“It wasn’t supposed to be a lie—”
“Why haven’t you gone looking for him?”
Like that hadn’t crossed my mind before. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. And I promised him I’d stay here. Look after the others. The pack.”
“You wouldn’t be able to find him by your mystical moon connection?”
“My mystical—Jesus. Stop calling it that!”
“He gave you a wolf made of stone that essentially promised him to you forever,” she said flatly. “If that’s not a mystical moon connection, then I don’t know what is.”
“Sort of what it is,” Robbie said, wincing as I glared at him. “Sorry, Ox.”
“So you’re just going to sit here and do nothing,” she said, sounding strangely disappointed.
“I’m not not doing nothing.”
“Your English is so good,” Rico said.
“You’re not finding him!”
“He made his choice,” I snapped.
“And you’re just going to let it happen?”
“It’s already been happening. Just because you’re finding out about all of this now doesn’t mean the rest of us haven’t been dealing with it for years.”
“I don’t understand why you haven’t done anything about it. About him.”
“What could I have done?” I asked, voice harsh. “There were obviously things that were more important than others.”
For the first time since she’d walked into the shop, Jessie’s face softened. It was close to pity, and I didn’t want that from her.
“Look, it’s—”
“Ox, I don’t know that anything was more important than you.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Maybe you didn’t see it, but I did. The way he looked at you.” Her smile was sad. “You were everything to him. And I don’t think that’s changed.”
“You can’t know that.” I pulled my hand away. She frowned at me. “We don’t even know if he’s still—” I cut myself off and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s not here. They’re not here. We are. And I have a job to do. Something that I never thought I’d have to do, but there it is. So yes, werewolves are real. Yes, apparently I am the… Alpha. Or something close to it. And I’m sorry you were hurt because of this. But I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“How?” she asked. “You can’t promise anything like that.”
“No,” I said. “But I can do my best. And it’d make things easier if you were one of us.”
“I don’t want to be bitten,” she said quickly. “That’s not—”
“Even a possibility right now,” I said. “But if you agree, if you become part of this, you’ll naturally start to defer to me. I don’t even understand how it works, but it’ll happen.”
“Why don’t we just see how this goes?” Jessie said, but I could already see her agreeing, whether she knew it yet or not.
IT DIDN’T take her long to decide.
Not that I expected it to.
Elizabeth took her into the forest a week later, scolding us not to follow as she needed to talk to Jessie alone, woman to woman. Jessie looked slightly uncomfortable at the thought, but mostly intrigued, so I let it go. Elizabeth wouldn’t hurt her.
They came back four hours later, flushed and bright and happy. Jessie was laughing and Elizabeth was smiling, the lines around her eyes and mouth less pronounced.
“She’ll do just fine,” Elizabeth said to me, trailing her fingers along my shoulders as she passed me by.
And that was that.
OTHERS CAME that year.
After the Omegas had taken Jessie, it’d been quiet, though we’d been prepared. Robbie did his part and kept in touch with those above him. The gruff man. Alpha Hughes every now and then, though I think that was getting more and more infrequent given that he was my Beta now. She never asked to speak to me. I never asked to speak to her. I didn’t know how much longer she’d let this go on. Sometimes at night, I’d lie awake and wonder if she’d come and try to take them away from me. Because I wasn’t really what they needed.
She didn’t, though, even though every day I waited for the other shoe to drop.
They still looked for Richard Collins. And Osmond. And Robert Livingstone. They never found them.
And I think they were still looking for Joe too. Because he was an Alpha that had fallen off the grid. It wasn’t so much about bringing him home as much as it was keeping tabs on him.
Robbie assured me he didn’t relay pack business to anyone who wasn’t pack.
I believed him because I trusted him.
He wouldn’t lie to me. Not about that.
I was sure.
But others came again.
Jessie, who had always been a strong woman, refused to ever be the damsel in distress again. She threw herself into the training with the others, soon surpassing the other humans. The look on her brother’s face the first time she swept his feet out from under him with a well-timed swing of a wooden sparring staff was proud and shocked and slightly angry all at the same time. She’d stood above him, grinning, the staff resting against her shoulder, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead.
“Who’s next?” she’d asked as Rico and Tanner tried to quietly leave without getting noticed.
They were noticed.
Ten minutes later, they were both in the dirt, Jessie crowing above them.
So when others came, we were ready.
But they weren’t Omegas.
The first was just a man.
And he brought news of Joe.
I WAS at the shop late, filling out order invoices for the next month. Chris normally took care of this, but I’d let him off the hook as he’d had a date with a girl from the next town over. It was casual, he’d assured me. At least for now. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it became more than that. Jessie assured me that it was fine, that she was nice and sweet, and to stop worrying about things that hadn’t happened yet.
It didn’t work that way, but it was a nice thought.
I was contemplating packing up and finishing the rest of the invoices the next day. There were already three threatening texts on my phone, one from Mark, the other two from Elizabeth, telling me that if I didn’t get home within the hour, they’d be coming for me. They weren’t idle threats, so I decided to head out.
Just as I switched off the light, there was a knock at the front door of the shop, a sharp rap against the glass.
I paused.
Whoever it was, they weren’t one of mine.
It was after nine. It probably wasn’t someone looking for an oil change.
I picked up my phone and hesitated just a moment. But it was better to be safe than sorry. I pulled up our group message and sent a single word.
standby
I got responses from everyone within twenty seconds. Even Chris. I was pleased, even as I felt the bonds between us all flare. I pushed as much CalmPeaceLovePack back as I could, hoping it’d be enough.
Because it was nothing.
Well. It was probably nothing.