Page 55 of The Pack Next Door
“Sweet like you.”
I took a surreptitious sniff of her perfume as we both walked in through the door, then made a beeline for the kitchen. Kettle located, mugs found, I went to work. Briar paused on the bottom step, watching me move and then shook her head.
“My computer is upstairs.”
“I’ll be up with madam’s coffee momentarily,” I replied.
As I waited for the kettle to boil, the calls and texts started. I let the calls go to the message bank and paused to see Gideon, Mum, and all my dads had messaged me, but I didn’t bother to open them. What was the point? The dads had been drilling us from the moment we could walk to be the best pack we could be, so as to get us out of Glen Hallow, and for what? They didn’trealise that their training had worked too well. My eyes flicked up, trying to stare past the floorboards to where Briar was no doubt bent over her laptop. Focus on the omega, they’d told us when the idea of having a mate was a far-distant future. Make him or her happy and everything else would fall into place.
So what was the point of schmoozing Damien and his pack, when taking his place was not what Briar wanted? Coffee was her most immediate need, so I found some very nice looking biscuits, put them on a plate, and then carried the two mugs upstairs.
“Gods, yes, coffee.” She made gimme-gimme hands at me, and I laughed, handing that over and the biscuits. “And Mum’s choc chip cookies?” Briar nodded. “I might make you my PA at this point.”
“I could do that.”
That came out way more earnest than I intended it to. It was just that our lives had been prescribed since the moment we were born. Mum complained bitterly about mating with a pack of three alphas. No matter how strong they were, it was always a losing proposition when going against the six of the ruling pack of Glen Hallow. In response to that, our dads trained us, prepared us to fight harder, more convincingly and dirtier, if that’s what it took, to get our family out of the town.
But why didn’t we move to another town? I’d asked as a kid. Or to the city? That was dismissed with a snort, as if the idea was completely ridiculous, but to this day, I didn’t know why. Glen Hallow packs weren’t exactly well regarded by other alphas, so they weren’t rolling out the red carpet, letting us move into their territory. We’d been bloody lucky that the Harts let us come here. But to get the hell away from all of this?—
“You wouldn’t want that.” Briar’s eyes dropped back to her screen as she took a sip of the coffee. “It’s a concrete jungle in the city.” And I’d run through its streets for her. Mutely, Ipleaded for her to understand that, but instead that frown was back. “Bloody hell.”
“Well, if that’s not a cry for help, I don’t know what is.” Her attention was back on me as I sat on the foot of her bed. “If I can’t help, people tell me bitching mercilessly about a problem doesn’t help to make it go away, but you do feel better about it.”
She didn’t want to smile and yet that’s what happened. When her hands raked through her hair, I wanted to pluck them free and replace them with my own. Instead, I shut the hell up and waited.
Don’t jump to conclusions, I thought, remembering the advice columns I’d read.Don’t rush to solutions. Just listen.
“This thing with Mum couldn’t happen at a worse time.” Briar studied me closely and I could almost see her searching for signs of judgement. “Like it’s not her fault at all, but we have a product launch looming. A new line of pottery that’s so hot and in demand, we’ve sold every single one. The launch went from selling pieces, to starting a whole expanded line.”
Her fingers scratched at her scalp.
“It took me ages to convince Tom, the potter, to take it on.” Lips thinned, then pursed, and I wanted to kiss that tension away so damn badly. “He doesn’t love mass production and has little trust in freight companies, apparently with good reason. A pallet was dropped and half the stock is broken. I’ve asked the warehouse staff to email out all the clients who will miss out, but with the insanity going on, plus our regular business, it doesn’t look like it's happened.” Her shoulders drooped. “Guess I’ll have to get it done.”
“Or you could handball that job to me.” Seeing your mate look at you in complete disbelief was not exactly reassuring, but I didn’t stick around to prop up my own ego. Take things off your mate’s plate, that’s what the wolf demanded, so I pulledout my phone. “I know it all seems archaic out here in the sticks, but I do know how to send an email.”
“I couldn’t… You…”
Briar was wavering, and that was my in.
“Rather than composing every damn email, just send me a template,” I replied, remembering this kind of thing from school. “That and a spreadsheet of the clients to be contacted. I reckon I could do that.”
“You’re sure?”
I saw the wary shift of her wolf inside her, almost able to hear the beast sniff suspiciously. Mine was chill, panting with his tongue lolling out because he was exactly where he needed to be.
“I wouldn’t say so if I wasn’t. You can check my work, make sure I don’t accidentally send your clients a link to my OnlyFans or something.”
Her eyebrows shot up.
“You have an OnlyFans?”
“Something you’re interested in subscribing to, omega?”
Her eyes narrowed as she shot me a dark look before typing a message out rapidly.
“Give me your email and I’ll send you the script and the client list, but yeah, if you could keep your knot out of it, that would be appreciated.”
Her prim little tone had me grinning.
