Page 22 of The Beta's Heart

“Did I ever say thank you?” he asked, staring out the windshield.

“For what?”

He looked at her and he could feel his wolf simmering under his skin. “For coming for me. I didn’t know you before the full moon, but now I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

“I feel the same way.”

Ren got out of the truck and opened her door, offering his hand as he helped her out. They walked up the sidewalk to the front door, which swung open as they approached.

“Welcome,” Acksel said.

“Thanks,” Ren said.

“I thought you might do that portal thing,” Acksel said as he shut the door behind them.

“We opted to drive,” Ren said. “I wanted to show her around town.”

Brynn joined them in the living room and hugged Kismet. “If I could just open a door in the air and go anywhere, I’dneverdrive.”

“There aren’t vehicles in the fae realm,” Kismet said. “When you can portal anywhere, you miss out on the landscape.”

“Good point,” Acksel said.

“I’m starving, so I hope you don’t mind if we just sit right down to eat,” Brynn said.

Kismet smiled. “Not at all.”

Brynn rubbed her extended belly with a sweet smile. “My mini-me is all about red meat and I’m hungry twenty hours out of the day, I swear.”

They followed them into the kitchen, where the table was set for four. The air was punctuated with the scent of pot roast and vegetables, which made Ren realize how hungry he was. Ren pulled out Kismet’s chair and tucked her close, then took the seat next to her.

“No ranking rules at this table,” Brynn said as she stabbed a large fork into a platter of sections of roast beef and set one large piece on her plate.

“What’s a ranking rule?” Kismet asked.

Ren lifted a bowl of mashed potatoes and held it for Kismet.

Acksel said, “The alphas usually fill their plates first before anyone else does, or in the case of a restaurant, we would order first.”

“Right,” Brynn said as she poured gravy on her roast. “But I’m trying to get us out of the stone ages. I think a lot of our rules are dumb.”

Acksel let out a sigh that sounded a lot like a growl. “Sweetheart.”

Brynn waved a hand at him dismissively. “He thinks it’s okay to be a caveman, all me-eat-first and everything. But I think those kinds of rules aren’t meant to be around anymore. I’m trying to bring us into the twenty-first century, but it’s slow going.”

Ren held up the other platters and bowls for Kismet, allowing her to fill her plate first, then he filled his, before passing the serving dishes to Acksel. “Do fae have rules like that?”

“Not within the home. But for a formal dinner, like the military ball I attended with my father, the highest-ranked males are served first. I think there’s something elegant about that sort of thing, but I don’t think I’d care to deal with it all the time.”

“See?” Brynn said to Acksel with a triumphant smile.

He shook his head with an amused smile. “If you had your way, there wouldn’t be ranks at all.”

“Yep. And non-wolves could be part of the pack, too.”

“Good grief,” Acksel said.

“Will the pack mind that I’m a fae?”

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