Chapter Five

Emily stared at the new girl in awe. She wasn't russet skinned like them, but she wasn't white. She was tanned but...she didn't look like them. Curiously, she turned her gaze to Collin. A dopey smile had settled upon the wolf's face, and he looked ecstatic. Beside Emily, Kim vibrated with happiness. A new imprint was exactly what they needed. It sure as hell would help with the cooking, if anything.

"Whose this, Collin?" Emily asked sweetly, settling her plate of muffins on the table as quietly as possible. The new girl – nearly as tall as Leah – cocked an eyebrow and peered up at Collin.

"This is my friend, Laura. You know." He shrugged helplessly, grin turning from dopey to sheepish. He watched Emily's hesitant, friendly smile fall into a mask of...nothingness.

"Laura? I thought she was gone."

"She is standing right here and can totally speak for herself, you know?" Laura interrupted, eyebrows at her hair line as she stared at the scarred woman. Her first thought was that perhaps the lady was pretty. Her unscarred portion of her face certainly was. At the moment though, Laura wasn't so certain.

"Right..." Kim muttered, turning and retreating back to the kitchen.

Emily snorted softly, a noise that wasn't heard from her unless one of the boys – or Leah – had smashed something in her house. "Oh? Really? Well unfortunately Laura, I wasn't talking to you." Emily's voice was deceptively quiet and sweet.

Laura smiled, showing teeth. In the corner, Seth bristled and curled his own lips back. Laura didn't understand what the hell his problem was, but she didn't push it. The guy was huge. "No, just talking about me. Collin said he had the perfect place for dinner, didn't realize we would be being served by bitches."

Leah snorted in the other room, choking on her bottle of coke. The shewolf sauntered through the door, coughing and still slightly oozing brown sticky pop from her nose. "You know, if she wasn't who she was, I think I'd like her." She chirped at Collin, voice scratchy from her near coke related death experience.

Collin's brow furrowed and he slipped forward. Not standing in front of Laura, but ahead of her, to the side. "I thought you would like her." His voice was strained as he looked around at his pack. They hadn't acted that violently to Seth's girlfriend.

Leah pulled a face and shrugged, spitting some excess coke into the sink.

"Look Collin, you're hot and all." Laura clapped her hand against his ass, pulling his attention back to her. "But I don't have to put up with this shit." She said cheerily. "So I'm going to walk back to my hotel and you can tell Jake to shove his jo-"

A hand curled over her mouth and lips pressed to the back of her head. "Tell Jake to what?" The alpha asked, amusement in his voice. "Better not be tellin' Jakey to shove his job up his ass, cause it wouldn't fit and we need a pretty face to get more men in the shop."

From behind his hand, Laura asked "Isn't your ass pretty enough?"

Jacob roared with laughter and let her go, patting her atop the head. "I'm not Sam." He told his pack, rather than just Collin alone. "And I'm not going to deal with this. Be nice."

He could practically hear Emily grinding her teeth.

And if Emily poured so much pepper onto Laura's plate that she couldn't eat and went home starving, well, that was an accident. That Collin spent his hard earned money buying his...old fling some dinner, well that was an accident.

And Kim would vouch for her, too.