“They’re all hilarious,” she mumbled as she sat upright. Trick and Tao each scooted over a little so that she had room to stretch her legs out.
“How are you feeling?” asked a voice to her right as a finger trailed down her cheek.
She looked up to see Grace. “Fine, thanks.” It was only then that she realized that they were all gathered around her. She understood what this meant. Not only had they been offering her comfort, they accepted her as a member of the pack. Temporary member of the pack, she reminded herself.
“You look better,” said Tao.
“How long was I out?” she asked no one in particular as she stretched her arms which were a little stiff from her fetal position.
“About an hour,” replied Dante.
“You should have woke me, I didn’t need to sleep that long.”
Tao, who was rubbing his jaw against her knee, asked, “Do you always need sleep after you use your gift?”
She shook her head. “I was just tired because Trey had so many injuries, even though they weren’t fatal. Where is Flinstone anyway?”
Dante suddenly seemed a little uncomfortable. “He went to have a shower and um…he’s probably making some calls or something in his office.”
In other words, he hadn’t reappeared to check on her. Why should he though?
“You need anything?” asked Grace. “Coffee or something?”
Taryn waved her hand. “I can get it, I’m fine.”
“No,” they all said in unison before Grace rushed from the room.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not an invalid.”
“No,” agreed Lydia, “but you’re our Alpha female which means we look out for you.”
“Come on, you know it’s only temporary, you don’t need to take things so far.”
“Then let us just do it temporarily.”
“Is there anything else you want?” asked Grace as she handed her a huge mug of coffee.
Taryn took the mug gratefully and sipped from it. “Actually, I was wondering if any of you have a computer I could use once I’ve had a shower.”
“I do,” said Rhett. “It’s in my room.”
“Then let’s go.” Seeing that they were all ready to object to her moving just yet, she held up her hand. “I said I’m fine. As much as I appreciate the concern, I’m going to need you all to stop fussing.” Wearing petulant expressions, they gave her space to rise and leave.
A shower and a change of clothes later she was in Rhett’s bedroom. It was smaller than Trey’s and had quite a geeky feel to it. He led her to his ‘IT Corner’ and introduced her to his amazingly hi tech contraption. He had almost every program she could think of, thousands of games, access to all kinds of confidential shit and a mind that worked just as fast as that piece of technology. She didn’t know whether to be impressed or freaked out. “So, in short, you’re a hacker. I can just about manage e-mailing.”
“Hacking’s not as hard as you might think. It’s pretty much like sex – you want to get in and out leaving little trace of you ever having been there. So, what do you need?”
“I just need access to the internet. I’ve probably been disconnected from my old pack web so I’ll need to join yours.”
“Your what?”
“You don’t have a pack web?” Taryn was surprised considering he seemed to have everything else.
He shook his head. “What is it?”
“It’s kind of like a social network but it’s exclusive to whoever is in your pack.”
“A little like Facebook and Twitter.”
“Exactly, only it’s not so much to encourage social interaction as it is to showcase your pack. Let me show you.”
After typing in the http address, Taryn took them to the homepage of USA Pack Webs. Entering her name and password, she was then immediately transferred to a visual of what was termed the Onyx pack web – her old pack. It was a little like looking at an image of the solar system, only instead of the sun being in the center it was a photo of the Alpha, her dad. And instead of planets being dotted around the eight surrounding circles of the sun, individual photos of each pack member were randomly dotted around the circles. Her own photo was set aside as if free floating in space. Oh yeah she’d been disconnected alright.
“Because we’re not part of the pack, we don’t have access to this web which means we can’t see the public blog and add to it, but watch this.” Using the mouse, she moved the arrow to point on one of the photos and instantly the photo enlarged and a little personal information on that pack member came up; it was like looking at a baseball card, only it was referred to as an information card.
Rhett read it aloud. “Full Name: Shaya Critchley. Gender: Female. Age: Twenty-three. Status: Unmated. Rank: Subordinate. Challenges: Four. Challenges Won: Two.”
“That’s all you can know unless you were to gain permission from the Alpha to browse through the pack web.”
He turned to look at her. “Every pack has one?”
She shook her head. “Not every pack. They’re a good thing to have, because not only is it a good way for all pack members to socially interact no matter where they are, but it means that other packs can get a vague idea of how powerful yours is. Look at this.” Taryn pointed the cursor at Lance and instantly a photo popped up with a small amount of personal information underneath.
Again Rhett read it aloud. “Full Name: Lance Kai Warner. Gender: Male. Age: Forty-three. Status: Mate Deceased. Rank: Pack Alpha. Challenges: Twelve. Challenges Won: Twelve. Number of Alliances: Thirty-two. Total Number of Wolves: Twenty-six.” He seemed lost in thought for a moment before turning his attention back to Taryn. “So we could create our own web?”
She nodded. “Easy. You just need to sign up first to USA Pack Webs. You know, this would be a good way to form alliances. Other Alphas now have a way of getting in touch with Trey without risking turning up only to get their head chewed off.”
“How could they contact him?”
“See the option on the top right of the information card, Send Message. The same option is on everybody’s information card. Speaking of which, let me just check to see if I have any.” She double-clicked on her own card and saw a notice that she had fifty-seven messages.
“Fifty-seven?”
“It’ll just be people wanting to know if the mating’s kosher and all that. All I’m interested in is whether Shaya and Caleb have been in touch.” It turned out that they had both been in touch. Again they both expressed concern about her safety and tried convincing her that she was wrong about Trey being her true mate, asking to meet up with her so they could all talk. “I think that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.”