do not take forever to get ready. I just get distracted easily."

It's true, especially if I've recently discovered a new book on kindle. I get so absorbed I forget my surroundings and whatever task I'm supposed to be doing, which most times is getting dressed.

"Yeah sure, and I don't scratch my balls when they itch." Hunter says deadpan.

Grayson laughs while I say, "Gross."

"So where you off too?" Grayson asks.

"The mall. Got some shopping to do before the party tonight."

"There's a party?"

Hunter responds, "Yeah, it's a back to school thing we throw every year. It's down by the beach, we get a pretty good bonfire going and catch up with everyone before our first day. Some of the kids headed off to college hang too. You guys are welcome, if it's not past your bedtime and all."

It's been a running joke all week with the guys. Hunter, Nick, and Slater have been calling Cody and his friends 'old' since they're technically adults now. In turn, Cody has been calling my brother and friends babies, he even found a few unused baby bottles mom had stored in one of the closets and filled it with orange juice before placing it in front of them at breakfast yesterday morning.