Page 14 of The Beta's Heart

She leaned over and peeked at Ren’s food. In a large bowl was a generous scoop of hash browns, and they were covered with scrambled eggs, diced ham, and melted cheese.

“That looks really good,” she said.

“Yours does, too,” he said. “Thanks, Paula.”

“Welcome, let me know if you need anything else.”

Kismet sliced up her waffle into bite-sized pieces and took a bite. The waffle was perfectly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, and the strawberries were delicious. “What about the females? You only mentioned the males.”

“Females are always omegas, except for the alpha of course.”

“Always? They aren’t ranked in any way?”

“Not officially. There’s an unspoken rank with the females; some are higher than others for whatever reason. Brynn doesn’t like that, so she’s been trying to make the workload for the females more evenly distributed. They handle the more domestic duties like cooking and cleaning. There are a few omegas who work directly for the alphas, but most handle whatever needs there are.”

She hummed as she thought about the differences between males and females in the pack. It certainly seemed like the females didn’t get a good shake when it came to ranking, but she suspected that was because wolves were a male-centric society.

“You have omegas do things for you?”

“Sure. There’s a pack-owned cleaning company, and I have them come twice a month. I eat out a lot, but I do have them pick up groceries for me if I’m too busy at work. I use them when I need to, and I’m always grateful for their help.”

She mulled over that a moment, then said, “I won’t officially be in the pack, so I wouldn’t be an omega, right?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“I don’t know if I should be relieved or not,” she said with a chuckle. “I certainly don’t want to clean anyone else’s house.”

“And you won’t have to. Even if you were a wolf and going to be an omega in the pack, there are certain perks that come with being the mate of a high-ranked male.”

“I guess I picked well, then.”

He winked. “We both did.”

They finished eating, and Ren paid the bill. He drove to his home, which was a brick ranch with a blue front door.

“I like the door,” she said as he held it open for her.

“Thanks. I grew up in this house. I was living in an apartment in town, and I bought the house from my parents when they left to rejoin my dad’s family’s pack. Blue is my mom’s favorite color, so I kept the door even though it does kind of stick out.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Nickel tour?” he asked.

She inhaled and caught the spicy, sweet scent of him, which made her stomach twist pleasantly in anticipation.

“Only if you start in the bedroom.”

His eyes darkened, his lids dropping to half-mast. “Startandfinish.”

“Lead the way, my mate.”

He scooped her up in his arms with a happy growl and carried her down a long hall for the first stop of their tour. As he tossed her gently to the bed and came down on top of her, kissing her as if he would devour her, she thought she’d never been happier, and it was all because of Wilde Creek.

CHAPTERFIVE

After christening the bedroom twice, and the master bathroom once, Ren showed her the rest of the three-bedroom home, ending not back in the bedroom as they’d teased each other, but on the back patio. He had a half acre of land on a quiet street. Dense shrubs bordered the backyard to mimic a fence without all the intrusive wood boards, and beyond the shrubs were the backyards of the homes on the street behind his. It was the sort of neighborhood out of a 50s tv show, all “hey, neighbor” in the mornings and females who met for coffee. Although, instead of humans, the homes on this street and the one at the rear were full of wolves. Wilde Creek was mostly wolf at this point. When he was young, there had been more humans, and he wasn’t sure when the tide had shifted.

Shaking his head from the train of thoughts, he focused on his new mate. The female he’d been secretly hoping forsomeday. His someday had come suddenly, an angel in a ball gown in the woods on the full moon.

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