Page 111 of Alpha Theo

Her lips curve into a smile. “Packhouse. Gotta catch up with Fallon.”

“You’re not gonna tell your sister I swiped your v-card, are you?” I groan.

“Ugh!” Brooke slaps my chest with the back of her hand. “Do you always have to be so crude?”

I waggle my eyebrows. “It’s part of my charm, baby.”

She rolls her eyes, chuckling softly.

“Hey, I just don’t wanna get punched in the face again,” I laugh. “Or kicked in the nuts.”

Brooke points a finger at me, narrowing her eyes. “Then you’d better behave,” she teases.

After a few minutes, we roll into the driveway of the packhouse in Goldenleaf and I grab our bags out of the back seat, slinging them over my shoulders and walking around the Jeep. Brooke’s waiting on the other side, tying the laces of her sneakers. I don’t know why she always takes her shoes off on road trips- it’s just another one of her little quirks that I find cute as hell.

I scoop an arm around her waist as soon as she bends up, her backpack nearly falling off my shoulder in the process. She makes a little ‘umph’ sound when I stamp my lips down over hers, stealing a kiss while I still have the opportunity.

I’ll never get tired of kissing this girl. Every time is like the first time. Her eyes slam shut, her lips parting. She winds her arms around my neck and gives herself over to me. I feel the heat of her body against mine, the softness of her tongue twining with my own. A single kiss and my dick’s already hard.

Reluctantly, I break the kiss, gazing down into Brooke’s ocean blue eyes. Then I place a hand on the small of her back, guiding her down the front walk to the door of the packhouse.

“About time!” Gray calls as I follow Brooke inside, looking up to see him jogging down the stairs. “I thought you guys would be back an hour ago.”

I toss the keys to the Jeep in his direction and he snatches them out of the air, sliding them into the pocket of his jeans.

“You ready?” he asks, clapping his hands and rubbing his palms together.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I grumble.

Gray and I say quick goodbyes to our girls and head out, climbing back in his Jeep to drive to Stillwater. The council rotates who hosts the meetings and their locations, and it’s Reid’s turn to host in his pack’s town. It isn’t too far from Goldenleaf, but when we pull up to the Stillwater packhouse, it becomes apparent that we’re probably the last to arrive- the driveway’s full, and the street out front is packed with vehicles. I recognize my dad’s SUV and my stress levels immediately elevate.

“C’mon,” Gray urges, hustling me out of the Jeep and across the packhouse lawn. We walk inside to find everyone gathered in the great room to the right of the foyer, perched on couches and chairs to form a half-circle.

Reid strides over to greet us, wrapping his hand around Gray’s and slapping his back in a bro-hug, then doing the same to me.

“Are we the last ones?” Gray asks under his breath.

Reid nods, leaning in. “No worries. Jax walked in two minutes ahead of you.” He turns, gesturing for us to follow him from the foyer to the great room. Gray and I find a couple of empty chairs near his own beta, Deke, and sink down onto them, looking to Reid expectantly since he’s the host of tonight’s meeting.

“Alright,” Reid barks, clapping his hands together. “Looks like we’re all here, so let’s get started. As most of you know, there was an incident yesterday with the shadow pack hacking the Denver pack’s servers, potentially compromising their security systems.”

I glance around the room to see everyone nodding solemnly- at least they’re taking this threat seriously.

“Since Theo was there when it happened, I’m gonna yield the floor to him.”

Wait, what?

My head snaps back to look at Reid.A little heads-up would’ve been nice. He just nods, gesturing for me to join him at the front of the room.

I blow out a breath, rising from my chair and shoving my hands in my pockets as I trudge over to where Reid’s standing. I spin back around to face everyone, swallowing hard when I see them all looking to me expectantly.

I clear my throat. Collect my thoughts. “What happened in Denver could’ve been a lot worse,” I begin. “They’re still investigating how much of their information was compromised, including their location, but they were really lucky that they caught the hack early and were able to shut it down.”

I shift my weight, looking out at the people gathered. I try to avoid eye contact with my dad, who’s resting his chin on his hand, a judgmental glint in his eye.

“The point is, this threat could be coming to our door at any time, and we need to shore up our defenses,” I say. “We need to increase our numbers on our own IT unit to ensure that something similar doesn’t happen here, and we need to stand with Denver when it comes to a physical threat. If we have their back, they’ll have ours.”

A few grumbles rise up from the crowd.

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