Chapter 2

TUESDAY

"What are we doing for day 2 of your Lunar week?" Liam asked, prancing around me excitedly.

"Guess," I told him simply.

"Is it...a trip to the park?"

"No."

"Pancakes?"

"Nope."

"Going to the museum on the lake?"

"Nada."

"A movie?"

I shook my head.

He slumped in confusion. "Then what? Can you give me a hint, pretty please?"

I racked my brain, trying to recall the Spanish words that 6 year old me learned from Dora. "Hola, amigo."

He gasped. "I know what it is! Today's Taco Tuesday!"

I gave him a wide grin. "I was waiting for you to guess that. Isn't Taco Tuesday your national holiday or something? I know tacos are one of your favourite foods."

He flushed adorably. "Yeah, but I wasn't expecting you to actually go to a Mexican restaurant. Didn't you have a super traumatic experience at one, and that's why you couldn't bring yourself to go afterwards?"

I shuddered at the memory. A few years back, I went to a Mexican restaurant with a couple of my friends. Of course, with my sensitive palate, I could only handle mild food, with at most a slight kick. My Italian friend, on the other hand, could eat hellfire-level spicy without even batting an eye. How could people eat painful food? It baffled truly me, but to each their own, I supposed.

Long story short, we accidentally switched up our dishes, and I ended up biting into an extra-hot chicken burrito. For the next several hours, my tongue felt as if it were scraped clean and rubbed with acid, my stomach rumbled angrily, and I felt incredibly nauseous. I must've drank 10 bags of milk trying to relieve the burning taste in my mouth.

And so ever since, whenever I went to restaurants, I was always worried that some hardcore spice would find its way into my food.

"Well, I know you've spoken a lot about Serrano," I said. "According to everyone, they have the best tacos in town."

"Everyone is right, then. Their tacos are fantástico and you can't change my mind. So, when are we going?"

"This evening. I'll pick you up at your place, at around 6, and we'll head on down."

"Oh, this evening? That feels so far away, and I don't think I can put up with Coach Retch much longer," he sighed, referring to our awful PE teacher with no redeeming qualities. Her actual name was Coach Rodriguez, but at this point, everyone called her anything but that.

"Well, I guess I'll have to wait," he said, brightening. "I'll be looking forward to it all day!"

"It's a date, then," I said, smiling at him. "I'll text you later tonight to confirm everything, okay?"

-

"Um...sir?" the food preparer said nervously behind the counter. "Is there something wrong with how I'm preparing your food?"

I stood right in front of the counter, analyzing the worker's every move. I was so busy worrying about spices, I hadn't even realized that I was giving the poor young man my 'death stare', the look I gave my enemies to intimidate them.

"Don't mind him," Liam elbowed me and rolled his eyes. Having grown up around me, he was one of the few people who knew how to deal with me when I acted overly Alpha. "He's terrified of spices, even though I promised him that the tacos aren't spicy."

"Oh, we don't cross-contaminate anything here," he chuckled, although I could smell the fear radiating off of him. "If you want your food mild, we'll give it to you mild, no questions asked."

"See, Dylan?" Liam reassured me, patting my arm. "The food will be fine. Now, can you please stop eyeing that poor worker like he's a rogue?"

"Fine," I said, before turning to the worker. "I trust your word that the food will not be spicy."

"Absolutely!" he squeaked. "Do not worry, sir, your food will be exactly how you want it."

I selected my toppings, and watched him like a hawk as he put my tacos in the oven - in case a drop of jalapeño fell out of the sky and hit my food, or something like that.

"Here you go, you two. Enjoy."

We took a seat at one of the window booths, sitting comfortably next to each other. I poked my tacos suspiciously. Finally, I relented. Might as well give them a try, besides, they weren't considered the best tacos in town for no reason.

A myriad of wonderful flavours exploded into my mouth. The cold sour cream complemented the warm, seasoned meat, and the salsa, which had a bearable tanginess to it, fit well with the vegetables I added. Overall, it had a heavenly taste, and to my delight, barely any spiciness.

"These. Are. Incredible," I gushed, shoving the rest of the chicken taco whole into my mouth.

"See?" Liam smiled. "I told you everything would be okay."

I wolfed down my pulled pork taco in the same manner, and then turned to my barbacoa beef taco, licking my lips.

"Are you sure you don't want me to pay you back?" Liam whispered to me.

"I'm sure," I said stubbornly. "I don't want to hear a word of it. I chose to buy this for you. It's my job."

"What do you mean it's your job?"

"Well, you don't ask your guests to pay for your mating ceremony or your birthday party. Same applies for Lunar week. It's my choice to celebrate this with you."

"But you give people gifts on their birthdays and mating ceremonies."

"You already gifted me. With your presence, and your coupons." I shook my free Sprite, courtesy of Serrano's 'buy three main entrees, get 2 free drinks' coupon that Liam had on hand.

He shrugged. "Fair enough, I suppose. You got your Sprite and I got my iced tea."

"You and your iced tea," I watched as he downed his glass. "I swear, you two are practically mated at this point."

"I have a good reason to love iced tea," he said happily. "It just tastes so good!

Liam's face suddenly looked concerned. "But...drinks are kind of inexpensive. I don't think the prices really add up. I mean, I saved you like, a dollar."

"Liam, if you're this worried about money, think of this as a date."

He blinked. "Is this a date?"

I paused myself. Truthfully, I didn't even know. I definitely wanted to see it as a date, but I was hesitant to announce it as such. We weren't dating, and we weren't officially mates. We were just friends at the moment. The terminology didn't seem quite right.

"It could be," I responded carefully, figuring it was the safest answer. I decided to change the topic. "So, how was gym today?"

His face dropped. "It was a monstrosity! You know what Coach Rage made us do today? She made us use those small, square scooter things that we used back in elementary school. We're in grade 12, not grade 2!"

I laughed at the idea of my friend scooting around in one of those juvenile gym toys. It had been ages since I last touched those things. "No way, actually?"

"Stop laughing," he grumbled. "My stomach is still bruised from rolling on those things for like, an hour. When you become Alpha, can you remove those torture devices from the curriculum?"

"I'll consider it," I said, amused at his story. But seriously, what was Coach Radioisotope even thinking? I was fairly certain you were supposed to cover actual sports in gym class, but honestly, her course outline was probably stashed in the garbage, right underneath all of her restraining orders from people she'd bothered during her lifetime.

I heard a buzzing sound from under the table, and smelled the worker approach me tentatively.

"How's the food over here?" the worker asked me hesitantly.

"Oh, it was great...Darren," I told him, reading his nametag. "Here, take this tip. You deserve it."

I shoved a $20 bill in his hand, and Darren gaped.

"Um...do you want any change?"

BUZZ.

"No, keep it. Thanks again."

BUZZ.

"Thanks, sir," Darren said before heading off. "Hope you enjoyed your meal."

"Whoops, sorry!" Liam said, pulling out his phone from his pocket, which was buzzing intensely. "It's probably Mikaela spamming me, she really wants to know what I'm up to. I told her to leave me alone."

Without taking a glance at his screen, he shut off his phone and resumed munching happily on his taco.

"You were assigned the interdisciplinary science project, right?" I asked him. "Who's in your group?"

"Uh...well, one of my group mates is Marcus..."

My gaze darkened at the mention of Marcus' name, and I could tell he noticed my disapproval, too.

"Marcus?" I clarified before he could continue.

"Yeah," he twitched slightly.

"Of all the people in our class, you ended up with him?" I asked incredulously. Marcus was, in my opinion, an arrogant, ignorant, and thick-skulled mosquito. He was the youngest son of the Beta of an elitist neighbouring pack, and came to this school only because of its strong hockey program.

"The teacher organized our groups for us," Liam said. "And besides, he's not that bad. He's just unfiltered at times."

"He's a bully," I corrected him. Who's advocated for the enslavement of Omega wolves, I thought to myself.

"He's not mean towards me," he said softly. "He can be nice sometimes."

"Yeah. Because he thinks you're some delicate little puppy who should be at home and rearing pups, not getting any type of education. Have you ever seen how he treats Alpha and Beta wolves who don't fit the stereotypical mold of what they're supposed to act like?"

I shook my head, thinking of his misdeeds against the weres from my pack. Spreading harmful rumours, using his status to take advantage of everyone, beating up vulnerable people, and overall, just being a grade-A jerk.

I was able to put a stop to his bullying against my pack members, so he left the Ivory Crescent alone, but that didn't stop him from acting like trash around other humans and supernatural beings that went to our school.

I couldn't stand the idea of sweet Liam, who often blindly saw the best in people, becoming entrapped in Marcus' brainwashing techniques. I swore, if he lay a hand on my Liam...

"Okay, he might be a bit of a jerk," he admitted, taking another bite of his food. "Maybe he just has emotional issues, or family problems?"

"Not an excuse," I shook my head. "If he ever makes you feel uncomfortable, let me know right away and I'll put him in his place."

"Cool, I guess," Liam mustered a smile. "Don't worry about me, though. I also got placed in a group with Gisa. I think those two are going to have more problems than me and him."

I relaxed immediately. Gisa, the daughter of my pack's top warrior and famed paramedic, was the anti-Marcus. The two of them made up the most argumentative students in our grade. Literally anytime our class had a debate or even slightly controversial discussion, you could bet that these two would be on the front lines, throwing hands with each other.

It was pure entertainment for the rest of us. It also meant she was able to see through Marcus' bullcrap, and call him out on it. Liam was going to have an interesting time doing this project, but at least Gisa wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck dealing with them," I told him. "That's going to be quite the show. Again, if you need any help with the project, you can always come to me."

He shrugged. "Caroline's also in our group. She's really sweet and chill. The two of us together balance them out, so we'll be fine. Anyway, how about you? How was your school day?"

"Fine. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. Just a bit of work to do, but I finished most of it over the weekend."

"Do we have anything due tomorrow..?"

"No, just work due next week. Speaking of which, however, tomorrow's events are planned and ready to go," I told him, grinning excitedly.

I had been looking forward to this particular event all week. It wasn't easy to organize, as I had to pull some strings to work around the restrictions, but it would be entirely worth it if it put a smile on Liam's face.

"They are?"

"Yep. I already spoke to your parents about it. They're cool with the idea. It takes place after school, so once you get home, you'll get changed, and I'll take you to our next destination for Lunar week."

"Do I get any hints this time?"

"Nope. It's going to be a complete surprise."