When Leo transformed back into his human form and walked up to the restaurant door, he heard his friends before he saw them. There was a chaotic overlap of voices coming from somewhere in the restaurant, and Theo's cackle emerged a few seconds later. When the bell above the door jingled to announce his entrance, they all turned to the door and beckoned him excitedly to the large booth they all occupied.

  Parker gave him a nod, which he returned. When he sat down in the empty space next to Theo, the red-headed boy clapped a hand on his back and gripped his shoulder. “We need your opinion about something.”

  “Who do you think is the most likely to have a child in high school?” Theo gestured his head to Mei, who rolled her eyes at him in irritation, turning back to the phone in her lap. “My bet's on Mei.”

  Leo gave a laid-back grin. “Is this seriously what you guys were talking about?”

  “Yeah, while we were bored waiting for you,” Amirah said, and Leo kicked her shoe under the table, making her glare at him angrily.

  He turned in his seat and raised his hand slightly in the air, scanning the restaurant for any unoccupied waiters. “Well, I'm here now.”

  When April saw his raised hand from behind the counter, she walked up to them, her customer-service smile falling slightly when she finally noticed the whole group.

  “Hey, guys. What’ll it be?” She asked the whole group, but her eyes lingered on Leo, giving him a questioning look. She was asking why they were there. She had told him months ago that she worked at a restaurant, but their current location was not somewhere he had imagined she would work.

  The whole restaurant was an informal splash of colour with black, diner-style booths and movie-themed posters plastered on every wall. The waiters' uniform that April and all the other waiters wore was black with red accents, and her brown braids were tucked behind a matching red cap marked with the restaurant logo.

  When Theo had begged them all to go, Leo hadn't objected because he hadn't thought anything of it. He hadn't known April would be here.

  After she wrote down all of their orders and went back to a door through the kitchen, Parker turned to him with a mischievous look.

  “What's going on with you and her anyway?” He asked, taking a sip of the Coke he had ordered before Leo had arrived.

  Leo shrugged. “I don't kiss and tell.”

  “You didn't tell us that she worked here.”

  Mei was watching April's retreating figure, a mix of emotions that Leo couldn't decipher plastered on her face.

  He shrugged. “Didn't think it was important.”

  He placed the paper crane he had crafted from the napkin onto the table. “Oversharing is Theo's job, not mine.”

  Mei said nothing, then turned to Parker, whispering to him about something before turning back to Theo, who had started speaking.

  “Okay, so for the party. Are we doing the same thing as always, or does anyone have any objections?”

  Leo had forgotten about the party. One of the biggest of the year, and it had somehow slipped his mind. He wondered if Ivan and his nerdy gang were going. He had seen Callum at a few parties before, but never Ivan or Rohan.

  He hadn't seen or spoken to Ivan ever since the storage closet. The touching had seemed to work, and Leo had been feeling fine for the last three days without the other boy. In school, they didn't even acknowledge each other anymore. They spoke less now than they ever did when they had no idea that they were mates.

  It felt weird to him that they didn't speak anymore. Like something was missing from his day, like it was incomplete. But he would never tell Ivan that. How would that go? ‘Hey, by the way, I kind of miss you telling me that you wanted to slit my throat. Remember when we used to do that?’

  When he caught the end of Parker's sentence, he realised he had missed part of the conversation.

  “—have shit to do”

  Parker turned to Mei and Theo, giving them both pointed looks of contempt. “And I'm not driving anybody, fucking sick of you two puking in my car.”

  Amirah smiled. “Remember when Theo started kissing that mannequin last time?”

  Everyone but Theo laughed, drowning out the beginning of a strong objection from the redhead.

  “I mean, you're werewolves. I don't know what level of alcohol you need to be consuming to get that drunk.” Leo said, making Theo shove his head away from him.

  “Will you guys let that go? The joke is over—actually, it was over the last 5 times you brought it up.” Theo crossed his hands over his chest.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Leo ignored him and looked at Parker. “I'll drive. I'll take my mom's car.”

  Amirah turned to him in confusion. “Are you sure? I don't drink anyway. I don't mind.”

  “Without a licence? Your mom would kill you.” He said, and she glanced to the side, considering if this was true or not, before shaking her head.

  Not if she doesn't find out. Amirah said over their mindlink, making Leo almost laugh out loud. They both knew she was way too scared of her mom to even try.

  When April brought their food, she quickly left after avoiding Leo's apologetic eyes and forcing out an overly bubbly ‘enjoy your food’.

  — — —

  Leo glanced at himself in the mirror. His hair was neater than usual from the hair gel. His usual T-shirt and jeans were swapped out for a low-buttoned dress shirt with the cuffs folded up and a nicer pair of jeans.

  He pulled out his phone and sent a text to April.

  Me: I didn't know you worked there. I'm sorry. I wouldn’t have brought them if I'd known. If u don't text me back, I'm opening a missing person's case

  Now

  She read the message immediately. A typing bubble appeared at the bottom of the screen, and it disappeared and reappeared several times before it finally stopped.

  Leo sighed. He would probably see her at the party anyway, so he could apologise then. He lifted a hand to run it through his hair but quickly stopped himself. He didn't want to ruin his hair.

  When he got downstairs, he found his parents snuggled together on the couch, a bowl of popcorn resting between them. The smell of salty, butter-covered popcorn filled the room to an overwhelming degree. The faint trace of burnt popcorn still present in the air told him that his dad had most likely made the popcorn. He could never make it without burning it.

  When they heard his footsteps, they both turned to him questioningly. “Where are you going so late?” His mom asked in Spanish, studying his very obvious going-out outfit.

  “Uh…. Mei’s.” He revealed, testing the waters to see their reactions first. “She's having a party.”

  “I don't think that's a good idea.” His father's voice was firm and gravelly. It sounded like a suggestion, but Leo knew better. His father wasn't suggesting. He was ordering.

  “You can go, mi amor.” His mom suddenly said, and his dad turned to her.

  “You know what these parties are like, Vera.”

  Leo felt like now was a good time to chime in. “I won't drink or anything, papá. I'm just there for Mei. I promise.”

  His father glanced at his mom, then back to him. “I just want you to make a good impression. Before I became Alpha, I didn't go to parties or clubs. I showed the elders that I was focused.”

  Leo stared at the floor. “I’ll probably just wait in the car anyway. I'm just going to pick some of my friends up.”

  His father nodded. “Okay. Good. Looking after people is one of the primary roles of an Alpha. I'm glad you're finally pulling your socks up.” He said, before turning back to the TV.

  Leo grabbed the keys from the large bowl they kept on the table near the door in an attempt to restrain himself from accidentally snapping, ‘Yeah, I know you've told me a thousand times,’ at his dad.

  “Grab a jacket. It's freezing outside!” His mom yelled from the couch. A true crime documentary was playing on their large TV. She had loved them since he was a child.

  “Okay,” Leo called back, speaking English now.

  When he arrived at Mei's, he was immediately overwhelmed by how… loud the house looked. There were over 200 people littered in and out of the house, with a bright array of flashy lights coming from somewhere in the house. The music was so loud that Leo would confidently bet everything he had that the music could be audible from across the street even without the acute werewolf hearing.

  When he got into the house, he poured himself a Diet Coke into a transparent plastic cup and a Dr Pepper into a second one. He walked to where Amirah and Mei were leaning against a wall, immersed in a conversation.

  Amirah’s curls were loose over her shoulders as usual, and she was wearing a black, flowy dress that reached just below her knees, with a cream-coloured cardigan and a moon-shaped necklace that Theo had gotten her for Valentine's Day in middle school. Mei was her foil, wearing a red, figure-hugging cocktail dress with black high heels and matching red lipstick that made her look like she was going to the Met Gala.

  He handed Amirah the cup, and she smiled appreciatively. Mei, who was standing next to her with a red Solo cup full of her own concoction, smirked at him. “Since when do you drink rum and Coke?”

  Leo glanced down at the rum-and-coke-hold-the-rum in his hand. “Trying something new.” He looked back up at them with a grin. “You guys look great, by the way.”

  “Thank you Leo—” Leo started, but stopped when Amirah and Mei started to join in.

  “You also look sexy, not that you never don’t look sexy.” They said simultaneously, laughing when they saw him frowning at them.

  “That's not what I was gonna say.”

  — — —

  Two hours later, they had all drifted apart. Mei was flirting with a guy from their soccer team in the kitchen, a tipsy Parker was playing beer pong with some kids that Leo didn't recognise, and after he had run through the living room without a shirt on, Theo was nowhere to be found. He had checked on Amirah a few minutes prior, and she had told him that she was watching TV in the basement with some girls from the cheerleading team.

  He had been engaged in a dangerous mix of drinking questionable soda mixes and dancing sensually with any girl who came onto him on the dance floor for the entire two hours. He could feel himself sweating through his shirt, the heat of the various bodies bleeding onto his skin, and he suddenly felt a strong urge for the cigarettes tucked into his pants pocket.

  He navigated past a couple kissing in the hallway to a door near the spiral staircase. When he tried the door, it didn't open. He turned to a guy who looked too old to be in high school to ask if there was another one, and the goateed man pointed to a door on the other side of the room.

  He pulled at the handle, and it turned. When he opened the door, he realised too late that there was already someone inside.