Page 54 of Resurgence of the Pack

What?

There was some nice innuendo in there,I explained.

She huffed at me.Focus on feeding me. Pig, please.

As you wish, my canine dictator.I stood up from my desk. ‘I’m going to the kitchen for a moment. Esme wants a bacon butty.’

Greg looked hopeful. ‘Grab me one?’

‘Sure thing.’ I looked at him. ‘You know you can delegate watching the security cameras to others, right?’

He smiled softly. ‘I know, but I like the excuse to spend lots of time with you.’

My own smile widened. ‘You don’t need an excuse, love. Any time you want me, you just say.’

He brightened. ‘Free use?’

I gave him a flat look and flicked him on the forehead. ‘No.’ I paused. ‘Maybe one time on holiday.’

He grinned. ‘Good to know. I’m going to make a colour-coded spreadsheet of potential activities for when we go on holiday.’

Be still my beating heart. ‘That’s just playing dirty,’ I muttered.

He winked. ‘I know.’

With effort I wrenched myself away from Greg’s smutty flirtation and hauled myself down to the kitchen. Xander was there, helping Noah and Finley with dinner service. Since he’d joined us, I’d found that Xander was a helpfulsoul, he needed to be doing; Finley was more than happy to have the help and, I suspected, the companionship as well. The three of them had formed a warm camaraderie. There were huge cauldrons of stew bubbling away and enough garlic bread to slay a horde of vampyrs – if garlic really did anything to them. Maybe I could ask Voltaire about that.

Xander had come to me from the Devon Pack painfully eager to please, and any hint of displeasure from me made him flinch. For that reason alone, I did my best to always appear sunny around him, but it wasn’t hard, he was a sweet lad.

‘Hey, everyone,’ I said warmly. ‘Can an alpha get a bacon sandwich? The stew smells great, but Esme wants bacon. Right now. She’s very particular.’

‘I’ll do it!’ Xander almost tripped over his own legs in his eagerness to serve. ‘I can do bacon!’ With an amused nod, Finley gave him permission.

‘One for Greg, too, please,’ I added.

‘You got it!’ Xander was almost bouncing in place.

‘That’s a lot of food,’ I said to Finley, gesturing at the many bubbling pots.

‘We have a lot of loners,’ he fired back.

‘True. How do you think they are settling in?’

He beamed. ‘Well, Alpha. Very well. I’m grateful.’

‘Ididn’t do it for you,’ I said, but I gave him a grin to take any sting out of the words.

‘I know it. You did it because it was the right thing to do.’

Uh-oh. His gaze was full of admiration. Finley had always liked me but the look in his eyes was akin to full-on worship, a Xander level of adoration.

I shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t long since I had felt like I was ‘just’ an accountant who’d tumbled down a rabbit hole and had been trying to swim the right way up ever since. I had existed in a constant state of perpetual near-drowning, the queen of ‘fake it till you make it’. I’d found all the false confidence exhausting.

But now? Now I truly was Queen and I didn’t need to fake anything and I was starting to accept that. Esme was fast, strong and deadly; I was smart, and I paid attention. We were a good team, worthy of admiration. Adoration, though? That would take some getting used to.

Baby steps – I’d grow accustomed to it, just like I’d got used to being an alpha. Small incremental changes added up to a huge improvement overall.

Luckily, Xander chose that moment to present me with a cup of tea. He’d made it milky but strong, exactly to my taste. ‘Thank you!’ I grinned at him. ‘I appreciate a man who makes a good brew.’

---