Page 2 of The Beta's Heart

Not to mention a daughter who’s the sweetest, most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Not thatI’dever have a chance of being her mate.Girls like her don’t end up with orphan boys who are broken inside and out…

“More like, you started tinkering with this old bitch and found out just what a cruel cunt she is.” Mr. Barlow slapped one hand on the car’s fender. “Never seen such fucked-up wiring in my life.”

“Don’t listen to him, baby,” I crooned to the Mustang. “It’s not your fault that rats made a nest in your engine block.”

“You owe the swear bear fourteen dollars already, Mr. Barlow,” Gamma Lan said with a straight face, “and it’s not even 7:30 in the morning.”

“Son, I owe that damned thing all day long.”

“That’s another two dollars, sir,” I snickered.

With a pretend growl, he slung out one big, tattooed arm to try and catch me in a noogie, but I dodged him and ran over to my backpack, grabbed the handles and slung it onto my shoulders.

“Get your asses out of here, boys, before I whup ’em all the way to school!”

“Add another two bucks, Mr. Barlow!” I hooted as I bolted for the door with a wide grin.

Chuckling, Gamma Lan was right on my heels as we jogged out to his truck, which his older sister Olivia had bought him for his sixteenth birthday.

That was the year the two of them moved out of the O and back to their family home, which Livvy had inherited when she turned eighteen. I missed them a lot, not only because they were good people, but also because they were the only other orphans close to my age. The rest were all under ten, including Charlie’s twins Dawson and Sawyer, who were eight, and her sweet little Honor, who was six.

Good morning, good morning, good morning!an excited baby voice trumpeted loudly.

“Good morning, River,” I replied. “ ’Bout time you woke up.”

“Hey, buddy,” Gamma Lan said. “You sure slept in this morning.”

Me tired. Me and Siddy run last night.

That’s not all you did, pup,grumbled Gamma Lan’s wolf.

Uh-oh. I was getting a bad feeling.

I knew he’d gone for a run. He usually did after a nightmare woke us up from our fitful slumber. I didn’t worry too much about it, not since the first time it happened when I was fourteen. I’d woken up at dawn to find myself in a field far from home and surrounded by ten dead rogues.

Trying to wake River was a lost cause; he was deep into dreamland and no help at all. I’d ended up linking Mr. Barlow, who’dhad to drive two hours to reach my location. Taking one look around, he immediately woke River up and put him under an alpha command to never leave the pack territory if I wasn’t awake to give him permission.

After that, I usually trusted Riv since he was confined to the territory. He mostly chased fireflies and rabbits and checked in with the Nightcrawlers, the border patrol shifters who guarded the pack from dusk to dawn. They all knew him on sight by now, and most welcomed his happy presence to break up the long, boring night.

However, put Riv with his bestie Obsidian, better known as Sid, and the Goddess alone knew what mischief they’d get into. Especially if Sid’s human, Alpha Ash, was asleep, too.

“Riv? What did you get up to?”

Nuffin. Went for run, Ty-Ty. Me promise!

Tell himwhereyou ran,demanded Oak before I could.

Hush you mouf, Oak!River snapped, and I hurried to jump in before my wolf’s temper flared.

“Well, where did you go for your run, buddy? I’m curious now.”

We run in fields, and den we find goats, Ty-Ty! Dey so funny! Dey go stiff all over and fall down! Plop, plop, plop! Like dey dead!

As River dissolved into a fit of giggles, Oak explained that Oberon West had called around midnight to complain that something was after his goats, so the gamma wolves went down to investigate and found the two pups having the time of their lives with a flock of fainting goats.

Did they kill any of them?I asked Oak, wincing at the thought of draining my tiny savings account to pay for a bunch of dead goats.

Of course not.

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