Page 43 of Alpha Gray

“You gonna let her stay?” Brock asks, and I lift my gaze to meet his.

“Yeah.”

I brace myself for Brock’s retort, but it doesn’t come. He just nods, and I look suspiciously from him to the others. “Are you guys okay with that?”

Theo claps me on the shoulder. “Yeah, man. Of course we are.”

I arch a brow and look at all four guys skeptically. “Okay, what’d I miss?”

Jax smirks. “We already talked about it. If you want her to stay, we’re good with it.”

“She’s a hell of a fighter,” Reid adds. “It’d be a shame for the squad to lose her over a catfight with another recruit.”

I’m blown away by how cool they’re all being about this and I’m immediately suspicious that there’s some underlying motive or something. Weren’t they just giving me the third degree about hooking up with Fallon a few days ago?

“Brock?” I ask, looking to him.

He shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Look, dude, I still don’t think it’s a good idea for you to get involved with a recruit… but the girl’s got guts. When she stumbled upon that rogue the other night, she kept her cool. She impressed me. I think she’s got what it takes to make the squad, and we’d be lucky to have her. She should be punished for what she did last night, but I don’t think we have to send her home over it.”

I’m shocked at what I’m hearing. It takes a lot for someone as stubborn as Brock to change his mind, but then again, Fallon has that effect on people. She’s incredible. I guess the other guys are starting to see that, too.

Theo throws an arm over my shoulders. “You also proved that you still put the squad first when you kicked her out last night in front of everyone.”

“Yeah, man, that was ice cold,” Jax laughs.

I crack a smile and shake my head, and we all chuckle.

Brock speaks up again. “I’m not going to tell you what you can or can’t do on your own time, man. Sorry I was such a dick about it before. As long as you can still run the squad, we’re good.”

He extends a hand to me and I take it, wrapping my fingers with his. We pull together and slap each other’s backs in a bro-hug.

I’m seriously stunned at how supportive these guys are being, but I’m grateful for it. Even though I’ve already ended things with Fallon, it feels good to know that they have my back. What the five of us have feels like a true brotherhood. We disagree, we fight, but we always come back together.

“Well,” I sigh, “it won’t be an issue going forward, anyways. I broke things off with her last night.”

“Say whaaat?” Jax arches a brow, drawing out the last syllable.

“Yeah.” I stare at the ground again, frowning. “It’s just pulling both of our focus away from the things that matter.” I swallow hard, looking back up to my friends. “It’s for the best, really.”

Even as I say the words, I don’t believe them. I know the right thing to do is to cut things off, but now that I’ve had a taste of Fallon, I don’t know how I’m going to manage staying away from her. It’s going to be fuckingtorture.

“I don’t know, bro,” Theo says, nudging me with his elbow. “I was starting to think she was a good influence on you. You’ve been different lately, less of a dick.” He smirks, and I deliver a playful jab to his arm.

“It’s better this way,” I grumble. “Just promise me that you guys will be fair when you evaluate her for partners, cuts, and rankings. Don’t let all this shit influence it.”

I knew before that Fallon wanted to make the squad- I mean, you don’t show up to training camp and go through six weeks of hell unless you really want it- but last night, I could finally see how much sheneedsthis. It’s not just an option for her, it’s everything. I know that kind of passion because I feel the same way about the squad. The last thing I want to do is screw up her chances.

“For sure,” Reid quips. “Don’t even worry about that, man.”

I nod and mumble my thanks just as the door to the barracks opens and the recruits start to spill out onto the practice field. I’ve already explained myself to the other alphas, but now I’ve got to figure out what the hell to say to these recruits about Fallon staying.

They circle up quickly and Brock, Jax, Reid, and Theo look to me to deliver the news.

“Good morning, recruits,” I say in my typical greeting. I quickly find Fallon in the crowd, but she doesn’t look at me, just stares at the ground. My wolf whines at the sight of her, still mourning his loss.

“So first things first, we need to address what happened last night,” I say. I don’t owe them a full explanation of everything that went down, but I can certainly pull a Brock and use this as a lesson. “First of all, I want you to understand that infighting amongst the squad is never tolerated. We’re a team here, a family, and we should resolve our problems with words, not fists or our wolves.”

The recruits nod in understanding and a few of them shoot sideways glances toward Fallon. She’s still staring at the ground.

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