"We did it. Tomorrow we have to test it some more, but so far, success."

That was the message Angie read first thing Sunday morning. Judging by the fact that Evan had sent it to her in the middle of the night, she figured he was still asleep and decided to reply later.

Even though Angie wasn’t in Manvale with them, she was experiencing the joy right alongside them. Rory was officially safe. The plan had officially worked. She couldn’t have asked for anything more.

She had perhaps a million questions, but they would have to wait until she heard from Evan—or maybe until he and Ryan returned home. Most of all, she wondered how his soul connection with Rory had affected their bond.

Speaking of bonds…

Angie hadn’t thought she’d fall asleep after spending yesterday with Hunter, but the moment her head hit the pillow, she slept like a baby. Maybe it was that Hunter’s presence was calming her—or rather, calming her wolf—and so, although she still had concerns, her wolf’s contentment overrode them.

One thing she kept thinking about, though.

"Sometimes I forget how slow they are. Like, this is their top speed?"

It was a comment Hunter had made while looking at a group of people they’d seen in town. They looked like a running group training for a marathon or something. The tone in which Hunter said it was mocking, as if he thought of them as inferior, and that didn’t sit well with Angie. Just the fact that he felt the need to comment on them didn’t sit well with her.

"I’m just used to being surrounded by wolves. Even when we run in human form, we’re a lot faster," Hunter had told her, noticing her intense gaze on him.

Maybe he really meant it that way, or maybe he was just trying to save the situation. Either way, Angie hadn’t forgotten his comment. However, she had to wait until Evan returned that evening before she could discuss it with him.

But first, she had another meeting to attend.

Angie made plans with Hunter to pick her up and then head to a place where he liked to hang out with his betas. He said she didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them there together, and even though it didn’t exactly sound safe, she decided to trust him.

Angie was sure that if she told Lola about this meeting, her blue-haired best friend would be shocked and ask where she’d left her caution.

(If Angie had listened to her, she would have saved herself a few tears. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)

Apparently, there was a cabin in the woods that was partially wrapped in tree branches, since the alpha and the luna had created this place for Hunter and his friends—like the treehouse he’d always longed for.

Now Hunter, Beth, and Kenny used it as their makeshift office to make secret plans and hang out. No one else had access to it, so it was the perfect place, in Hunter’s mind, to introduce Angie to his best friends.

“Juliette wanted to come too, but she stayed at the Hayes’ since Melinda was due to give birth these days, and she was worried,” Hunter explained along the way.

Since Angie still didn’t have the best insight when it came to their pack, she had no idea who the Hayes’ were. But she was still a woman, so she could empathize with Melinda. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. If Juliette had any inkling that something might be wrong, she would’ve sent Melinda to the hospital,” Hunter assured her.

“Good.” Angie breathed a sigh of relief even though she didn’t know her.

Hunter gave her a wide smile and rested his gaze on her a little longer until she felt like she was going to blush. That had been happening to her quite a lot lately, and she had no idea how to control it yet. For now, she solved it by averting her gaze and changing the subject.

“Do you know everyone in the pack?” she asked with interest.

Hunter, as she had assumed, nodded in agreement. “It’s my job. In order for me to make sure everyone’s okay, I need to know them. Plus, the pack meetings help.”

“Isn’t that a lot for someone who’s still in high school?”

“I’m taking it one step at a time.” Hunter put on that tone again—the one Angie recognized as the one he used when talking about something important to him. “Besides, I don’t have much left, and when I graduate, I can go all in.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’re going to have much free time,” Angie said before she could stop herself.

“I’ll always make time for you, Angie.” The smile he gave her made it clear how much he cared about her. Besides, how attractive he was didn’t help Angie keep her cool. Her cheeks burned in a soft fire.

“So... Kenny and Beth.” Angie cleared her throat, but this time the change of subject didn’t immediately help dispel her emotional outburst.

The smile in Hunter’s voice suggested he’d noticed, but thankfully he didn’t tease her. “I’m sure you’ll get along. You’re all important to me. And they’re looking forward to seeing you.”

“I’m starting to worry about what you’ve told them about me,” she said with humor, but the truth was, she was afraid Hunter had created a version of her in his mind that didn’t match reality. He had no idea yet how much ordinary human life meant to her, and so misunderstandings could quickly arise.

“Trust me, only good things. Plus, they know we haven’t had enough time to get to know each other properly,” he assured her. “Yet.”

“Well... I’m not often in North Hallson,” she replied in the end.

“So we need to make the most of the time when you’re here.” Hunter gave her another dazzling smile. He didn’t seem to be planning on complaining or begging her to transfer to a local school, but Angie took it with a grain of salt just in case—it could still happen later. Like after his graduation, when he’d realize they really wouldn’t have much time for each other. But that was too far away to stress about right now.

As it turned out, Kenny and Beth had been waiting for them for quite some time.

“They wanted to wait outside, but I stopped them,” Hunter revealed to Angie in a whisper before they went inside and found the betas sitting in the beanbags.

Looking at the trio, it was clear that Kenny was a bit older than the other two. Although Angie hadn’t asked how old he was, she gathered from Hunter’s words that there wasn’t that much of an age difference between them, since it sounded like Kenny had only recently finished school. He probably could have been Michael’s age.

He had short brown hair and brown eyes. He wasn’t primordially attractive, but his smile and the vibe he gave off made him attractive. His nose was slightly crooked, and if he were human, Angie would have assumed he’d once broken it. With a wolf’s healing, however, that was unlikely.

Beth was quite tall. She had an athletic build, and unlike Hunter and Kenny, she wasn’t full of muscle. Her muscles weren’t bloated; they were sculpted. She looked like someone who ran a lot, and not just in wolf form. 

She had short blonde hair cut in a bob, with the shorter strands falling into her eyes, creating a more delicate and feminine look that contrasted with her figure. Her eyes were blue and large, adding to her attractiveness.

Both Kenny and Beth were dressed as if they planned to play sports. Kenny wore shorts and a flowy sleeveless T-shirt, while Beth wore a sports bra and 2-in-1 shorts with leggings. She also had a rubber band on her wrist that completed the look.

“Hunter said you were beautiful, but we thought he was exaggerating,” Kenny said as he stood up and walked closer.

“Stop it or I’ll tell Juliette,” Beth warned him, playfully hitting him in the chest with her palm. But then she quickly turned to Angie. “I’m Beth. I’m glad to finally meet you.”

“We’ve waited soooo long for you. It’s been getting unbearable with Hunter,” Kenny added.

“He’s kidding,” Hunter immediately told Angie.

Kenny raised his hands in the air in a defensive gesture. “But it’s true that he talks about you all the time,” he said, then added, “I’m Kenny, by the way. I believe he’s talked about me too.”

“He may have mentioned something,” Angie replied with humor in her voice, matching the betas.

So far, things seemed promising.

"We were planning on going for a run, but we also brought some snacks as a second option," Beth revealed.

"We assumed Hunter would forget to tell you about our plans as soon as he saw you, so we got a backup," Kenny added.

"I’d say they’re exaggerating, but there’s some truth to it this time," Hunter admitted, turning to Angie again with a playful smile that she automatically returned without even realizing it. But she quickly found a way to redirect her attention again.

"I’ll never say no to a snack," she told Beth.

The four of them moved to the floor, where they sat down in the beanbags, and Hunter automatically sat closer to Angie, making sure with a glance that she wasn’t bothered by the closeness between them. She playfully nudged him with her shoulder in response.

"So, Angie." Kenny immediately demanded her attention, and the brunette turned to face him. "Hunter mentioned that you don’t go to school in North Hallson."

She nodded. "Yes, I go to Marwell."

Both betas frowned, and Beth was the one who finally explained why. "Marwell doesn’t have its own pack, does it?"

"No, there isn’t one," Angie confirmed.

"That sounds lonely," Beth assessed. "I can’t imagine not being surrounded by wolves all the time."

"You can get used to it," Angie assured her, not adding how the absence of wolves had never been a problem for her. Her family and Evan, Ryan, and Michael were all the wolves she needed around her.

"I’d probably sign up for all the sports teams," Kenny interjected. "It’s not cheating if they don’t know about it." He seemed excited about his plan, while Hunter and Beth just rolled their eyes at him.

"Don't forget the part where you're not supposed to even hint to the humans that you're not one of them," Hunter warned him, and Angie had a hard time not reacting to his words guiltily, since they were directly related to her, even though he didn’t know it.

"You know I would never do that," Kenny assured him, and thankfully, they moved on to another topic after that.

Angie was quickly discovering that their conversations were similar, yet different from the ones she had with her friends. They talked about training, sports, and the workings of the pack. Worst of all, it sounded like fun coming out of their mouths, even though she knew damn well it wasn’t.

"What about you, Angie?"

The brunette caught herself actually stopping to listen for a moment, but Beth’s voice brought her back into the conversation.

"What?" The question slipped out before she could stop it. She had no idea what the blonde beta was asking.

"Are you going to lead the next pack meeting with us? I know you and Hunter are taking it slow, but the next big meeting isn’t for another week," Beth explained.

A week—that was all the time Beth thought Angie needed to accept she was the next Luna and get on with the duties that came with the role. Angie had no idea whether to wonder if this was a joke or to start laughing outright.

"Angie has her hands full with school." Fortunately, Hunter interjected when he realized Angie was searching in vain for an answer. "She’ll join in when she wants to." He turned to the brunette with a kind smile, and for the first time, she had trouble returning it.

It was clear both betas realized the change in her demeanor, and for a moment, an awkward silence reigned in the cabin.

"I think that’s enough pack talk." In the end, it was Hunter who decided to save the situation again. "Angie came to get to know you two, not the whole pack."

"Right." Kenny nodded. "I guess we didn’t even realize that we automatically slipped into duty mode. A habit." He shrugged.

"Do you play any sports, Angie?" Beth turned to her questioningly.

"Nope, sorry. More of a board games and movies girly," she admitted. "But of course I like running in wolf form like any werewolf." She tried to save her answer, though she didn’t want to pretend in front of them. So what if she had nothing in common with them? That wasn’t a big deal, was it?

"We used to want to get a TV in here. But there’s no electricity, so we quickly dropped that idea," Kenny revealed.

"Yeah. That was before we became betas," Beth added. "We’re more responsible now. I swear." She turned to Angie with a smile, as if it should have pleased her that the teens were voluntarily responsible.

It was as if every moment with them was on edge. One wrong answer, one question she couldn’t answer, and their conversation would be over. But both sides were giving it their all—for Hunter’s sake.

"Still, we always found some way to spice things up around here, though." Hunter took hold of the conversation again. "When we started the stricter training, we brought candy in here so no one would know about it. Then we tried to make it a gym."

"We tried playing squash here once as well. It seemed ideal since there’s little space and the walls are a good distance apart, but then we found out that we’re not good at squash," Kenny laughed.

"We decided to stick to basketball instead of practicing," Beth added, also looking amused by the memory, and finally a smile appeared on Angie’s face as well.

It didn’t last long, however, as their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of a phone, and she was horrified to discover it was Hunter’s, as he quickly pulled it out of his pocket.

"I need to answer this," he announced, running his hand gently down Angie’s back before standing and walking out the door with the phone to his ear.

"It’s probably nothing serious," Beth assured Angie, misinterpreting her expression.

The brunette wasn’t really worried about why someone had called Hunter. She was worried that it wasn’t just going to be a phone call, and he’d leave her with just the two of them.