Page 19 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Gideon

“So… what are your intentions with Briar?”

I blinked and stared at Omega Hart and wondered how the hell he couldn’t see it.

For the first time in my life, it seemed like every damn thing I felt was being broadcasted to the world by my expression.

My eyes followed Briar wherever she went, my feet bringing me to her side moments later.

That night in the forest, when we ran together in fur.

Pack bullshit, my parents’ expectations, everything, was replaced by this.

Her breath in my lungs, our hearts beating in time as we ran faster and faster for the sheer joy of it.

I wanted to tell the Hart pack all of that, but when I opened my mouth, all that came out was, “Briar is our mate.”

“Mate…” I watched Omega Hart’s hand go to his chest, and it wasn’t just me who noted the flutter of his fingers.

His mates clustered closer. One’s hands went to his shoulders, another taking his free hand as the last held him close.

“You’re her…” His head whipped up as he stared into his alphas’ eyes. “They’re Briar’s mates.”

“We heard him,” Kieran said, smiling down at his omega. I watched him stroke his mate’s arms hungrily, and I knew when Briar accepted the bond, I’d do the same thing to her any time she was upset.

“Well, where the hell was your pack fifteen years ago?”

Damien meant that as a joke, but I looked across at my brothers before answering.

“Just starting high school.”

“What?” Everything was going so well seconds before.

The omega seemed almost misty eyed at the idea of Briar finding her mates, but now he stiffened.

Pulling free of his alphas’ embrace, he blinked and peered at the lot of us.

“How old are you?” He didn’t give us a chance to answer, turning to his mates. “How old is the Whitlock pack?”

Maddox stepped forward, crossing his arms. I wanted to tell him to drop them, to stop coming across as aggressive.

“We’re twenty-eight.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Is that a problem?”

I expected a lot of reactions from Damien, but not this. He burst out laughing, and just like that, all the tension in the room disappeared.

“Briar gets the hot, young alphas.” Omega Hart thought we were attractive. My muscles tensed, unsure of how to respond to that. “She’s going to die when she finds out she’s a cougar.”

“I’m fairly sure a cougar is a beta woman that pursues significantly younger men,” Harry, one of his alphas, said.

“But rather than quibble about classifications,” Damien’s mouth closed abruptly, “we need to talk about Briar. You say you’re her mates.

Well, I know they do things differently in Glen Hallow. ”

“Very differently,” Kieran said with a meaningful look.

“We take the safety and happiness of all of our town members seriously,” Harry continued. “Even those that no longer live here.”

“Briar doesn’t live in Moon River?” Jace asked.

“She wasn’t likely to after what happened with the Forrest pack,” Damien muttered.

“Forrest pack?” I said.

“Perhaps we should all sit down and talk about this.” Adam, the last of Damien’s alphas, gestured to their massive dining table. All the important figures in the town would gather around it at different times, and now we were being ushered towards it. “Now, there’s no ritual bloodletting planned.”

His look at Damien just had the omega puffing himself up.

“I wasn’t about to let an alpha pack hurt Briar,” he said. “Still won’t.”

So we were on notice.

“On that we agree,” I replied and then moved forward, holding out a chair for the omega before sitting down. “Please tell us exactly what happened to our mate.”

“They didn’t say anything to Briar before the town event?” I thought that growl was mine, but for once, Maddox and I were in complete agreement. “They let her get rejected in front of everyone.”

“The Forrest alphas said something about feeling pressured by the town to see Briar as their mate.” Damien didn’t sound especially sympathetic. “They assumed that because they liked her, that must be what the mating bond felt like.”

“If they just spoke to us,” Kieran said, “we could’ve set them straight, but of course, they didn’t.”

“So when they actually met their mate in a nearby town, they realised what the mating bond was supposed to feel like,” Adam said.

Being struck by lightning, I thought. Stopping your heart and then feeling the ache as it started again, beating just for her.

“They realised too late that they were never going to bond with Briar,” he finished.

“That’s all history.” Damien waved a hand. “But what’s relevant now is what Briar believes.”

“That the Forrest pack needs to die screaming for putting her through that experience?” Jace asked almost conversationally. He was always the easy-going one, so this shift in mood was concerning. My focus transferred to the omega, wondering how he took this display, but Damien just grinned.

“Not a bad idea, but no. I don’t think she’s spared them a second thought, or any other alpha.” Claws snicked out along my fingertips, and it was only me curling them under that stopped me from marking the shining tabletop. “Briar, she believes?—”

“Damien,” Harry growled, but his omega remained unrepentant.

“They need to know.” Not waiting for a reply, Damien turned back to us. “Briar believes she doesn’t have fated mates. That's why she stopped looking and moved to the city.”

“Not the only reason—” Kieran said hastily.

“She’s done so well with that business of hers.

” Damien looked around the gorgeously appointed meeting room.

“Made the money we invested in her back many, many times over. But…” He stared fixedly at the lot of us.

“An omega needs his or her alphas.” His mates’ hands slid across the table to take his.

“Needs them to step up and become the men she needs.”

It felt like I was born bearing the weight of other people’s expectations.

There was no reason why my parents decided to make me the one responsible for our pack…

I glanced at my brothers. Actually there were a few reasons why, but this was the first time someone demanded something from me that didn’t feel like an imposition.

“We will.” The wolf spoke through me, making my voice rough. “Whatever it takes.”

“For once, we agree, brother.” Maddox shot me a sidelong look. “And in the spirit of disclosure, Briar has gone into heat.” Damien sat back with a strange mixture of concern and satisfaction on his face.

“We are not going to take advantage of that,” I said quickly.

“Maybe a little…”

I hoped the Hart pack didn’t hear Jace’s muttered aside.

“So, things are going to move swiftly.” Satisfaction seemed to have won out for Damien.

“Well, you’re welcome to participate in the competition to become our heirs.

” Those were the words I needed to hear.

It was what my parents had sent me here for.

“But you have to understand. The omega normally comes to the alphas and makes a life in their town, but…”

No buts, I wanted to say. Everything I’d done, all I’d striven to achieve, hung on that fact. My parents had painted a glorious picture in my head of a world far better than the one we’d grown up in that involved everything Damien described.

“She has a whole life in the city. Any alphas who are worthy of calling themselves her mates will need to fit in with that.”

This was the moment when I assured them we would do just that, but words turned to dust in my mouth.

While my heart leapt at the thought of doing just that, discovering my omega’s space, her life, and then finding my place in it, I saw my mother’s stricken expression.

Her face too pale, her eyes too wide, and that had my mouth closing.

“Of course, we will.” I stared at Maddox, unable to understand where this certainty came from. “Whatever it takes.”

“So we don’t have to drive the very nice alphas from our territory?” Harry asked Damien, but I didn’t catch the omega’s response. Their voices became muffled sounds as my phone started to ring. I looked down at my screen and saw it was my father calling.

“Sorry, I need to take this,” I said, getting up from the table and walking over to the doorway.

“How’s things going, son?”

My father sounded happy enough, but I’d been trained to hear the faint thread of tension in his warm tone.

“Everything’s going to plan,” I replied in a low voice. “I can’t talk now, though. We’re at the Hart residence.”

“Good to hear,” Dad replied. “But to be expected. You’ll be participating in the first trial tomorrow then, which is why we’re on our way.”

“What?”

My eyes flicked back and forth as I stared blankly at the wooden floorboards.

“Your mother wanted to be there for your big day, Gideon.” That faintly chiding tone had my fingers wrapping more tightly around the phone. “Hope you’ve got the house set up, because we’ll be staying for a few days.”

And just like that, all the good feelings I’d enjoyed moments before were driven out of me. I wasn’t allowed to just wonder how the hell we were going to convince Briar we were the alphas for her. Now my mind was filled with all the tasks that would need to be completed before my parents arrived.

“I’m glad we’ve got all of this sorted out,” I said when I returned to the table. “But we need to get home.”

“Anxious to get back to your omega, huh?”

Kieran’s indulgent smile made me want to snap back, destroying that illusion.

“That, and our parents are on their way to stay for the trials.”

The alphas made a few jokes about needing to tidy up our bachelor pad, but Damien’s expression transformed. His smile faded, and something replaced it that I couldn’t identify.

And there was no time to interrogate him.

“The parents are on their way?” Jace asked as we strode over to our car.

“To check up on us, make sure we’re not fucking things up.”

Maddox was right, but that didn’t explain his sour smile.

“We’ll get a room set up for Mum and the dads,” I replied. “Then when we’re settled, we’ll work out the next step with Briar.”

For once, my brothers didn’t argue, so I threw the car into gear and then backed out onto the road, driving towards home.