53. Party And Distractions

The dinning hall of pack house was filled with various new faces. Warriors from other packs had arrived to aid the Marshville's pack in a fight against Dimitri. Marley also recognised some familiar faces from her hometown, Crestfield. Iosif had warned soon his brother would be here. The waiting time was only a few days, and everyone preferred to be ready beforehand.

A sort-of-party was organised to welcome them. With everything being so grim for these past few days, a small frivolous act like this was needed.

The gathering was mostly attended by the younger crowd, whereas, the adults chose to have their own noise-free get together at Markus's place -- their pack's elder warrior. The ambience of pack house represented somewhere between a high school and a college party. Maroon 5 was playing in the background, lightings were dimmed than the normal, drinks were being passed around, and people were laughing and dancing, enjoying themselves.

"I think I royally fucked my exams," Sanjay said, and slurped his drink.

"They are over and hence need not to be discussed," Marley replied in a preaching tone, gulping down the glass in her hand.

Humans were standing against the kitchen counter, sipping their cold drinks, and chatting about random stuff. From time to time, they greeted and mixed with others (most of which was initiated by Sanjay) before coming back to their favorite place and refilling their food supplies.

"Fine, as you wish Alpha Queen." Sanjay mocked, picking up chips from the bowl beside him and shoving them in his mouth. He looked around and sighed when his eyes didn't find the person he was looking for. "When are they coming? Aren't the hosts supposed to be at their own party?" He asked grumpily.

Marley shrugged in response, knowing he was talking about Oliver and Eden. She too missed her mate, and his absence only intensified when she saw other couples kissing and dancing. The Alpha and the Beta were with Thea and Hunter at the other corner of house discussing some pack things.

An hour ago, Marley had waited for Eden inside his room, but when he didn't show up, she decided to come downstairs and join the party with Sanjay. Her friend was also in the same predicament, waiting for Oliver.

She was dressed in a full sleeve black floral top and a high waist denim skirt that reached till her midthighs, an outfit which showed little more legs than the clothes she was used to wearing. It also had taken more than a rational amount of time to get the makeup done. All this effort for one person. It did make her upset that the guy whom she had dolled up for wasn't even here and spending time with other people. *Including the girl he had lost his virginity to...*

Marley hadn't met Thea and Hunter yet. Since her return from school, she had been kept busy with helping her housemates in making arrangements for the new arrivals. So she missed Thea and Hunter, who as soon as they turned up locked themselves inside the office with Eden and Oliver.

"Do you want to dance?" Sanjay asked, finishing his glass too. "I don't want to wait for an asshole who is having a freaking orgy without me."

"That's quite an exaggeration." Marley chuckled. "I'm sure they're just caught up. But yeah, let's dance." There was no point in moping for her mate.

They tossed their glasses in the nearby bin and hit the dance floor, which was the centre of hall. Their moves involved uncoordinated jerking of hands, head and legs, and bumping into others.

"Stop stepping on my feet," Sanjay reprimanded Marley with a laugh.

"Stop putting your feet under my heels." She grinned, and rested her hands on his shoulders, making him hold her waist. They danced and laughed cynically at their own shenanigans.

"Are you sure you want to be that close with some guy other than your boyfriend?" A familiar voice came from behind, halting their movements.

Marley smiled and pulled Sanjay closer, refusing to turn around. Her friend happily complied with a smirk, looking at the guy hovering behind her, and also the blond standing next to him.

"Why not?" She replied, making Sanjay chuckle. "He's way better than-ah!"

Eden pulled Marley into him by her upper waist, making Sanjay let go of her. "Wrong answer," he whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

"Stop manhandling her you bull!" Sanjay chided the Alpha before turning to his mate, who was looking at him in amusement. "Stop staring at me and let's get something to eat." He rested his hand on Oliver's shoulder, and dragged him toward the kitchen island.

Marley turned around to face Eden and found him looking at her with such intensity that always made her stomach flutter. His eyes were slowly moving up and down, taking in every inch of her body, his brain picturing all sorts of filthy things.

"You look so-" his breath stroked her ears, "ready for bed."

On cue, the blush crept up on Marley's cheeks at the reminder. Tonight was the night. Tonight they were going to do it. It had been more than a week since she did her thing with Eden, and since then they never got the chance to repeat it. First base, sometimes barely second base, was all that they could grasp in their alone time. Exams were to blame for their lack of intimacy. But tonight it was all planned.

Tonight was going to be the first time when Marley would expose all of herself to a guy, to Eden. It was exciting, exhilarating, thrilling, and very frightening.

Marley pressed against the werewolf's chest, creating some space. "And you look so... not ready for party." She retorted, eyeing his plain white t-shirt and faded jeans. He looked like his hot daily self, which by the way was enough to turn her on.

"I thought we were ditching this party and get on with what we planned." He smirked.

"You have no patience."

"Well, can you blame me when you're looking like that?"

Marley shook her head with a shy smile, and pulled herself away from him. They stepped away from the dancing area, Eden purposely walking behind her to look at her butt which was accentuated by the denim skirt. The wolf just wanted to ravish her, and each waiting minute felt like a bittersweet torture. He couldn't wait when she'd be moaning, gasping under him as he had his way with her.

"Eden." A feminine voice came from the side.

Among the crowd a black-haired girl was walking to them. Her long curly hair swayed with her movements along the sides of her face. She had warm brown skin which glowed beautifully under the dim lights. When the girl reached them, Marley noticed she was few inches taller than her. A skinny pair of jeans and a white crop top was doing a great job at emphasizing her toned yet curvy figure, which Marley couldn't even fathom to ever have.

"What do you want Thea?" Eden asked the girl.

Marley bit the inside of her cheeks. Of course, Thea, the girl with whom Eden had its first time, had to be the prettiest of them all! Instinctively, her right hand reached behind to hold Eden's to remind herself that now he was hers. *He was hers!*

This small act didn't go unnoticed by the werewolf, and it definitely bloated his head 100 times. From time to time it was good to know he wasn't the only possessive one.

"Obviously, not you," Thea replied sarcastically, before turning to look at the girl standing in front of him. Her eyes moved up and down checking out Marley. "Why don't you introduce me to this cutie here?" She smiled flirtatiously.

Gone was the Eden's smugness, he was now glaring at Thea. "My mate," he replied, showing their entwined fingers.

"Oh, my bad." Thea said disappointed, ignoring his temper. "I find one cute human here and turns out she's someone's mate." She muttered to herself, looking at their now visible joined hands.

"What do you think why else she'd be here?" Eden glowered at the she-wolf.

"There's a certain vampire here trotting around." Thea pointed at Kyle, who was talking animatedly with a group of five people. "He's not any wolf's mate. I thought we were making new friends, like..." She leaned and looked at the human expectedly.

"Marley." Marley finished.

"Cute name just like you."

"Get away from her!" Eden glared at Thea and pulled Marley more into him. "And she doesn't like to be called cute!"

Marley frowned at her boyfriend, who never left a chance to call her cute.

"Damn it Eden, didn't you get over your whole I'm-not-into-this-mate-stuff phase?" Thea chuckled, seeing her fellow Alpha so smitten. But she knew no matter what these wolves say before finding their mate, in the end they always end up like this possessive fool. She had witnessed many cases in her 20 years of life. Plus, she couldn't really blame Eden, if Marley was hers, she'd be fawning at the human too.

"You two seem like good friends," Marley interrupted, wriggling out of Eden's hold, who still kept one hand on her waist.

"We are." Thea grinned. "You can be my friend too." She added with a wink. Okay, maybe she was purposely nagging Eden, but hell if it wasn't fun.

"Knock it off or I'm going to wipe that stupid grin off you face," Eden threatened, his tone was light but something told he wasn't kidding.

"What kind of a man are you? You're going to hit a lady?"

"No, I'm going to hit the person who's making my girlfriend uncomfortable."

"She's not uncomfortable, you are." Thea laughed. "Afraid that you have a competition."

"Shut up."

Marley watched the exchange between the Alpha and the Alpha-to-be with confusion. Didn't she have to be the one to knight for her mate? It wasn't supposed to be the other way around. When did the tables turn?

However, like Emilia had said, Thea was cool.

*******

Eden opened his bedroom door, carefully balancing the sleeping Marley in his hands. He entered the room and closed the door behind with a leg. He deposited his mate on bed, and covered her with a blanket. She curled in her sleep, missing the warm body of her boyfriend.

The werewolf sighed, looking at the sleeping figure, a bit disappointed. *The things he had planned for tonight...*

At the party, Thea had gathered almost everyone for a 'dare and dare' game -- she believed nobody ever told truth anyway. Eden too enjoyed the game with Marley sitting beside him. Until Thea dared Marley to kiss her. Obviously, that didn't happen. It only shifted Marley's sitting position from beside him to on his lap. Halfway through the game, Marley fell asleep with her back leaning on him. Waking her up hadn't even seemed like an option, when he could just carry her to their room.

To be honest, he was tired too. Both of them had been busy doing pack stuff since they returned from school. Throughout his journey to upstairs, he was yawning. So things weren't going to go according to the plan.

After changing into pajamas, Eden joined Marley. As he rested his hand on her waist, she mumbled drowsily. "We'll start in a minute. We'll do it."

Eden chuckled. "Stop talking sleepy head." He kissed her cheek. "Just rest, I'd rather not make it a chore."

Marley replied something sluggishly, which went right over werewolf's head, before wrapping her arms around him and falling asleep.

*******

Marley jerked out of her sleep alarmed. She turned her head and found Eden already wide awake next to her. Once again a long howl reverberated through the woods outside their room's window.

Before her eyes could register, Eden was already out of the bed, looking outside the window.

"Stop," he ordered when he saw her getting up to join him. "Don't come close."

Marley stopped, watching her mate's alert face. His eyes were moving and focusing on every part of the area.

"Let's go downstairs," he said, and she nodded.

When they stepped out of the room, Oliver was already there.

"Get the others." Eden told Oliver, who nodded and dashed away with his inhuman speed. Eden then turned to Marley. "You'll stay with others, and don't go anywhere alone. Sanjay will be there too."

She could only nod in response, preparing her mind for another struggle.

The time for indulging in party and distractions was over. Grim reality didn't seem that far.

*******