Page 64 of The Pack Next Door
“Yeah?” came a distracted chorus.
“Help Mum out.”
The cool night air was a balm compared to the thick atmosphere of their house. As Jace pulled out a chair for me to take, his brothers appeared. Mads emerged out of the shadows at the same time Gideon walked out the back door.
No way back home but over the fence, I thought.
Surely a sign of how the night was going to go, but I was OK with it. I couldn’t have built my business to the size it was without dealing with tough situations. Getting through tonight was just another one.
“Briar—” Gideon started to say.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” Jace placed my bottle in the ice bucket and inspected the other one’s label. “Looks like we’ve got a red and a white.”
“White, please,” I replied with a smile. “Then I think we need to talk.” For some reason my focus was drawn back to the house. “I thought we’d have the house to ourselves.”
“The parental units had other ideas.” Mads’ grimace was exactly what I expected. He poured me a glass of wine and then handed it to me. “Always sticking their nose into everything.”
“Right, well.” I could do this. If the Whitlocks’ parents wanted a front row seat to what was going down, I guess I could give them one. “I appreciate this is a situation none of us were prepared for.”
“Not a situation.” Gideon sat down at the head of the table, his eyes not leaving me for a second. “An opportunity.”
I nodded in acknowledgment.
“I guess it is. Part of me always wondered why I never found my mates, and now I know. You want to become the next ruling pack, and I?—”
“Here we are!” Max burst through the door carrying a silver platter, laden with lots of gorgeously presented hors d’oeuvres. “Something to tide us over until dinner.”
“Yum!” Jace pounced, snagging some cheese and cabana threaded onto a toothpick. Before he put it in his mouth, he remembered me. “Shit, you first, Briar.”
I shook my head as he offered me his food, selecting a piece of melon wrapped with prosciutto. The dads came piling out, everyone descending on the platter as I took a bite of my food. My eyes went wide as the sweet of the melon combined with the salty umami of the thinly sliced meat, each taste making the other more flavourful.
“That’s amazing!” I said after I’d swallowed.
“Not bad.” April had untied her apron and came outside. “The deli back at home slices the meat so thin you can almost see through it.”
“Who knew translucency was a desirable quality in meat.” Mads winked as he sat down beside me. “Want another?”
As his fingers moved, poised to grab me something else to eat, it wasn’t hard to remember when he’d said something very similar, right before he did something far less socially acceptable with his hand. His wink made clear that it was deliberate. I matched his smile, settling back in my chair and said, “Sure.” His fingers brushed against mine and despite his ‘remedy’ from earlier on in the day, I found myself shivering. That was masked by a quick sip of my wine. Setting the melon down on my plate, I surveyed the table.
The dads were catering to April now, filling her glass and her plate with delicious things. She sat there like a queen, and I had to wonder what that would be like. I wouldn’t ever know that pleasure, because the price she had to pay? I couldn’t afford. That had me placing my hands on the table and leaning forward.
If it was just the four of us, I would’ve had the same conversation. The fact that the guys’ parents seemed to need to bear witness was irrelevant. They’d tell their family what I said, or April and her pack could hear it from my lips.
“Before dinner starts…” Because I might not be sticking around for it. “I think we need to get on the same page.”
“About how to deal with your behaviour?” April’s tart reply was masked by the fact she lifted her glass and took a sip. “Good idea. I know you’re currently… indisposed, which believe me, is a strange thing. Omegas usually go into heat when they mate with their alphas, not before.”
She sucked in a breath, ready to deliver a lecture, but remembering what Mum said, I cut her off.
“No, not that.” My eyes flicked from one to the other that told me they were my mates. “I mean, it is a state that needs managing, but I think Jace, Mads, and I have come to an agreement in that respect.”
“But not Gideon…?”
April asked Ned that, not me. I ignored that and forged on.
“Because I think that we all want different things.” There was a strange feeling in my chest and that got the wolf whining. She paced back and forth, threatening to burst forth and take over. My fangs ground together, because this was going to be tough, but waiting wouldn’t help. “It’s obvious that you want to make a play for becoming the next ruling pack of the town, and I…” A sip of wine did nothing to help my dry throat. “And I’m heading back to the city as soon as I possibly can.”
“The city…”
