Page 8 of Emerald Moon (Pitch Mountain Pack #2)

five

“Move your feet. You’re hogging the couch.”

Jo blinked their eyes open to find their packmate, Harry, staring down at them. Lifting their legs in the air, they gestured to the recently-vacated spot on the couch in the pack living room. “See? Plenty of room.”

“You’re just going to put your feet on top of me when I sit there.”

“Probably.”

Harry sighed, but he sat down anyway. Jo stretched out again with a laugh. “Technically, my legs are on top of you. Not my feet.”

He flicked their leg with his finger. “Technically, you’re taking up the whole couch to take a nap when it’s not even close to bedtime.”

“Who takes a nap at bedtime? The whole point of a nap is to sleep when you’re not supposed to.”

He rolled his eyes. “Still. Isn’t it early? We haven’t even eaten dinner yet.”

“Just tired today, is all.”

“Rough day at the bakery?”

“Not really. Just tired.” Jo had a bone-deep tired that they hadn’t been able to shake off since they got home from Violet Moon. Maybe they overdid it today? “I blame the weather,” they joked.

“It was sunny and perfect outside.”

“Exactly. The sun and heat robbed me of my energy.”

“Fair enough. Five minutes out in that humidity and anybody’s ready for a nap, I guess. You do you, Jo. I’m going to watch more of this murder mystery I’m into. You watching, too?”

“I’ll listen to it,” they said, closing their eyes again.

“Just don’t snore.”

“No promises.”

By the time they woke up again, Jo had no idea if they had snored or not, but they did notice that Harry was gone, the TV was off, and dinner was on the way judging by the scents of garlic and herbs wafting over from the kitchen.

They had a light blanket on top of them that wasn’t there before. Jo smiled and snuggled down into it.

“Have a good rest?”

Jo craned their neck to see Edgar in his usual armchair reading a book. His neat, salt-and-pepper hair framed his features.

“When did you get here?” Jo asked.

“About five minutes before Harry got up and put that blanket on top of you.”

“What a softie.”

“Tries to hide it, but we all know better.” Edgar winked.

“Book any good?”

Edgar signed contentedly. “It’s rivals to lovers and they’re stuck in a cabin during a snowstorm. So, yes, it’s very good.”

“A very fine flavor, indeed.”

“I know, I have excellent taste.”

“Speaking of which —“ Jo swung their legs around and planted their feet on the hardwood floor. “Care to join me for dinner? I’m hearing the sound of plates.”

Edgar slipped a bookmark in between the pages and closed his book. “Plus, Wilma and Benny are cooking tonight, so you know it’ll be good.”

They both got up and walked to the kitchen where Wil and Benny were first in line — chefs always were — followed by Harry and Diah.

Jo and Edgar were the last two to join the line.

Jo wasn’t sure who else was home. They knew Carina was out with her teaching friends, Billie and Olive were working at the bakery, Emmaline was at home with her husband, Ernest, and Lock was at a night class at the university.

They hadn’t seen either Alpha Parisa or Beta Seraphine in a while.

Hopefully the two of them were out enjoying the night together.

As they sat around the table, plates piled high with pasta, Jo longed for the nights when they all managed to get together. The smaller group was nice for conversations and elbow room, but it left something to be desired.

They kept trying to join in the conversation while they ate, but, more than once, they caught themselves drifting off and yawning.

“Who wants to go out for drinks after dinner?” Harry asked the group.

“Go out where the people are? Or stay in and make drinks?” Diah added in that tiny voice of hers. “I vote for staying in. I already put on pajama pants and you can’t change out of those once you put them on. That’s the rule.”

“I’m staying in, too. I have essays to grade,” Edgar said with a sigh.

“Then why were you reading earlier?” Jo asked, chuckling.

“Procrastination knows no age limits, especially when the book is getting good.”

“I’ll go!” Benny raised an eager hand.

“I’m staying in,” Jo said. “I’m too tired and I agree with Diah’s pajama pants rule.”

“Boring. Y’all are boring. Except for Benny,” Harry said. “Wil?”

She shook her head. “You know I hardly ever go out.”

“Can’t blame me for trying. Maybe Lock will want to meet up with us after his class.” He got out his phone and started texting.

“Boys night out, then!” Benny added, bouncing with his typical bubbly energy.

Harry glanced up from his phone and smiled. He’d only started transitioning a little over two years ago, and it clearly still made him feel good to be “one of the boys.”

“What about Edgar? He’s a boy and he’s staying at home,” Wil mentioned.

“Edgar is a grown-ass man,” Jo said, earning laughs around the table, including Edgar.

Diah smiled and clapped her hands together. “Alright, then. The boys will leave us, and we’ll have drinks at home for the girls, gays, and theys.”

“Technically, I’m bi, but for the sake of rhyming, I’ll let it slide.” Edgar laughed.

“Dishes for the dish crew, then.” Diah pointed at Jo and Harry. “And I’ll start on drinkies!”

Jo groaned. “I hate dish duty.”

Harry patted them on the back. “Gloves on. Let’s go. We’ll get it done quickly so we can be free.”

Jo yawned and curled up into a ball on their bed.

“I really shouldn’t have had all those gin and tonics.

I’m a thousand times sleepier than I was before.

” Like caffeine, alcohol didn’t have much of an effect on werewolves at normal, human quantities, but werewolf cocktails were a thing that had come about in the past few years, and they were strong.

“You can go to bed early,” Wil suggested, sitting down at the edge of her bed.

“Funny how midnight is an early bedtime around here.”

“Well, when you wake up at noon —“

They snuggled into their pillow. “I know. I love it. One of the best parts of being a werewolf.”

“That good, huh?”

“The best. It’s the schedule I always dreamed of. It’s the schedule I aimed for my whole life, but everyone thought I was lazy.” Jo made air quotes around the last word. “Turns out I was just preparing.”

“Even for a werewolf, you do get up late,” Wil commented.

“No, you just get up too early for a wolf. You can always change your schedule, you know — be more like me.”

Wil made a sour face. “Changing my schedule is the worst. I like for things to happen exactly when they should happen. There’s a little wiggle room here and there, but anything else makes me feel itchy and wrong the whole day.”

“I get it. Not like, I get it because I’m the same — because man, am I not — but I get it because I know you and that makes sense.” They yawned again. “Wake me up if I forget my meds, okay?”

Wil stood and walked towards their shared bathroom. “How will I know if you’ve taken them?”

“Good point. Guess I’ll have to be responsible.”

She motioned towards the door to the bathroom. “Do you want to shower first or can I?”

“Pass. Too dang tired tonight.” They unfurled and stretched out on their bed like a starfish.

“If you’re not too tired, it might be a great time to message Cass.”

Jo lifted their head to look at Wil. They narrowed their eyes. “Where’s this coming from?”

She shrugged. “Just saying, if you don’t want your embarrassment to stop you and you want to be friends, sooner might be better than later.”

They let their head fall back on their bed. “I’ve got time.”

“We’re wolves. We’ve all got time. But waiting isn’t always the best,” she said and closed the bathroom door behind her.

Jo stared at the ceiling. There really wasn’t a reason to wait to message Cass, but they also didn’t have anything to say. Their brain felt mushy and making a new friend was better left for a good brain. On the other hand, Wil was right.

There wouldn’t be any harm in a short text.

Had a great time! Hope you did, too!

Jo erased it.

Hope you had a good day!

Jo erased that, too.

They typed several messages that all ended with a frustrated sigh as they erased everything they had written.

Hey!!!

A hello wasn’t bad, but they did erase two of the exclamation points before hitting send and tossing the phone to the side on the bed.

The phone began vibrating. Jo looked over and their eyes widened in horror. They were receiving a phone call. From Cass. Panic set in and they stared, stuck in a freeze response as their heart rate skyrocketed.

Robotically, they reached for their phone and answered. “Hello?”

“Hello, Jo.”

“Hi.” They couldn’t force out any other words.

“Thank you for the message.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I wanted to say hello, too. I hope you’re doing well today.”

Inside, Jo was curling in on themselves from awkwardness, but Cass was being normal. They should be, too. A phone call wasn’t what they had expected, but they could roll with it, right? They’d made it through a maybe kiss and the morning after. This was nothing.

“Doing great. Yep, great. Had a decent day. Made some macarons.” They cringed at the sound of their own voice.

“Sounds good. Today I —“ Cass’ voice cracked and she cleared her throat. “I worked at the flower shop today.”

“I’ll have to stop by sometime. I never buy flowers for myself or anyone. Might be nice.”

“And I should come by the bakery. I’ve stopped in once or twice for a hand pie. I’ve never been one to have a sweet tooth.”

“I’ve got sweet teeth.”

“Hm?”

Jo grimaced. Why did they have to open their mouth to let foolish things come out? “I mean, like, I got a whole mouth of sweet teeth. Not just one sweet tooth.”

Cass took a second and then laughed.

They took a deep breath and tried to relax. This was fine. This was Cass, someone they’d just managed to spend two days with and it was great.

“The sweets others have brought home from Violet Moon have been nice,” Cass added. “I didn’t try them all, but they certainly look beautiful. And you should definitely stop by the flower shop. It’s nice to get yourself a treat, or someone else. Plus, it’d be great to see you.”

Jo’s heart rate picked up again. It was hard not to read into this after what had happened in the tent. But it was just a normal thing to say to a friend, too. Friends want to see each other.

They ignored the heat in their cheeks and said, “Yeah, definitely!”

“And I can make it a point to stop by the bakery more.”

“I’m usually in the back,” Jo offered. “You can ask for me if you do come on by.” They slowly let out a breath and willed their heart to calm all the way back down.

They didn’t want to make things weird. This was not a friend crush and it wasn’t a real crush either.

Jo just wanted to be a good friend this time.

“What do you do at the bakery?” Cass asked.

“I prep fruit and other things for the tartlets, primarily. Basically, I do a lot of chopping. It’s not that interesting.”

“From what I’ve seen, you must have great knife skills.”

Jo covered their eyes with their hand and squeezed their eyes shut. “Aw, thanks.”

“And it sounds like satisfying work.”

They pulled their hand away and looked up at the ceiling. Letting out another breath slowly, they said, “You know what? It is. It’s nice to be able to see the literal fruits of my labor.”

Cass laughed again.

The sound made Jo unclench their jaw. They reached for their wireless headphones and switched the call to them. Flopping back down on their bed and getting comfortable, they asked, “What did you do at the flower shop today?”

“What I usually do — I ran the register and helped keep the place tidy.”

“Sounds like satisfying work.” Jo grinned.

Back and forth, they shared about their days and, little by little, the calm that Jo felt around Cass returned.

Soon they were talking about books they’d read recently.

Jo thought about the stack of manga next to their bed and knew they were treading on dangerous territory.

They could pretend to be regular or they could dive in and let Cass know everything.

“I actually read a lot of fanfiction,” they said, wading into unknown waters with Cass.

“Oh, like Krista?”

Of course — Krista and Cass were friends. She’d know about some of this stuff, at least on a surface level. “Yep. We actually share a lot of the same stuff with each other.”

“Always nice to have someone to talk to about what you’re reading.”

“Exactly! And, like, books are great and all, don’t get me wrong — got plenty of those — but there’s something about reading about my OTP falling in love over and over again that makes everything feel right with the world.”

“OTP?”

“Your one true pairing. It’s, like, the ship you didn’t choose, but they chose you. They wormed their way into your brain and now you can’t stop thinking about the ship.”

“Ship?”

“Like relationship. They’re my favorite, essentially.

Except, it’s not like a normal favorite.

It’s a brain-consuming, comfort-bringing kind of favorite.

And don’t even get me started on tropes.

I’m a sucker for reading my OTP in my faves.

Give me only one bed. Give me rivals to lovers.

Give me ‘oh my god, they were roommates.’ Give me fake dating. ”

Cass was quiet on the other end.

Jo panicked, worried that they’d dumped too much of themselves too soon. “It’s like plot lines you can read a million times and never be sick of them.”

“Do you like these things in real life, too?”

Jo was startled by the question. They’d never thought about that. “I don’t know. In real life, they don’t seem to happen. I don’t have rivals to fall in love with. I don’t have plans to get stuck in a cabin in a snowstorm with someone.”

Their mind traveled back to the tent, where Cass was close and leaning in closer. Forced proximity! Only one bed, kind of, because there was only one tent! It had to have been an attempt at a kiss, right?

But those things didn’t happen in real life, especially not to someone like Jo. They forced out a laugh. “I mean, romantic tropes don’t just happen everyday. Real life is different.”

“Do you wish they’d happen in real life, though?”

There was something in her tone that Jo could pick up on, but couldn’t quite read. “Do I wish I could have an adorable meet cute and, through a series of wacky events, fall in love? Yes, absolutely.” Cass was quiet on the other end. “How about you?”

“I don’t know what all those terms mean in books, but if falling in love is on the table, then yes, I’d like that, too.”

Cass’ words worked their way into Jo’s brain and settled there. Silence gripped them for several moments before Jo laughed. “Well, then do I have some great book recs for you whenever you’re ready! Got to find out what tropes you’re into!”