Chapter 6

SATURDAY

Ah, Saturdays. The best day of the week. You could sleep in until noon, and sometimes even later, without having to worry about school until the next day. Or in the case of this long weekend, the next couple of days.

I rolled myself out of bed and glanced at the clock. 12:36, it read.

"What a glorious morning!" I announced to the bedbugs, before stretching out my muscles. I was oddly cheerful this morning.

I ran through the checklist today. First, I had to do my three hours of pack training, followed by a bit of homework. This evening, I had my second-last activity planned for the two of us.

"Good afternoon, young man," my mom announced as soon as I stepped into the kitchen, placing the emphasis on the 'afternoon'."

"Yes," I agreed casually. "Lovely afternoon."

"It's already halfway through the day! How you sleep for that long, I have no idea."

"Don't worry, mom, it's a teenage phase," I said. "Anyway, I'm here now."

"We still have to discuss your birthday barbecue," she said, whipping out her list. "First and foremost, the menu."

"Okay. What did you want to know?"

"So, I've already spoken to the pack kitchens about your order. I just wanted to clarify one last time what you wanted. You've requested bison burgers and pork sausages to be served to the guests as the proteins. As for sides, you wanted corn, fruits, roasted vegetables, pasta salad, regular salad, and some hors d'oeuvres."

"Sounds about right."

"As for desserts and beverages, we have different types of pop, your birthday cake, ice cream, brownies, cookies, a waffle station, fondue, and candies."

"Pretty much. Oh, and don't forget to have iced tea. Plenty of iced tea."

"On it," she grinned at me. "Oh, look at my little boy, growing up so fast! Well, not so little anymore, since you're towering over me, but still! I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks, mom," I said gently as she started to tear up. She blinked back her tears as I wrapped my arms around her. "Hey, that's it. Let it all out."

"It was just yesterday you were a little pup!" she sniffed.

"Tell me about it," I murmured, thinking of the good ole' days, when Liam and I were young pups ourselves. When I was younger, I thought time moved so painfully slowly. But now that I was nearly an adult, I was constantly worried about not having enough time. Everything just moved way too quickly.

"I remember planning your first birthday party, and now, I'm helping you plan your 18th! Oh, where has the time gone?"

"I appreciate all the effort you've put into my birthdays, mom. I love every single party you've ever hosted. Thank you for everything."

"I'm glad you liked them. Anything for my son."

"And I'm sure this 18th is going to be amazing as well," I patted her back. "No thanks to you."

"Well, I can't afford to cry right now, I still need to talk to the DJ about the whole setup." She pulled apart from my embrace, wiping her eyes dry. "Phew! I really needed that, Dylan. Anyway, I should probably get back to work planning the barbecue. Oh, and your friends are coming over later today, right?"

"Yeah. They should be here at around 6 this evening."

"Perfect! What do you guys want for dinner tonight? I can make you some food, or I can pick you up a pizza."

"Thanks for the offer, mom. I'm going to try and bake some nachos, though. Liam says he's in the mood for Mexican food."

"Do you need me to pick up any ingredients from the supermarket? Salsa? Cheese? Sour cream? Chips? Do we have the type of chips you even like?"

"Mom, we'll be fine," I assured her calmly. "We have everything, I checked the pantry to be sure."

"You know, it's so sweet that you're spending your week with Liam. I vividly remember when the two of you met. You were a month old, and he was a premature newborn pup. I still have pictures of when you laid eyes on him for the first time."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Of course! They're all stacked in a photo album somewhere in our attic. Anywho, all you wanted to do was lick him whenever you saw him. He couldn't see you, or hear you, but he still enjoyed your company. Always yipping happily when you were around. When he gained his sight for the first time, you were one of the wolves there. So, you were actually one of the first things he saw."

Oh, how I wished I could remember that moment. Like regular wolves, when we werewolves emerged from the womb, we were deaf and blind for the first few weeks of our lives. After that, though, we were able to hear and see normally.

"And then," she continued. "When you started kindergarten, he stuck by your side like a little duckling. You two were practically inseparable, like peas in a pod. All your teachers thought it was adorable."

"I can imagine," I chuckled. "Anyway, mom, I'll let you get back with planning. And I can talk to the DJ myself."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, mom. Trust me. If I left you in charge of the music, we'd all be jamming to 'Mr. Wolfy's ABCs' or some random tune from the 80s. I can take care of the DJ."

"Well, if you have the time to do so, I'll just head on back to the head chef, then. Let them know your order is complete. See you later, Dylan! Let me know if you need anything."

-

"Yo, what's up, man," Justin said, giving me a bro-hug as he stepped into my house. "Thanks for having me over tonight!"

"No problem," I said. "Glad you could make it tonight."

"Anything for my friend and future Alpha. Who else is coming?"

"We're just waiting on Liam, he should be here within the next couple of minutes.

We headed into the entertainment room of my house. It was in the basement,

"Ay, Justin, nice to see you, bro!" My other friend, Daniel, waved from where he was sprawled out on the couch.

"Justin!" Mikaela squealed, and stood up to give him a hug.

"Anyway, everyone, tonight is a board game night," I announced to them.

Justin looked stunned. "Board games?"

"Yeah. I know, it's a bit different from our usual hangouts, where we play video games and everything. But you know what? You guys always got me card games and board games for my birthday, and I've never used them before. Figured this would be a good time to try them out, with all of my friends."

I had decided to take a bit of a different route tonight. While the first part of my week had been spent with just Liam, I wanted at least one night will all my close friends around me. I invited Daniel, Justin, Mikaela, Riley, and Naomi. And of course, Liam was also invited to come.

Just as I was thinking about him, I heard the doorbell ring.

"That's Liam. I'll go and grab him, in the meanwhile, you guys can try and decide on a game. Try not to kill yourselves while you're at it."

I rushed on over to the door, and sure enough, my little ray of sunshine had arrived.

"Hi, I'm so sorry if I'm late," he said breathlessly. "I was out the entire day at the mall, and we got stuck in traffic."

"You're not late, you're just in time. Come on in, Fluff." I waved goodbye to his older brother and shut the door.

I led Liam to the entertainment room. "So, for dinner, I was going to make some nachos. I know you said you wanted Mexican food. Is that alright with you?"

"Oh, awesome! Yeah, it's perfect! If you need any help, let me know."

I could already hear my friends arguing in the basement. I led Liam down the stairs, and walked into a full on verbal altercation.

"Your friends are here," he remarked, taking a look over my shoulder to where my friends were fooling around behind me.

"I will crush everyone here!" I heard in the background.

"Oh please, you're the type of person to get out in the first round, you little liar!"

"You are all salted snails. I am the president master!"

"Yeah..." I said, observing the argument that was unfolding in front of us. Liam and I exchanged an amused glance. "Well, it's going to be a full house tonight. I hope you're okay with it."

"I'm absolutely okay with it," Liam said cheerily. "The more, the merrier, after all. Hi, everyone! Nice to see you all here!"

"Liam!" Mikaela jumped up and ran over to Liam, tightly crushing him in a hug. The rest of the arguing died down as everyone warmly welcomed the Omega. Omega wolves really had a calming effect on people.

"So, have we decided on what game we're going to play first for our board game night?" I said, plopping down on the sofa, with Liam sitting next to me.

"Well, I said I wanted to play Monopoly," Naomi argued.

"I say we play UNO."

"How about Life?"

Justin scoffed. "I'm down to play any card classical game."

"Guys, don't worry. We'll get to playing every game at some point. Here, Liam, why don't you decide what we play first?"

"Oh," he said. "Uhh...how about we play...Draw It Out?"

The rest of the group seemed on board with that idea, and so we divided each other up into groups. Due to the uneven amount of people, I decided I would be the mediator of the game, in case anything went too out of hand.

"Whoever loses has to face a punishment," Daniel grinned evilly.

"Wow, Daniel, I never knew you were into that type of stuff," Riley said innocently.

"Oh, I'm totally down to win," Naomi said. "I agree with Daniel. The losing team has to...."

She looked around, deep in thought. "I got it! The losers will get a bunch of ice dumped down their back. Dylan? Is that possible?"

"I've got you covered," I gave them a thumbs up.

"You're on!" Riley said immediately.

Mikaela grinned evilly. "Now, may the best wolves win!"

-

Who knew people could get so aggressive over a simple drawing game?

I did.

For the next fifteen minutes, I was a personal witness to the defamation of my friend's egoes, alongside the birth of some pretty creative insults.

"You overcooked tortellini!" Riley snapped at the other team. "You cheated! I saw you whisper the answer to your guesser!"

"I was thinking out loud, and mouthing my thoughts!" Justin retorted. "Am I not allowed to think anymore?"

"Well, you don't even think in the first place, so that's a likely excuse!"

A pencil was flung towards Riley's face, and he gasped. "That's abuse!"

"We're werewolves, you eggplant, and you're scared of a little pencil?" Justin snarled. "Get over yourself!"

"Me, get over myself? This is coming from someone who got high off of sleep medicine!"

A stapler rocketed through the air in Riley's direction.

"You accuse us of cheating, but you somehow got the answer to that drawing, even though it looks like a squiggle," Naomi said, crossing her arms. "There is no way in the Moon Goddess' name that you could get a zebra out of...whatever that is. It looks like a circle, with sticks, and random lines!"

"Well, Miss Hyena, some people are just good at perceiving art," Mikaela argued back. "It clearly looks like a zebra to me."

"Uh, guys?" Liam piped up to his teammates, who were bickering with the other team. "I'm going to start drawing now. Are you guys even paying attention?"

"What is that, a potato?" Justin asked jokingly, looking over at Liam's drawing. Even though I knew he was joking, my inner Alpha resisted the urge to jump up and defend Liam from the verbal threat.

"Liam, tell Justin off for insulting your drawing skills like that," Riley ordered him.

Liam blinked, his eyes wide. "But...I don't want to hurt his feelings."

"Just do it!" Mikaela said. "He'll be okay, I've called him worse."

"You..." Liam's eyes darted around the room, eventually landing on the vegetable tray. "Piece of raw broccoli?"

"That's the spirit!" Riley yelled with glee. "Hear that, Justin? You're raw broccoli!"

I watched on, highly entertained. Honestly, I'd say it was actually a pretty good thing I wasn't playing. I tended to get extremely competitive over board games, and I would've made the game even more chaotic. If not for Liam's relaxing Omeganess, we'd probably all be wolf kebabs right now, having skewered each other over this family-friendly game.

"Whoo!" Riley shouted. "We. Are. VICTORIOUS! Let's go!"

He high-fived Mikaela and Liam excitedly, and Mikaela smiled smugly at the other team, who looked shocked as they stared at their results.

"Guess who has to get a taste of their own medicine?" Mikaela sneered. "Time to freeze."

"I call for a rematch!" Justin demanded. "There was a distraction that occurred that inhibited our ability to play effectively."

"We won fair and square!" Riley argued, his eyes briefly flashing. "Ask Dylan. We won, right? Liam, tell Dylan we won, he'll listen to you."

"I'm going to get started on the food," I told them. "I'll be back in a second. Everyone else, start a second round, and I'll grab the ice cubes. I expect you to play more civilly while I'm gone."

I added a bit of Alpha command to my words, just to be sure nobody disobeyed.

"Yes, Dylan," they mumbled, before returning to their arguing.

"I'll come with you," Liam offered immediately, before turning to his group. "If that's okay with you?"

"We can hold the fort while you're gone," Mikaela said determinedly. "We won once. We can do it again without pulling the cheating card.'"

The two of us headed upstairs as the rest of the group began their second round, having calmed down slightly.

"I always forget how crazy everyone can get over these games," Liam chuckled.

"Are you comfortable being with them? If they're too rowdy for you, we can always hang out upstairs."

"What? Oh, no, I'm all good. They're hilarious to be around, I think I almost died of laughter. I had a lot of fun playing with them."

"I'm glad you're having fun, then."

He bit his lip. "They get really competitive, though."

"I know. I guess it's a status thing, I know Omegas prefer cooperation and teamwork."

"Yeah," he nodded. "We do. Here, I can grate the cheese."

For the next few moments, we worked quietly to prepare the ingredients for our nachos.

"Dylan?"

"Yes?"

"We did win the first round, didn't we?" Liam turned to me and looked up with puppy dog eyes, causing me to groan.

"Liam, I can't say no to you when you look at me like that," I said, trying to avert my eyes from his overly adorable gaze, but failing massively.

"So we did? Is that a yes?"

I chuckled. "Okay, yes, you did win."

He jumped up and down for joy. "Yes! I can't wait to pour ice down their backs! Let's pour ten ice cubes. Wait, no, a bucket full!"

"Whoa there, Fluff. I didn't know you had this side to you. Although, I must say, I like it very much."