Page 42 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Jace

I was so far out of my depth, it wasn’t funny.

Because that’s what I did, made people laugh, turned those frowns upside down, but right now I just blinked.

Briar broadcast the way she felt with her scent, and right now the room was filled with the rank scent of burnt flowers.

I just stood there wondering what the fuck I did wrong, when Gideon stepped forward.

He spoke to her in a firm, calm voice, and then it all came out.

“I screwed up.” Her arms went around herself, holding her body tightly when mine itched to take over. “I screwed up so badly. Tom… My customers…”

This wasn’t helping. I shot Gideon a dark look and then forced myself to pull her closer.

She resisted, her whole body tensing, but I made clear she wasn’t going anywhere, and that’s when the magic happened.

The fight went out of her as her head came to rest on my chest. How bad could it be?

That’s what I wanted to ask, but thankfully I took a second to think first.

“Tell us about it.”

Listen, that’s what I’d been taught. Coming up with solutions right away just pissed women off.

Not by my dads, they were all about working out the next step and going for it.

It was the many, many videos I watched of beta women complaining about their partners that had me shutting my damn mouth and hoping this worked.

“You don’t want to hear about this.”

Briar went to pull away, but I held her tight.

“Pretty sure I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t mean it.”

She looked up at me then, and if we stayed like this for hours, I wouldn’t complain for a second.

It was like we were the only two people in the world as she searched my face, trying to work out if I was lying.

Of course, that wasn’t how it worked with my brothers.

Mads came walking into the room, a frown on his face.

“What happened?” Not bothering to wait for an answer, he looked at Gideon, then back at me. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” That’s what I intended to say, but Briar got there first. With a rueful smile, she pulled free of me. “I just talked to Tom and he won’t be making any more pieces to replace what was broken.”

“Does he need help around the farm?”

Shit, I was going straight to solutions. Shut up , I told myself. Shut the fuck up.

“If it’s looking after the sheep, we’ve got this.” Dammit, Mads grabbed the bit between his teeth and ran with it. “We spent enough time on our grandparents’ farm in the summer to know our way around a flock.”

“The trials—” Gideon said.

“So?”

Mads stepped up to our brother and I just rolled my eyes, ignoring them and focussing on what mattered.

Briar.

“If you need something, you tell us,” I said. “Maybe just to vent?”

Her eyes were wide and shining, making clear the effort it was taking to stop herself from crying and they were missing all of it. Their bickering faded away as I nodded to encourage her.

“Tom made this massive shipment for me.” Her lip quivered so she thinned her mouth down to stop it.

“He was never one for making large production runs. This is his passion.” Her voice broke as she shrugged.

“I thought he was like me. Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life, right?

” She shifted focus, staring out the big window at the end of the guest house.

“But that’s not how it works for him. He likes sheep farming to make money.

I guess it takes the pressure off and allows him to be more creative.

” Her feet moved across the floor, pacing faster and faster.

“And I put him in a position where all that joy evaporated.”

“Hey.” I intercepted her, taking her hands. “I only met Tom yesterday, but I can say with all confidence that old prick? No one’s making him do anything he didn’t want to do. You assumed he’d feel the same way about making bowls as you do your job…”

That forced me to pause for a second, realising what that meant.

There was no way in hell Briar was ever going to relocate her business to Moon River.

The way her face lit up when she spoke about it, even if she tried to hide it behind a cool mask, I smelled her scent sweeten. It was everything to her.

Which meant it was on me to find a way forward for her.

“And you put a proposition to him.” Mads stepped forward. “He didn’t have to say yes, didn’t have to make that commitment. Unless you were here, cracking the whip, forcing him to make pots every day, he did that.”

A little snort had a tear rolling down her cheek, but the smile was genuine.

“Pretty sure even that wouldn’t work. Tom never does anything he doesn’t want to…”

And there it was. The end result might not have been what Briar had hoped, but the process? There was no way to anticipate what had happened and she knew it.

“OK, fine.” A glance at the wall closest to the studio, then back at us. “He’s old enough to be my dad, so that makes him the master of his own destiny.” Her fingers raked through her hair. “And I need to do the same. The emails…” she groaned.

“I sent them out,” Mads protested.

“I know, and that’s the problem. Why the hell did I say I’d get replacements for them when I hadn’t even spoken to Tom?”

“Does he have a history of replacing damaged items for you?” Gideon’s cool voice had me frowning, but Briar dropped her hands.

“Yes.”

“So you made an assumption based on established practise. What are the consequences for notifying your customers that they won’t be getting their items?”

“Lack of trust.” Yeah, that frown was back, as was the burnt smell. “My next preorder is likely to be a bust. If I can’t be trusted to deliver, why bother?”

“Because you have a valuable product in limited numbers.” I stared at my brother, wondering where this was coming from. “I assume if selling en masse is not something Tom wants to do, he’s funnelling all his stock your way.”

“Yes.” She blinked. “He gets annoyed by craft fair people. Thinks there’s too many tyre kickers and not enough buyers, though Honey says he likes catching up with other makers.”

“You’re not McDonalds. What you sell isn’t cookie cutter homewares sold cheap.

You’ve built a reputation with your regular customers for selling one of a kind items,” he said.

“Lean into that. I noticed you did a lot of storytelling on your blog to help people engage with the products. Tell them this one.”

“About my failure…?” He had her for a bit there, but that last part she rejected. With a shake of her head, Briar stepped away from us, then pulled her t-shirt up and over her head. “I need to run.”

Stripping down in seconds, I knew this wasn’t about her heat. Sex couldn’t have been further from her mind, and so it killed any ideas I had about making lazy love in front of the window.

Love…

I stared at her as she tossed her bra aside, not seeing only the lush body, but the woman too.

One that was feeling overwhelmed, forced to carry too much, and that would stop right now.

In seconds, a grey wolf stood before us where the woman once was.

I was tugging my clothes off when I heard the wolf bark, demanding that we follow.

Then she was off.

My paws hit the grounds seconds later, racing after her as she sprinted up the hill.

Away from the guesthouse and all the trappings of being human, something settled in me at the first stride.

Follow Briar, that beat hot and hard in my chest. Do, be, whatever she needed me to be.

If that was a wolf, keeping pace with her as we scrambled up the hillside, my brothers coming up from the rear, then that’s what I’d do.

On and on we ran, burning up all the adrenaline that was souring inside us in human form.

We were all panting hard from both the growing heat and the exertion of running up the hillside when we reached the top.

Our lungs worked, sucking in air and expelling it just as fast, trying to cool us down.

There was a reason wolves were not native to Australia.

What need was there for such thickly furred predators?

But we were here. As we looked outwards, you could see this valley and the next, the hills rolling on to finally drop off near the sea.

Briar wolf collapsed down, staring at the view, but that wasn’t what she needed.

She’d been carrying a weight since the moment I met her, and now, she was going to have a chance to set it down.

When I lunged for her back leg, my brothers stiffened, growling at such an audacious move. My jaws snapped on empty air though, as Briar’s wolf whirled around. Turning to face me down with her own sharp jaws, she bit into the air several times in warning.

I didn’t accept that.

Arrowing in on her ruff, I tried to skip past her and grab some of the loose skin around her neck, but she whirled around to fend me off.

And that was the game.

Her wolf’s eyes shone and her fangs did too, taking bites in my direction, but never actually landing.

This was all play, something the woman badly needed.

That’s why the wolf had burst out. If Briar couldn’t let things go, the wolf would force her to.

My jaw widened in as close to an approximation of a smile as a wolf could perform, right as Mads’ beast came barrelling into her side.

Not hard enough to hurt, but knocking her off balance made her rally fast. Dodging around him, she circled the three of us before her paws slowed in front of Gideon’s dark wolf.

He stepped forward stiffly. Even in fur, he had a stick jammed up his arse.

His head came to rest on her back, making clear who was dominant, and for a moment, Briar went still.

For a moment, there was only the sound of four wolves panting.

Then a yip in warning, right before she wrapped her jaws around his throat, grabbing loose skin and tugging, before sprinting away.

Oh, it was on.

Not us against Briar. Even in play we couldn't do that. I was dodging Mads’ jaws as much as hers.

I snapped back at him, biting his tail and giving it a tug before going after our mate, only for Gideon to step in my way.

I barrelled into him, not even caring when we both went down in a messy splay of legs, because that was the point.

Let loose, allow ourselves to make mistakes for the sheer joy of it, and that’s what I hoped she felt when she finally came back to skin.

“That was…” she sighed, and I emerged right there beside her. Pulling her close, cradling her in my arms, that was just as natural.

“Fun?” I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Yeah, me too.”

“Whatever happens, we can sort this out together, Briar.” Mads appeared in front of her. “Like I’ll learn how to make pots myself and then knock ‘em out on demand, if that’s what it takes.”

That had her giggling, right before she faced the three of us down.

“But first, the alpha trial, right? We should talk about it.” Always thinking, my mate.

My arms let her go reluctantly and that reminded me of something I was studiously ignoring.

At some point I’d have to, knowing she wouldn’t step right back into them.

“I’m not sure they play capture the flag the same way in Moon River. ”

“Don’t go worrying about that.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “If there’s one thing the dads prepared us for, it's a game like capture the flag.”

Her sigh was everything I needed to hear. She nodded and then turned to face me.

“Well, if you’re sure, maybe we should head back to Moon River?”