Word count: 4745

"So we have to warn you guys what's going to happen tonight," Harper said from the backseat where she sat with Eden who had a dozing Celie in his lap. "Cel...uh...how do I put this? Gets a little feisty when she drinks too much, and since she'll be in pain and there's going to be lots of booze, I gotta think she's going to be wasted most of the night."

"She doesn't get drunk often," Matt chuckled from the driver seat. "But when she does, it's usually pretty hilarious."

"How feisty?" Porter asked, turning around to grin at Harper.

"Very," Harper laughed. "She gets really ballsy and has no filter."

"She kicked a dude in the nuts last time we went out clubbing because he made his girlfriend cry," Matt said.

"Earlier that same night, she told a girl not to wear gold lame anymore because everyone could see the cellulite on her ass," Harper said. "Then she puts her finger to her lips and whispers in the loudest voice ever, 'Shhhhh! Don't tell your girlfriends I told you, they want to keep it a secret, so they'll look better than you'."

"She totally needed to know that," Celie mumbled. "I did her a favor by telling her."

Porter laughed out loud hearing that.

"And since Tosh will be there tonight..." Harper drifted off.

"Oh my goddess!" Porter was practically giggling. "This is going to be the most fun night of my life!"

"Who's Tosh?" Eden asked.

"My third older sister," Porter said. "Celie is her sidekick, and they're hilarious."

"You've seen how Porter and Cel are together," Harper said, glancing at Eden with a smile. "Imagine a third one."

"Tosha is the loud, crazy one of us," Porter said.

Matt just sighed.

"Half of the times Tosha came out with us I thought for sure we were going to go to jail before the night was over," Matt said shaking his head with a smile.

"This will..." Harper started but Porter's phone rang.

"It's Dad, give me a sec," Porter said, bringing the phone to his ear. "Hey Dad...Yeah, sure, I'll put you on speaker."

Porter pressed the speaker button and held the phone out.

"You're on speaker now, Dad, go ahead," Porter said.

"We have a little bit of a situation here," Alpha Alexander started. "An elder showed up here a little while ago, and I'm not sure how we should approach this."

"What?" Harper said, alarmed. "Why would an elder show up?"

"You're not the only new pack member we have being initiated tonight," Luna Penny said. "The council contacted us a couple of weeks ago and asked if we'd take in a girl who'd been a ward of the council pack for the past four years. She was an orphan rogue who wandered onto the council lands severely injured, running from other rogues. She didn't realize she had run onto the council lands, but the rogues chasing her knew and wouldn't cross into council territory."

"Normally crossing into council territory would be a death sentence to any rogue, you know how well guarded the council pack is," Alpha Alexander continued. "But they saw she was only a juvenile female, and realized she was running for her life, so they took her to the infirmary. She was in terrible shape, covered in wounds and scars, she actually ended up being in a coma for weeks."

"When she finally woke up and was able to speak she told them the most heartbreaking story, which they were mostly able to confirm with her birth pack, then they decided to take her in when she absolutely refused to go back," Luna Penny told them. "She's been their ward ever since; she's trained extensively with their warriors and has actually been the beta trainer for the past year. The council enforcers are the finest fighters in the world, their training makes what the rest of us do look like a children's day camp. She just turned eighteen a few months ago, and when it turned out that her mate wasn't in the council pack, they asked her if she wanted to travel or to join another pack. She said she would like to join a larger pack and the council recommended ours."

"They called us, and naturally, we said she was welcome to join our pack, then we called them a couple of days ago and told them we'd be doing an initiation and could induct her at the same time if she was ready to come," Alpha Alexander said. "Of course, the situation was a little different then and we didn't have as many sirens visiting or we might have held off on bringing her down. We also thought she would be arriving alone; they never mentioned an elder would be escorting her. We even asked how many people would be coming and how many rooms we should prepare, but they only said one, then at the last minute Elder Isaac decided to bring her so he could visit. It doesn't surprise me, I've known Isaac for many years, and we've always been friends, normally I would be happy to see him, but this time it's more...complicated."

"Because if we bring the whole siren crew with us he's going to wonder why so many 'humans' are being allowed to attend an initiation," Harper sighed. "Just great. What should we do? Should we send the sirens back to the house?"

"Well, if we want to speak to an elder and inform the council, now is a good time," Alpha Alexander said. "Out of all the council elders, Isaac is the calmest and least likely to jump to conclusions before assessing the whole situation. I've been thinking that when the time comes to inform them, I would call Isaac first. There's also the issue that if we don't tell him now, when the council does find out we'll have to explain why we didn't tell him when we had the perfect opportunity."

"It might well be time to bring your elders into the situation anyway," Eden said quietly, still trying not to disturb Celie, but she was listening and raised her head. "When last we spoke of it there were no siren elders here, and the situation was not as dire as it is now."

"I agree," Matt said. "We've had casualties since then, and the triton threat seems to be evolving faster than we imagined, I don't think we can keep it quiet much longer anyway."

"Who's the girl?" Harper asked. "I didn't know you had a new pack member coming, you said she's a warrior?"

"Oh yes, an impressive one from what we understand, her name is Lorelai," Luna Penny said. "She's a gorgeous girl, very piercing grey eyes, but there's a stillness about her I've never seen in someone so young. She's been through a lot in her short life, she's only eighteen but I swear the first time I looked in her eyes I would have thought she was ancient."

"Her mother and father were both beta born, her dad was the pack doctor, her mother got sick when she was six and died when Lorelai was eight," Alpha Alexander explained. "You know how it is for mates when their other half dies, they either die, go feral, or take a second mate quickly, which is what her father did. He mated the Luna's sister Elizabeth less than a year after Lorelai's mother died and the woman was a menace apparently, she was only after his money. Elizabeth was as sweet as pie to Lorelai when others were around but was verbally abusive when they were alone. Then she started slowly poisoning Lorelai's dad with wolfsbane, her pack denies this last part of the story, of course. But he died soon after they were married, and Elizabeth thought she was going to be rich. But her father had left everything to Lorelai, and Elizabeth was enraged. When she found out, she attacked Lorelai with a silver knife and even though she was only ten years old, Lorelai was able to fight her off and get away. But since Elizabeth was the Luna's sister, Lorelai didn't think anyone would believe her about what really happened, so she just ran from the pack. She was so badly hurt that the stress of the situation caused her to shift early so she could heal. She lived as a rogue alone after that until she was fourteen and was in wolf form nearly the entire time. She learned to hunt and survive in the wild on her own, learned to fight off the other rogues who thought to prey on her out there by herself. Then she was attacked by several males and was hurt and ran onto the council pack lands trying to escape and the council took her in. The day she turned eighteen she traveled back to her birth pack, challenged her step mother and killed her."

"Wow," Harper said.

"Good for her!" Celie said.

"She must be incredibly strong to shift so early and actually survive." Harper remarked.

"Honey, you have no idea, the girl seems to radiate sheer willpower," Luna Penny replied. "Just wait until you meet her, she's definitely not what I expected, even knowing her history."

"That's part of the reason Isaac wanted to escort her," Alpha Alexander said. "He told me she was almost completely wild when she stumbled into the pack, she was more wolf than human at that point, and they had a very hard time earning her trust. That's one of the reasons he recommended our pack, he thought she'd have an easier time adjusting here than in some of the more hostile packs. He emphasized how important it is to keep bullies far, far, away from her. Especially if they aren't powerful warriors, because no one else stands a chance against her. We don't really have a problem with bullies or abuse in our pack so it shouldn't be an issue. But they still worry she'll hurt, or kill, someone if she gets hazed after arriving and Isaac wants us to watch over her a bit and try to ease her into the pack."

"You think she's dangerous?" Porter interrupted. "Why didn't they tell us that before we agreed to accept her?"

"He didn't say she was dangerous, per se," Luna Penny explained. "Just that she was slow to trust and wouldn't back down from any kind of confrontation. He warned us that because she was alone for so long after her first shift and never socialized, her wolf won't submit to anyone but an alpha without a challenge. As long as no one challenges her, there won't be a problem, but if they do, we should be prepared for a serious fight."

"So she's a hothead," Porter said.

"No," Alpha Alexander said. "I didn't get that impression from her at all, the opposite in fact, more someone who's very calculating and detached."

"Great, a cold blooded killer then," Porter huffed.

"I don't think she's cold blooded, and Isaac didn't make it seem that way either. She's a true wolf, Porter, a werewolf born in the wild with no exposure to other werewolves, a creature born of pure survival instinct. She's not going to step back from anyone not stronger than her, she's not going to lower her eyes, and she'll be offended by anyone who doesn't lower theirs," Alpha Alexander said.

"I don't know, she just seems detached until she's attached." Luna Penny added.

"That makes perfect sense, Mom," Porter snorted sarcastically.

"Actually that does make perfect sense," Celie mumbled against Eden's chest. "She's detached until you give her a reason to get attached."

"Exactly!" Luna Penny exclaimed, before ending the call.

"Don't worry about it, Porter, let her kick someone's ass, then no one else will mess with her. Easy Peasy," Harper chuckled. "This is nothing new, it happens with any new warrior, that's the nature of a werewolf. As soon as one of your hotshots sees how strong she is, they'll try and test her, after it happens once, it won't happen again. You just have to try to keep her from killing them during the challenge."

"I'm gonna love her," Celie decided, then fell asleep.

"Goddess help us," Porter sighed. "Lots of booze, a drunk Celie, unknown sirens, and a new pack warrior who's probably going to challenge someone to a fight."

"Sounds fun," Eden chuckled.

"With the exception of the unknown sirens, this is just another werewolf party," Harper said. "And I'm pretty sure the sirens will be much better behaved than anyone else there."

"Most definitely," Matt chuckled. "We're not nearly as exciting as werewolves."

"On land anyway..." Eden mumbled.

**

Celie woke up slowly, still cradled in Eden's warm arms, but she quickly realized they were no longer moving. She sat up and groaned when a sharp pain shot through her shoulder and temple at the same time.

"Where are we?" Celie mumbled as she looked around groggily, not immediately recognizing the room she was in. "I need a drink."

"Harper said we are in a 'salon'," Eden said, as he smoothed the hair back from Celie's forehead. "You finished your bottle before we got here, so there's nothing to drink except water."

"Eh? What?" Celie asked, then remembered they were stopping at the small hair salon in the pack village to get ready before the party. "Oh my god, my head is killing me...and my shoulder is killing me...Is Porter here?"

"He went to the pack house with Matt to speak to his father," Eden told her. "Harper told me to stay here and get a haircut."

"What?!" Celie jerked up and groaned again. "You are not getting a haircut!"

"Harper said I needed one," Eden tried to explain but Celie was up and looking around.

"HARPER!!!" Celie shouted and staggered out into the main salon area.

Harper jumped out of the stylist chair, the towel falling off her head as she hurried toward Celie with an alarmed look on her face, but she hesitated when Celie pointed at her.

"How could you?!" Celie snapped. "He is not getting a haircut! Don't even think about it!"

"I didn't mean a haircut haircut, I meant a hair trim and style for the ceremony," Harper chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Do you really think I'd do something like that to your mate without your approval? Seriously, who do you think I am?"

"Oh, ok, good, you better not!" Celie said, then flinched again and rolled her neck. "Where's my phone? I need to call Porter."

Harper grabbed her purse, fished the phone out and dialed Porter's number before handing the phone to her.

"Porter! I need you to bring me a bottle of vodka," Celie demanded a second after bringing it to her ear. She paused a moment before snapping, "Did that sound like a question to you? It wasn't. I said, bring me a bottle of vodka! It's not a request! Why are you asking what happened to the one I had at the house? Duh, I drank it all in the backseat before I had my nap, which I just woke up from."

Harper snickered and grinned at Eden who was hovering behind Celie, ready to grab her in case she stumbled.

"I mean it! You have 10 minutes!" Celie snorted. "No, I'm not joking! 10 minutes! I need a bottle of vodka and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

"Peanut butter and vodka?" Harper grimaced. "That sounds disgusting."

"You only think that because you're sober," Celie said, prompting the others in the salon to start laughing.

Celie glanced around smiling as she saw Ara, a few of the siren warriors, and other pack females in the shop but stopped when her gaze fell on a girl she'd never seen before who was sitting at the end of a row. She had shoulder length brown hair with pale grey eyes and was watching the scene with only the barest hint of a smile lifting one corner of her lips.

"Who are you?" Celie said, heading straight toward the girl with a huge smile and her good hand extended. "I'm Celie."

"Lorelai," the girl answered, standing to shake Celie's hand. She was barefoot and nearly as tall as Harper with an athletic build. Her left arm was covered from wrist to shoulder in a brilliant water color wildflower tattoo and her right arm had a phoenix on the inside of her forearm.

"Ohmygod!" Celie squealed. "I heard about you! You're the new warrior girl, right? I'm going to love you, I decided already."

"You did?" Lorelai asked, her smile spreading slowly.

"Yup! I'm going to show you all around Miami and make sure you feel right at home!" Celie said, nodding firmly. "I love your ink work! It's so amazing, if you were from here I'd ask who did it and see if I know them. I'm an artist, I have a gallery in Miami, I can't wait to show it to you!"

"I look forward to seeing it," Lorelai answered.

"That's my mate, Eden. Isn't he a great big giant hottie?" Celie said, turning and pointing proudly at Eden, who winked at Celie and nodded to Lorelai.

"He's definitely a giant," Lorelai said, nodding at Eden. She appeared about to say something else, but then frowned when her eyes moved over the extensive bandaging on Celie's shoulder, arm, and neck. "Who hurt you?"

"Oh, I was clawed fighting a merman," Celie said, as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

Eden closed his eyes briefly and Harper let out a heavy breath as the sirens exchanged a look.

"How much have you had to drink, Celie?" Lorelai asked. She appeared amused, but there was still a seriousness in her eyes as they moved over Celie's shoulder again.

"Not enough," Celie snorted, wincing. "But I'll fix that if Porter hurries the hell up and gets his sorry ass over here with my bottle of vodka. Where's my phone?"

"I'm sure he's on his way, Cel," Eden said, trying to lead Celie to an open chair a little further away, hoping to distract her from continuing the conversation.

It didn't work.

"Have you met Porter?" Celie asked, leaning around Eden's arm to continue her conversation with Lorelai.

"Not yet," Lorelai answered.

"Oh, I can't wait to introduce you! You'll love him!" Celie beamed. "Port is totally amazing, he's like my little brother! I have the most fun ever with him, he's tied for my second favorite person in the world!"

"Tied for second?" Eden asked, his eyebrow raised at her. "Who's first?"

"You're first, Silly," Celie answered. "Well, you're tied for first with Harper, Porter is tied for second with Matt."

"I can live with that," Eden laughed.

"You better!" Celie winked at Eden before turning back to Lorelai and shook a finger at her. "Just be careful and don't let Porter talk you into shagging him. He promised me he's going to lay off the slutting around and focus on finding his mate. I'm going to hold him to that too! But he's a dude, so you know he won't be able to do it without help."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Lorelai said, as she struggled to keep a straight face.

"That'll be harder than it sounds," Celie told her seriously. "He's as cute a big ole button, and as sweet as pie! He's smart and funny and a super-warrior, but he's also just really, really easy."

Harper blew out a deep sigh and put her hands over her face as everyone in the shop choked and coughed.

"Cel, maybe you shouldn't tell people that before they meet him," Harper suggested, staring hard at Celie.

"Why not?" Celie asked, clueless. "Everyone knows, I'm sure she'll hear about it soon anyway."

Harper started to try again when the door to the shop flew open and a young woman with mocha skin and a riot of curly black hair stepped in and raised a bottle of vodka above her head with a whoop.

"Where's my girl?" she shouted staring around the room.

"TOSHA!!!!!!!!" Celie screamed and tried to lift her own arms, only to yelp when pain shot through her shoulder again and Eden scooped Celie up into his arms and brought her to a chair.

"Celie!" Harper immediately rushed over to check her bandage.

"Oh My Goddess Cel!" Tosha gasped, horrified to realize she caused her friend pain.

"Gimme that vodka, Tosh," Celie said through her clinched teeth.

"It's going to be a long night." Harper groaned.

"It's going to be amazing," Celie said as she drank straight from the bottle, then burped.