Infinite Harmony by Tammy Blackwell Page B

Scout to have to go in front of the other Pack Leaders injured. They would see it as a sign of weakness, and too many of them would take any sign of weakness as an invitation to Challenge the Alphas. Personally, Joshua thought they were all idiots. Why any of them would want the job of Alpha was beyond him.
    “You good?”
    Scout stretched her arms above her head and did a few experimental twists and shimmies. “Just bruised I think.”
    “Do you need to Change?” Not every Shifter could Change at will, but Scout could, and since the transformation from human to wolf and back again healed all wounds, she often used it in place of a doctor’s visit.
    “Nah, I’m good,” she said. “It’d take something a lot tougher than some gangly Immortal to damage me.”
    They both knew she was lying, but other than a few quirks of his eyebrows, Joshua didn’t comment on it. After talking to Talley, he knew he and Scout needed to have a much more important conversation than exactly how hard he could kick her pasty white ass.
    Makya came back into the kitchen to grab the last box of burgers, and although the Omega had earned Joshua’s trust over the past few years, Joshua waited until he was gone again to say anything.
    “So… I might have screwed up a little,” he said as soon as the door slammed shut.
    Scout slid into a chair a bit more slowly than normal, her hand pressed to her side. “If it has anything to do with flowers, tulle, or cake, I don’t really care,” she said. “Well, I might care a little bit about the cake, but the other stuff can go have sexual relations with itself. I’m completely over this wedding planning stuff.”
    “Maybe I should rephrase. What I meant to say is, ‘I have screwed up royally.’”
    “What do you mean? You don’t screw up. You’re almost as bad as Talley when it comes to always being good.”
    Joshua swallowed down the butterflies threatening to escape his stomach through his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I told Ada Jessup I’m an Immortal.”
    Scout’s eyebrows shot up beneath her bangs. “And she believed you?”
    “Well, she had some pretty compelling evidence with the rapidly healing gunshot wound.”
    “Ada Jessup… isn’t she like twelve or something?”
    Joshua raised his eyes to the ceiling and silently beseeched God to save him from the Donovan family.
    “No, she’s not twelve. She’s eighteen.”
    “Eighteen?” Scout scrunched her eyebrows together. “I thought she was a lot younger than us. I remember sending her dolls and coloring books when she was in the hospital. I swear to God that was like last year or something.”
    He desperately wanted to ask, but he bit it back. Ada would tell him when she was ready.
    He didn’t question his absolute conviction she would be ready to tell him someday, and he would be there to hear it when she was. It was best not to examine those thoughts and feelings too deeply. Talley was right. He was leaning too far as it was already.
    “That’s right,” Talley said. “Ada was the girl we all sent cards to when we were in middle school. She was like eight or something then.”
    The crease between Scout’s eyebrows deepened. “How could that have been ten years ago? Ten years sounds like it should feel like a lot longer.”
    “Just wait until you’ve been around half a century or more. Then the years really start zipping by,” Joshua said, unable to even remember where he’d been ten years ago. In many ways, he was very much still a teenage boy. Not only did he look and physically feel young, he felt mentally young, too. He still got excited over stupid stuff like movies and games, his face still flamed red when talking to a pretty girl, and he still had no idea what on earth he was doing. He was pretty sure actual grown-ups had learned to temper their excitement and embarrassment and knew how to work the mechanics of life. But when old people started talking about how quickly the years zipped