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Hayden steppedinto the cafeteria and immediately spotted her brother. Her sure strides ate up the distance between them, and, when she stood just out of his line of sight, she stopped. “Hey, I have something to tell you.”

Bodhi turned in his seat with a burger in hand and smiled at her. “What’s up?”

She loved her brother dearly, but the boy could pack away the food. “Another one? Don’t you feel like a cow by now?”

“I am a growing boy still.” He winked. “So, what do you have for me?” He patted the seat next to him. “Take a load off. You look beat.”

“Aren’t you a complimenting fool?” She plopped down next to him, wiped out after an early morning sorority meeting.Thanks, Bell.She shouldn't sound so bitter about it. She liked the small group of girls who called themselves sisters. The charity they'd chosen to send their winnings to—if they won the Greek Shifter Games—helped hundreds of orphaned shifters in foreign countries.

“So, what’s going on?” He took another bite of his burger then wiped his mouth with a napkin as he chewed. “Everything okay? Do you need anything?”

"Everything is fine. It's better than fine. However, I need you to keep the week of spring break open." She snatched a fry from her twin's plate and popped it in her mouth. She sighed at the salty greasiness. "Loraine and our dads are pregnant!"

Bodhi stopped mid-bite and stared at her as he placed his burger back on the plate. “Are you serious?”

She nodded.

“Whose is it?”

“Blake didn’t say. But, I am sure whether it is his or Dad’s, they’ll be happy. Can you believe it, we’ll finally have a sibling!” Sure, they had cousins, some of them still babies, but a brother or sister. Ugh, she couldn’t wait.

“Cool. I can’t wait to meet the new pup.” A hint of excitement tinged his voice when he hugged her tight. “Anything else going on?”

“No. Not really,” she hedged. “Maybe. Are you doing the whole GSG thing?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Bell had this issue with her sorority, and, lo and behold, yesterday morning she inducted me into her gang of seven, and now I’m their vice president,” she replied. “I’m going with her as a lady of the games, and I’m nervous.”

“Congrats. We should have fun. I’m taking my second as my teammate. You and Bell will be our ladies.” He grinned before digging back into his lunch. “Are you going to the mixer Friday night? Do you have a date?”

“Yes, I’m going to the mixer. I promised the girls I’d be there for them. It would also seem our little cousin has a mate. A falcon named Rocky. Some kind of biker badass. I am sure her dad is going to be thrilled.” Sarcasm laced Hayden’s words. “Plus, Bell is going with Christoph. The Alpha lion.”

“You’re deflecting.”

“No, I’m not.” She crossed her arms and stared her brother down.

“Fine,” he sighed. “You’ll be at the dance with Zoe and Bell. Anything else?”

Huzzah!“As a matter of fact,” she began, “do you happen to know any single wolves? I’d like to go on a date.”

“Oh, hell no,” her brother exclaimed. “I am not stepping into the middle of your battlefield. I happen to like my body being in one piece, thank you very much!”

“Scaredy-cat!”

“Whatever, brat,” he snapped. “I’ll see what I can do to help you out. But I’m not telling Nico. You can when you talk to him.”

"Yeah, not happening any time soon." She stood up and hugged Bodhi. "I'll see you at the mixer."

If she was going to go to the stupid mixer/dance-whatever-the-hell-it-is, she wanted to look her best. There were a few stores not far from the campus, so she decided to go shopping on her own—not something she’d ever done before.

Unfortunately, because she shared a vehicle with Bell, she couldn't take the car like she wanted to, and instead, opted to walk. The strip mall wasn't far from them and since it was a nice day, she didn't mind the time to herself. She'd kind of been that way all her life. A loner. No one prodded her about it, only, she'd noticed it got worse after finding Nico as she did. She wished some days she could go back to her first year of high school when she had lunch with all of her friends. Got to hang out with the football players. Go back to when she could laugh and feel so damn carefree she didn't have a single worry.

Truth be told, she hated being alone.

Being on the road like she'd been was a solitary experience. When she first ended up in Window Rock, she didn't even know how to socialize. She answered questions and had to be told sometimes when others were playfully teasing her. The one person she could always rely on in those awkward times was Nico.

Now, she didn’t have him.