4 The Mice Will Play

4: The Mice Will Play

Thoreau Jones

Archer, Wayne, and I sat at the dinner table. Although I was super hungry, I tried to be patient as I waited for the rest of the family to join us. Dad and Mom were finishing up in the kitchen, but the little boys were already seated across from us.

At first, I didn"t know why everyone called the little boys heathens. Their names were William and Winnie, not Heathen and Heathen. If they both had the same name, how would anyone know which Heathen was which?

Then Spring "splained what heathens meant and why the little boys were called that, and it made more sense.

Their names were still William and Winnie, though, and that"s what I called them.

"WAYNE! ARCHER!" we heard Wade suddenly bellow from somewhere above us.

We looked at each other and giggled as he stomped down the stairs, then laughed harder as he raced into the dining room with only a towel around his waist. Winnie and William burst out laughing, too, when they saw that his wet hair was hot pink.

So was most of his skin, which I had not "spected.

It worked! I linked my besties in amazement.

"Course it did, Wayne linked back. We know what we"re doing.

We dyed Wyatt a couple of years ago, Archer added.

Seconds later, William and Winnie both fell out of their chairs to roll on the floor, and I stood up to make sure they didn"t get hurt since they were screaming.

"They"re fine," Wayne chuckled as he grabbed my shirt and pulled me back down on my chair. "They are just laughing."

"What happened?" Mom Evie asked as she hustled into the dining room. Her eyes went right to Wade and her lips twitched a bit before she turned to me and my besties. "Did you three do this?"

I nodded with a big grin, and both Archer and Wayne groaned and covered their faces with their hands.

"But we did." I tilted my head with a frown. "We put dye in—"

Archer put his hand over my mouth before I could say anymore, and Mom Evie started to cough.

"No, Reau!" Wesley giggled as he walked past me to get to his chair. "You"re supposed to deny it!"

"Oh!" I nodded fiercely, then looked up at Mom Evie with wide eyes. "I deny it!"

That made everyone laugh, including Wade and Spring, although I didn"t know why.

"It"s not like we didn"t know the responsible party," Dad Nathan rumbled as he set a giant pan of lasagna down in the middle of the table. "Wesley never pranks anyone, and the heathens are too little to do anything that complicated."

"For now," Wayne grinned. "They"ll learn fast enough."

"Don"t encourage them to be bad!" Dad Nathan snapped as his eyebrows smushed together. "You"ve done enough of that with Reau!"

At his words, my body stiffened and my heart thudded hard in my chest. When Spring growled from his spot at my feet under the table, Dad Nathan"s eyes flew to mine and his face relaxed in an instant, but I wasn"t fooled. I knew he was mad. Twisting my fingers together in my lap, I stared at them and tried to hide how I was shaking.

"Sorry, Wade," I whispered, hunching my shoulders to be smaller in case he started to hit. "Sorry for being a bad boy, Dad Nathan. I will spend the night in a cage."

I hadn"t seen a cage here yet, but maybe they kept it in the basement. I shuddered at the thought of being locked in the basement. A cage I could tolerate, but not the dark.

I was scared of the dark.

A little whimper slipped out at the thought, which made me shake harder. I was in for it now! Mommy Daddy always doubled the punishment if I made a sound.

When two arms wrapped around my neck, I closed my eyes and waited for them to tighten and choke me. It was what I deserved, after all.

"No, Reau, I"m sorry. I"m not mad at you, okay?" Wade moved his hands on my face and tilted my head up so I could see him grinning down at me. "Besides, I totally rock pink hair, don"t you think?"

"Yes, you do! You look super cute!" Sniffling a bit, I asked, "You"re not mad?"

"No, I"m not mad at you." He cut his eyes to Wayne, and I wondered if he was mad at him.

Before I could ask, Mom Evie told Wade to go get dressed and Dad Nathan took his place. Crouching down next to me, Dad Nathan raised his tattoo-covered hands, and I closed my eyes again, bracing for a smack.

"Reau, can I hug you?" he asked in a soft voice.

Cracking one eye open, I looked at him and saw tears in his green eyes.

"Why are you sad?" I asked, tilting my head to one side.

"I scared you, and I didn"t mean to do that."

"Don"t be sad." I went into his open arms and snuggled against his chest.

No one"s hugs were as good as Mama Bubba"s, but I had to admit that Dad Nathan"s were pretty good.

"Reau, I want you to listen carefully," he said as he rubbed his hands up and down my back. "You have no reason to be scared at our house. No one here will ever hurt you. This is a safe place for you. There are no cages here. There never have been and there never will be. You will never be put in a cage again. I won"t allow it."

I nodded against his shoulder to show I understood and listened to his slow, steady heartbeat until I stopped shaking. When I did, he leaned back and stared at me, and I looked at his chin. It made me feel weird to hold someone"s gaze, so I didn"t do it too often. Finally, he stood up, patted my head, and went to his seat at the head of the table.

Then Archer and Wayne squished me between them, and I giggled as they smooshed their cheeks against mine, making my lips pop out. I probably looked like a fish!

"You boys are on dish duty tonight," Dad Nathan said, "and apologize to your brother."

"Sorry, Wade," my besties said together.

"Sorry, Wade," I echoed.

"You know what they say about revenge, right?" Wade smirked as his eyes darted from Archer to Wayne as they sat up and away from me.

"No, I don"t." I shook my head. "What do they say? And who"s they?"

"Don"t worry about it." Wayne picked up my plate and passed it to Mom Evie, who put a slab of lasagna on it. "He won"t bother you."

"Okay." I shrugged, not too concerned about it.

Even if Wade did "bother" me, whatever that meant, I doubted he"d come up with anything as horrible as being locked in a cage in the dark for the night.

#

Wayne Black

I woke up with a start.

Something was wrong.

Sitting up quickly, I looked around my bedroom. Didn"t see or smell anything unusual. Ocean was still asleep, and I knew my wolf would have woken up if there was danger nearby.

Beta wolves had a sixth sense for it.

Plus, Archer and his wolf, Firth, were still snoring on the other side of the bed, so I flopped back down with a sigh. I"d probably heard the creak of the floorboard as Wesley or Wade got up for a drink or maybe one of the heathens had called for Mom or Dad.

Rolling over, I reached out to pull Thoreau"s body back into the curve of mine - and found only pillows and sheets. Instantly, I knew why I"d jerked awake. He"d gotten up and left the bedroom and had been gone long enough for my sleeping brain to notice.

Throwing the sheet off, I leapt out of bed and saw that Spring was gone, too. At least, his bed at the foot of mine was empty.

"Arch!" I hissed. "Arch, wake up!"

"Wha?" he groaned groggily and half-opened his eyes.

"Reau"s wandering around somewhere."

"Prolly hadda pee." His eyes closed again.

"I don"t think so. He"s been gone a while," I argued and hustled to the door. "Spring went with him, but I"m going to check on him."

" "kay. "S good."

I rolled my eyes, but wasn"t really surprised. Archer"s brain was sharp as concertina wire when he was awake. When he was tired, though, it turned into a mushy mushroom.

Spring, are you with Reau? I linked him.

Yes. We"re outside in the backyard.

Is he okay? My heartbeat picked up as I hurried down the hall and took the stairs two at a time. Did he have another nightmare? Is he panicking?

No, not a nightmare.

Okay. That"s good.

I hated when our baby had nightmares.

The first time we heard him screaming for "Mommy Daddy" to stop, both mine and Archer"s hearts broke into a thousand pieces. I had to get Mom because neither of us knew what to do to help him. We watched as she held him and rocked him and hummed until he went back to sleep. Since then, we took care of him ourselves following her model.

Only once did we have to link Beta Emerson to come over. Thoreau had woken up from a nightmare straight into a panic attack, then couldn"t stop hyperventilating no matter what any of us, including Mom and Dad, did to help him.

That night, Archer and I had looked at each other as the beta comforted our baby and vowed we"d kill the alpha and luna of Gray Shadows one day.

Unfortunately, Mase beat us to it, a fact that still galled us.

He"s upset, though, Spring told me as I opened the back door.

What"s he upset about? I asked, looking around to see where they were.

I don"t quite understand. Something about that prank you pulled on Wade tonight. He"s in the hammock, by the way.

I smirked as I sprinted over there. No way was Wade going to be able to get all the pink dye out of his hair before school started in a couple of weeks.

As I got closer, I saw Spring in an alert pose under the hammock and nodded at him before I checked on Thoreau. Thankfully, our baby had thought to grab a blanket when he came out. Even though it was August, the air got chilly on a clear night like this, and he was still recovering. He needed to put on about twenty more pounds and have a few more vaccinations he"d missed as a pup, and I was concerned about his immune system.

Without a wolf, he was as fragile as a human, and it drove me crazy with worry sometimes.

Luna can heal him if he gets sick, Ocean reminded me, which helped me calm down.

When I looked at Thoreau"s face, I saw he was staring up at the moon, the silvery light turning the tear streaks on his cheeks into glimmering streams. He had his thumb in his mouth, a habit Archer detested because of the germ factor, but I knew it was a comfort for him and left him alone about it.

Like Ocean just said, if he ever got sick, luna could heal him.

"What"s wrong, baby?" I whispered as I cupped his face in my hands.

With a quiet sob, he wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me down on top of him. It took a little wiggling, but I managed to get under the blanket with him as he held me tight. Then I wrapped my arms around him as he cried into my neck, blinking back my own tears.

I hated to see him upset like this.

"Thoreau, why are you crying?"

"If Dad Nathan tells Mama Bubba I was being bad, he might get mad at me," he sobbed around his thumb. "If Mama gets mad at me, he"ll send me back to Mommy Daddy. I don"t want to go back there. I want to stay here. I like it here."

Has this been preying on his mind all these weeks? That he has to be good or he"ll get sent back?

"No one is sending you anywhere," I told him, my tone fierce. "Not ever. You are never leaving this pack, okay?"

"You don"t know that," he whispered.

"I do know that. Arch and I would never allow that to happen. Neither would Luna Posy."

"She wouldn"t?"

"No, she wouldn"t. I promise you, no one is ever, ever taking you away from me and Arch. We"d run away with you first."

"But Dad Nathan got mad at us for pranking Wade."

"Yeah, he did, and he punished us for it. That"s it. Over and done."

"We got punished?"

"Yeah, we got punished." I laughed and kissed his forehead. "We had to do all the dishes, remember?"

"That was punishment? But it was fun! And it helped Mom Evie."

I smiled. He thought anything we did together was fun, and he got a lot of pleasure out of helping others, so of course that didn"t seem like a punishment to him.

"It was still a punishment." I shrugged.

"No hits?"

"No hits."

"No whipping?"

"No, baby." I had to stop and swallow the tears in my throat. "No whipping. Not ever."

"Dad Nathan said no cage, but what about being locked in the dark? I don"t like the dark."

"I know you don"t, and no, no being locked in the dark. We got you those nightlights, remember? One for my room and one for Arch"s room. No more sleeping in the dark."

"What about no food for three days?"

"No one will ever stop you from eating," I said in a shaky voice. "Listen, all those punishments Mommy Daddy gave you were wrong. Arch and Spring already told you that, remember? In fact, Mommy Daddy were so wrong, the king punished them for doing those things to you."

"He did?"

"Yep. He sent Mase to punish them." I was treading on thin ice. None of the adults wanted Thoreau to know what Mase did to the alpha and luna of Gray Shadows.

Don"t tell him, Ocean warned me. Mom and Dad will be mad, and who knows what Beta Emerson will do?

I know, Osh, but he fears getting sent back there so much, I want to tell him so he won"t have that threat constantly lurking in the back of his mind.

"But Mommy Daddy are big and powerful!" Thoreau whimpered. "Wasn"t Alpha Mason scared? Did he get hurt? Mommy Daddy are so strong!"

"No one is stronger or more powerful than Mase except for the king, Cole, and luna. Mase took care of it, so don"t you worry. Got it?"

"Uh-huh. But what if Mama gets mad at me about something else? Won"t he send me back there?"

See what I mean? I growled at Ocean.

Yeah, he sighed. Go ahead and tell him. The worst Dad can do is take your dirt bike, and all Beta Emerson can do is forbid you from seeing Reau, and even that won"t last long.

"You know what we"re going to do?" I shuffled us a bit so we were facing each other. "We"re going to sit down with your mama and papa and make a list of punishments they"d give you if you ever were bad enough to need one. That way, you"ll know what to expect. How does that sound?"

"Good. Sounds good."

"And you know what else?"

"What?"

"There is nothing you can do or say to make Mama Bubba and Papa Gelo want to send you away. You"re their baby, remember?"

He giggled and finally stopped sucking his thumb.

"Listen, Reau, I"m going to tell you something very important. The adults don"t want you to know, but I think you deserve to. It"s about your Mommy Daddy."

"What about them?" He tilted his head and his stone-colored eyes met mine for a second before he dropped them to my throat.

"This might be hard to hear, but maybe it will help you finally understand that you are never going back there. But, uh, if anyone asks how you found out, say Arch told you, okay?" I hurried to add.

"But Chi-Chi is sleeping—"

"I know, but he"s better than I am at winning arguments with adults." I took a big breath, let it out slowly, and just put it out there. "They"re dead."

"Who"s dead?"

"Mommy Daddy."

"What?" he gasped as tears filled his eyes.

Good going, boy, Spring rumbled. You made him cry again!

"Mommy Daddy are dead." I petted his soft curls and kissed his forehead. "I"m sorry if that makes you sad."

I didn"t understand why he would care about his abusers. I thought he would be glad they were gone, not grieve them.

"But Dr. York isn"t done fixing me yet!" he wailed. "They died before I was fixed! Now no one will love me!"

Goddess, how does this kid"s brain work? I shook my head.

"What do you mean?" I knew he hated to explain because it took time and words and patience, but I needed a helping hand here. "Can you please walk me through why you think no one will love you?"

"If Mommy Daddy can"t love me, no one can! And they didn"t because I"m broken! Dr. York is fixing me, but he"s not done yet!"

"Oh, baby, that"s not true. You aren"t broken. Arch and I both told you that. Dr. York, Mama Bubba, and Papa Gelo all told you that, too. Don"t you believe us?"

"Then why didn"t Mommy Daddy love me? And how can others love me if my own Mommy Daddy couldn"t?"

"Anyone can love anyone. Let"s start there. It has nothing to do with who else loves you. I love you. Archer loves you. Your mama and papa and Leo and Poppy and Kon love you. The alphas and Posy and Peri and Beta Ty love you. Everyone in our family loves you."

"They do?" He stopped crying and wiped his eyes and nose on the blanket, and I made a mental note to throw it in the wash in the morning.

"Yeah, they do. We do. I do. Can"t you feel it? Don"t you feel good and nice when you"re with us? Don"t you feel connected to us and happy?" When he nodded with his beautiful eyes fixed on my face, I smiled and kissed his forehead. "That"s love. And everyone gives you so, so much of it."

"When my heart feels warm, that"s love?"

"Yeah. That"s love."

"What about when my penis gets hard? Is that love?"

I choked for a second, then had to hold back my giggles.

"Um, I"m not sure it"s a good time to talk about that. First of all, I"m not awake enough. Second of all, Arch isn"t here. Yeah. Let"s wait for Arch. He can totally answer all your questions on that one."

"Okay," he said and laid his head on my shoulder.

Wow, dude! Way to set your boy up, Ocean laughed.

Damn right, I grumbled. I"m not talking about hard-ons with him at two in the morning. That conversation with our older brothers was uncomfortable enough. He"s had a thousand questions since.

I had no idea why Cole and Wyatt thought we needed to hear the reminder that werewolf law said no sex before age eighteen. It was also interesting that they"d added, "With anyone, male or female, including each other."

Archer and I didn"t think they were observant enough to realize that about us.

I bet luna figured it out and told them, Ocean chuckled.

Now that I believe. I rolled my eyes.

Archer and I weren"t interested in sex, anyway. At least, not with anyone but each other. I"d known I was in love with him for more than a year, but had no clue he felt the same way until he"d been brave enough to tell me first. It was such a relief to admit it, and even more of a relief to know he felt the same way, that I"d cried all over him.

I had never gotten turned on by girls. Boys, either. Only Archer. When he admitted the same, I"d teased him that he must be Wayne-sexual. He shot back that must mean I was Archer-sexual, and we"d fallen into a fit of giggles.

We knew the pack - and maybe even our families - would look at us weird since we were technically step-brothers, but we couldn"t help the way we felt. We"d also talked about rejecting our Goddess-given mates - or, if they were girls, asking them to reject us - and choosing each other, even if it earned our family"s disapproval.

Rejecting your mate was a dangerous thing, and neither Archer nor I wanted anyone to be hurt because of us, but we couldn"t picture our lives going any other way.

Then we met our baby, and we realized we were Thoreau-sexual, too. Problem was, we had no idea what sexual he was, and we couldn"t do anything to push him into something he wasn"t ready for or inadvertently lead him down a path he didn"t truly want to go.

So we decided we"d continue to be his best friends for now and see what happened when we turned eighteen. If he wanted to be with us, we"d be the first trio of male mates in pack history, and the happiest guys in the world. If he chose to find his Goddess-given mate, we"d support him, no matter how painful it would be to see him with someone else.

That"s how much we loved him.

Now, though, another member had been added to our group, and neither Archer nor I had considered how Spring would feel about all this. As Thoreau"s bony body relaxed against me, I seized the moment and linked Spring.

How would you feel if—

I hesitated. He was an older, mature wolf and might have a bias against gays or something. Plus, his human, Beta Everett Breckenridge, definitely hadn"t been gay, to judge by the number of girls he humped and dumped.

Still, we"ll need his input sooner or later, Ocean argued, and I nodded and decided to just go for it.

Um, would you be okay with it if Arch, Reau and I became chosen mates? I asked Spring in a rush.

He was silent for so long, I figured he was either upset or organizing his argument against it.

I do not like the idea of rejecting the Goddess" gift of a mate, he said at last. However, if that is what you three want, I urge you to find and reject your mates before taking each other as chosen ones. Look what happened with the luna"s parents. I know that"s an extreme example, but I don"t want my boy to suffer any more tragedy. I don"t want you boys to experience any, either.

Yeah. I hear you. That was a disaster all around, wasn"t it?

I know you all love each other. Spring sighed and settled down to sleep. We"ll hope the Goddess is kind.

He hadn"t answered my question, and I knew why. Beta Everett had a mate out there somewhere. How would that work if Spring found his wolf mate? Would he leave Thoreau for him or her? Thoreau was thoroughly attached to Spring; it would devastate him if the wolf left him, even if he knew it was for his mate.

And what would Spring"s mate"s human half do? I"d never heard of someone in that position - to have their wolf"s mate survive, but not the human one.

How is this all going to work out? I chewed the inside of my cheek as my wide eyes fixed on the stars. I just want us to be together and happy forever, but how can that happen?

I laid my cheek on top of Thoreau"s head, wishing I had the answers or knew what our future held.

Stop worrying, Ocean said as he, too, curled up and closed his eyes. There is nothing you can do to change the future. The will of the Moon Goddess will be done regardless of your worrying. All you"re doing is working up to an anxiety attack. Breathe, boy. Breathe and enjoy what you have here in your arms right now.

Knowing he was right, I closed my eyes and breathed in and out nice and slowly until my racing mind calmed. Right as I was beginning to drift off, Spring linked me.

Wayne?

Yeah?

I am not opposed.

And those few words allowed me to fall asleep with a little smile on my lips.

#

Archer Barlow

I vaguely remember Wayne trying to wake me up in the night, so I wasn"t too surprised when I woke up alone in his bed.

Yeah, we had separate rooms, but we rarely slept apart, and especially not when Thoreau stayed overnight.

And no, we didn"t do anything more than sleep. None of us were ready for anything more, although I had to admit it was getting harder and harder to hide my boners around those two.

And I"m fairly sure Wayne has the same issue, I smirked as I slid into my flip-flops and headed downstairs to find them.

He does, Firth snickered. Osh teases him all the time.

And Reau? I asked hopefully.

Wayne and I were being super careful not to influence him or put thoughts in his head, but I sure hoped and prayed he felt for us what we felt for him.

Spring does not tell his boy"s secrets, Firth grunted in annoyance, making me both sigh in disappointment and snort in amusement at my wolf, who was a major gossip. But you have something else to deal with right now. Osh is concerned about his boy. His anxiety is ramping up again.

I"m aware, I assured him. I"ll talk to him.

I knew Wayne Black better than I knew anyone in this world, and his anxiety could get pretty bad. Lately, he had trouble staying asleep, ground his teeth when he was asleep, and practically radiated tension - all sure signs he was heading toward a breakdown.

We"ll do some yoga and meditation before football conditioning, I decided. We haven"t done that in a while, and Reau would probably like it. Maybe it will help him, too.

So I followed my nose outside and found my two babies snuggled up in the hammock. All that was visible above the quilt was a shock of stick-straight blond hair and a mess of dark curls.

Smiling softly, I debated on whether to tip them out or jump on them. Spring was curled up under the hammock, though, and I didn"t want anyone landing on him either way. Making a more mature decision, I pulled the blanket off of them.

"Hey! My blankie!"

"What the—"

"Good morning, sunshines!" I shouted as I grabbed Wayne"s bare foot and started tickling it. "Get his arm pits, Reau!"

Giggling, he did as I said, and Wayne soon had tears streaming down his face as he tried to fight us both off while laughing so hard, he couldn"t breathe.

And that, in my opinion, was the best way to start a morning.

#

Beta Tyler James

Our football coach, Jared Hall, loved everything about Konstantin Russo. From his size and speed to his strength and stamina, Coach saw the half-dragon as the whole package, just like Landry and I knew he would.

Thoreau, on the other hand, well, Coach was not having it. Despite Archer and Wayne"s pleading eyes, his stoic expression never faltered as he told them Thoreau wasn"t going to make the team.

"He"s as fast as the humans on the team," Archer said so only we could hear, "and he has the agility."

"Agreed, but he has no idea how to play. The little nut ran to the wrong end zone," Coach deadpanned.

Damn, Coach has such a resting bitch face, don"t he? Landry laughed as he linked me.

Needs to find his mate, I said. Ain"t easy being unmated as it is, and Coach is twenty-six now.

I hear that. Poor Coach. I hope him and Reuben are next. They both need their special person.

Yeah, I agreed. I hope so, too.

Coach was convinced his mate had died in the sickness, but I trusted in the Moon Goddess. Surely she wouldn"t allow her children to survive the sickness only to suffer, mateless and miserable, for the rest of their lives.

"He can learn how to play," Wayne pointed out, drawing me out of my thoughts. "He"s smart. You"ll see that for yourself. He"s going to be in your auto mechanics class with us."

"I"m sure he is, and I look forward to teaching him, but he hates the feel of the uniform and had a freaking meltdown over wearing the mouthpiece."

"He"s quirky," Archer admitted, "but we can work something out."

As they pleaded their case, Beckham Hall, who was Coach"s younger brother, hoisted Thoreau up on his shoulders and ran him around the track. Giggling, Thoreau wrapped one hand around Beckham"s head and waved his other like a queen.

All of the pack boys waved back, even the hard cases like Elijah Ford and Bridger Donahue. Seeing that, our human teammates waved, too, probably not understanding why, but going along with it nonetheless.

Never thought I"d see the day Ford and Donahue were randomly nice to someone, Landry smirked.

Everyone loves Reau, I replied. I think it"s because he"s so genuinely innocent. Hurting him or being mean to him would be like kicking a pup.

"Come on, Coach!" Wayne wheedled. "He could sit on the bench the whole time and watch if you don"t want to play him. Please?"

"No, boys," Coach said, shaking his head. "I can"t give up a slot just so your buddy can be on the team. He"s welcome to come to conditioning and weightlifting, and he can hang out with us, but he can"t be on the team."

"Aw, come on, big brother! We want to keep him!" Beckham called out as he ran past our small huddle.

Ninety degrees, post-conditioning, soaked with sweat and a hundred-pound boy on his shoulders ... and dude wasn"t even breathing hard. In fact, he was grinning as he sprinted.

Mase"s special training, River said, and I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, have a heart, bubba," said Bowie, Beckham"s twin, as he trotted up to us. "He"s a precious baby!"

"This is a high school football team," Coach said through his teeth. "It requires perseverance, hard work, and respect, not precious babies. Becks, put the kid down before Spring worries himself into anemia!"

I looked over to see Spring chasing after Beckham, probably worried he"d drop his little human buddy. Bowie laughed and ran after them both and had Thoreau jump down into his arms.

"Again! Again!" Thoreau squealed.

So Bowie perched the kid on his shoulders and took off running, making us all chuckle.

With a huff, Spring gave up and slunk off to lay in the shade under the bleachers, but his eyes followed Bowie"s every move.

"Well, what if he became an unofficial mascot or something?" Archer suggested.

"Yeah!" Wayne jumped up and down. "Spring can be our mascot and Reau can be his handler!"

"We are the Greenville Wolves, Coach," I reasoned, "and we haven"t had anyone apply for the mascot position in years."

With a groan, Coach tucked his precious clipboard under his arm and rubbed his hands down his face, pulling his cheeks so his lower eyelids curled out while he stared up at the sky. He stood there for a full minute before he finally gave in and dropped his hands.

"Sure, but you two are his handlers." He eyeballed Wayne and Archer. "I do not want to ever have to link Beta Emerson or the alphas to tell them something happened to the kid. Got it?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Archer and Wayne saluted him in perfect sync, just like I"d seen them do many times with Nathan Barlow, and Coach rolled his eyes before walking away.

"Dude!" Wayne shouted as he bro-hugged Archer. "Mission accomplished!"

"With an assist from Beta Ty," Archer said, reaching around Wayne to offer his fist. "Thanks, man."

With a grin, I smacked my knuckles against his.

"Just thought it"s better to keep him under our supervision than let him wander around loose." I shrugged.

"Yeah," Landry laughed. "Because you know he"s not going to miss any of our games."

"Facts," both boys said with a grin.