First Moon (The Koto Chronicles, #1) Read online

  “Yeah, I guess,” I lied, hoping that the way I felt about Akar didn’t seem too obvious. I couldn’t make myself say that I actually liked him, since that wouldn’t have been anywhere near the truth.

  “Well, I guess we have a lot in common, then. I spend most of my time with my older brother, Ryan. He has his own apartment,” he explained. “What about your dad? Did he stay in Alaska with your mom, or are they separated?”

  I shook my head. “No, my dad died a few weeks before I was born.”

  A softened look filled Gage’s eyes. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

  I shrugged. “It’s okay. I guess I can’t really miss him much, since I never got the chance to know him.” I felt the same way about my older brother, Gunnar, too. He had died in a pack fight before my father had died, so I’d never gotten the chance to know him, either. I decided not to bring that up to Gage, though. I didn’t want to dump too much about my family life on him at once.

  “I get that,” Gage replied with a nod. “So, it’s just your brother and you, then?”

  Knowing that I was going to need to find a way to explain why I lived with so many guys if Gage and I actually started dating, I decided to make another excuse for the rest of the members of my pack. “Actually, our cousins moved here with us, too. Thane, Chance, Hunter, and Ashton.” Glancing down at Thane, who was still seated below me, I noticed him tense up at the mention of his name. It irked me that he was listening in on our conversation, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I glanced over at Gage. “It’s a complicated situation, I guess.”

  “It sounds like one, but I guess that only makes you human,” Gage replied, shooting a small smile in my direction.

  I forced a smile back, biting my tongue at how ironic his statement really was.

  When I didn’t say anything back for a few moments, Gage glanced over at me. “You know, I’m really looking forward to Friday night. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this hyped about a date. If you want to call it one, that is.”

  “Um, sure. It’s a date.” I replied, trying not to sound too eager, even though I was really trying not to squeal. It was going to be my first date ever. “I’m excited, too. It will be a lot of fun.”

  Before either of us had a chance to talk about it anymore, though, our gym teacher, a young redheaded woman named Mrs. Lyle, started taking attendance and then told us to pair up with partners for whatever activity she had planned for us.

  Gage asked me to be his partner, and I agreed excitedly. A part of me also felt incredibly guilty, though, when Thane glanced over his shoulder at me to see if I wanted to be his partner, too.

  Even though I felt bad, there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t be both of their partners.

  Chapter 5

  Later that day, I walked across the street to our house and used the spare key from under the flower pot to let myself inside. I called out all of the guys’ names and breathed a sigh of relief when I was greeted with silence. As much as I cared about my pack members, they could all be so obnoxious sometimes. Spending too much quality time together often gave me a headache. It was nice to have some peace and quiet, all on my own, for once.

  As I pulled a jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet and slathered some onto a piece of bread, I realized that I hadn’t ended up seeing any of the guys all day, aside from Thane. Apparently, our schedules must have been so different that I didn’t even have to worry about running into Ashton, Chance, and Hunter. That was probably for the best. They would have tried to find some way to embarrass me if they could—or the twins would have, at least.

  I sat down on a bar stool and tried not to inhale my peanut butter sandwich—that was one thing that I still needed to work on. Back in Alaska, I had never worried about being dainty; I had only worried about what my inner wolf wanted. But here, in front of humans, I would just look like a pig if I ate that way.

  Glancing around, I noticed for the first time how messy the house had gotten. We’d only lived in it for a few days, but somehow, piles of clutter had already added up. That was what happened when you lived with a bunch of guys, though. I knew that I would need to find a way to clean the house before the party.

  Even more importantly, I still needed to figure out a way to get Akar’s permission, or I wouldn’t be having the party here at all. If I knew him as well as I thought I did, there was no way he was going to say yes. Unless...

  I’d never been the type to keep things from my Alpha, but what if I didn’t even tell him about the party? What if I found a way to get him out of the house that day so he would never even find out about it? It seemed like a good plan, but being sneaky wasn’t one of my strongest qualities.

  “Dude, did you see those girls staring at us?” Chance’s voice drifted into the room as the front door opened.

  “Hell, yeah,” Hunter agreed. “I’m pretty sure they thought I was cute.”

  “You?” Chance snorted. “They thought I was the cute one.”

  Hunter shook his head as they bounded into the kitchen. “Nuh-uh.”

  “Guys, you do know that the two of you are identical, right?” I asked. “If they thought one of you was cute, they probably thought both of you were cute.”

  “No one asked you, Skye,” Chance replied with an eye roll as he ruffled his light brown hair and pulled the fridge door open.

  “Yeah, Skye. Nobody asked you,” Hunter said, mimicking his brother, as usual.

  I rolled my eyes, watching as Hunter stood next to his brother, trying to decide what to eat.

  Hunter and Chance hadn’t been born in Alaska like the rest of us. They’d been born in North Dakota, but their parents left the pack they’d belonged to after a disagreement with their Alpha when the twins were just babies. Their parents had moved their family to Alaska and joined the Koto, but they were later killed by their former Alpha, who apparently hadn’t given them permission to leave his pack—a cardinal rule of thumb when it came to switching packs; you always needed your Alpha’s permission.

  After Mr. and Mrs. Cameron had died, the old Alpha hadn’t wanted Chance and Hunter to be a part of his pack. I guess no one had been surprised; even though Alphas usually wanted to expand their packs, the twins wouldn’t have been useful to him until they turned sixteen and made the transition into two strong, healthy werewolves. In the meantime, they would have needed to find someone to take care of them, since they were only just babies still when their parents had died. No one would have wanted to do that—no one except for Marma Blair, that is.

  Marma was one of the elderly women in the Koto pack. She had nine children—all who had left home by the time Chance and Hunter became a part of the pack, which lead her to have empty nest syndrome—so she had welcomed the twins into her den with open arms. She’d raised them until we’d left Alaska.

  It made me sad to think that she might be lonely now that they were gone, but everyone has to leave home eventually, right?

  At that moment, Ashton breezed in through the front door. He walked across the hallway, never taking his eyes off his cell phone. So far, only he and Akar had a cell phone. As it turned out, Akar had gotten his about a year earlier—a secret he’d been keeping from the Koto pack all this time. Ashton had only gotten his phone just this past week, though, and he’d been fascinated with it ever since he’d brought it home.

  “Hey, Ashton, remember how you said I’m a really bad liar?” Chance asked.

  Ashton finally tore his eyes away from the phone, running a hand over his golden blonde hair. “Yeah, because you are,” he replied matter-of-factly. He laughed, the warmth of his smile reaching up to his light blue eyes, which looked striking against his tan skin.

  Even though Ashton didn’t have Inuit ancestors like Thane, Akar, and me, he was born and raised in Alaska. His mom had abandoned him and his dad when he was just a baby. No one had heard from her ever since.

  That was why it had been so surprising to me when Ashton had decided to come with us, l
eaving his father behind, similar to the way his mom had. I think he’d decided to come along because he was such good friends with Chance and Hunter, but…still. It made me sad to think about what Mr. Campbell was going through with both his son and his wife gone now.

  Whatever the case was, I felt sort of relieved that Ashton had decided to come with us. He was the only one who ever seemed to be able to encourage Chance and Hunter to act more mature sometimes…except for the times when the three of them acted like children together. They all seemed sort of mellow today, though; maybe school had tired them out.

  Chance shook his head. “Not as bad as you might think. I lied to this girl at school today. I told her I was from Europe, and she believed me.” He grinned proudly.

  Ashton snorted. “Do you even know which countries are in Europe?”

  Chance frowned. “Yes, yes, I do. European countries.” He snickered.

  I laughed. We’d spent so many months back home studying geography. It was no wonder why the twins had placed into a grade lower than me, even though we were the same age. They’d never actually paid attention during our lessons. They couldn’t keep still long enough to.

  “Did that girl really believe your lie?” Ashton asked with raised brows.

  Chance nodded proudly. “I’m very convincing.”

  An idea hit me at that moment. It wasn’t going to be easy to pull off having the party at our house, but maybe it would be possible…if I could get my pack members to cooperate with me on this.

  “Guys, there’s something I really need to talk to you about, but you need to keep it to yourselves,” I spoke up, knowing that now was the perfect time to bring it up, since Akar and Thane both weren’t home yet. I couldn’t talk about it in front of Akar, and as much as I trusted Thane, I didn’t want to drag him into this, either. The last thing I wanted was for him to keep secrets for me after the way I’d been treating him lately.

  All of the guys turned to look at me.

  Chance was holding a pack of hot dogs he’d pulled out of the freezer. He tore one out of the plastic with his teeth and took a bite. “What is it?” he asked, in between crunches.

  I wrinkled my nose at him; he could’ve at least cooked it. “I need you guys to distract Akar for me.”

  “Why? Oh, wait, I think I know.” Ashton grinned. “You met a guy, didn’t you?”

  My cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “Why, what did you hear?” I asked defensively.

  Ashton shrugged. “I didn’t hear anything. It’s just the only reason I could think of for why you would want us to distract Akar for you and then be all secretive over it.” He paused for a moment. “Why? Is there something I should have heard?” He looked intrigued now.

  “We want to know, too,” Hunter said, focusing all of his attention on me.

  “No, we don’t,” Chance started to argue. “Or, wait. Yes, we do,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at me suggestively. “Who is it? Well, does it really matter, yet, guys? It’s not like we know many people here yet. But we could find him, and—”

  “No!” I exclaimed, interrupting him. Well, that mellowness hadn’t lasted long—one of the twins had gotten his energy back already.

  But did I care if my pack members knew about Gage? Some of them would probably be annoying about it and tease me for a while, but then they’d move on to something else…hopefully. The only one who would really be affected by the news was Thane, and he already knew. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just…I’ve been asked to throw a party here at the house, but I don’t think Akar would be too happy with the idea. He probably wouldn’t let me have it at all. So, I was thinking that maybe I could just throw the party without him even knowing—with your help, of course.”

  Hunter narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you saying you want us to lie to Akar for you?” He sounded horrified by the idea.

  “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” Putting my hands on my hips defensively, I glared at him. “Are you going to be the one to tell him the truth?”

  He shook his head. “No, of course not. I actually think the idea is sort of brilliant. It’s exactly the sort of thing I would do in your shoes. It just surprises me that you would be the one to come up with it.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why would that surprise you?”

  Hunter shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. You’ve just always been somewhat of a—”

  “Goody two shoes,” Chance finished his sentence for him. “Uh huh. She is,” he said, nodding his agreement.

  “Well, I did come up with the idea, so which one of you is going to help me?” I questioned, staring each of them in the eye. I knew full well that if one of them agreed to help me out, the other one would, too, because they did almost everything together. But I also knew that Hunter wasn’t the best at keeping secrets, even if he tried, so I fixated my gaze on Chance. “What about you? You were just bragging about what a good liar you were a minute ago.”

  A frown touched Chance’s lips. “I could lie and distract Akar for you, but I’m not going to. There would be nothing in it for me if I did, because then how am I going to be at this party?”

  “Yeah,” Ashton agreed. “I want to come to the party, too. Plus, let’s be honest. You’re going to need all three of us to be there. It won’t be much of a party without us.”

  “That’s a very good point,” Hunter agreed with a nod.

  “But you can’t all be here,” I protested. “I need at least one of you to keep Akar occupied for a few hours. Otherwise, this party’s never going to happen. So, why don’t we draw sticks? But I’m going to be the one that goes outside to get them, because I don’t trust any of you.” Drawing sticks was simple; you chose sticks in varying lengths, and held them up so that they all appeared to be the same length. Then, whoever got the shortest stick was the winner—or, in this case, they would be the loser, since it would be the person who wouldn’t get to go to the party.

  “No. I don’t want to draw sticks,” Chance shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “These other birdbrains can fight over it, but I’m going to that party.”

  The other guys started bickering amongst themselves, just as a voice behind me said, “I’ll do it.”

  When I glanced over my shoulder, I found Thane leaning against the doorframe. “I didn’t even hear you come in,” I replied quietly.

  He grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on the kitchen bar and began to peel it. “I don’t mind distracting Akar if you need me to. I can figure out something for the two of us to do outside of the house for the night. Besides, I really don’t want to be at your lame party, anyway.” He shrugged his shoulders, darting his eyes away from mine.

  Even though I couldn’t hear Thane’s thoughts the way he could hear mine, I knew him well enough to know the reason he didn’t want to go to the party. It was because he had a feeling that Gage was going to be there, and he didn’t want to be around to witness the two of us together.

  It made me feel guilty about having feelings for Gage, but it also made me feel slightly relieved, too. If Gage was going to come to the party, like I hoped he would, the last thing I needed was for Thane to be there in the background the whole time, like a light fixture.

  “Okay,” I told him. “You can be the one who distracts Akar.”

  Chapter 6

  Later that night, we had an awkward conversation during dinner, which consisted of the guys grilling Thane about why he didn’t want to go to the party. They’d gotten so worked up in the conversation that they’d considered uninviting me—from my own party—so that Thane could be there in my place so he wouldn’t be left out. I had just gotten done explaining why that wouldn’t work and prepared myself for round two of grilling, when Akar came home.

  “How did your job hunt go?” Ashton asked as Akar grabbed a chicken breast out of the freezer and prepared it in a pan with spices.

  Akar shrugged. “I probably put in about fifty applications. Hopefully one of the places will call me back.” Turning
to the rest of us, he said, “I do have some exciting news, though. Let’s have a pack meeting. Go outside and wait for me. I just need to put this in the oven.”

  As I followed Thane, Ashton, Chance, and Hunter through the back door and into the backyard—which was fairly large, in comparison to most of the town houses in the area—I wondered what Akar’s exciting news could be.

  “I bet it’s a puppy,” Chance told us excitedly.

  “I hope not,” Hunter replied. “The last thing we need around here is another puppy to take care of.”

  “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Chance asked, pouting a little. He transformed into his wolf form in front of us and ran down the perimeter of the yard, leaving clouds of orange smoke in his wake.

  He was on his way back when Ashton called to Hunter, “You better run quick!” He cackled, waiting to see what would happen. The twins often had little spats like this.

  With his brother getting closer, Hunter looked like he wasn’t sure which way to go.

  He just stood there, rooted in place confusedly, before he ducked his head and ran out into the yard. I’m not quite sure what he was thinking. There was no way he could outrun a werewolf. We were insanely fast when we were in our wolf forms. Hunter began to make his change into wolf form just as Chance pounced, knocking him to the ground.

  The rest of us shook our heads, a bit amused and annoyed, at the same time, and made the transformation to wolf, too—a feeling that I still couldn’t quite explain. When I first started morphing, I found it sort of painful, and in a way, the transition still was painful—but now it was one of those types of pain that actually felt good, too.

  Once I had changed into my wolf form, I watched as the orange clouds of smoke swirled around my pack members while they made the transformation, too. We’re not the only ones in the werewolf world who has a designated color. Every pack has its own color, too. It helps the local packs distinguish one pack from another. That’s why each of us gets a vibrant orange cloud of smoke around us as we change into wolves and back into humans.