Page 186 of Alpha Mates

The bathroom door creaks open. Isabel re-emerges, thoroughly pissed and not afraid to show it, now wrapped in some kind of mummified getup.

“Nefertiti,” she announces with raised arms. “You are soooo lucky my make-up works with this. Let’s go.”

Sharing a secret smile, Julian and I follow her out. In the dark, we creep towards my car, keeping quiet while Isabel makes a dart for shotgun. Julian slips into the backseat without notice, and only when we’re all buckled in per Julian’s command, do I pull out of the lot and head in the opposite direction of either of the packs’ entrances.

“So, how exactly do we do this?” my anxious mess of a mate asks.

“Well, you see, the trick is knowing the patrols,” I answer with a grin. “Then you’ll know the small gaps between an area being searched, and that’s our window.”

“But someone’s always searching the entrances,” Isabel counters.

I chuckle, loving the innocence in the car. This would be fun.

Driving through the pack’s older roads, I carry on until the spot where the trees part just enough for a car to squeeze through. I cut the wheel, veer off-road without warning, and the sound Julian makes—Goddess, I’ll never let him live it down.

“You’re a psychopath!” he says through huffed breaths, clinging to his seatbelt strap. “You’re a psycho—watch out for that tree!”

I do watch out for the tree, because I’ve done this a million times. Do I almost graze it just to scare the virgins in my car? Maybe. But what kind of guy would I be if I didn’t?

Bumbling through the woods, we pass through the pack boundaries and to the other side of the woods, while the two noobs in the car scream bloody murder.

My only regret? Missing Beckett’s reaction when Emitt does this with him.

“Okay, we’re almost there,” Isabel says as we roll down an exceptionally tidy human street, nestled deep in one of their communities. She turns around in her seat to face Julian. “We have to go over some party rules.”

Terror jolts through our bond. Of course he’d panic at the prospect of only just hearing about rules he surely would’ve memorised if we’d given him some warning.

“Isn’t this your first party too?” he asks nervously.

“I’ve been to parties in the pack,” she says, making my poor mate squirm as he registers he really is the only one doing this for the first time.

“Shouldn’t he just live and learn?” I ask with a grin. I’m not against prepping him, but I’d also love to see what a drunk and unencumbered Julian looks like.

“I guess,” Isabel allows. “But this is Julian. We can’t let him go in blind.”

“Fair. Rule number one, Jewels,” I say, glancing at him in the rearview mirror, “don’t eat the food.”

His blue eyes narrow in their blackened sockets. “What’s wrong with the food?”

“Do you go to a party like this to eat? No. So why is there food? Something’s in it, or it’s stale. Leave that shit alone,” Isabel explains, and I nod along.

“Rule number two—don’t exceed your fuck-it drink if all your friends are drunk.”

“Fuck-it drink?” he asks in adorable confusion.

“That drink you know there’s no coming back from,” I explain, only to meet more blank confusion. “As in, all bets are off when you take that drink. Everything goes to shit after.”

“I don’t know mine,” he replies nervously.

“Well, we’ll find it tonight,” Isabel says with a devious chuckle. “Park here!”

I pull into a spot down the street from the house, which is already glowing with music and light. The bass is so heavy, I feel its vibration as soon as I step onto the pavement.

“Fingers crossed the police don’t show up before Julian discovers his fuck-it drink,” I say.

With an excited squeal, Isabel spins towards us. “Are you ready, kids?”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” I retort.