Page 4 of Same Thing
Liam sighed and hooked his free hand on his hips, frowned out the window of his bare one-bedroom apartment. He could see the mailboxes from here, and a flash of that woman from earlier washed across his mind. She was a looker.
He ticked up the corner of his lips and told Nate, “I’ll pick a good one. I want the Pack steadied out more than you or Dodger, or Tabian, or anyone else. Why do you think I’m hosting Arrangements? Do you think I want that? The Elders’ rules say the Alpha has to be paired, so I’m minding the freaking rules. If she wants to meet me tonight though, she’s got to come out here. I’ll be slammed until the end of the weekend.”
“Fuck, man. This one is a spitfire.”
“Well, you were named Second so you can handle the stuff I can’t get to. I don’t even have her number. You and the elders have been arranging these. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to.”
Nate snorted. “You’ve met three Arrangements, and told them all to piss off, one by one.”
“Well, they weren’t my type.”
“I don’t think that’s the point of all of this.”
“Well, I have to live with them, so it’s a big enough point for me. Why don’t you shock me and send me a potential mate that doesn’t act like she’s queen of our Pack already. Some humility would be nice, I’m just saying.”
“Liam,” Nate uttered tiredly.
“The last one scraped her teeth against the fork every time she took a bite of food.”
“Oh my God, Liam, that is not a deal breaker.”
“Okay well she also told me I will be giving her a four thousand dollars a month allowance because she, and I quote, is ‘too pretty to be trapped in a cubicle.’”
“Oh,” Nate muttered. “Why didn’t you lead with that one?”
“Female werewolves are all the same.”
“Not Delta.”
“Well then you got lucky. I’ve got to go. Text me if the elders say the Arrangement still wants to meet tonight.”
“Liam?”
“Yeah?”
Nate inhaled deeply. “They’re saying this is the last one they will Arrange before they choose one for you. They’re really,reallypushing for this one to work.”
Great. Liam gritted his teeth and then hung up the phone before he lost his shit on Nate. It wasn’t his Second’s fault.
Honestly, he had no one to blame but himself. He hadn’t chosen a mate before he Challeged the last Alpha of their Pack for the rank. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to Challenge at all if he was unpaired, but well…that had all gone down out of necessity, and now he was trying to play catch-up. Or rather, the Elders who presided over all of the werewolf Packs in Idaho were trying to catch him up.
Werewolves and their Pack rules.
And now here he was, in complete chaos, trying to figure out the next month of his life while running the Pack, and the Elders were going to choose a mate for him?
God, he hoped the Arrangement tonight wasn’t like the others.
He looked around the small apartment and narrowed his eyes at the four boxes he’d brought from his house. They were making this place smell like smoke, so he was putting off unpacking. The apartment was furnished, thank goodness, but he would need to go to the store across the street and grab some bedding, and some food to fill the pantry.
On the table sat the stack of mail the pretty woman had left at the mailbox. She’d seemed unnerved by that asshole who was bothering her and must’ve left her mail in a panic.
He picked up the small stack and read the apartment number. 3012.
Puffing air out of his cheeks, he grabbed the keys off the counter and made his way outside and strode for the next building over.
He’d seen a picture of the Arrangement tonight, and yeah, she was gorgeous, but that was all she-wolves. They all looked the same to him. It was the culture to be perfectly kept. They also seemed shallow to him though. Always had. That was the part he was having trouble with.
He climbed the stairs two at a time and squared up to apartment 3012. He knocked twice and waited. And waited.