Den life was getting worse, and there was nothing Wyatt or Willa could do. The pack was dying. And now that the moonstone is officially gone, so many wolves were losing hope, and had lost their will to beat the sickness.
Willa grabs her brother's elbow, stopping him from leaving the kitchen. Neither would admit it, or let it show, but the moonstone sickness was taking a toll on them too. They could not let it show though. The pack needed them to be healthy, to take care of them in their time of need.
"Wyatt," she whispers. She steps closer, her head ducked down so only he could hear. "What are we doing?"
"What…what do you mean?"
"We don't have a plan, Wyatt. What are we supposed to do? What…what happens when one of us gets too sick to help the others?"
"We…I don't know." He swallows, eyes roaming over his sister's worried face. She poses a lot of good questions, ones that neither of them would ever know the answer to. Someday soon, their pack would be nothing more than a memory.
"We'll just have to deal with this one day at a time," he finished.
"Yeah, yeah okay." She nods, stepping towards the supply cupboard. "I'll be out in a sec with more blankets."
Wyatt nods, grabbing a few bowls and heading out. He had been doing the same juggling act all day, literally. Balancing full bowls of soup was no easy task, and was the only lighthearted thing he could do in that situation.
Wolves are seated throughout the den, shivering, coughing, huddling together for warmth and comfort. He let his packmates take soup from his arms. He hasn't even made it into the main room, where most of the pack is.
The last bowl goes to Wren. She drinks straight from the bowl hungrily, her long hair falling in her face.
"Hey, hey, slow down," he says gently. He takes control of the bowl, slowly easing the specially made soup into her mouth. "Yeah, just like that." He smiles at her. "You got it. I'll be right back, okay?"
She nods. He leaves her to finish off her soup, seeing Willa entering the main room with a blanket. She drapes a blanket over Wendi's shoulders. Wyatt opens his mouth but freezes for a moment, something foreign in the den drawing his attention.
He turns and sees none other than Zed Necrodopolis. Football star. Presidential hopeful. Moonstone thief. Dream crusher. And he's walking towards them, purposeful. Wyatt nudges his sister just as Zed stops before them.
He takes a deep breath, then says, "They were wrong to destroy Seabrook power, and…and I was wrong about werewolves."
Wyatt's brows jump in surprise. He glances at Willa, both of them equally shocked. How often did people change like this?
"You have every right to fight for who you are," Zed continues.
Wyatt resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah, but what are we now, Zombie?"
"You're fierce, proud werewolves!" Zed argues, gesturing wildly.
Willa steps forward like she always does. She'll go down protecting the pack, protecting Wyatt, no matter what. "Yeah, they think we're monsters," she says.
Then Zed smirks, confusing them both. "We are monsters," he says.
The twins share a confused and intrigued look.
"What are you talking about, Zombie?" Willa asks.
"Ready to break some rules?" Zed asks, grinning. "Us zombies? We're crashing Prawn tomorrow night. You guys in?"
No. No way were they "in." They were so far from in, they were…out. Zed had caused them so many problems. Why had they even let him in the den? This would just cause more problems, which they didn't need. Everyone was getting sick.
"What's a 'Prawn?'" Willa asks.
Wyatt whips around, staring at her. She was considering it?
"You—"
"Are thinking," Willa says. "We have duties here, Zed. Our pack—"
"They're sick, I know," he interrupts. "And, because of me and my stupid decisions, they aren't gonna get better." He had that right, at least. Wyatt fixed his eyes on Zed, who's smiling, pleading. "Think of it as a…a final blowout. An apology, or whatever. Just one last party. It'll be fun, we get to stick it to the man, and... That's it."
"Very articulate," Wyatt grumbles.
Willa glares at him. She turns to face him, stepping closer, blocking Zed out of their conversation. "Don't be so rude, Brother," she whispers. "It's a party."
"Our pack is dying."
"And they deserve something fun." They glare at each other for several tense seconds. "Look, Wyatt, whether you like it or not, things aren't gonna get better. The least we could do is give them something to remember."
He sighs. She did have a point. Plus there wasn't much room to argue with the Alpha.
They turn back to Zed, Willa nodding. "Let's do it."
Zed grins, no fear or worry in his eyes. "Awesome! I'll go tell Eliza!" He starts to turn, then stops and asks, You guys have formalwear, right?"
There wasn't much to know about human culture except how utterly weird it was. According to Zed, human high schools had these dances—one at the beginning of the year that Zed had missed because he was in Zombie Containment, and one at the end. Everyone had to dress fancy, in things they don't even wear more than once. No one really knew why they were such a big deal, but they were. Especially in Seabrook, because they had their supersized end of year dance, Prawn.
"You're sure this is some big party and not some lame gathering?" Willa asks.
Zed opens his mouth but Eliza jumps in before he can even talk. "We've never been to Prawn. But, even if it's lame, zombies have a way of… livening things up." She cackles and Zed laughs right along with her, giving her a fist bump..
Wyatt raises an eyebrow at his sister. Those two were so lame.
"So we're crashing a party... that might not even be worth crashing?" Willa asks.
"We're crashing a party solely because they don't want monsters there," Zed states.
"And because Addison is gonna be there," Eliza adds.
Zed elbows his friend, shooting her a glare that doesn't get past Wyatt. He had already figured part of this was because of Addison; it wasn't a secret that Zed was insane about her. It was more surprising that this was the first time Addison had come up all day.
"What happens if we get caught?" Willa asks.
"We won't," Zed says.
"Unless someone pulls the Z-Alert," Eliza adds. "Then the Zombie Patrol will come and cart us off to Zombie Containment. Don't know what'll happen to you guys."
"Eliza," Zed complains. "Go be a Debbie downer somewhere else. We are trying to get ready for the best night of our lives."
Eliza growls something in what Wyatt assumes is old zombie tongue, walking toward the other side of the den. Zed calls after her and blows a kiss, which she just snarls at. When Zed turns back to them, he's laughing, shaking his head.
"Okay," Willa drawls. "Don't know what just happened but, I'm gonna…go finish getting ready over there." She stands, elbowing Wyatt's face. "Be back in a bit."
"Yeah yeah."
She rounds the corner and disappears into the den, away from the main floor, where zombies and werewolves were getting dressed and chatting. The whole ordeal feels odd, stirring something troublesome with Wyatt, but he ignores it. Happy evening to come. Zed seems oddly confident in their party crashing abilities.
Zed huffs and Wyatt looks toward him, watching as the zombie buttons his shirt, effectively choking himself. Zed's frowning, deep and annoyed. From what Wyatt knew, that wasn't normal. Zed wasn't one to go from joking to serious so fast.
"You okay, Zed?" Wyatt asks.
Zed looks down and smiles. If Wyatt wasn't so intuitive, he wouldn't have noticed how forced it was. Wolf senses. And little brother intuition.
"Yeah, why?" Zed asks.
"You seem tense. And it looked like you're err trying to choke yourself with your shirt."
Zed laughs. "I'm just getting dressed. You should button up too, you know."
Wyatt stands, looking Zed in the eye. "I may not like you," Wyatt says, "but I can tell you're hiding more than you're letting on."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Wyatt just raises an eyebrow at Zed. Zed would stop bullshitting him at some point, hopefully tonight. Except Zed didn't have a reason to talk to Wyatt. He had no need to be nice to him or even be sneaking them into Prawn.
"Sorry, Sorry," Wyatt mumbles.
Zed hums in response. He pulls a rolled up piece of fabric out of his pocket, holding one end and letting the rest unfurl. Wyatt stares, confused, until Zed catches him and raises an eyebrow.
"What? You think it's ugly or something?"
"No." Wyatt shakes his head. "I just—what is that?"
"What?"
"What are you doing with that?" Wyatt asks. "Aren't you all done getting dressed?"
"You…you've never seen a tie before?"
Wyatt narrows his eyes, shaking his head. A tie? What even was that? Zed chuckles, shaking his head. "Lucky you, I brought two. Both I stole from my dad, 'cause I didn't know which would match my outfit."
"Okay?"
Zed drapes the "tie" on Wyatt's shoulder, pulling out another one—deep red, like his pants, with grey lines cross crossing. The "tie" on Wyatt's shoulders was just dark purple.
"Alright," Zed says. "Ties are super important in looking fancy. That's what my dad told me when I was seven. Gotta dress to impress."
"Uh, okay."
"Humans hate monsters," Zed states. "They hate zombies. My dad says that the less things we give them to hate, the better."
Wyatt eyes him suspiciously. "I'd guess this is the same dad that destroyed our moonstone?"
"We don't talk about that," Zed says, grinning.
Wyatt can't help but laugh a little. "Okay, okay. Dress to impress. Ties. Continue."
"Ready to learn how to tie it?"
"I…guess?"
Zed laughs. "Okay. Lay it upside down." Wyatt nods, following Zed's directions. "Take the fat side, and put the skinny over on top of it."
Zed mutters the rest of the directions, his fingers moving quickly as he ties an expert knot. Wyatt tries to follow, his brows scrunching together in frustration. Something went wrong, some knot or something. Either way, Zed laughs when Wyatt huffs in annoyance and effectively gives up.
"This is stupid," Wyatt pronounces.
"Not stupid, it's easy." Zed untangles Wyatt's knot. "Start again, you got it dude."
"Why do I even need this stupid thing?" Wyatt complains.
"It'll make you look fancy," Zed says. "Plus, girls love ties."
"No they don't!" Eliza calls from across the den.
Zed whips around and shouts, "Shut up!" He turns back to Wyatt and rolls his eyes.
"You guys have a weird relationship."
"Hush, tie." Zed straightens out the fabric. "I can teach you how to do it later, but we gotta leave soon."
"Right. Right."
Zed grabs the ends and slowly starts tying it for him. "Anyway. Girls do love ties. And guys. I think. No idea, actually."
Wyatt raises his eyebrows. Zed was…a little weird. Nice, but still weird.
Zed smiles wistfully. "Addy loves ties, man." Wyatt nods. It was only a matter of time before Zed brought up Addison, his girlfriend (or ex, or whatever was going on with them).
"Right, of course," Wyatt says. He chokes for a moment when Zed pulls on the end.
"There you go." Zed smiles. "You look snazzy. Classy. Pretty hot."
"What?"
Zed just grins. "You look great, for real. Now tuck your tie into your vest, grab a coat, and the look is all yours." Zed pinches his fingers together, kisses them, and then tosses them dramatically away from his lips, making Wyatt laugh.
"You're gonna get all the ladies, and or gents," Zed says, winking and slinging an arm over Wyatt's shoulders.