Page 1 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler James

The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, glinting off the tools and engine parts scattered across the concrete floor. Hunched over a vintage Mustang with a wrench in one hand and a rag in the other, I shook my head with a frown.

“Someone sure messed you up, didn’t they, baby? But don’t you worry. I’m going to have you running like a dream again before you know it.”

Then the front door opened with a loud bang, followed by Gamma Landry Benson’s voice echoing through the cavernous garage.

“Yo, Ty! You here, bro?”

“Where else would I be?” I called back, setting the wrench down and wiping my hands on the rag.

Strolling over, Gamma Lan tossed me a bottle of Arizona Sweet Tea, otherwise known as manna from heaven.

“Brought you a snack.”

“Thanks, man.” With a grin, I cracked open the bottle and took a long swig. “Ahh! That hits the spot!”

“And in case you skipped breakfast.” He tossed me a bag of chips as he plopped down on a nearby stool, the springs groaning under his weight.

“Charlie Nelson let one of her babies leave the O without breakfast?” I made a shocked face. “Come on, now.”

Along with thousands of others, Charlotte Nelson had been widowed in the shifter sickness six years ago. Left with two little pups and one on the way, she’d needed a job to provide for them as well as something to keep her too busy to grieve for her mate.

As a delta, she was a rare she-wolf of power, and the alphas at the time decided to promote her to den mother of the pack’s orphanage, and I for one was glad they did. She was organized, had a lot of common sense, and took care of me and the other three orphans as if we were her own.

“Yeah, you’re right. Don’t know what I was thinking,” Gamma Lan chuckled, then gestured towards the Mustang. “This one’s a beauty. New, ain’t she?”

“Yep. Got her in yesterday, and she’s going to be a tough fix. The wiring is a flat-out mess, and pretty much all of the interior is shot, but her body’s rust-free and all original.”

Setting down my tea bottle, I opened the bag of chips. I was still as full as a tick from Charlie’s breakfast of pancakes and sausage less than an hour ago, but I was never going to say no to barbecue chips!

“You’re lucky, bro, getting to work with these old muscle cars all the time.”

“I know it. Alpha Jayden keeps offering me the job at the alpha library—”

“Probably because you’re there all the time,” he snorted.

“Yeah, and I love reading and researching, but I think I’d get bored doing that all day every day. Even though the pay would be better and it comes with a nice apartment, I’m leaning toward staying here at the Busted Knuckle,” I said around a mouth full of chips.

“Then tell alpha that.”

“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted. “I don’t want him to feel like I’m slapping his hand away when he and the other alphas have been nothing but kind and generous to me.”

“Alpha Jay wouldn’t think that.” Gamma Lan shook his head. “None of the alphas would. They love you like a kid brother and want you to be happy. Besides, I can’t see River being content to guard a bunch of dusty old books for the rest of his life.”

I nodded, polishing off the chips. He was right about River. Beta wolves were driven to protect, and mine wasn’t any different. Right now, he was content to be the guardian of the orphanage, but that would change when I turned eighteen and moved into the packhouse.

Unless I’m blessed with a mate. Then home will be wherever she is. I only hope she doesn’t reject me. One look at my back and she might run, and those are just the visible scars...

Stopping myself before my thoughts turned any grimmer, I chugged the rest of the sweet tea, then let out a sonorous burp that Gamma Lan applauded. As I gave him a little bow, Nathan Barlow came out of his office.

“Why are you two still here?” he rumbled. “You’d better skedaddle before you’re late to school.”

“Lost track of time, boss.” I shrugged as I tossed my trash in a nearby can. “Don’t worry, we’re fixing to leave now.”

I’d worked for Mr. Barlow ever since I turned fourteen, caught a ride into the garage with him every morning, and sparred with him at fighter practice throughout the week. Over the years, I’d come to respect him immensely. The man might have a foul mouth and a devilish streak a mile wide, but he also had the patience of a saint and a heart of gold.

Not to mention a daughter who’s the sweetest, most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Not that I’d ever have a chance of being her mate. Girls like her don’t end up with orphan boys who are broken inside and out…

“More like, you started tinkering with this old bitch and found out just what a cruel cunt she is.” Mr. Barlow slapped one hand on the car’s fender. “Never seen such fucked-up wiring in my life.”

“Don’t listen to him, baby,” I crooned to the Mustang. “It’s not your fault that rats made a nest in your engine block.”

“You owe the swear bear fourteen dollars already, Mr. Barlow,” Gamma Lan said with a straight face, “and it’s not even 7:30 in the morning.”

“Son, I owe that damned thing all day long.”

“That’s another two dollars, sir,” I snickered.

With a pretend growl, he slung out one big, tattooed arm to try and catch me in a noogie, but I dodged him and ran over to my backpack, grabbed the handles and slung it onto my shoulders.

“Get your asses out of here, boys, before I whup ’em all the way to school!”

“Add another two bucks, Mr. Barlow!” I hooted as I bolted for the door with a wide grin.

Chuckling, Gamma Lan was right on my heels as we jogged out to his truck, which his older sister Olivia had bought him for his sixteenth birthday.

That was the year the two of them moved out of the O and back to their family home, which Livvy had inherited when she turned eighteen. I missed them a lot, not only because they were good people, but also because they were the only other orphans close to my age. The rest were all under ten, including Charlie’s twins Dawson and Sawyer, who were eight, and her sweet little Honor, who was six.

Good morning, good morning, good morning! an excited baby voice trumpeted loudly.

“Good morning, River,” I replied. “ ’Bout time you woke up.”

“Hey, buddy,” Gamma Lan said. “You sure slept in this morning.”

Me tired. Me and Siddy run last night.

That’s not all you did, pup, grumbled Gamma Lan’s wolf.

Uh-oh. I was getting a bad feeling.

I knew he’d gone for a run. He usually did after a nightmare woke us up from our fitful slumber. I didn’t worry too much about it, not since the first time it happened when I was fourteen. I’d woken up at dawn to find myself in a field far from home and surrounded by ten dead rogues.

Trying to wake River was a lost cause; he was deep into dreamland and no help at all. I’d ended up linking Mr. Barlow, who’d had to drive two hours to reach my location. Taking one look around, he immediately woke River up and put him under an alpha command to never leave the pack territory if I wasn’t awake to give him permission.

After that, I usually trusted Riv since he was confined to the territory. He mostly chased fireflies and rabbits and checked in with the Nightcrawlers, the border patrol shifters who guarded the pack from dusk to dawn. They all knew him on sight by now, and most welcomed his happy presence to break up the long, boring night.

However, put Riv with his bestie Obsidian, better known as Sid, and the Goddess alone knew what mischief they’d get into. Especially if Sid’s human, Alpha Ash, was asleep, too.

“Riv? What did you get up to?”

Nuffin. Went for run, Ty-Ty. Me promise!

Tell him where you ran, demanded Oak before I could.

Hush you mouf, Oak! River snapped, and I hurried to jump in before my wolf’s temper flared.

“Well, where did you go for your run, buddy? I’m curious now.”

We run in fields, and den we find goats, Ty-Ty! Dey so funny! Dey go stiff all over and fall down! Plop, plop, plop! Like dey dead!

As River dissolved into a fit of giggles, Oak explained that Oberon West had called around midnight to complain that something was after his goats, so the gamma wolves went down to investigate and found the two pups having the time of their lives with a flock of fainting goats.

Did they kill any of them? I asked Oak, wincing at the thought of draining my tiny savings account to pay for a bunch of dead goats.

Of course not.

“Dodged a bullet there, Ty,” Gamma Lan laughed.

Despite my exasperation with River, I was glad to see my buddy happy again. While I often worried I’d never be blessed with a mate, he had been, and she’d rejected him immediately.

On his birthday.

In front of half the school in the cafeteria, no less.

Nia Hashimoto had added another layer of humiliation by opening the pack link so everyone would hear her do it, demeaning my friend in the worst way she could while inflicting the most agonizing wound a shifter could suffer.

I didn’t share his lunch period, but alphas Ash and Wyatt did and told me all about it. Not only did she say way more than she should have with human ears listening, she knew that opening the pack link was strictly forbidden unless we were under attack or there was a threat of some kind. She never could stay out of trouble and was still on probation for a stunt she pulled with me two years ago.

The dumb bitch had hidden in my room at the O and gave me a heart attack when I opened my door and found her lying naked on my bed. I’d been so freaked out and worried I’d be accused of something, I’d shifted and let River run to the Busted Knuckle, not knowing where else to go in my panic. The next morning, when Mr. Barlow came into work and found River curled up asleep in the back seat of a 1970 Oldsmobile 442, he’d forced the story out of me.

The second I was done talking, he’d stormed out of the garage and hunted Nia down, then dragged her by the hair all the way to the alpha offices for punishment with the warning that if Alpha Mase didn’t “yank her baldheaded,” he’d do it himself.

Needless to say, I’d steered clear of her after that.

The day after she rejected Gamma Lan, Nia disappeared, the school given some story about her going to live with a distant relative, but everyone in the pack knew Alpha Jay had banished her and Sid had gone on a rogue hunt that night.

Alpha Ash’s wolf was a lot like River. Shy, quiet, innocent, and easily frightened babies who couldn’t even talk right, but once they lost their tempers, they’d cancel anyone’s birth certificate real quick. The only difference was that River’s trigger tripped all the time while Sid had to be pushed to that level of rage.

“You and Alpha Ash might need to give Riv and Sid a new set of rules,” Gamma Lan laughed again.

“I reckon so,” I agreed with a sigh, then grunted out a little chuckle. It was either laugh or cry with Riv, and most days I chose to laugh.

Goddess knew, if I ever started crying, I just might not stop.