Page 34 of Wolf Lost

Ash looked down at his own T-Shirt, with a superhero logo on it, and back up at Sawyer. “Maybe they’ll repossess me to send to Bakersfield too. Seriously, no one is going to judge you by your clothes unless you show up in your underwear or something.”

“I should’ve cut my hair.”

“Sawyer.”

Sawyer glared at him. “Impressions are important. And I’m not two hundred pounds of musclebound alpha like you. No one is going to mistake you for a teenager.”

Ash slid an arm around Sawyer’s shoulders and leaned his head against him. “No one is going to mistake you for a teenager either. If the Shanes think you’re not competent to make your own decisions, your age won’t be why.”

The telltale tap of Dez’s cane accompanied his footsteps as he approached the door, leaning against it and looking Sawyer over. “If that’s their take, screw them. I’d say you should go as you are, but with your delicate constitution, you might die of exposure.”

Sawyer first flushed and pulled the shirt on at Dez’s frank and appreciative assessment, then scowled at him. “Screw you. I’m not delicate.”

Dez grinned at him. “There you are. I was afraid someone else had taken over for a minute.” He motioned to the shirt Sawyer had chosen, and then the one on the bed. “They’re what you wear. What you like. Even Gavin’s not wearing a suit. And if you borrow one of his fancy shirts, you won’t look like an adult; you’ll look like a kid playing dress up. You’re who you are, and we like that guy. Be him.”

And there was the flush again. Sawyer nodded and stared at his feet for a second before he could look up at Dez. “Thanks.” He could feel Dez’s pleasure through the pack bond forming between them. For some reason, it was coming together faster than his bonds with Ash and Gavin, despite the fact that he was coming to care about both of them very much.

He refused to let himself think it was anything deeper than how he spent so much time with Dez. Just because the romantic in him wanted to believe in old werewolf stories about mates, didn’t make them real. Old werewolf stories hadn’t done Sawyer any favors, and he wasn’t going to dwell on them. Meanwhile, the Kismet pack were the most human wolves he’d ever met, and that had worked out well so far.

“Everyone ready?” Gavin called from the foyer. “Ash said it would be rude to get there first, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably also rude to be late?”

Ash nodded and headed for the door. “Yep. Let’s go.”

Dez lingered in the door until Sawyer joined him, and reached out with his left hand to take Sawyer’s. “It’ll be fine, no matter what they say.”

Sawyer wished he could be that confident.

* * *

He almost hyperventilatedon the way over in the van. It wasn’t something he did on a regular basis. Before a final exam he’d expected to fail. When he’d realized that the pack was going to stand on tradition and let Mark kill his father.

And now, when he was half convinced that these men, his new pack, whom he’d become so attached to, were going to get hurt trying to protect him. Maybe he should go quietly if the Shanes insisted.

When he’d arrived in Kismet, he’d had nothing to lose but his life, and even that hadn’t been of terribly much value to him. He’d been prepared to forfeit it rather than give in. Not now, though. It was chilling to realize that because his life was worth living for, his situation was by far worse.

Dez squeezed his hand as they walked into the restaurant where they had agreed to meet the Shane alpha. The pack liaison had suggested a public place in Kismet. Since the Shanes had requested the meeting, the travel was their responsibility. But the diplomatic nature of the meeting required something more neutral than the actual pack house.

The Shanes wouldn’t be welcome in their home until this was resolved, and probably not ever if they agreed that omegas were children incapable of making their own decisions. Even if Sawyer left quietly to avoid causing problems for his pack, there would never be peace between them and the Shanes after that.

“Stop that,” Dez muttered to him as they waited for the host to seat them.

Sawyer pretended innocence. “Stop what?”

In front of them, Gavin snorted. Dez continued to look at Sawyer as though to say, “See?”

“I’m allowed to be nervous.”

When the host returned to usher them to their seats, Gavin turned and motioned for them to go first. Sawyer opened his mouth to protest, to point out to Gavin that as their alpha-alpha, he should be first, but instead he turned to look at Asher.

Ash looked at Gavin, then Sawyer, and considered for a moment, then nodded. “You’re the boss, boss.” Gavin rolled his eyes, but Asher continued. “It’s probably for the best they know right away that we’re not inclined to stand on tradition.”

He motioned for Sawyer to precede them. If Dez hadn’t been holding his hand, he wasn’t sure he could have done it. It was an honor and all, but he suddenly felt very keenly why the alpha went first. The alpha could handle any threats that came at him, while Sawyer probably couldn’t take the human showing them to their table in a fight. She looked scrappy, and anyone who worked in customer service had dealt with a few jerks.

But there was Dez, warm and solid and entirely alpha at his side. Cane or no, hand or no, Sawyer was pretty sure Dez could handle anything another pack might try in public.

Hell, having known him for three weeks, Sawyer thought maybe Dez could take another alpha in a fight, with or without his pack as backup.

The host took them to a private room and let them in with a bright smile and the standard “your server will be with you in a moment,” and left them to head in.

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