I nodded. There was something in shifter genes that made females - especially female werewolves - a rarity. Maybe the pack dynamic contributed to things, but most times you’d find one female in a pack - the alpha. We’d had four, up until Joanne had packed up her things and left. Both Holly and Trina were young and extremely vulnerable, and I didn’t want Roscoe getting his paws on them.
It was one reason why I’d separated myself from my pack — to make sure that if anyone got pounced by Roscoe, it was me.
“And now we have you and Dan,” I said.
“Dan’s a good kid,” he told me. “His family all perished in the fire and it left him with me. We’re a team, now. I won’t go anywhere he’s not welcome.”
I understood that thinking. “He beta?”
“For my pack of two? Yeah.”
“That’s the only thing I could think would be a problem,” I answered honestly. “Len might not want to give up his position as second. Everyone else is close to his age and not dominant in the slightest.”
He nodded, as if considering things, and his gaze went back to the pictures on my dresser. “I’m very sorry about your mate. I know this must be hard for you.”
I blinked. Mate? Then I sucked in a breath as I looked at him. He really didn’t know what he was getting into, did he? He thought he was coming in to comfort the grieving widow and didn’t know how to proceed. Pack law dictated that if we merged our packs, he’d rise to the top and I’d basically be his property, of a sort. He probably even thought baby Eddie was mine.
“Um.” I said, feeling heat steal up my cheeks. “You should know a few things.”
“Uh oh.” He gave me a friendly grin, his attitude so smooth and easy I almost smiled back at him. “Nothing good ever comes out of that saying.”
I hugged my legs closer to my chest, watching his face. “Cash wasn’t my mate.”
A wrinkle formed between his brown brows. If anything, it made him look even more gorgeous. Totally unfair. “You’re not the alpha?”
“I am,” I said, and before he could question more, I added, “Cash was my brother.”
His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Yep,” I told him, my voice short. “You got yourself a bona-fide werewolf virgin.”
He stared at me. Rubbed his neck again. Glanced at the pictures, then back at me. “And the baby?”
“Cash’s kid. Joanne was the mom. She ran off because she wanted to be the alpha female in a pack and I wasn’t about to budge.” My smile was tight. “So now I get to raise Eddie as part of my pack.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah.” My voice was flat. “I just thought you should know. I think Roscoe’s figured it out, too. That’s why he’s after me so hard. He wants me, and he wants my girls.”
“He won’t touch them while I have breath in my body,” Jackson said, and offered me his hand. “I promise you this.”
I’d been needing to hear those words. Relief settled on me like a blanket, and that awful tension I’d felt in my shoulders loosened for the first time in two weeks. With Cash at my side, we’d been a strong pair. But on my own, I hadn’t realized how vulnerable a female alpha was. It didn’t matter how strong I was; a male wolf would automatically be more dominant, could always beat me in a physical fight, which was how most dominance battles were fought. “Thank you.”
I took his hand and clasped mine in it. I had a strong handshake, but his was stronger. I took note of his hand, too, the thick calluses, the deep tan. His was a working man’s hands. I liked that.
He didn’t let go of my hand, though. He just kept clasping it and smiling at me in that friendly way that my head wasn’t sure I liked, but my body liked all too much. “When can I meet the others?”
“They’re staying with friends,” I said. “Human friends that don’t know about…the pack. Roscoe won’t know where to find them. I’ll text them in the morning and tell them to come for breakfast.”
“Breakfast’ll be here soon,” he told me, and gave my hand a squeeze. “You should get some sleep. You look exhausted.”
“I haven’t slept well in weeks,” I admitted. Just the thought of bed was a delicious torment. I wanted to crawl into it, and yet…I looked at Jackson. “Since you’re an unmated alpha…”
I let the words hang in the air. He knew the rest. He was an unmated alpha male, and I was an unmated alpha female. It’d be expected for us to share a room.
And to share a bed.
He gave my hand another squeeze and then got up. “Don’t you worry, Alice. You just get some sleep.” He got up and crossed the room to the overstuffed chair near the door, examined it, and then swept the dirty laundry onto the floor. “I’m going to shower, then I’ll sit here and rest, if that’s okay with you.”
I blinked and stared at him. He wasn’t going to force me to share his bed? I nearly trembled with relief…but it couldn’t last. “You know we have to—“
“I know,” he told me, raising a hand to stop me before I could continue. “We’ll worry about mate markings and claimings and stuff later. Not everything has to happen tonight. You’re exhausted and I’ve got a lot on my mind. So if it’s all okay with you, I’d like to sit in this nice, comfy chair here,” he pointed at my chair, “and relax. You sleep.”
His voice was soothing and compelling. I wanted to sleep, and not only because he was telling me to. “What about you?”
“I’ll stay up. Shower. Check stuff out. Make sure everything’s all right.” His voice dropped a bit lower, his tone husky. “You can trust me, Alice. You’re safe now.”
My heart thudded hard, and I hoped desperately that was the case.
Chapter Five
I woke up sometime after dawn, feeling curiously refreshed and at ease despite only a few hours of sleep. Even three hours of sleep was more than I’d gotten in the last two days. I glanced around my room but Jackson was nowhere to be seen. That made me feel a little better, I supposed. The thought of him leering at me while I slept was unnerving.
Then I frowned to myself. If there was one thing Jackson was incapable of, it was leering. He seemed…friendly. As easygoing as he’d said on his profile. It was weird to see in an alpha. Most of the ones I’d known were full of piss and bluster and kept their authority by force. Jackson seemed determined to make everyone comfortable, and that maybe they’d bow to his leadership because they wanted to, not because they had to.
Strange man.
I rolled out of bed and winced at the smell. I smelled like smoke and cleaning supplies and my own stale sweat and fear. That wouldn’t do. I needed to shower, especially if we were calling the pack home. I didn’t want to smell like fear and introduce them to Jackson at the same time.
Before I got into the shower, though, I grabbed my phone and sent a group text out to the pack. Come home, I sent. Breakfast is at 9. Be here for a pack meeting. Spence, go get Len out of jail.
I felt better after showering and washing my hair a few times, though I felt a bit ashamed that things felt like they were sliding back to normal. Jackson was a stranger. My brother was dead. Shouldn’t I hold out for longer? Grieve more? Something? But with an alpha at my side - even a strange alpha - I felt…I don’t know. Not quite so alone. Not quite so terrified.
And that made me feel guilty.
I toweled off and dressed into another plain t-shirt and jeans. I didn’t bother to do more than brush my dark hair. I wasn’t going to fancy up for Jackson. He had to take me as I was.
My work phone buzzed with an incoming text as soon as I slipped it into my pocket, and I clicked on the message. My air conditioner’s out, Eliza, one of my tenants, had sent me. Can you come look at it?