Page 71 of Wulf's Pack
I can’t blame her for the shock. Behind alpha, luna, second, and chief enforcer, pack secretary is one of the highest-ranking and most respected positions in a pack. It’s an important job. A pack can’t run without someone to keep it all organized, and an alpha and luna are too bogged down with the responsibilities of running things.
I keep up my smile for Elise and shrug. “We obviously need one, and you’re doing great so far. It’s a big job, especially for a pack as new and notorious as ours. It’s going to be hectic for a while, but if you’re up for the task, it’s yours.”
Elise stares at me for a moment, still processing my offer. Then she sits up a little straighter, swallows back some emotions, and softly says, “I would be honored, Alpha.”
I clap my hands together. “Great. Thank you. You’ll be fantastic.”
She flushes again and lowers her eyes to her lap. “Thank you, sir.”
And…now I’m feeling awkward again. The gratitude and deference freak me out. I clear my throat and try to move things along. “So we’re millionaires, we’ve got phones, people love werewolf romance, and we’re being hounded by reporters. What else? Lay it on me.”
Elise cracks a smile, and Preston snorts. Skylar giggles again, and I wink at her. I love that sound.
“Well…” Elise says, looking at something on her laptop. Probably a checklist of some kind. She’s definitely the right woman for her job. “Director Jacobs is currently working on getting IDs and documents gathered for our new pack members. Bree mentioned your suggestion about the shaman, so I contacted him this morning. He’s set up a meeting with Audrey for this afternoon, but she’s nervous about being alone with him. Sophia agreed to go.”
“Actually, I’d be happy to do that,” Skylar says, surprising me once again. “As her omega, I’ll probably be able to offer her some added comfort that Sophia can’t.”
Skylar seems to have surprised Elise and Preston as well, but she takes our surprise with grace. She’s been steadily growing in confidence since we met. It seems our pack’s numerous needs are making it easier for her to step into her role as pack luna.
Skylar clears her throat, then more shyly adds, “I’d like to meet him. Therapy is probably a good idea for me too.”
She looks away like she’s embarrassed, so I comb my fingers through her hair and wait until she makes eye contact withme before saying, “Needing help after experiencing trauma is nothing to be ashamed of, and asking for it makes you brave, not weak. Understand?”
Slowly, Skylar nods. I give her another soft kiss and earn a small smile in return. I turn back to Elise. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea to give the option to everyone in our pack. Find out who’s interested, and then we can speak to Enzo about fitting whoever needs it into his schedule. The sessions can come out of pack funds, and if Enzo doesn’t have room for them on his patient roster, we can look into finding someone else. He’ll probably have some recommendations.”
“I’ll add it to the list.” Elise types on her computer as if literally adding it to a list.
“Anything else?” I ask, a little afraid of the answer.
Elise’s answering smirk doesn’t bode well. “Most of the alphas from local shifter packs have reached out,” she says. “They’d like to schedule meetings with you just to get acquainted with you as an alpha. It’d be a good idea to meet with them.”
“Yeah, that definitely needs to happen,” I agree. “I’m sure they have questions, and we don’t want to step on any toes or make anyone feel threatened. It’d probably be a good idea to figure out a place where we can go for pack runs too that won’t interfere with any other packs.”
Elise nods. “I’ll start setting up those meetings. Would you prefer to hold them here or go to the pack alphas?”
“Here. They’ll probably be curious, and it looks like our conference room will be done soon. But if they’d rather we go to them, that’s fine too.”
Another nod, and Elise types on her computer again, no doubt taking notes. “Oliver helped set up a basic pack website,” she says, continuing down her list. “Right now, it’s got a very limited information page, which we can flesh out when you decide what information you’d like to make public. Most packsdon’t have something like this, but you’re Wulf Winters. The nation is curious, so I figured this was better than having people constantly bombarding you.”
I roll my eyes. “Fame is the worst.”
Elise grins. “It’s definitely inconvenient, but we’ll get things sorted, and I’m sure the hype will die down after a while.”
“We can hope.”
“The website also has our contact information, and we’ve got an interest form for interview requests, but we’re going to have to add one for requests to join as well.”
I blink in confusion. “Join what? The pack?”
Elise sighs. “I don’t know if you’re looking to grow our numbers, but we’ve had dozens of requests already. If you’re interested, we’ll have to create some form of application.”
My stomach jolts at the thought of accepting more shifters into our pack, but of course my wolf perks right up.Settle down, I chide him.We’ll consider it more after we’ve got things stabilized. Having a large pack won’t help our mate if we can’t keep control of it.
He huffs, but I can feel that he’s mollified. For now. Who knows how long he’ll be patient with me. I shift my gaze to Skylar, curious about her thoughts on this subject, and she gives me a soft smile. It’s clear she’s open to the idea. If my shy, traumatized mate is willing to take in new shifters, then she must, on some instinctual level, still need them.
I sigh again. “We’re probably going to have to do that eventually,” I tell Elise. “But we’ve got way too much else to worry about right now.”
Elise’s eyes turn back to her laptop. “I figured as much. I’ve been answering those requests with a vaguewe’re not accepting new members at this timeresponse.” She bites her lip and shares a hesitant look with Preston.
