Page 55

That’s why I don’t think twice about agreeing when Skyler interrupts my homework time to play a prank on Jaxon while he’s gone. This is just what I need to take my mind off of these crazy times.
Skyler smiles and drags me up the stairs and into his room. “I’ve been planning this prank for a while, and I need you to help me pull it off.” I sit down on his big, comfy bed while he looks through his drawers and gets out his “holy binder,” which is what he calls his prank book.
He turns the pages until he finds one near the back that he likes. I can’t help but smile when he points to a picture and the words he wrote underneath it. The picture is from the internet, but the idea is great. The picture looks like a bedroom, but every inch of the walls, ceilings, and floors is covered in a person’s face, probably the person being pranked.
“How… How would we even do this?” I ask Skyler, who just slams the binder shut and puts it back in the bottom of his drawer.
“Easy. I already printed the pictures. One second.” He goes into his big walk-in closet and comes out with two big stacks of papers. He gives me one, and I almost drop the stack because it’s so heavy. “I have more, hold on.”
He goes back into the closet to get more, and that’s when I finally see the pictures for the first time. I can’t stop laughing. There are hundreds of papers, and each one has a big picture of Jaxon shoving a piece of cake in his mouth. Not just a bite, but a whole piece of cake. Only with his hands! The claims that it is a fraud academics
Skyler comes back with more pictures and a twinkle in his eye. I think this prank would be funny, but I’m not sure if I can put my friend through this kind of pain.
“Skyler, I don’t know if I can do this…” I drop the stack, and it makes a thud as it hits the wood floors.
“Don’t you dare back out now! Listen to the plan; this will be so funny. You’re the only one who can get into Jaxon’s office. I’ve wanted to mess with his office for a while, but it’s always locked. All we have to do is go in there and tape all of these pictures to the walls and then lock up like we were never there. His reaction will be priceless!”
The more he talks about the plan, the bigger my smile gets. I feel bad about the mess we’ll make, but I need this to help me relax. Very badly. Jaxon might get really angry, but I’ll always remember how he acted. My head is nodding before my brain has a chance to catch up with what’s going on.
“Yes! Okay, I think we’ll have to go up to the third floor twice. Do you have the keys?”
I shake my head and say that they are still in my backpack downstairs. After I get them, I go back up the stairs and walk back to Skyler’s room. I can’t help but feel guilty and excited at the same time, and I can’t stop the evil grin on my face. That’s the face Felix and Elise see when they magically show up in front of me.
Okay, so they didn’t “magically” show up; they didn’t come through a portal or anything. But they seemed to come out of nowhere in the hallway, which made me bump into Felix’s chest. I trip back, and my smile fades as I raise my eyebrows in shock.
I awkwardly laugh and look down at the ground. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.” I’m not looking at Elise because I’m playing with the keys. I get along with Felix, but his sister is a different story. At first, we got along at the club and the Cafe, but now that I know her friendship was just a way to hurt me, I’m not sure where we stand. Felix has made up for it, but she hasn’t. It’s a good thing that she helped me with the threat; I’ll always remember that.
“Everything’s fine. So… what did you do?” Felix grins at me, and his brown eyes look deep into my soul. I feel like I’ve been caught red-handed, even though I haven’t done anything wrong. Yet.
“What? I didn’t do anything!” I say in a high-pitched voice as word vomit pours out of me. I know I sound very guilty.
“Mhhm.”
“I don’t believe you for a second,” Elise says. “Just tell us what you did and we can help. I’m so bored stuck in this house with little guard dogs following us around all the time. I feel like I can’t even go to the bathroom without one of those fuckers asking what kind of magic I’m using.”
She nods and looks at the three guards who are following them. I can understand how she feels because I’ve had pack guards follow me around before. But those were the rules for them to stay in the pack house. They need to respect Jaxon’s choice because he just wants to keep his pack safe.
“I’m not kidding. I haven’t done anything…”
“Yet,” Felix says at the end. He rolls his eyes and touches my shoulder. “You are the worst liar in the world.”
I start to speak up for myself, but Felix is quickly pulled back into the big body of a pack guard before I can say anything. Two guards step in between me and the twins, and Felix is carelessly thrown to the side.
“Don’t touch the Luna.” It’s a simple order, and I know they’re just following it, but this kind of behavior is not okay. If you treat the twins like this every time they talk to me, how can they feel at ease here?
“It’s okay. He didn’t do anything wrong. We were just talking!” I push the guards out of the way, but they try to grab me to “protect” me from the “threat.”
“Let. Go.” The command in my voice is deep-seated, something I’ve never let go of before. As I reach for Felix, the guards let me go right away and get out of my way. Other than the mean look he’s giving the wolves, he seems fine. Elise also acts angry in a similar way.
I check on Felix to make sure he’s okay before turning to the guards.
“I know that your job is to keep me safe, but hurting people who are under this pack’s protection is not okay. You can only fight if one of them is hurting someone or doing something they shouldn’t be doing. They can touch me in a friendly way. They’re my friends, and I won’t let you treat them like second-class citizens when they’re risking their coven and more for me, your Luna.”
The guards look down and nod. They act like little kids who just got in trouble with their moms. It feels very strange that big men would act like this just because I yelled at them. I don’t show it, but I’m smiling on the inside.
Slow clapping makes me stop thinking. I look at Skyler, who is shaking his head and grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s about time the Luna got here.”
******
We finally put the last embarrassing picture of Jaxon on the wall of his office. Every inch of the walls, floors, and ceilings is covered in the awful picture of Jaxon, making the room look crazy and stupid. Felix and Elise also decided to help, even though the pack guards didn’t want them to. They did smile a little when they saw what we were doing, though. They were nice enough to agree not to say anything. As we finished the prank, they waited outside the office.
Skyler was so proud of himself that he kept rubbing his hands together like a bad guy who had just found out how to take over the world. It was a lot of fun.
We used way too much tape, and we had to have a pack guard get five more rolls of tape so we could finish before Jaxon got home. Jaxon said he would be home around 5:00, and I just checked my phone and saw that it was 4:42. Jaxon would drive me home after dinner with the pack, but he wouldn’t want to. We’ve been doing this for a while now.
He has stayed the night a few times without my mom knowing, but most of the time he just has guards near my house ready to tell him if anything happens. I think it makes him feel better that he’s not with me. It makes me feel good to know how much Jaxon cares about me. How deeply I care about him… I can’t even put it into words. He means the world to me. It’s crazy that just thinking about him makes me feel butterflies.
Skyler says, “Uh-oh.” His eyes get bigger as he turns around quickly. I turn around and see that Ezra is standing outside the office with his arms crossed, which is why he’s freaking out.
He has obviously showered after his training session because his blonde hair is so wet that it looks almost brown, and he’s wearing comfortable clothes. He still looks pretty scary, especially when he looks at Skyler.
“I told you not to touch his office. Skyler, what am I going to do with you?” he mumbles as he walks into the office and stands over Skyler. Then he looks at me, and I can feel my heart racing in fear. I know Ezra would never hurt me, but the way he’s looking at me makes me think of the way he looks at someone before he rips their heart out. I’m pretty sure he’s done that before.
“Why did you let him do this to you? He wasn’t given a key to the office for a reason.”
I mumble, “Sorry.”
“Come on! This is so funny. You can’t say you’re not amused,” Elise says with a laugh.
Ezra’s lip curves up a little, but he doesn’t say anything.
Felix smirks and says, “The fucker deserves it.” “This plan is making him anxious. He needs to relax.”
Ezra starts to defend his Alpha when a low growl fills the room. He got home early! Jaxon quickly looks around the room, taking in the mess that used to be his office. Hundreds of times, the horrible picture of him shoving a whole piece of cake into his mouth is shown. I thought I would see what happened after he got mad, but now that I’ve seen him find out about the prank, I’m starting to wish I hadn’t done it. I still think it’s hilarious- don’t get me wrong- but now that we were caught red-handed…
“SKYLER!” Jaxon runs over to him and looks like he wants to fight him. Ezra is lucky enough to step in front of him and put a hand on his chest.
“Calm down. It’s just a prank.”
“He’s lucky I don’t keep any important papers lying around and everything is encrypted on my computer!” Jaxon’s shoulders and back are tense with rage. I slowly, ever so slowly, begin to back up.  My hope is that Jaxon is so wrapped up in screaming at Skyler that he doesn’t notice me sneaking away.  Then, he’ll have calmed down enough to talk to me.  Jaxon’s booming voice fills the office before I even take two steps.
“Don’t take another step.” His voice is calm, but his body language says otherwise. His dilated eyes stare into mine, and I feel almost hypnotized.  The way he’s standing, with his shoulders back and towering over most people in the room, and his deep voice make him look hot. I know I shouldn’t be thinking that right now, but it’s all I can think about.
Skyler says, “This wasn’t all my fault!” He points a finger in the direction of me and the twins.  “They helped me hang up all the pictures, and Calla gave me the key!”