Page 48 of The Beta's Heart

“Let’s see if what the betas have been teaching you holds up to what we gammas do on the daily.”

Rube wasn’t so talkative or playful, which we’d expected. We wanted to get him out of his house, though, and into the sunshine. We weren’t deltas or witches, but we reckoned that getting him back into his normal routine couldn’t hurt his recovery any.

We got to it, grappling and sparring, the sounds of grunts and laughter mixing with the rhythmic thud of fists against pads. As we paused for a water break, I noticed Misha Popov standing around on the edge of the practice field not too far from us.

I’d only gotten to know him recently, but he was a good guy, solid and reliable, which was probably why he was the carpentry supervisor of the pack’s construction crew. It was steady work and paid well, and he was always one of the first to volunteer if we needed an emergency sub on a border patrol.

Looking at him now, I felt a surge of sympathy for the guy. Dark circles underscored his eyes, his shoulders slumped, and he was moving like he carried the weight of the world on his back.

“You guys care if I call Misha over?” I asked Lan and Rube. “Dude looks like he could use a friend right now.”

“I was about to ask that same thing,” Lan said, and Rube nodded.

“Hey, Misha!” I called out, waving at him. “Come join us!”

He hesitated, but jogged over, and we welcomed him into our little group with fist bumps. The four of us moved into running laps, the steady pounding of our feet on the track almost like music, and Misha kept pace with us, which was not an easy task for an unranked wolf, but his breathing had turned to pants by the time we took a break, and I chuckled as he fell on the grass like all of his bones had dissolved.

“I didn’t know you were such a drama queen, Misha,” Lan teased as we soughed down water.

“I am not ranked wolf,” he said in his thick Russian accent as he wiped sweat from his forehead. “I think I am doing quite well, keeping up with gammas and beta.”

Rube and I agreed with grins, and Lan slapped him on the shoulder.

We switched to wrestling, taking turns grappling with each other and keeping an eye on Misha to make sure we weren’t going past his limits. Yeah, he was strong and had a good bit of moon power for a regular shifter, but we were all far stronger and more powerful, not to mention our wolves were more aggressive.

Afterwards, we all collapsed on the grass again, panting and laughing under the summer sun.

“I needed this,” Misha admitted, staring up at the fast-moving clouds. “My soul is weary.”

“You want to talk about it?” I sat up and looked at him.

“It is six years since I lost Jeannie. Some days, it seems to be getting harder, not easier.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “I feel as if my life is over at twenty-nine.”

A heavy silence fell over us. I knew the pain of losing someone, but I couldn’t imagine the depth of his grief. The mate bond dissolving, the mark fading, the sudden gaping hole inside you… It was too much for some people to recover from, and more than one shifter over the years had either gone mad or committed suicide-by-alpha after their other half died.

Unfortunately, Misha and Jeannie had only been mated a year when the sickness claimed her, so he didn’t even have pups to take comfort in. There was only him alone at night with the grief and loneliness eating him from the inside out, unlike Charlie Nelson at the O, whose kids gave her the inspiration to keep going—

Hmm. That gives me an idea.

“Have you thought about, oh, I don’t know, finding a companion?” I ventured cautiously. “Someone to share your life with? At the very least, you could make a new friend.”

Misha opened his eyes and looked at me, something flickering in his gaze, then turned to look at Lan and Rube.

“You deserve some happiness,” Rube told him.

“It wouldn’t be the same as having your mate, but there are lots of she-wolves in the pack in the same situation,” Lan added.

“My brother Viktor suggested the same last week. I… I could try. Goddess knows, I cannot go on much longer like this.”

“Do you have someone specific in mind?” Rube looked at me.

“Yeah, but I want to make sure it’s okay with her first before I say anything.”

“Fair enough,” Lan said, stretching out his legs. “Let us know if we can help.”

We finished practice and, as we headed off to shower, I knew I had to talk with Charlie Nelson as soon as possible. Even if nothing came out of it, the two of them could enjoy a friendly dinner together. For now, I was just glad we had reached out to Misha. His shoulders already seemed slightly less burdened and his steps a little lighter.

And that,I thought,is a good start to better days.

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