Amber Silverblood: Silverpack

Chapter Twenty Nine

"Come on in," I said, ushering Stacey through the door. I turned and gave Majestic's room one more look, and then closed it.

"That was awesome," Stacey said. "Any chance doing that gave me, like, magic powers?"

"I'm pretty sure it didn't," I answered. "Here, check this out."

I opened the door again, and sure enough this time Stark's hallway was on the other side.

"Whoa," she breathed. "So, you can go anywhere you want through your bedroom door? Why do you still take the bus to school?"

I laughed. "Because I'm not the one doing that. It was those idiots who stuck you in that room with that stupid paperweight."

"Hey, don't insult that thing!" Stacey snapped. "They said it could give me telepathic powers if I watched it long enough." She paused. "On second thought, can we go back for a minute? I want to grab it."

I shook my head. "I couldn't take us back if I wanted to. Don't worry, I think I have a stapler that can make you shoot fire from your fingers if you feed it your blood."

"Whoa, seriously?"

"No, Stacey. No."

I led her into the hallway and, cupping my hand around my mouth, hollered, "Mom? Stark? I brought a friend home!"

Mom peeked her head into the hallway from the living room. "You wha— oh, Stacey!" Her eyes lit up a little, and she came to greet her guest. "I haven't seen you in months! How have you been?"

"I've been fine, Mrs. Pace," she answered. My mom was one of the only people who Stacey was unfailingly polite to, probably because she was my mom. "Are you a werewolf too?"

Mom jumped so high she nearly cracked her head on the ceiling, and I slapped my forehead. I was hoping Stacey would be smart enough to keep her mouth closed about that. Then I would have been able to skip the lecture about letting our secret get around. I'd probably have had more luck grilling up a well done steak, wrapping it in bacon, and expecting Stacey to eat it.

"No, my mom isn't a werewolf," I groaned.

"She knows?" Mom asked, giving the goth girl a wary look.

"I'll explain later, all right?"

"Okay," she said hesitantly. Then a puzzled look crossed her face. "Wait a minute, did you just come home through your bedroom door?"

"Mom, I'll explain later."

Mom sucked in a worried breath, but finally nodded. "All right. Are you staying for dinner, Stacey?"

"She's spending the night," I answered for her.

Finally, a somewhat motherly look appeared on my mom's face. "Not on a school night, young lady!"

Luckily, we were saved from further argument when the front door opened and Stark came in, stomping his boots on the rug to knock the snow off. "Jennifer, I got the driveway cleared if you still want to... who the hell's in my house?"

"He must have telepathy!" Stacey whispered as his heavy footsteps drew nearer.

"Nah, he just smelled you," I replied.

"Rude," she muttered just as my alpha came to join us in the hallway. I felt a quick pang of anger when I saw him, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I had the rest of my life to be pissed off at him, but I only had tonight to make things up to Stacey.

"Stark, this is my friend, Stacey," I introduced. "Stacey, meet my pack's alpha, Stark."

Stark looked at her hard for a few seconds, and I began to wonder if I'd made a mistake bringing her here. We were all werewolves, minus my mom, and wolves were, well, territorial. Stark's expression darkened, and I tensed my muscles, ready to grab Stacey and run if things turned bad.