Page 3 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Briar

“There you are!” Mum looked so excited to see me, and that brought on the first wave of guilt, followed quickly by another as she struggled to get to her feet. I dropped my bags on the floor, rushing forward to try to help. “Don’t fuss!”

We both blinked at that, obviously surprised by her sharp tone. She shot me an apologetic look, then hobbled over to the kitchen, her weight pressed hard into the cane she used.

“Sorry, love.” She shook her head, moving laboriously slowly towards the kettle. “Let me put on the kettle for you.”

“Let me.” She was about to fuss, but I pulled out a tin of tea from my bag. “I brought that tea mix you love.”

Mum wanted to argue, but thankfully settled down on a stool.

“The one with those little flowers in it?” she asked.

“Chamomile?” I nodded, opening the cupboards and pulling out some tea cups.

For a moment I paused, seeing the familiar mugs and plates we’d used all throughout my childhood.

A tea pot was retrieved and then I got everything ready.

That familiar ritual helped settle me, forcing the wolf to stop pacing back and forth inside me. “So?—”

“Was your?—?”

Mum and I looked at each other and then shook our heads at having spoken at the same time.

“After you,” I said.

“I was just going to ask how your drive was.”

“Uneventful,” I replied, listening to the kettle boil. “The paddocks looked pretty dry on the way down.”

“No rain.” Mum sighed. “Been a terrible drought. The farmers are beside themselves, having to shoot stock. No help from the government. All of them are holed up in the city.” She looked up at me.

“And how’re things going with your little business?

You know you could always come back here if all that is getting too hard. ”

What was hard was knowing how to tell her.

The minute it became clear I was an omega, she’d mapped out a life for me.

Mate one of the young alpha packs, take over as ruling omega of the town, and let Damien and his pack retire gracefully when the time came.

The fact I had a whole other life, one where I went beyond survival and was thriving, was too difficult for her to accept.

“There’s a lot of new alphas in town.”

Hope, that’s what I heard in her voice and saw in her expression as she stared into my eyes.

“I know.” Turning to switch off the kettle was a relief.

It helped me escape her expectations for just a minute.

Pouring the hot water into the teapot and breathing in the scent of the tea as all the volatile oils were released.

Her tea was poured first, with a splash of milk only.

Her snort as I piled my cup with sugar was a familiar one.

I took a sip of my tea, letting each flavour develop on my tongue before swallowing it down.

“I met one of them. Apparently, he’s moving next door? ”

“Into the old Sanderson place?” Mum seemed to puff up with pleasure. “I heard that a pack from out of town bought it. They’d have to be more pleasant than Miranda Sanderson.”

“Mum.” She met my gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What, that there were alphas moving next door?” Her words spilled out just a little too fast. “Didn’t think you were interested.”

“Mum.”

I’d paid the Sandersons weekly to take care of Mum’s garden when they were doing theirs, and to look in on her.

It wasn’t Miranda who let me know Mum had a fall, but the grocery delivery driver.

He’d found her on the floor and gods knew how long she’d been lying there. An ambulance was called, then I was.

“You were never close with the Sanderson girl,” Mum continued, staring deeply into her cup before taking another sip. “Miranda was never kind to you.”

My old neighbour had made some rude comments when I was rejected by all the local alphas, something Mum never forgave her for. Except it wasn’t the Sandersons I wanted to talk about, but her.

I couldn’t. The nurse had been blunt with me, telling me exactly how frail my mother was now.

Mum had me late in life, the doctors telling her she might never bear a child.

But she had, me. When I was little and struggling to do simple things, she was always a patient presence, helping me through my frustrations and towards mastery, and I owed that to her the same now.

I wanted to demand she accept the offer I’d made of a live-in nurse, or for her to come back with me to the city.

There was an empty apartment in my block.

She could live on her own but be close enough I could help if she was struggling.

It wasn’t my choice, I knew that, but it didn’t stop my frustration.

She was my mother, not a child, so I couldn’t tell her that was how this would be.

Instead, I’d have to try to work with her to find a solution.

But there was one thing I could fix right now.

“The garden’s a bit of a mess.” I deliberately kept my tone light, smothering the shock I’d felt when I walked in through the gate.

Mum’s garden was her pride and joy, so to see the front filled with waist high grass and weeds was stunning and horrifying in turns.

She’d never let it get this bad, not unless…

Not unless she had no choice. “Is the lawnmower in the shed?” I asked.

“Omegas don’t mow grass,” Mum spluttered. “You need mates to do that. If you?—”

“We don’t have alphas right now.” My tone was far flatter than I intended. “But you do have me.”

“I can do it.” I’m pretty sure Mum heard the same tremor in her voice I caught, and that had her frowning. “I can mow the lawn.”

She wasn’t convincing either of us, but I knew if I argued with her about it, things would go downhill fast.

“What did the doctor say about doing strenuous activities?”

“That old fart?” Mum waved a hand. “What would he know?”

“A lot more than us, because he has a medical degree and we don’t?

” I said, but before she could argue, I washed out my cup and set it on the drying rack.

“And anyway, who used to nag me about mowing the lawn in high school? Are you saying if I revealed as an omega back then, I’d gotten out of garden chores? ”

Mum sank back down into her chair.

“Fine, just… watch out for snakes.” Her sidelong look was anything but happy. “Then afterwards, we can get dressed and go to the town square for the introductions of the new alphas.”

I stared at the sink, the wolf informing me that the gleam of the metal was like the twinkle in Jace’s eye and that she would like to see it again, very much.

“Sure,” I said, willing to compromise. Mum mainly wanted to go to town events to catch up with friends.

I’d skirt the edges of the square, make sure she didn’t get too tired, and then bring her home.

Wolfie saw things differently. She showed me an image of her taking control, streaking across the grass and towards the house next door.

It was only when I reminded her that alphas do the chasing and omegas make them prove their worth that she settled down.

I pushed away from the sink and then pressed a kiss to Mum’s forehead. “Maybe you could have a rest?”

“Not going to get much rest with the lawnmower going,” she grumbled. “Though maybe I’ll lie down on the couch and watch some TV.”

I watched her hobble over to the lounge room, wanting to swoop in. I might be an omega, but the wolf leant me strength my mother would never have. There was no way I’d be able to use it, though, not for her benefit. I was the child, and she was the mother, and that was the way it would be.

“Don’t forget to use the whipper snipper around the edging,” she said, right before disappearing into the adjoining room.

I found myself smiling, because that’s what she always said when I was told to mow the lawn.

Cutting the lawn was never this hard when I was a child.

First, there was the shed of doom that looked like Mum hadn’t been in there in years.

Where before everything was neatly stored in tubs and on shelves, now it was filled with dead leaves and disturbing skittering sounds.

I shrank back, wondering if I could call a gardener at short notice, but of course, Moon River wasn’t the city.

When I found the lawnmower, the wheels screeched aggressively, and as I pulled it outside, I saw it was the exact same one I’d used as a teenager.

Prime the motor , I thought, moving to do just that, then pull the cord . I knew the drill, but the first pull just had the motor spluttering. So did the second, then the third. The sun was beating down, the summer heat baking me from within, but then I looked around at the garden.

It used to be beautiful out here. A massive lawn I played backyard cricket on with my friends when I was young, then the perfect crash pad for me and my teenage friends to hang out in and wonder what would happen when we got older.

I didn’t recognise the overgrown mess now, didn’t want to.

I gritted my teeth, grabbed the starter cord, and pulled again.

Determination and effort got me nowhere. I was cursing the thing roundly, even kicking a wheel, then yelping when I bruised my toe. The long grass made me think I had some privacy because I couldn’t see much of the neighbours, but as I screwed off the fuel cap, I discovered I had an audience.

“Need any help?” a masculine voice said, coming from somewhere deep in the weeds.