“Then how do you come here when we do this? How do you lie to Jensen?” Lake took another swig from her drink. How many had Cyrus’ sister had?
“I don’t lie. Jensen knows where I am and what I’m doing.”
A hush fell at that response. Finally Lake spoke again, this time with temper in her tone. “How do you know he won’t tell the Alpha and Cyrus will put a stop to this whole thing?”
“I don’t.” Kyra shrugged, smiling at Betsy. “But if he does, it’s not the end of the world.”
“Not the end of the world? My brother has never seen a good time he didn’t want to break up.”
Okay, Lake was drunk. Betsy had seen it many times with her father. She hadn’t liked the look of it then, and she didn’t now. Only now, the toxic alcohol fumes coming off the pack Healer made Betsy want to sneeze too.
“That’s not true. He wants you all to have great lives. His only concern is keeping you safe.” Her defense of him was swift. If Lake believed that, then she really didn’t know her brother at all. What had he done to make them all so completely misunderstand him? She drummed her fingers on the table. He needed to hire a PR person for his own pack mates.
“Don’t get us wrong,” the Raquel/Rachel person said. “We love the Alpha. Things were so bad before he took over. My parents call him the savior. They say the pack was all but decimated and he put it back together. We could never get on without him, but, no offense, he has a real stick up his ass sometimes.”
“No offense? How am I not to take offense? He’s my mate and your Alpha.” She growled. “I can promise you he’d never speak about you so disrespectfully.”
This had been a mistake. She couldn’t have friends, not if it meant listening to them complain about their Alpha, who happened to be her true mate. She didn’t need this kind of stress.
Liana put her hand on Betsy’s. “Ruth is drunk. Don’t mind her. I would never speak about Cyrus Fennell any way but with reverence. He is my Alpha, and I am so glad you are here to bring happiness to him.”
“Thank you.” Some of her urge to get up and stomp out left.
“Neither would I.” Kyra smiled. “And I think in a few minutes it’ll be time to get his quite intoxicated sister home to bed.” Kyra stroked Lake’s hair. “She’s not usually this type of drinker.” Lake stared off into space as though she’d missed the whole conversation. “Something has plagued her lately.”
“Jensen knows you’re here, and he lets you come anyway?” Betsy took another sip of her drink and winced. It was really too sweet for her. Maybe she wasn’t meant to drink anything but water, milk, and coffee.
“He’s outside in the car.”
“What?” Ruth—whose name was obviously not Raquel—slammed down her drink. “He’s outside? That spoils the whole point of not having a guard dog roaming around in here killing all the good times.”
“Oh really?” Kyra’s tone said she’d had enough of Ruth’s crap. “Did his sitting out there every other time we’ve gone out spoil your fun? You went home with how many random humans? Did Jensen say a word? And if you call him a guard dog again, I’ll rip out your eyes.”
Maybe female company was going to be really out of the question. Leaving the two of them to fight it out, she stared back at Liana. “How does it work if you’re not true mates?”
“What do you mean?” Liana smiled.
“Well, you commit to each other, like a marriage, right? You have kids, form a family?”
Liana nodded happily. “Exactly. We’re hoping to start one the next time I go into heat.”
“That’s really wonderful. But I guess I’m confused because what will happen if you are in a committed relationship and then one of you finds your true mate? How will you handle that? Is there a system?”
The other woman’s face fell. “Most of us will never find a true mate. If such a person exists for us, they are somewhere we’ll never find them. With the exception of the Alphas, most of us will never leave our territory. Ever. It’s not safe. And, as for me, if it happened, I would never leave my family under any circumstances. Besides, this is all so hypothetical. I can’t believe the moon would ever be so cruel.”
“In other words…” Lake slurred her words, apparently tuning back into the world around her. “They all hope really hard that it’s not going to take place.”
Something was going to have to be done about Lake. Betsy didn’t know her mate’s sister at all, except that she’d been really kind to her when Betsy had almost vomited in the basement. Afterward, Betsy had felt heaps better and had thanked her. Lake had seemed sweet, now just despondent. Of course, the woman had also turned Betsy from latent to full shifter without asking permission. Maybe she had a volatile personality.