Page 17 of The Pack Next Door
“I think I have it.” Why was I being so reticent? “I mean, I do. My apartment in the city? It’s everything I could ever want. The wall colour, the soft furnishings, the couch…” I shook my head. In the city, I was proud of what I’d achieved, but it was always weird trying to talk about it in Moon River. “It’s actually what I do. I’ve got an online homewares store where I sell items to betas wanting to indulge their inner omega. Throws as soft as a cloud. Bowls that fit in your hand and you can feel every mark of the potter’s hands…” I was going into full product spiel mode. “Maybe when you find your omega, I can hook you up with some nesting materials for him or her.”
“Her.”
The wolf was pushing him hard by the sound of his growl. Had he found her tonight? Gods, what if he was dragged away from her to come to my rescue? My hands rubbed at my face. Iknew I didn’t want to go to the town square tonight, but I let my mother push me into it, again.
“OK, well, I should get home.”
I jumped off the swing as it rocked up into the air, landing on the grass neatly. Gideon would stay here or bid me goodnight before going back to the town square. What he wasn’t going to do was land beside me, then wrap his arm around my shoulders, steering me towards my house. A protest formed in my throat and then died away, forcing me to be quiet all the way across to my mother’s house.
“So—” I said when we reached the front step.
“You’re coming to our place for dinner tomorrow night,” he said.
“Ahh… Mads said something about that to Mum,” I replied.
“Then I will see you in the evening.”
I felt the loss of his arm as he pulled away, my skin suddenly cold. The wolf let out a mournful little whine. No doubt because she so rarely got to mix with alphas, or to run free. Maybe I’d take fur and head for the forest just beyond the end of Mum’s property. I could?—
“Briar?”
I’d missed the car pulling up out the front of the house. Jacinta went to try and help her inside, but Mum wouldn’t have it. She hobbled over surprisingly fast, then opened the creaky gate.
“That alpha that brought you home.” Her eyes shone as she looked across the grass at the Whitlock house. “Is he and that nice boy that mowed the lawn your fated mates?”
Chapter 9
Briar
“What…?”
I blinked, feeling like I was being dragged backwards. It wasn’t the me who was thirty-three that Mum was talking to. Instead, I was thrust back to the moment when I was about to turn eighteen.
How was my day at school? That would be the first question, then, was I keeping up with the work? All that was just the lead up to what she really wanted to know. The alphas I went to school with, had they shown an interest in me or any of the other omegas? Sometimes it felt like she was more interested in the schoolyard gossip than my friends were.
“Mum—” I started to say. I was experienced in talking her off ledges, so I could do this again.
“That alpha…” Mum’s finger shook in the darkness. “He leapt off the stage and caught you before you fainted.”
Fainted? That wasn’t how I remembered it.
“Right, so?—”
“The whole town is talking about it.”
I frowned, glad she was looking more lively, but not so happy as to why.
“I don’t see why. Gideon was just being neighbourly.”
“Gideon?” Mum unlocked the front door and went inside, forcing me to follow behind her. “Is that his name? What a big, strong male.” She glanced back at me. “Perfect for you, Briar.”
“Mum—”
“I have waited for this day.” She dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and then clasped the edge, like a priest at the pulpit. “Prayed and prayed you’d find your alphas, even though you were spending all that time in the city filled with betas.”
“Mum—”
“But you finally came home.” I hated the hope burning so brightly in her eyes it hurt to look at, because I knew I’d have to quell it. “You came home and allowed fate to work its magic. It’s happening, Briar.”
