Page 7 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler

The orphanage was quiet at midnight, lit only by the soft glow of moonlight filtering through the windows as I headed downstairs to make hot chocolate, my go-to comfort treat any time I was upset.

As I entered the kitchen, I found Charlie Nelson already there. She sat at the table with her daughter Honor nestled in her arms, and the six-year-old looked pale and small against her mother’s chest.

“Hey, buddy,” Charlie’s voice was gentle, but I could see concern in her eyes as she glanced at me. “Another rough night?”

I nodded silently, not trusting my voice yet, but Charlie knew how I was after a nightmare and just let me be.

With the silence broken only by her soft humming, I made two mugs of hot chocolate and topped them off with whipped cream, then put one down in front of Charlie before I took a sip of the other, too jacked with adrenaline to sit down.

“Thanks, beta,” she smiled softly, the expression touching her tired eyes.

“No, ma’am. You do not call me by a title.” I shook my head fiercely. Before she could argue, I nodded at the child in her arms. “Now what’s wrong with our girl here?”

“A bit of a fever. Nothing serious, but enough to make her restless.” Charlie’s smile turned tender as she brushed a strand of hair away from the baby’s forehead. “I’ve taken the edge off, so she should be dropping off into a deeper sleep any minute now.”

“Bless her poor heart,” I murmured, feeling bad for the pup, whose sweet little girl scent made me want to protect her with my life.

All baby she-wolves had it. Up until they were gifted with their wolves on their twelfth birthday, female shifters carried a very special smell that made everyone short of a feral or mad wolf want to give their lives for them. Charlie’s theory, and I agreed with it, was that the Goddess needed as many females as possible to survive to mating age since our wolves’ dominant genes bred boys two to three times more often than girls.

We sipped our drinks in silence for a while, the only sounds the soft rustle of fabric as Honor shifted and the occasional creak of the big house settling around us. Figuring it was as calm as it could ever be at the O, I decided to share a notion I’d had for a while now.

“You know, Charlie,” I ventured, “maybe it’s time for you to consider finding someone.”

Her gaze flicked up to meet mine, surprise mingling with a hint of amusement.

“What?”

“A special friend, at least,” I said softly. “Someone for you . Being here with the kids all day, it’s a lot. You deserve some happiness, too.”

Her expression softened, and she sighed, a trace of melancholy crossing her features.

“Mark was the best man in the world, Ty. I don’t know if I could ever...” she broke off, her voice burdened with vulnerability.

I reached across the table, placing my hand over hers.

“You don’t have to forget him, Charlie, but maybe you could open your heart a little to let someone else in it. For Honor and the boys, sure, but also for yourself. I can’t see Mark wanting you to be so alone and lonely all the time.”

She looked down at our hands, her fingers curling around mine, and a small smile tugged at my lips. The moment stretched between us until Charlie squeezed my hand gently and stood, carefully cradling Honor in her arms.

“I’ll think about it,” she murmured. “Maybe it is time.”

“Here, let me carry her.”

Without waiting to hear any protests, I went over and scooped Honor in my arms, then headed upstairs to the little girl’s unicorn-themed bedroom. I watched from the doorway as Charlie tucked her baby in and felt a sense of peace settle over me, the last of the nightmare finally fading away.

Good. Now you don’t have to go for a run, River, I told my wolf.

Awww! he pouted. Me like run! But it otay. Siddy too busy to play wif me .

Oh? Are the alphas back from Green River? I asked curiously. I thought they were coming home tomorrow.

D ey back, and Siddy say dey has secret-secret! Datwhy Siddy too busy to play.

I frowned at that. If Sid was keeping a secret from River, it was either something super silly or Alpha Ash had silenced him from talking about it.

Shrugging, I headed back to my room, hoping the rest of the night would be nightmare-free, but froze mid-step when the alphas opened the beta link and summoned all of us to the pack’s training center—and I couldn’t help but wonder if it had to do with Sid’s secret.

Thinking about all the reasons why we’d be called out in the middle of the night, I hustled into my room, put on my cross trainers, and left the O as quietly as I could so I didn’t wake the kids. Then I took off, running full out through the humid night with my heart in my throat the whole time. This was our first real emergency, and I prayed I’d prove myself worthy with whatever the alphas tasked us to do.

Halfway there, I realized I should have shifted and let River do the running, but I had to admit that my brain didn’t work so well for a while after a nightmare. I couldn’t shift now, either, because I didn’t have any clothes with me to change into once we got there.

Should take O car, Riv pointed out. Charlie not mind.

Yeah, I should have, I agreed, but it’s too late now.

Nearly thirty minutes had gone by before I threw open the front door of the training center and found the other betas and four of the five alphas waiting for me.

“Sorry,” I apologized, one hand pressed to my heaving chest. “Ran as fast as I could.”

“No, I’m sorry, Ty,” Alpha Mase apologized. “So much has happened, I forgot you didn’t have a ride.”

“No worries. Running’s good exercise,” I waved him off with a grin. “And I could have asked to borrow the O’s minivan if I’d taken a second to think about it.”

Despite it being my own dumb fault, I could tell that it bothered him to see me drenched in sweat and panting like a dog.

“Well, now that we’re all here,” Matthew gave me a snide side-eye as I bent over with my hands braced on my knees to try and catch my breath, “what did you need, alphas?”

“We have some important and amazing news to share,” Alpha Jayden spoke up. “We found our luna while we were at Green River.”

A murmur of surprise and curiosity rippled through the room, and my heart skipped a beat.

A luna! No, our luna! It’s what we—and the alphas, of course—had been waiting for!

Why didn’t they tell us right away? I thought, quickly followed by, I wonder what she’s like.

Wanna meet luna! River whined, echoing my own impatience.

“This is life-changing for us as well as you five.” Alpha Cole looked at us. “As betas, your roles will expand. You’ll act as her personal guards and confidants. You’ll be her support, her strength, and her protectors.”

As the weight of his words sank in, I felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, there was a sense of pride and honor. On the other hand, there was a sense of responsibility that felt almost overwhelming. Our lives would now be dedicated to our luna. No matter what she was like, her safety and happiness would become our top concern.

They already were, to be honest. Now that the alphas had officially announced it, each of us could feel the gentle tendrils of a bond forming with a girl we hadn’t even met yet.

“Wait! You left her at the alpha house alone ? Without guards ?” Emerson demanded with a scowl. “I’m going over there!”

“Me, too!” I piped up, already heading toward the door with Tristan right beside me.

“No, you’re not,” Alpha Mase commanded with a little wolf in his voice. “ None of you are. Ash is with her, of course, and the gammas are stationed around the perimeter until we get back.”

“The gammas learned about her before us ?” Tristan said in a hard, sharp tone I’d never heard from him before

“The gammas ?!” Em, Matthew, and I echoed his outrage.

And rightly so. We should have been at the front of the line for introductions. After all, she’d be our one and only priority for the rest of our days as betas. Not even the alphas could override that.

“They didn’t meet her, and they won’t until much later,” Alpha Wyatt pointed out. “She’s too fragile to interact with a lot of people, especially men, right now.”

That froze us all, and we exchanged worried looks.

Doesn’t sound good , Crew muttered in the beta link.

“Her past is her story to tell,” Alpha Wyatt went on, “but we have to let you know a little of it so you don’t do something dumb and get yourselves killed.”

“Get ourselves killed?” Tris questioned, his head tilted to one side.

“Yes, killed !” Alpha Cole growled. “We’ll kill you if you hurt her feelings or insult her or scare her, so listen up!”

Needless to say, we were all ears after that, and Alpha Jay picked up where Alpha Wyatt left off.

“Her father, Alpha Kendall Briggs, held her hostage in the alpha house for six years and used her as a servant. He also drugged her wolf, Lark, with wolfsbane every time she tried to escape. And he abused her badly.”

Oh, we did not like to hear that. Not at all.

“The fucker is dead, right?” Em’s dark eyes glinted with Cove.

“Language!” Alpha Cole barked. “But, yes, he’s dead. Garnet and Quartz made sure of that even if we were too late to keep him from hurting her.”

Crew closed his eyes and seemed to be counting under his breath, his usual easy smile long gone. Tristan’s jaw tightened as he paced around, and Matthew’s eyes widened in shock, a glint of tears shimmering in them. Then there was Emerson, who looked like he wanted to go down to Green River, dig Briggs out of his grave, and pay a necromancer to revive him just so he could kill him all over again.

Since my own heart was filled with both anger and sorrow, I could completely understand that sentiment.

Our upset wolves were howling their outrage, and Alpha Mase had to command them to settle down while Alpha Cole reminded us that this was not the time to lose our tempers.

“We have more to tell you, and we can’t do that if you’re behaving like this!” he snapped.

It took a while for us to all calm down a bit, and I had to keep telling myself and my wolf that there was no one here to kill.

“She has a lot of scars,” Alpha Wyatt said once we’d all stopped growling. “Do not, and I mean do not , comment on them if you happen to see one. If you do, I will end you myself.”

“We shared this with you so you can do your job better,” Alpha Mase added in his no-nonsense, business tone. “Posy’s reactions might not always make sense at first. She’s learning to trust again, to feel safe. Protecting her is our responsibility, but so is providing her with the best environment for her to do that. That’s on us and also on each of you. Am I understood?”

“Understood, alpha!” we all shouted in sync.

The alphas left soon after, eager to return to their mate, and the betas and I lingered as we processed the news.

“Man, I was not expecting that tonight!” Tristan looked a bit dazed. “This is going to be a whole new level of challenge.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “but we’re ready for it.”

“We sure we are.” Em clapped his hands together and rubbed them.

“I just hope she’s not a bitch,” Matthew grumbled.

“I can’t see the Moon Goddess pairing our alphas with a mean girl,” I argued, “but whether she is or not, she’ll still be our luna.”

“I’ll tell you what, kid, you’d better tone down that high and mighty attitude!”

“Oh, quit being ugly and stop borrowing trouble, Meanie Boy,” Crew butted in. “Come on, Ty. I’ll carry you home.”

Matthew left in a huff, and Crew and I headed out to his vehicle. I let my mind wander as he drove, thinking about what it meant to have a luna. How it would change the dynamics of the pack. How it would change me . Everything would be different now. Life would be more complicated and demanding, but also richer with new experiences and deeper bonds.

“What you said to Matthew,” Crew said quietly as he pulled into the O’s driveway. “I agree with you one hundred percent. She’ll be our luna regardless of her personality, but I have to admit, I do hope she’s a nice girl.”

“I hope she’s nice, too,” I clarified, “but I’m also not going to let it get in my way of taking care of her if she isn’t.”