Page 14 of Wild Alpha (Cold-Blooded Alpha #12)

“ Y ou didn’t need to bring anything. We invited you to this BBQ to feed you, not the other way around,” Talis says with a smile as I hand her the small glass jar I found in one of the cabin cupboards, filling it with more of my pack’s famous steak rub.

Feet away, by a lake near the Blackshaws’ farmhouse, the rest of the pack have spread out across the grass. It’s a clear, blue day with hardly any clouds in the sky, and like most pack gatherings everywhere, it’s loud .

Amidst laughter, conversation, babies crying, and warnings not to jump in the lake until after the food, the smoky, savory scent of roasting meat enhances the celebratory mood.

At first, I didn't want to leave the cabin with Fisher, but Talis had stopped by to invite us to the BBQ herself. I didn’t want to miss it, just in case it was a welcome party for me rather than a spontaneous event like Talis made it seem.

I shrug. “It’s not much. Just a rub I made.”

Dayne, busy talking to Gavin, wrenches his head my way. “A rub ?”

He’s human, dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt, but if he were a wolf, his ears would have pricked up with interest.

“For steak or burgers,” I explain, uncomfortable around a man with such a feared reputation. I’ve yet to see any sign of the violently out-of-control alpha I’d expected, but I’m still uneasy around him.

A second later, Talis’s hand is empty, and Dayne is unscrewing the lid to sniff it.

He nods happily and walks over to the grill, where the other guys are gathered. “Thanks,” he calls out, raising a hand without looking back.

“You get a thanks because it involves meat,” Talis says, shaking her head. “Anything else, and he wouldn’t care.”

He halts and swings around to growl at her. “I care when you’re naked.”

“Meat and naked woman.” She lets out a loud, dramatic sigh. “And historians think cavemen died out. They should have come to the Colorado mountains because I swear all the cavemen are right?—”

She bursts into giggles when he scoops her up, presses a firm kiss on her lips, and growls. “ Enough , woman.”

Then he sets her back on her feet and walks toward the grill, calling out to the guys, Fisher included, “Don’t put the steaks on. I want to marinate them in this rub.”

“It’s good,” Fisher tells Dayne, flashing me a grin. “We had some last night. I swear I dreamed about it.”

“They always do that,” Talis explained when I arrived with Fisher minutes before. “Act all territorial with the barbecue.”

“My pack was the same. I have no idea why guys get so funny about not letting a woman near a BBQ,” I say, trying to keep my voice down.

I needn’t have bothered. I’m around shifters, and shifters have sharp ears.

“Wish they applied that theory in the kitchen when it’s time to do the dishes,” a blonde woman mutters and smiles at me. “Hi, I’m Jenna.”

Talis takes my hand and tugs me toward the women sitting on the grass with drinks and snacks. “Come meet the girls. I told them all about you, and they’re excited to meet you.”

I already feel overwhelmed by all the Blackshaws I’ve met so far. Adding more names and faces to the mix is giving me a headache.

When Fisher and I arrived, I met the guys crowding the huge stainless-steel grill. There were so many names, and of course, when the guys introduced themselves, they told me who their mates are, and that just added to my overwhelm.

Including the kids, there are almost twenty people here. I’ll be lucky to remember everyone’s names tomorrow, if I even do.

Reluctant to meet so many Blackshaws all at once, I take a seat on the grass, and we have a brief round of introductions.

“So, you and Fisher, huh?” Hallee waggles her eyebrows at me as Talis hands me a bottle of water.

“ Hallee ,” Talis hisses.

“What?” She widens pretty brown eyes. “I’m just curious. They were walking awfully close to each other when they arrived. Thighs practically brushing.”

Talis covers Patrick’s ears with both hands.

“Really?” Hallee raises her eyebrows. “I said thighs . That is not a bad word.”

I swallow my smile. Patrick and Angel are barely paying us any attention. They’re talking to each other in a language only they seem to understand, passing each other the wooden toys on the blanket they’re sitting on. Lila, Marshall and Jenna’s baby girl is sleeping in a baby seat nearby.

“Sorry,” Talis apologizes to me. “They are all nosy—all of them. Feel free to push her into the lake anytime. I won’t complain.”

“ Hey !” Hallee scoots away from me, alarmed. “If you knew how long it took me to get my winged eyeliner even, you’d do no such thing.”

I can’t help but smile. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“So, are you and Fisher getting it on?” Savannah asks me, rolling her eyes at Talis when Talis nudges her.

“What? As if we’re not all thinking it. And he’s a hottie.

It’s totally cool if you were. It’s why Dayne was acting like a grandma about Talis going into town to speak to him before.

Not sure what he thought Fisher would do to his pregnant mate. ”

I glance over at the grill.

Dayne is chatting with Fisher as he sprinkles my rub onto a metal tray of thick burgers next to the smoking grill. There’s not much of it left. He must have added it to the steaks and decided the burgers needed more seasoning.

“They look like they’re friends,” I say. No one would think they were anything but friends with the way they’re laughing.

“They are now ,” Talis says.

“Because Fisher liked you before?” I ask, refocusing on Talis and holding my breath as I wait for her response.

She smiles. “Because Fisher was friendly before. He’s different with you. I saw the way he was looking at you when I dragged you away to talk.”

“Like she’d just kicked his puppy,” Eden, Luka’s mate, explains.

I twist around to look at Fisher. Again.

We all do.

He’s holding a soda, laughing at something Dayne says, when he feels my attention, because he glances over at me. His laughter fades, and his expression turns soft.

That warm smile makes my toes curl, and I wish he would come over and kiss me.

“Good lord, I need a man to look at me like that,” Blair mutters, fanning herself.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Hallee demands. “Gavin looks at you like that all the time.”

“Things are different. Not bad different. Just... we’re past the honeymoon phase where, I swear to God, I lost hours of my day just staring at him.” She glances at the kids and adds quietly, “Or we were in bed. Now we actually do stuff.”

Talis laughs. “I hear you. Except it’s not doing stuff in bed distracting me, it’s two screaming littles and responsibility.”

Angel suddenly pushes herself up and toddles off toward the grill, leaving Patrick to keep playing with wooden blocks. Talis watches her until Nathan moves toward her, then her attention shifts back to us.

After walking in on Dayne telling her not to poke things that will kill her in the kitchen a couple of days ago, I get why both Talis and Dayne, who is watching from the grill, keep such a close eye on her.

Patrick, I’m learning, is the quiet and serious one.

Angel is the one who can’t sit still.

“I hear you,” Jenna says, glancing affectionately at her sleeping baby. “I love Lila to death, but I’m not sure I want another one in case I have one like Angel.”

“ Hey !” Talis yells, outraged. “That’s my daughter you’re talking about.”

“I don’t mean it as an insult,” Jenna says as Nathan scoops up Angel when she veers sharply toward the lake. “But you take your eyes off her for a second, and she’s doing something that stops your heart. I couldn’t live with that stress. I’m not built for it.”

Talis makes a soft sound of assent.

It makes sense that Jenna, a submissive shifter, would have that attitude. Submissive shifters tend to be quieter, preferring a peaceful life. Angel, with her tendency for chaos, would definitely come from a pairing of two alphas. Maybe Patrick’s chaotic phase will happen when he’s a teenager.

My eyes return to Fisher as my thoughts stray to what would happen if we had kids.

It’s still early to think about it since shifter women are slow to conceive, but what might our kids be like? Cheerful and friendly like him? Or quiet and awkward like me?

And would they be able to shift?

I still can’t believe how well he’s handling being surrounded by a pack of shifters.

“He’s so normal,” I murmur.

“He’s a good guy. Deep down, a genuinely good person,” Talis says, nudging her shoulder against mine. “You’re fortunate not to have an alpha like Dayne, who growls constantly. I adore him, but that man is high maintenance.”

“I heard that,” Dayne yells, taking Angel from Nathan. “Who’s ready to eat?”

And just like that, everyone is up and heading straight for the grill.

I move a little slower, still thinking about mine and Fisher’s future and what it might look like.

“I’m Madi,” one of the women says, slowing down to walk beside me with a smile. Her long, curly blonde hair is only loosely tied back by a braid, which appears to be on the verge of coming undone.

My nose tells me something I should have picked up long before now. “You’re human.”

She grins at me. “Dean is my mate.”

My steps slow, and I furrow my brow. “Not boyfriend?”

Humans don’t use the term mate. Only shifters do, and this curvy woman with curly blonde hair and brown eyes is definitely human.

“Mate,” she says. “The word boyfriend doesn’t quite capture how we feel about each other, and marriage is a human concept. I prefer mate, and so does Dean.”

My gaze drifts, landing on Dean, the lean, dark-haired shifter helping to pass out food. He catches my eye and smiles. His gaze slides to rest on Madi, and his expression softens.

Mates. Definitely .

“And you don’t want to be a shifter?” I ask Madi when she turns to me.

If they’ve talked about mates, they would have discussed him biting her so she could be a shifter too. It’s a conversation Fisher and I haven’t had yet, and I’m not sure I want to be the one to bring it up, even though I need to.

She shakes her head. “Nope.”

“And you don’t mind that he’s a shifter?”

Fisher has repeatedly told me that it doesn’t bother him what I am. I believed him each time, but I can’t shake the fear that one day it will bother him. There’s only so much difference a person can take before they start to crave the familiar.

Madi takes my hand and tugs. “C’mon, let's go for a walk.” She turns back to Dean, who’s watching. “Save me a burger, love. I'll be back soon.”

He gives her a salute. “Whatever you want, baby.”

“You want me to save you something?” Fisher asks me.

I smile. “It’s okay.”

“Name it and I will fight to the death for it,” he says, drawing smiles and laughter.

Every time that man opens his mouth, he claims more of my heart. “A burger, then?”

“It’s yours.”

Madi tugs me toward the small lake a few feet from the Blackshaw farmhouse.

When we’re closer to the water than the rest of the others, she says quietly, “You should tell him.”

I twist to look at her. “Tell him what?”

“Whatever it is that’s making you think being a shifter is going to scare him away.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I was watching you earlier. You keep bouncing between soft, happy smiles and quiet, sad sighs.” She pats the back of my hand. “You’ve been gifted with a rare man who isn’t just attractive; he’s honest, easy to talk to, and a good listener. Talk to him. He will listen.”

“How did you and Dean meet?”

She makes a face. “I was being chased by a guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Dean was a workaholic living in a cabin, and I thought he was just a regular guy. But he ended up saving me.”

I release a sigh, rubbing a hand over my face. “It’s different with Fisher. This is his home. He’s a local. Every time he goes into town, he’s going to be reminded just how different I am.”

“Different isn’t always bad.”

“What?”

“I said different isn’t always bad. You make it sound like it is, but it’s not. Other than calling the cops, no one else could have protected me like Dean and his pack did.”

“But Fisher doesn’t need protecting from anything.”

If anything, I should be staying away from him because I’m the one who could endanger him. There’s been no sign of Xavier since I came to Hardin, but that could change any time.

What then?

“Food’s getting cold,” Dean calls out to us.

“Let’s eat,” I say, turning back.

Madi slows my steps with a hand on my wrist. “If you ever want to talk, I’m here.”

“Sure.” But I won’t. Not about this. This feels like a problem I have to deal with on my own.

Fisher is normal. His life is perfectly normal, but I’m not, and I never will be.

How long will it take before this strange new world that just opened up to him begins to scare him? And what do I do if Xavier shows his face?