Page 7 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Gideon

Get to the opening ceremony on time , I thought as I stood in front of the mirror, twitching my collar until it sat just so.

Make small talk with Omega Hart. The dads had done some recon and discovered that the omega was the one who called the shots in the Hart pack.

Be confident, but not cocky. Be personable, but not too friendly.

Be… My mantra was broken by the sound of one of my brothers lumbering up the stairs.

I walked out of my bedroom to find Maddox standing there, sweating and covered in grass.

“I told you to have a shower.” The muscle in my jaw twitched as I took in just how filthy he was. “Not… whatever the hell you’ve been doing?”

“Fuck…” Jace came out, but he seemed far more amused by the situation than I was.

“Been doing my civic duty.” Maddox nodded in the direction of the house next door. “Cleaned up the neighbour’s garden for her.”

I watched him dust his hands off, my eyes twitching as grass clippings fell on the wooden floor. They were so bright green against the dark wood, screaming at me to fix them, fix them.

But I didn’t.

My brothers never understood why things like this bugged me, and our fathers were clear. They saw what I thought was an attention to detail as a weakness, and I couldn’t afford to show that.

“Have a shower.” My voice was carefully neutral, even as my wolf paced back and forth, back and forth inside me. “Make it quick. We leave in ten.”

“Maybe if you keep your hands off your dick for once, we’ll be out of here on time,” Jace called out to Maddox, but I just ran downstairs. I had to get away from them, from the grass, from everything.

“Just because it only takes you a few seconds to clean your micro dick doesn’t mean all of us have the same problem.”

Name five things you can see , I thought furiously.

The boxes stacked up in the corner. Bloody hell, Jace had just dumped them on top of each other, making no allowances for size or weight.

The kitchen counter . The stained wood, the granite benchtop were all quite dated.

We’d need to swap them out for something more modern.

The fireplace that dominated the lounge room.

Was it to code? Had the chimney been cleaned out recently?

It wasn’t an issue now, but it would be one when winter came.

My eyes dropped down, staring at the signet ring I was twisting around and around my finger.

It was my grandfather’s, gifted to me by my mother.

As I traced the familiar shapes of the designs inset in the gold, I sucked in a deep breath…

And smelled something incredible.

The wolf leapt to his feet inside me and, to my horror, I saw black fur prickling across my skin. I hadn’t had a lapse in my control since my early teens. He pushed me forward, discarding all thought of our plans. To the door, because the scent was stronger there, then out of it to…

Lose any trace of it.

I shook my head, regaining control with a snap and wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Jace strolled outside, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.

“Everything alright?”

The smug smile made clear he knew I was struggling with my control, but I just stared him down until he was forced to look away.

Our fathers put me in charge for a reason.

Jace could do the talking, charm the omega and the Hart pack, but I’d have to be the one that put the plan in place.

Get accepted as contenders. Win each trial and then emerge victorious, then we could get our parents out of the town we were born in and out from under the alphas’ tyrannical reign.

“I’m fine.”

My expression made a lie of my words when Maddox joined us.

He’d had the world’s fastest shower, and while he was no longer covered in sweat and grass, his hair was dripping on the front step, and his shirt stuck to his chest, translucent in places.

It was his dress shoes in his hands that had my fangs grinding together.

“Better get going.” Maddox hopped on the spot as he pulled on socks and then his shoes. When he was done, he slapped my chest. My teeth bared as he strolled past. “Don’t want to be late, do we?”

We didn’t. That was the only thing that could get me moving. I locked up the house, grabbing the bouquet of flowers I’d picked up earlier off the kitchen counter, before plucking the car keys from Maddox’s hands. He settled into the front passenger side, in the face of Jace’s irritation.

“Do you remember what you need to do?” I asked both of them.

“Get Omega Hart chatting,” Jace said, staring out the window. “See if we can get him on our side.”

“And I’ll scope out the competition,” Maddox added. “See who the real contenders are.” He shot me one of those smiles that always meant trouble. “And what will you be doing, brother?”

“Introducing myself to all of the omegas,” I replied, my hands wrapping tighter around the steering wheel. “See if any of them are our fated mate.”

If I found her, the noise inside my head would still, I just knew it. She would be the other half of my heart, and then… I swallowed hard as I turned the key in the ignition. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so goddamn lonely.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have!” Omega Hart said when we were introduced.

Jace handed over the bouquet, having no idea that arum lilies were the omega’s favourite.

“And lilies?” His cheeks flushed, his eyes shining as he looked up at my brother, then back at his mates.

“Look what the…?” He raised an eyebrow at Jace.

“The Whitlock pack,” he replied smoothly. “We’ve just moved into the place on Jericho Street.”

“Ah, yes.” One of the Hart alphas stepped forward. “I spoke to your brother, Gideon, about the transfer.”

“That would be me, sir.” I stepped forward and offered the alpha my hand, shaking his when he obliged, firmly, but not so much it was apparent I was offering a challenge.

“Kieran Hart,” he said, those keen eyes taking me and my brothers in. “Welcome to Moon River. When did you arrive?”

I could make small talk in my sleep. As the rest of the Hart pack clustered closer, I described our journey, glad to see them turning their backs on other alphas seeking to court their favour. The envious looks of the other contenders were exactly what I was after.

“So you’ll be looking in on Maggie Reynolds?” one of the Hart alphas asked, shooting me a meaningful look.

I didn’t know who this Maggie was and found my mouth opening, but no words came out, when I got an unexpected save.

“Introduced myself to Maggie and her daughter, Briar, this afternoon,” Maddox said, shooting me a little smirk.

“Found Briar in the backyard, dealing with a recalcitrant lawnmower. I braved snakes and spiders and fixed the mower, then cut her grass down to something more manageable. The two of them are coming by for dinner tomorrow night.”

That wasn’t the plan, I wanted to say. Our fathers had made clear what we needed to do. Make connections with the community. Impress them enough that they might accept us as the ruling pack once we won the dominance fight, but did that include whiling away our evenings entertaining the elderly?

“Well done.” I blinked, watching Omega Hart move closer and smiling up at my brother. “Maggie’s been doing it tough, and Briar…” He sighed. “I wanted better for her. Much better than the way she was treated.”

His eyes narrowed as he glared at a few packs that hung on the outskirts of the town square.

They were the local alphas, who by rights should’ve been the main contenders for taking control of the town.

From their proximity, I was willing to bet they wouldn’t even get a chance to participate in the alpha trials.

Because Moon River was run very, very differently to the town I was born in.

In Glen Hallow, might equalled right. If you were the strongest, everyone else gave way to you, letting you do whatever the hell you liked. The Hart pack had made clear to everyone that only the alphas the town supported would take their place, and this was our opportunity to win them over.

“Would you like me to introduce you to some of the omegas here?” Omega Hart asked, looking back over his shoulder at us. “You’ve yet to find your mate. Maybe he or she’s right here.”

“I couldn’t think of anything I’d like more,” I replied, following the omega to the back of the stage where a line of men and women stood.

The first five were not mine. I’d smiled and asked them banal questions, only paying enough attention to keep the conversation going before we were moved on to the next omega.

“And this is Kirsty,” Omega Hart said with a smile.

Kirsty was very pretty, with a tumble of dark brown hair and eyes that shone a little too brightly. Her nervous smile had me frowning, and when her fingers started picking at the thumbnail on the other hand, I put mine out.

“Pleasure to meet you, Kirsty,” I said. “I’m Gideon.”

“Gideon?” She seemed to realise she was making a mess of her hand then, going to grab mine with it, then swapping to the other hand. “Lovely to meet you. So…”

Her eyes flicked around the square as if looking for something, and I turned and followed her gaze. Her scent, it stunk of fear, the smell of burning flowers almost choking me.

“Kirsty.” I stepped in closer, my hands rising to place them on her shoulders, but I pulled them back. “Are you in danger?”

“What?” Her eyes went wide as she stared at me, the dark irises bleeding to silver and back again. “Oh, no.” She shook her head and then let out a ragged little laugh. “I’m just really, really nervous. You’re not my alpha, are you?”

Part of me wished I was. What she felt, it couldn’t be contained and resulted in her clawing at her flesh, as if to find a way to let it all out. I knew what that was like. But what was the source of her pain? Instead of making grand declarations, I shook my head slowly.

“I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I won’t help you.” I took her hand, inspecting the cuticles that were red raw and almost at the point of bleeding. “Whatever it is, it’s not worth hurting yourself over.”

She pulled her hand back slowly and smiled sheepishly.

“Just a bad habit. Sometimes I get so wound up…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what to do with the feeling.”

“Bring your focus to the world around you.” I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “What can you see, hear, smell?”

“Um… the lights are really bright,” she said. “And I can smell the barbeque.” I watched her take a big breath in, then let it out slowly, her scent sweetening a little. “Wow, that kinda worked.” Her frown was back seconds later. “Not totally, though.”

“You are nervous because you might meet your fated mates today.” Some instinct told me what to say.

“You don’t know what kind of men they might be.

Kind? Domineering?” She shrank back at that.

“Able to see who you are and accept, no…” I shook my head.

“Love all that you are. That’s what your fated mates will do. ”

“You sure you’re not my mate?” She looked down the line and saw we were holding things up. “Somehow you seem to know all about me.”

It was then I saw how fate worked.

“I’m not the right man for you, Kirsty,” I said. “I can sense how you feel, because I experience the same.”

“You?” Her incredulous look was both a compliment and a life sentence. “I find it hard to believe you get anxious about anything.”

“And yet I do.” I squeezed her hand one more time before letting go. “If I was your alpha, we’d be locked up in a room, scared of everything.”

“But we’d be together.”

There was a promise there, of something, I couldn’t quite work out what. With a shake of my head, I dismissed that strange feeling.

“Your mates, when you find them, will make you stronger, not weaker. Remember that.”

And with that, I pulled away, turning to the next expectant omega.

Reaching the end of the line and not feeling a pull towards anyone was both expected, and a crushing disappointment.

My brothers and I, we were getting close to thirty.

When? My heart throbbed. When would I find her?

Omega Hart wound up the introductions, stepping up to the microphone to address the crowd, when someone called out, “What about Briar?”

I didn’t know who or what Briar was, but as I stared out into the crowd, my eyes found her.

Too pale, wide eyed, and looking distressed, and yet I felt it like a punch to the gut.

The wolf stood proud inside me, threatening to push his way forward.

I didn’t even fight him for control as I took a step forward, then another.

Briar was my fated mate.