Page 40 of The Pack Next Door
Not hi, how are you, my name is… Just woman. I forced myself to smile, but the wolf made it more like a baring of teeth.
“I am a woman that is currently staying next door.” Dealing with officious bitches was familiar territory for me from all the time I worked in retail. I stepped closer and offered her my hand. “Briar Reynolds.” She just looked at it for a second, then gave my hand a weak shake. “My mother, Maggie, is the oneMiranda asked the guys to look in on.” I nodded to the casserole dish. “They did that today and Mum made them some stew as a thank you.”
“Stew?” Her brow lifted. “How nice.”
“And you are…?” I asked.
“About to go out to eat with the dads, aren’t you, Mum?” Jace stared at his mother, but when she didn’t respond, he turned to me. “While the parental units do that, Briar will come and have dinner with us boys.”
“No need to go and buy overpriced takeaway when there’s home-cooked food to eat.” She took the food from Jace’s arms. “I’m April. Come in, Briar. This would be a fantastic opportunity to get to know my boys’… neighbour.”
That was weird, right? I wanted to say that to anyone who would listen. April was smiling and making nice, and yet I only just held back from raking nails along my arms to dislodge the weird vibes.
“Looks like we’re having stew tonight for dinner,” April announced, not sounding especially pleased by that. “Gideon, darling, do you have any bowls? I know I packed a dinner set with all the boxes you moved over here.”
“Of course.”
He went to the cupboards to pull down some dishes, but her brows creased when she saw them.
“Not those ones.” I watched his mother’s expression change, the stank face I think was lurking there coming to the fore. Weirdly, when he moved to swap them over for some equally suitable bowls, her smile was back. OK. Like I was pickier about my decor than most, but I’d eat out of a melamine bowl printed with cartoon characters if I was hungry enough. “Perfect.”
April found a ladle and then started to dish up the food.
“Well, this does look hearty.” Bowls brimming with stew and potatoes were pushed towards the Whitlocks, then the alphas Iassumed were their fathers, leaving slim pickings in the dishes. Mum had sent enough stew over for the guys and some extra for leftovers, not to feed eight people. April scraped the two dishes clean. “We’ll just have a light meal, won’t we, Briar?” Her eyes met mine. “Need to keep our girlish figures.”
No, I would not. The day I had would only be satisfied by lashings of delicious protein and carbs, but there were plenty of those at home. Jace seemed to sense that, placing his bowl in my hands and then taking the one intended for me.
“Your girlish figure is just fine,” one of her alphas said, taking hers and spooning some of the food into it. “Briar, was it? I’m Max, one of the boys’ dads.”
“Greg.” A man with Jace’s blond good looks said with a small smile before nodding at the last alpha. “And that’s Ned.”
“So, Briar.” Ned stepped forward and I saw where Gideon got those strange amber eyes from. “Are you a local girl, or did your family move to Moon River?”
I followed them out onto the deck, the bowl feeling too warm in my hands. That only got worse when we sat down. Jace pulled out a chair for me as Mads took my meal and set it on the table as I sat down. All very polite and nice, until Jace settled back against his chair.
His arm went along the back of his, coming to rest on mine, and that’s when I felt his fingers teasing the baby hairs at my nape. My reply was choked back at that sensation. My body didn’t process that as a careless stroke of my hairline, instead feeling it far deeper. With a sharp look at Jace, I straightened up and surveyed the table with a polite smile.
“My family has…” Words died in my throat as Mads leaned over his bowl, one hand picking up the spoon, the other landing on my knee. I blinked, fighting for composure. “Has lived in Moon River for many generations.” That came out in a big rush. My spoon was dragged through my food, uneaten. Anything todistract myself from what I was feeling. Needing that hand on my thigh to rise higher and higher, before— “I think we were one of the original families that settled here.”
“Your house certainly looks like it could’ve been one of the original ones.” April’s arched eyebrow had me feeling a whole other kind of flushed. “Those beautiful old bones.” Her smile was tight. “They don’t make houses like that anymore.”
But whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I couldn’t work out from her tone.
“So you grew up in Moon River?” she continued. “What do you do with yourself?”
I frowned.
“As in a job?” I replied.
Betas were always asking questions about people’s employment. It helped them place us in the hierarchies they created, but omegas rarely cared. They were focussed on running their town, raising children, or doing good works for the community, all of which I would’ve sucked at.
“No.” She set her spoon aside, and I felt like the woman was finally getting to the point as she stared into my eyes. “What would an omega do with herself if she’d gotten to your age and not found her mates?”
Chapter 21
Mads
My mother was being a bitch.
