He shook his head. “I’ll make sure that he treats her with respect, though I don’t think that will be a problem. Never met a more straight-laced kid than Dan.”
I nodded. Everything I’d seen said the same. “I’m just being protective.”
“I’d expect no less,” he said, and patted the baby on the back some more. “Where are the others?”
“Should be along any minute,” I said. “Trina will be with Spence, and Spence went to go get Len out of jail.”
“Jail, huh?”
“Probably just general rowdiness,” I told him, pulling food out of the bags and sorting it by types of breakfast meats. Breakfast tacos with sausage, ones with no sausage, ones with bacon, no bacon. Ones with both bacon and sausage, etc. “Len’s been struggling since Cash died. He’s acting out.”
“I understand,” he said. “But it stops today.”
“Sounds good to me. I don’t want to have to bail him out again.” Though I knew Len wouldn’t like Jackson’s new position. Not at all. And if Dan tried to set himself up as beta? It’d get even more messy.
Jackson played with the baby while I unpacked food and Holly and Dan made short work of the groceries. We pulled out glasses for orange juice (that Holly had brought) and made a watered-down sippy cup for the baby and set out breakfast for the rest of the group.
As if on cue, Trina, Spence and Len showed up just as I’d finished setting the last paper plate on the table.
Trina was the first one through the door, cellphone in hand. Her dark hair was pulled into a thick French braid, and she wore a trendy neon tank top under a cutoff jean jacket and matching shorts. On anyone older, it would have been a risqué outfit, but Trina was thirteen and her figure was coltish and slim, so she simply looked young. Spence came in after her, dressed in a wrinkled t-shirt and dirty jeans, his hair rumpled. Len was behind him, and looked even worse for the wear, several days growth of beard on his jaw.
They stopped at the sight of Jackson, still holding baby Eddie, and Dan, seated next to him. Holly sat next to Dan, her eyes wide as her gaze flicked from me to the others. Watching for reactions.
They weren’t long in coming. Len pushed forward, scowling at Jackson. “Who the fuck are you?”
I pointed at the table. “Sit. Eat breakfast.”
Len sat, glaring. Spence and Trina did too, their eyes wide.
I started to toss wrapped breakfast food in front of each person. “We’re going to eat breakfast, and while we do, I’m going to talk. And you’re all going to sit and listen, got it?” I turned to glare at each one in turn, exerting my will on them. “We’re going to behave like a civilized pack.”
Silence. I looked over at Len, the most vocal of my small group. He was staring at my neck, his jaw clenched in a mutinous scowl. Oh great. He’d seen the mate mark and he wasn’t pleased. His gaze swung to Jackson and I admit, I looked over at Jackson, too.
My mark was plain as day on Jackson’s tanned throat. For some reason, that embarrassed me. It was like advertising to the world ‘Hey, I’m going to shack up with this guy.’
“You all know the problem we’re having with Roscoe. And you all know that the last thing I want for us - for all of us - is him stepping in and taking over. The girls won’t be safe with him at the lead.” I looked at Trina and Holly’s pale faces. Spence pulled Trina closer to him, hugging his younger sister. The scowl on his face echoed Len’s. “And you know that since Cash died…” A knot formed in my throat and I swallowed hard. Grief threatened to choke me again.
As if sensing my distress, Jackson handed the baby off to Dan and stood. He moved to my side of the table and placed a hand on my shoulder.
The unfamiliar touch made me jump, startling me.
Len’s eyes narrowed, watching us.
Jackson’s hand rubbed my shoulder, comfortingly. One might almost say possessively. It was expected, especially with a new alpha stepping in. But I’d made things awkward by flinching away. Even now, I stood next to him, stiff as a board.
“My name is Jackson Wilder,” he said, and gestured at the other end of the table. “That’s Dan St. James. We were passing through Texas when Alice called and suggested we pool our resources. I liked what I saw and that’s why I’m here.”
Trina’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t get it. We don’t know you. How’d Alice get your phone number?”
“There’s an Alliance agency,” I began, not mentioning that it was a dating agency. I had some pride left.
Spence and Len groaned. “Alliance? You serious?” Len asked. “Those nutjobs? That’s for packless freaks.”
“The Alliance is made up of a lot of different shifters,” Jackson said, clearly unruffled by the tension at the table. No one was eating. They were just staring at the mountain of wrapped sandwiches. “And it’s good to have allies when you’re down on your luck.”
“We’re wolves,” Len sneered. “We don’t need allies. We have the pack.”
“We also don’t need their dating agency, then, do we, Len?” I glared at him.
He slouched lower in his seat, scowling.
“So anyhow,” I continued, clenching my hands on the table so I wouldn’t start wringing them. “Jackson is our new alpha and he’s my…mate. It’s going to take some time for everyone to get used to each other, but as of today, I want you all back in the house. You know the rules, too. No changing to wolf unless on Savage territory. No pack runs without clearing it through an alpha first. No interaction with other wolf packs without clearing it first, for the protection of everyone.”
“What about Jackson’s rules?” Holly asked, her voice whisper-thin. “Doesn’t his pack have rules?”
Jackson’s thumb caressed my nape again. “We’re going to go with Alice’s rules for now. She knows you better than I do. If anything needs changing, we’ll discuss it.”
Len snorted.
“What?” I snapped at him.
He shrugged his shoulders, glaring up at me and Jackson. “I can’t believe you picked up a stranger on the internet.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye, though. That would have been a challenge, and male wolves never challenged female wolves.
“We needed an alpha,” I told him, my teeth gritting. I could feel the growl rising in my throat. “Another alpha was the only way to keep the girls out of Roscoe’s grasp—“
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t seem very alpha,” Len said, getting to his feet. He was a yard away from me, in the seat closest to mine at the table. I’d noticed that he’d picked that spot - probably very deliberately. When he stood up, he towered over me. “You should be with me.”
“Len, don’t even start,” I said.
He reached for my arm — only to have his hand batted away by Jackson.
“That a challenge?” Jackson asked in his low, careful voice.
“It’s not,” I said quickly, trying to push between them. “Len doesn’t even want me. Not really. He just wants to be in charge, but he doesn’t realize—“
“Oh, it’s a challenge,” Len said, refuting my words.
“No,” I began, but no one was listening to me any longer.
Over my head, Jackson seized Len by his shirt, and before I could blink an eye, he’d thrown Len against the kitchen wall and held him there, pinned. Jackson’s lips were bared in a snarl, and as I watched, he stared down Len. Just stared at him. No thrown punches, nothing.
A long, tense moment passed…and then Len edged his chin up, showing throat.
It was over so quickly.
Jackson released Len’s shirt, now stretched out from his fists, and Len collapsed against the wall, chest heaving as if he’d ran a mile. He stared at us for a long moment, then bolted for the door.