Page 9 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Briar

“What…?”

I blinked, feeling like I was being dragged backwards. It wasn’t the me who was thirty-three that Mum was talking to. Instead, I was thrust back to the moment when I was about to turn eighteen.

How was my day at school? That would be the first question, then, was I keeping up with the work?

All that was just the lead up to what she really wanted to know.

The alphas I went to school with, had they shown an interest in me or any of the other omegas?

Sometimes it felt like she was more interested in the schoolyard gossip than my friends were.

“Mum—” I started to say. I was experienced in talking her off ledges, so I could do this again.

“That alpha…” Mum’s finger shook in the darkness. “He leapt off the stage and caught you before you fainted.”

Fainted? That wasn’t how I remembered it.

“Right, so?—”

“The whole town is talking about it.”

I frowned, glad she was looking more lively, but not so happy as to why.

“I don’t see why. Gideon was just being neighbourly.”

“Gideon?” Mum unlocked the front door and went inside, forcing me to follow behind her. “Is that his name? What a big, strong male.” She glanced back at me. “Perfect for you, Briar.”

“Mum—”

“I have waited for this day.” She dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and then clasped the edge, like a priest at the pulpit. “Prayed and prayed you’d find your alphas, even though you were spending all that time in the city filled with betas.”

“Mum—”

“But you finally came home.” I hated the hope burning so brightly in her eyes it hurt to look at, because I knew I’d have to quell it. “You came home and allowed fate to work its magic. It’s happening, Briar.”

She hobbled over and clasped my hands with hers, and that’s when I knew what I had to do.

Discussing bringing this up with my mother in a therapy session wasn’t the same as actually doing it. In the soothing consulting rooms I could practise having the conversation with my therapist, but she just sat there quietly, listening carefully. Mum was nowhere near as passive.

“You—”

“Mum!” I didn’t raise my voice to my mother ever.

Having to fulfil the role of both parents made Maggie Reynolds tough.

She was never cruel, but there was no mistaking who ruled the roost. I wasn’t a little chick anymore, hiding under her wings.

I was a grown woman, for gods’ sake. There was never a good time to have this conversation, but I was going to have it now. “I need you to listen to me.”

Her mulish look made clear what I was asking of her, but she stayed blessedly silent.

“I may be an omega, but there are no alphas in my future.”

“Oh, Briar…”

I couldn’t do this if she was feeling sorry for me, I just couldn’t.

“Mum.” I placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’s not gonna happen.”

“So why did we travel halfway across the state then?” she said. “Briar.” Her hand circled my wrist, her thumb brushing back and forth in comforting sweeps. “I know you’re scared of getting hurt again.”

“Gods, is that what you think this is?” I jerked myself away from her, walking back and forth, back and forth across the worn lino. “I’m not scared of Gideon or Mads or any other alpha. It’s just…”

I stared at the ceiling, wondering how I got here.

The whole point of coming down to Moon River was to try to sort her problems, not drop mine on Mum.

My apartment, the brightly coloured geraniums I grew in pots with cute little faces sculpted into the sides, my nest…

I conjured every single comforting thought I could think of before turning around to face my mother.

“I went to the city to find out what was wrong with me,” I said.

“And that was a waste of time. Sweetheart, there has never been anything wrong with you.”

“To discover why I never found my mates then.” I was forced to walk over to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water, drinking it down in long gulps. “The staff there ran a bunch of tests.”

“What tests?” Mum sounded snappy, but I knew what this was. When she got scared, she was like a cornered animal, snarling at anything that threatened her. “What tests could they possibly run to help you find your mates?

I closed my eyes and then shook my head, knowing somehow this news was hard for everyone else to accept but me. Just breathe , I told myself. Whatever happens next, it will be fine . With a square of my shoulders, I turned to face her.

“I can’t have children, Mum.” It felt like I was the parent and she was the child, right as I was telling her something that would break her heart. Her mouth sagged open, her brows knotting as she tried to take in what I was saying. “Omegas produce alpha sons.”

Suddenly, I felt sorry for my mother. She’d never lost hope, waiting for something I’d never want.

And that hope wasn’t about to die now.

“Damien didn’t.” My mother rallied quickly. “He was never going to bear his alpha’s sons, and he found his mates. There was that lovely man in the place near the desert, and the rude fellow at...” She clicked her fingers, trying to remember the name of the town. “The place near the border.”

“Bordertown?” I said with a snort.

“Yes, Bordertown.” She declared that as if it was the key piece of evidence in her case. “None of the male omegas are going to bear their mates’ children. Some adopt or pass the mantle to another pack, like the Harts are doing.”

“But I don’t want to.” I shook my head, hating the fact that my eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to do that. Not adopt or pick some young alphas and make them my heirs.” She sucked in a breath to argue, but there was no way of stopping this. “Not run a town or live in Moon River.”

“There are other towns.”

“Yeah, like the city.”

I was biting off my words, and that was a warning. Every time I rehearsed this moment in my head, I’d made my case calmly and concisely, but reality isn’t the same as fantasy. Suddenly, I was so damn tired.

Especially of having this conversation.

“In the city, no one cares if I’m an alpha, beta, or omega,” I said.

“Your designation doesn’t matter. What you can do, does.

Finding out I can’t have children, living in the city, it gave me the freedom to work out what the hell I wanted to do with my life, not what this town expected.

And I did, Mum. I did. I built up a business from nothing. ”

“Any pack worth its salt would let you have your little business as a side project,” she said.

“It’s not a little business!” Fuck, I was shouting.

My whole body quivered from the shock of it, and Mum looked like she was just as taken aback.

“We made several million dollars in profit this year.” My shaking finger stabbed into my chest. “I am not just an omega, not anymore. I’m a friend, a boss, a successful businesswoman.

Sometimes I’m even a mentor, but you know what’s the most important thing? I’m happy, Mum. I’m happy.”

I just didn’t sound like it right now.

My hands went to my head, and I paced back and forth, eyes half closed, trying to work out a way past this. The wolf was sure she knew. She was digging at the bond between us, trying to find a way out.

“I’m happy you’re a success in the city, really I am, but you can’t fight reality, Briar. You’re an omega and you need alphas.”

For just a second, I thought she understood, but that last bit, it was like a slap to the face. Perhaps that’s why I responded so badly.

“You want to talk about reality?” I snapped, all good sense thrown out the window. My head throbbed in time with my frantic heart. “Then how about this? You’re too old to live in this big house all by yourself now. You could’ve died. If the delivery driver hadn’t found you…”

One little gasp, that’s all it took to silence me.

I’d hurt Mum, that much was clear. Her face crumpled in, her hands shaking as she collapsed down onto the stool.

I took a step towards her, to beg for her forgiveness, to try to find common ground somewhere, but the wolf had had enough.

With a yelp, she sprang free, leaving my clothes in a pool on the kitchen floor.

Down the hall she ran, then to the back door, shoving the screen open.

The moon, the sky, that’s what she saw, and then she was off.

Across the backyard, then over the fence and off up the hill to the forest beyond we went.

The feeling of our body moving with purpose, running at full speed, our paws striking the earth.

It was everything I didn’t know I needed.

We stopped when we reached the top of the hill, climbing up onto the big, flat rock there.

Our head was thrown back and the sound of our howl vibrated in our throat, right before we let it out.

Our cry echoed out through the forest, the hills and the town beyond.