Page 7 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Wednesday

Zoey

“A little to the left,” I called over my shoulder.

Emma pushed the placemat to the left.

“I meant the fork.”

“Zoey, you’ve made me adjust the place settings five times. They’re fine.”

“I just want to make a good first impression.” I walked out of the kitchen carrying the wine glasses.

“You’ve already made a first impression with Otto. And another today when you ran into him full force.” Emma tried to hide her smile.

“I’m still scarred.” I pointed to my chest. I was wearing a very tight black dress with a deep V. Just because I had a few red splotches didn’t mean I should hide the girls. They were my best asset.

“You’re fine.”

I ignored her and put the glasses on the table. And then I proceeded to adjust the place settings the way I wanted them.

Emma grabbed my hand to stop me. “Take a deep breath. Otto already likes you. I could practically feel the spark in the air this afternoon.”

“I know, right?”

“Wait…if you know that, why are you freaking out right now? ”

I laughed. “I’m not freaking out.” I tried to subtly push one of the knives into perfect alignment with the spoon.

Emma raised her eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know how to get a hot guy in my bed. I’ve got this covered.”

“Zoey, you have this nervous energy practically oozing out of you. Just take a deep breath, okay?”

“I’m not nervous about Otto.” Well, maybe a little nervous. I was great at one night stands. But I knew I had to approach a relationship a little differently. I wasn’t quite sure how. I’d figure that out though. That wasn’t what I was worried about.

“So…”

“I just want Callum to like me.” So he won’t suck my blood.

Emma smiled. “You’re more nervous to impress my boyfriend than you are your future boyfriend?”

“I really want Callum and I to be friends too, you know? And your last boyfriend hated me.”

“Which was fine. I hated him too.” She smiled.

“Exactly. It wasn’t high stakes. This is high stakes. You and Callum are going to be together forever.”

Emma pressed her lips together.

“And that means if he doesn’t like me…”

“He already does like you. You’ve already made a good first impression on Callum too.”

“Have I, though? Because I tried to force-feed him garlic that one time. And there was that other time when I kept trying to get you to strip-search Bennett. Callum really didn’t like that plan.

I also plotted Callum’s murder with Bennett last night when you ran off without explaining anything.

And he doesn’t even know about the fact that I thought he snuck in here last night to murder me and that I’d planned to throw garlic powder in his face to kill him first. In my defense, if he was here that meant he’d probably killed you.

So I was just getting justice.” I also had more garlic powder hidden all over the house, but it didn’t seem like a great time to confess that.

“Wow. Okay. That’s a lot of things.” Emma laughed.

“It’s not funny.”

“Callum likes you. I promise. Just…don’t do any of that again. And maybe don’t talk about the few times you wanted to kill him.”

“I can do that.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, good. Tonight is going to go great then.”

The doorbell rang.

“But…” Emma said.

“But what?”

“I definitely did not tell Callum that Otto would be here tonight. Because if I had he wouldn’t have come.”

“Emma!”

“I told you a million times that he wouldn’t come if he knew Otto was coming too. It was the only way this double date was happening.”

I sighed. “Well now you can add luring him here under false pretenses to the list of reasons he hates me.”

Emma laughed. “That’s so much less bad than plotting his murder.”

“Shh! Shush. Isn’t his hearing really good? That’s a vampire thing, right? He can probably hear us right now.”

“I honestly haven’t asked him that yet. ”

“Then what the hell did you two talk about for hours last night?” She’d never caught me up on their conversation.

“Just…stuff.”

Why was she being so vague right now? I walked over to the door and opened it.

Callum was standing there with a bottle of wine and a smile that screamed he’d just heard all of that.

“Hey, buddy!” I punched his arm. Why am I punching him? “What’s up?” I felt weird about the punch, so I went for a hug instead. His body was so cold. I forced myself not to shiver.

“Hey, Zoey.” He awkwardly patted my back. “Thanks for having me for dinner.”

I pulled back. “Well, I’m not really having you for dinner. Because you already drank your dinner, am I right?” I punched him again. Fuck me.

He laughed. “I brought wine.”

“Thank you. Do you drink wine?” I grabbed the bottle from him so I wouldn’t do anything else weird with my hands.

“I can.”

That meant he didn’t like to though. “I put ground beef in my lasagna. But I had to cook it first. Oh! I drained off the fat. Would you like to drink that real quick?”

“Um…no. I don’t usually guzzle liquified fat for dinner.”

“Right. Emma.” I spun around. “Callum’s here!”

“I can see that.” She laughed. “Sorry about whatever that was, Callum. She’s nervous because she wants to be friends with you.”

Emma! I’m going to kill you !

She walked over to him and Callum wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“We’re good, Zoey,” he said. “I know you were just looking out for Emma. And I’m pretty sure I have you to thank for us meeting in the first place. Emma told me that you convinced her to go to that party ten years ago.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course he already liked me.

I was the whole reason the two of them had ever met.

He wasn’t going to kill the person that was responsible for him meeting Emma.

“That was me. I practically had to drag her out of our apartment. And I let her borrow some of my clothes for a proper seduction. You are so welcome.”

He smiled. “And we only bumped into each other in Crooked Point because she was visiting you. I really owe you one. You know what? I am starving. Where is that beef fat?”

“It’s right in the kitchen…”

He laughed. “I’m joking. Seriously, why would you think I wanted that? Fat is nothing like blood.”

Yeah, I had no idea what I’d been thinking.

I didn’t know anything about vampires because all my clients had failed me.

Well, that wasn’t true. I did know one thing.

That they lusted for blood. I stared back and forth between Emma and Callum.

I knew I needed to be okay with this. But Emma had a bruise on the side of her neck.

And I didn’t really know what the hell the two of them did when they were alone. Because she wasn’t opening up to me.

Emma seemed to notice me staring because she lifted her hand and put it on the side of her neck .

“How about some wine then?” I said. “Let’s do that.” I turned around to head back into the kitchen for the wine opener when the doorbell rang again.

“Are you expecting someone else?” Callum asked. He dropped his arm from around Emma’s shoulders and turned toward the door.

“I can get that…” my voice died away when Callum opened the door.

The big smile on Otto’s face immediately fell when he saw Callum at the door instead of me.

Everyone was so quiet that I swear you could have heard a pin drop.

“What are you doing here?” Callum asked in a way that was anything but polite.

You can’t answer a door that way! You’d think vampires had manners after being alive for so long.

“What are you doing here?” Otto asked.

I hurried over. “Hey, Otto! You made it! And you brought wine too? Fantastic.” We needed all the wine we could get tonight.

“I thought it was just going to be the two of us,” Otto said.

“And I thought it was just going to be the three of us,” Callum said.

Otto stared at me. “Three?”

Emma cleared her throat. “Hey, Otto.” She stepped into view and waved at him.

Otto smiled.

And Callum frowned.

I took Callum’s momentary distraction to grab Otto’s hand and pull him inside. I closed the door before Callum had a chance to shove Otto right back out. “ Let’s all retire into the dining room for pre-dinner drinks.” I desperately needed some alcohol.

“Emma, you said it was just going to be the three of us,” Callum said.

“I did say that. But…”

“It’s my fault,” I said. I didn’t want him to be mad at Emma.

This was all my doing. And she had told me repeatedly that this was a bad idea.

I was beginning to think she was right. “It was a spur of the moment dinner party,” I said.

“I forgot to tell Emma that Otto was coming. And I forgot to tell Otto that Emma and Callum would be joining us to. I’m so sorry.

But now that we’re all here…let’s get to it.

I made enough food for a whole army.” Even though I only needed enough for three. Since Callum wasn’t eating.

No one moved toward the dining room.

And for some reason, even though this was the worst start to a dinner party ever, I felt so calm.

I looked down. I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding Otto’s hand this whole time.

Our fingers were intertwined, and he was standing a little in front of me.

Like he was ready to protect me from Callum’s vampirish ways.

I didn’t think a guy had ever done that for me before.

Protected me. Unless I counted Grudge turning all the lights off in my house last night for some reason. I did not.

“I really am sorry,” I said up to him. “Can we please just all sit down and eat? I promise it’ll be fun.”

Otto sighed. “Yeah, I’m sure we can all have a civil meal.”

What a terrible way to describe a dinner party.

“A civil meal?” Callum asked. “How exactly do you figure? You and your band of merry men were planning on killing me last night. ”

Shit, he knew about that? I really needed a side bar with Emma right now to know what Callum did and didn’t know. Like…did he know I was involved in that plan?

Otto laughed.

“We both know it would have been you who died if you tried to touch me,” Callum said.

“Callum,” Emma hissed.

“Oh really?” Otto said. “You wanna bet?”

Callum shook his head. “It’s not really a bet if you’re 100% sure of the odds.”

I stepped in front of Otto and put my hand on his chest. What was Otto doing?

Was he trying to get himself killed? He knew that Callum was a vampire.

“Stop it. Both of you. We’re all adults.

And we’re going to sit down and eat my lasagna.

” Which I now realized I’d forgotten to leave the garlic out of. I sighed.

“I mean…I’m an adult,” Callum said. “I’m not sure someone with Otto’s control level could really be described that way.”

“What the fuck, man?”

Oh my God. And I’d been worried about making a good impression on both of them. “Callum, Otto, seriously? This is ridiculous. Why do you guys hate each other so much?”

Neither one of them responded. They were just glaring at each other.

I pulled Otto into the dining room, not caring that neither Emma nor Callum were following us.

“Can you please just play nice with him?” I whispered.

“Zoey, he’s a murderous, blood-sucking vampire. ”

I tried not to visibly shudder. I really needed to get used to talking about this.

“But he’s also dating my best friend. Emma’s the closest thing I have to family.

So if she’s dating him, I’m going to be friends with him too.

And if we’re dating, you need to get along with him too.

” I realized at the last second that I’d said way too much. I sounded like a total psycho.

Otto smiled down at me. “So we’re dating now, huh?”

“No.” Kill me now. “I misspoke. I just meant that this was a date. A double date actually. Super casual.”

His smile grew.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You did with your eyes.”

He laughed. “I mean, it’s not the first time a girl has fallen head over heels in love with me after only speaking to me a few times.”

“I’m not in love with you, you pompous ass.” For some reason I couldn’t stop smiling.

“Then why are we dating?”

“You’re ridiculous. I told you I misspoke. I need some wine. Do you want some wine? Let’s go do that.” I stepped around him and went into the kitchen. God, what was wrong with me? I removed the cork, poured myself a glass, and then downed half of it.

“Full disclosure, I can’t date you, Zoey.”

I nearly choked on my sip. I turned around and Otto was leaning against the kitchen island staring at me. I’d forgotten that I told him to come with me. I expected for his eyes to still be dancing with humor. But he looked completely serious now .

I put my glass down. “Good. Because I misspoke. Get it through your thick skull.”

He smiled. “Okay. Just so we’re on the same page.”

“Definitely.” I knew I said definitely. But I was actually completely and utterly confused. Why couldn’t he date me?

His eyes wandered to my cleavage. And I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew why he didn’t want to date me. I wasn’t the kind of girl you brought home to your mom. I was the kind of girl you threw dollar bills at. Even when some days I wished I wasn’t.

He cleared his throat. “Come on, I want to try this lasagna that you made. I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise.”

I wasn’t sure if he meant he’d behave around Callum or behave around me.

Probably both. And I really wished he’d only behave around Callum.

How had I read this situation so wrong? I really was off my game.

I’d felt something when we bumped into each other earlier.

But maybe I just misread the scalding hot soup on my skin as a spark.

Screw tonight. I downed the rest of my wine, ignoring Otto’s gaze on me.

I’d get through this dinner and then King would make me feel better.

Maybe King would also tell me how I could protect myself from a vampire, since Otto clearly didn’t want to help me with that.

I grabbed the bottle and my glass and walked past Otto.

But he caught my arm, stopping me.

All the breath left my lungs as he stepped forward, pinning me against the wall.