Page 20 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Briar

“The Whitlock pack are your alphas.”

Anyone else would’ve broached a sore subject in a more circuitous manner, but not Candy. She just hit me with her opinion, no holds barred.

“What?” My voice was all high and warbly, making me sound like a blushing teen.

Hands went to my cheeks and Candy smirked, obviously noting they were bright red.

But I wasn’t a kid anymore, and that had me dropping them back into my lap as I frowned slightly.

“That’s not possible, remember?” Candy was in the room when Riley delivered the news, handing me tissues when tears welled in my eyes. “I can’t have kids.”

“Plenty of betas can’t.” She shrugged. “I yeeted my own uterus ages ago because can you imagine me solely responsible for small people? At work is one thing. Riley stops me from letting our child clients run with scissors and shit, but left to my own devices.” With a shake of her head, she focussed back on me.

“That thing about not having a fated mate? It was just a hypothesis. There was no way to prove it…”

Because they hadn’t come across another omega with the same issue. I shifted restlessly, the relentless beat of my heat pushed to one side for a second.

“So…”

It felt like the foundations I built my life upon were creaking ominously, ready to crack and disintegrate, and where would that leave me? Falling through the air, arms flailing, with no idea what to do.

But what if there was someone to catch me?

I saw it then, Mads’ wild grin, or Jace’s cheeky one as they reached out. It was Gideon, with that intense stare, who wrapped his arms around me, stopping me from breaking every damn bone, just like he had in the town square.

“Occam’s razor, babes,” Candy said. “The simplest explanation is the one closest to the truth.”

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. The need to reply, to tear her logic apart, built inside me, but the wolf shouldered forward.

Just before I revealed as an omega, I dreamed of her.

A slender, grey wolf, she stared me down, and I stared right back.

The same thing happened here, her impatient whine, then a shark bark, making clear that she knew exactly what was happening and was just waiting for me to catch up.

That’s what had me ending the call, rising from my bed and running downstairs.

“Everything alright, love?” Mum was ladling some of her world-famous Irish stew into a casserole dish, but she stopped when she saw me. “Trouble at work?”

At work, in my life, everything, I wanted to say, but I wasn’t a little girl complaining to my mother anymore.

“There’s a lot going on.” Another buzz in my pocket made clear more messages were coming through, and as it was after hours, it meant Emma wasn’t having much luck with the freight company. I resisted the urge to check it. “That smells nice, though.”

“Stew and mashed potatoes,” she said with a proud smile. “But this lot is going next door.”

I watched her try to pick up the dish once the lid was on but was forced to sweep in and take it from her.

“It might be,” I said, “but you’re not.” And that’s when I paused.

Looking through the windows, across the darkened lawn at the Whitlock pack’s place, I knew there was one way I’d get a definite answer.

Alphas had rejected me before. I could handle these ones doing it too. “I’ll take the stew over.”

“With the mashed potatoes.”

I expected a fight, but instead Mum piled a bunch of the pillowy soft mash into a plastic container and then piled that on top of the casserole dish, leaving me to carry this precarious burden out of the house and across to theirs.

Probably a good thing, because I was too focussed on not dropping the lot to worry about my reception.

Those concerns came rushing back once I reached their front porch.

The ring of illumination from the outside light picked out all the details of their front door.

I followed the lazy spiral of several moths as they got closer and closer to the bulb, when the wolf stepped in.

She moved my legs, taking me right up to the front door, then while I was trying to juggle the containers, it was jerked open.

“Briar…”

Jace stood there, the artificial light creating a halo around his head, and that just made him harder to look at.

My eyes searched his face, looking for clues as to why he’d say my name in such a reverent hush.

Where was the cheeky chicken thief of before?

A twitch of his lips made clear he’d come forward with little provocation.

His brows twitched as he took a step closer, his hands reaching out.

I just stared at them, unable to decipher his motivations, when they plucked the casserole dish from my fingers.

“Mum made you dinner.”

That came out in a rush, and I stepped backwards as a result. Gods, I couldn’t do this. I just couldn’t. I didn’t even know if I wanted alphas outside of my heat.

“Smells amazing,” he said with an appreciative sniff. “You should come and eat with us.”

That. My brain grabbed at the idea. We could sit down, scarf down a bowl of stew, and he could?—

“Jace…?” There were a lot of things I expected to hear inside the alphas’ house, but another woman’s voice wasn’t one of them.

My back went ramrod straight. The wolf snarled, her hackles going up, somewhat gratified by Jace’s stricken expression.

“What are you doing, standing there with the front door…? Oh.”

Oh, indeed.

She was an omega, that was clear. The short stature, the curves broadcasted her breedability, but the sensible haircut streaked with grey inferred those days might be over. Her chin lifted slightly, her brows creased as she peered at me.

“Mum.” Jace gestured to the woman with a meaningful look my way. “This is Briar. Briar, this is?—”

“You’re that girl…” Her lips thinned. “The woman next door. The one that Miranda woman said my boys needed to look after.”

Not hi, how are you, my name is… Just woman. I forced myself to smile, but the wolf made it more like a baring of teeth.

“I am a woman that is currently staying next door.” Dealing with officious bitches was familiar territory for me from all the time I worked in retail.

I stepped closer and offered her my hand.

“Briar Reynolds.” She just looked at it for a second, then gave my hand a weak shake.

“My mother, Maggie, is the one Miranda asked the guys to look in on.” I nodded to the casserole dish.

“They did that today and Mum made them some stew as a thank you.”

“Stew?” Her brow lifted. “How nice.”

“And you are…?” I asked.

“About to go out to eat with the dads, aren’t you, Mum?” Jace stared at his mother, but when she didn’t respond, he turned to me. “While the parental units do that, Briar will come and have dinner with us boys.”

“No need to go and buy overpriced takeaway when there’s home-cooked food to eat.” She took the food from Jace’s arms. “I’m April. Come in, Briar. This would be a fantastic opportunity to get to know my boys’… neighbour.”

That was weird, right? I wanted to say that to anyone who would listen. April was smiling and making nice, and yet I only just held back from raking nails along my arms to dislodge the weird vibes.

“Looks like we’re having stew tonight for dinner,” April announced, not sounding especially pleased by that. “Gideon, darling, do you have any bowls? I know I packed a dinner set with all the boxes you moved over here.”

“Of course.”

He went to the cupboards to pull down some dishes, but her brows creased when she saw them.

“Not those ones.” I watched his mother’s expression change, the stank face I think was lurking there coming to the fore.

Weirdly, when he moved to swap them over for some equally suitable bowls, her smile was back.

OK. Like I was pickier about my decor than most, but I’d eat out of a melamine bowl printed with cartoon characters if I was hungry enough. “Perfect.”

April found a ladle and then started to dish up the food.

“Well, this does look hearty.” Bowls brimming with stew and potatoes were pushed towards the Whitlocks, then the alphas I assumed were their fathers, leaving slim pickings in the dishes.

Mum had sent enough stew over for the guys and some extra for leftovers, not to feed eight people.

April scraped the two dishes clean. “We’ll just have a light meal, won’t we, Briar?

” Her eyes met mine. “Need to keep our girlish figures.”

No, I would not. The day I had would only be satisfied by lashings of delicious protein and carbs, but there were plenty of those at home. Jace seemed to sense that, placing his bowl in my hands and then taking the one intended for me.

“Your girlish figure is just fine,” one of her alphas said, taking hers and spooning some of the food into it. “Briar, was it? I’m Max, one of the boys’ dads.”

“Greg.” A man with Jace’s blond good looks said with a small smile before nodding at the last alpha. “And that’s Ned.”

“So, Briar.” Ned stepped forward and I saw where Gideon got those strange amber eyes from. “Are you a local girl, or did your family move to Moon River?”

I followed them out onto the deck, the bowl feeling too warm in my hands. That only got worse when we sat down. Jace pulled out a chair for me as Mads took my meal and set it on the table as I sat down. All very polite and nice, until Jace settled back against his chair.

His arm went along the back of his, coming to rest on mine, and that’s when I felt his fingers teasing the baby hairs at my nape.

My reply was choked back at that sensation.

My body didn’t process that as a careless stroke of my hairline, instead feeling it far deeper.

With a sharp look at Jace, I straightened up and surveyed the table with a polite smile.

“My family has…” Words died in my throat as Mads leaned over his bowl, one hand picking up the spoon, the other landing on my knee.

I blinked, fighting for composure. “Has lived in Moon River for many generations.” That came out in a big rush.

My spoon was dragged through my food, uneaten.

Anything to distract myself from what I was feeling.

Needing that hand on my thigh to rise higher and higher, before— “I think we were one of the original families that settled here.”

“Your house certainly looks like it could’ve been one of the original ones.” April’s arched eyebrow had me feeling a whole other kind of flushed. “Those beautiful old bones.” Her smile was tight. “They don’t make houses like that anymore.”

But whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I couldn’t work out from her tone.

“So you grew up in Moon River?” she continued. “What do you do with yourself?”

I frowned.

“As in a job?” I replied.

Betas were always asking questions about people’s employment. It helped them place us in the hierarchies they created, but omegas rarely cared. They were focussed on running their town, raising children, or doing good works for the community, all of which I would’ve sucked at.

“No.” She set her spoon aside, and I felt like the woman was finally getting to the point as she stared into my eyes. “What would an omega do with herself if she’d gotten to your age and not found her mates?”