Before he could heart either James or Ares reply to Anya, he heard Dante enter the kitchen. She sounded a little like Jac, but there was some defiant difference between their voices... he wasn't sure how he could tell, or if it was in his head. Pouring a bit of milk into his mug, Gavin turned and leaned his back against the counter. He capped the milk jug and gave Dante a passive nod for a greeting. Her presence bothered him.

Then Jac came in. Gavin stood up straighter and almost let the jug slide off the counter, but he caught it before something catastrophic could occur. The static coming off of Dante was almost palpable, Gavin looked at her crossly- what was her problem? He watched the conversation turn bitter and spiteful. He wanted to grab Dante by the shoulders and shake her. All Jac did was say good morning!

As the sisters glared at each other, Gavin's mug was shaking in his hands with his anger. But he bit his tongue, telling himself to stay silent. A small part of him wished that Ares wasn't there to see that. When Dante took off, Gavin looked at James- waiting to see what he'd do. He heard the door slam as Jac stormed out.

After she had left the kitchen for the second time with her cup of coffee, Gavin followed her, casting Anya an apologetic frown. But he couldn't just let Jac stay upset. He watched Reina with light amusement while she fumbled around the kitchen for breakfast. He thought about wishing to tell her happy birthday, then decided not to distract her... he had something more important to attend to at the moment.

Stop. His wolf barked at him. You're going to get yourself in trouble. Stop. Let her be. It continued to growl. Gavin ignored it- he had done it before, and he found that the more he gave in to what he wanted to do, the easier it became. To his wolf, he was just waiting for said girl to approach and tell him he was her mate- which would hopefully shatter all connections he had with freedom. But to Gavin, damn it, he would go out kicking and screaming first.

"Hey," He said shakily, setting his mug down on a table. He couldn't think of anything to say, but she looked like she needed a hug. A good, solid hug. Shoving the opposing whispers of his wolf, Gavin wrapped his arms around her.

Gavin walked in the front door, taking a passive notice that Jac's motorcycle wasn't outside yet. Good. It gave him time to change. He came in and shut the heavy door behind him. Excitement rippled through his spine, it often did before a party. It was intensified by the moon nearing its fullest glory. Oddly, this was the best time to be out at a party. To Gavin, while transforming was painful, there was something liberating about it. To be such a... powerful being. And while the urge to let his wolf free danced at the surface of his skin as something falsely rapturous, Gavin never let himself get passed the point of truly poor judgement around the humans. Never.

He wandered up the stairs to his bedroom, his mind swimming in anticipation of the bonfire. He opened his backpack and stared at the rose in his backpack. It had already started to wilt, and its scent was only faint, having absorbed the other scents of its holder. Gavin hated the rose. It told him without words the reality he did not want to face. Ever. He thought about setting the damn thing on fire. Then decided against it, and shoved it under his pillow instead.

Tonight was, quite possibly, his last night of freedom. Of true freedom. The next party wouldn't be until next week, and by then surely whoever he was meant to be with would inform him. Just to get her stupid wolf. Then she'd put him on a leash and probably never let him have any fun again. While he never let himself indulge in who his mate could be, Gavin did so now. He mentally sorted through each girl in the pack- Lyra, Reina, Kathy, Anya, Dante- (he wouldn't let himself think of Jac). Lyra would be the most difficult to swallow. He admired her- his wolf admired her. She was a fine young woman, with passionate drive... But she was too much into controlling and leadership. He liked her, but could he love her? Reina, a trouble maker for sure, and still more liberating. Probably more tolerant of his frowned-upon behavior. He could be content with her. Kathy was pretty, and he thought her clumsiness was cute. Though he felt like if he was with her, he'd always have to be around. Anya would be fine, she deflected his mother with ease-so did Jac- which would make holidays more tolerable. She was, no doubt, a fine young woman- they all were.

Dante. Gavin's insides seared. There was no possible way it would be Dante. If it was Dante, he'd... he'd...

Gavin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his freckled nose. He decided he was thinking about this too much. Tonight was supposed to be fun, and he was already going downhill. Instead he let himself think that it was Jac- even if just for tonight. His anger suddenly vanished and he quickly changed into a pair of shorts and one of his band tees- tonight was an Escape the Fate kind of night. He snickered at the irony.

Backpack ready, Gavin shut his door and headed downstairs to the porch to meet Jac. Between the time he got to the house and was in his little mental turmoil, Jac had come home. A big grin that couldn't be repressed spread over his face when he saw her standing there out on the porch. He swung the door open and stepped out.

"Hey, you ready?"

Reina strolled leisurely in up to the pack house. Waving goodbye to her friends she took the steps two at a time and burst into the house. Ray bounced into the kitchen and began to dig through the fridge. Shifting aside the celery and apples Ray found a jar of peanut butter lurking at the back of the fridge. Ray grabbed a spoon and started to eat it straight from the jar.

Reina had ditched school for the second half of the day after showing up late in the morning. She had absolutely no doubt that she was going get detention tomorrow. But Ray was always in trouble for one reason or another so it didn’t bother her. Reina spotted Dante and James and strolled over, peanut butter jar in hand. She had yet to actually talk to Dante. Ray wasn't quite sure of what to make of her. On the one hand she already had one enemy in the pack,and Ray disliked anyone who was mean to people in her pack. But Ray didn't know the whole story and if Dante was going to be in the house for a while Ray figured she should get to know her.

Ray grinned as she approached the two, “Hey guys, what you up to?” Ray knew that the full moon was coming up. She couldn’t help but wonder if some of the older girls had figured out their mates. After all, a few people had been spending a lot of time together. It would be nice to have a few girl werewolves in the house for a change.

"Hold on a second." Gavin said, and turned to Dante, sitting across from James on the porch. Now that he knew more about... what had happened, he felt a little more like he understood Dante's pain. Though he'd never say it like that to her, that was a recipe for disaster. He shared a quick glance with James before clearing his throat and looking at Dante.

Damn, her and Jac really did look alike...

"I'm sorry, Dante, for being unnecessarily rude to you since you arrived." His eyes didn't leave her. "That is all." He wanted to say more, but wasn't sure what would cause an uproar, so he settled on this simple apology. Without really giving her time to respond, Gavin smiled in that boyish way of his and left to follow Jac into the house.

"If I remember correctly, it's a formal dress code, right?" He asked, looking down at his beach wear. "I don't want to stand out too much. And you might want to change, too."

Tai stepped outside with a handful of broken down cardboard cartons for recycling, and noticed Dante standing alone...with Jacquelin gone.

"Hi Dante," she said, "you alright out here? Did you see where everyone else went? People are flitting about all over the place tonight! I promise you it's not normally like this...well, not with everyone anyway."

Jeff smiled and nodded. "Yeah, he doubted himself plenty in his time, but things have a way of falling into place. But part of Adrian's success was that he wasn't afraid to let the pack see him in his weak moments. There's something to be said for that. Remember, you don't have to be the best of the best all the time."

He patted his hand on James' shoulder and looked over at Duncan, who had been one of the first young wolves he'd taught at the community school after becoming a teacher. It had been fairly clear he'd always be a ripe candidate for beta. He walked over to him, snatching up a breaded cheese-stick on the way and dipping it in some guacamole.

"Hi Duncan," he said, "you well? How is your father doing these days?"

-------

The doorbell went again, only this time Adrian was busy laying out some more food to put in the oven, having just heard that a few more people were on their way, and noting that Tai was busy. He leaned out of the door and looked across the hallway for anybody who looked available.

"Anya!" he said, recognising the blonde and red, "Could you do us a favour and get the door? Just this once. Thanks!"

--------

Tai raised an eyebrow at Dante. Jac had left? Sure, the girl was...passionate, but would she really just pack her things and go? Or was this just a spat? She chewed her lip a moment, balancing the need to reassure Dante and to find out if Jac running off was anything to worry about seriously.

"Don't worry Dante," she said as calmly as she could, "I'm sure this is very new for both of you. People don't always act rationally when things change and nothing is more emotionally charged than family. Did she say where she might go?"

--------

Outside on the doorstep Tabby buried her hands in her pockets and stepped away from the door, having just rung the bell. The house really was quite impressive; how many people lived here? She didn't know if it looked much like the big house on the edge of her home town which had a similar sort of arrangement, but a part of her felt that coming here might feel a bit like fulfilling her lifelong wish of seeing inside that house back home. It just seemed so uncanny that there would be such a similar set-up.

She wasn't too worried about the people. That girl Lyra had seemed really nice, and the blonde one too who's name she couldn't remember or hadn't caught at the time. From outside she could hear music so the party was clearly underway, and she'd seen some people going in as she'd walked up the driveway. The only doubt in her mind was that she hadn't really been able to change into anything suitable for a party; she was just wearing skinny jeans, a black vest top under a black denim button-shirt. Hopefully people would cut her some slack for difficult circumstances.

Whatever happened, this would be more interesting than another evening having a greasy restaurant meal with Lance and pretending that she wasn't pissed off with him for taking her on this wild goose chase.

"Sure thing." Adrian said forthrightly, "Tai will probably have to stay here and hold the fort, I'll just go and let her know what we're doing, I'll meet you out the front."

He quickly turned and strode through to towards the kitchen, where he'd last seen his mate heading. He didn't feel any qualms about leaving Duncan for a moment; the man was strong and didn't need to be handled with kid gloves. At the same time, much like Adrian himself, Duncan had a very strong relationship with his father. The thought gave him pause on the way...what would it be like when Cid Khöller's time came to pass? He felt a pang of guilt...it had been too long since they'd had the old man up to the pack house to visit. Cid had been a well loved alpha, and it wasn't an exhaggeration to say that a lot of people in the pack owed him their lives for what he did almost twenty years ago. Adrian felt a slight lump forming in his throat. Duncan was making the most of what could be the last days or even hours with his own father. Adrian should seek to do the same, no matter how long was left.

"Tai sweetheart," he spoke into the kitchen, "I'm going down to town with Duncan. It's his father. It doesn't sound good."

Tai looked around with genuine concern, and nodded. "Of course. Definitely you should go with him. Oh gosh, take your time, don't hurry back. I'll get things cleared up here. And stay in touch OK?"

"Naturally." Adrian said, giving her a soft kiss before going out into the hall, grabbing his jacket and stepping out the front door, where the SUV was parked not far away.

---

Tabby laughed at Kathy's remark, though it seemed to her like most of the teens in the room were girls so she hoped that the uncivility of mealtimes was a relative thing! She also turned to Dante, starting to feel a lot more relaxed and quite enjoying being made a bit of a fuss of (though she hoped it was not at the expense of Reina for it being her birthday!).

"Hi, Dante? Cool name!" she exclaimed.

"I know Rory..."

Tabby recognised Gavin's voice and glanced down at the floor to prevent anyone from seeing her face falling. She wasn't sure whether she was glad or not that he'd come back now...it sure would have been a long wait to hear him out in the morning, but a part of her had been glad to be lost in the celebrations and escape into them to delay the coming explanation. And it didn't help that he was confessing to know that strange kid...hopefully he would either turn out not to be Rory's friend as such, or else he would be able to point out some significant redeeming features the self-professed 'werewolf' might have.

It was probably for the best that Lyra agreed to relinquish Tabby, before leaning in to whisper something discreet to Gavin. Tabby wasn't actually that curious about what it might be. She only felt like she had it in her to allow Gavin to give one explanation; whether Gavin allowed other people to influence what he told her was up to him. She'd listen, and judge him by what he said.

"Great to meet you all," she addressed everyone standing nearby, then looked at Lyra, "my uncle Lance said he'd drop some of my things off at some stage...if the offer of staying over is still good that is. I think he's going to grab a room in one of the pubs himself."

Slowly she turned to Gavin and made a concerted effort to look him in the eye. Once again, it was beyond denying that he was who he claimed to be. All the distinctive features of his face were present, just in an older package. Her lips thinned and she swallowed hard.

"OK." she said blankly, "Where shall we go?"