Chapter Seven
Cross
Alpha Bridger has informed me that he will snuff out the Cross line if I disgrace any female in his pack.
My father and I have been assuring him for the past hour that I have no intention of disgracing anyone, much less one of the women from his pack.
I doubt I would be any more comfortable with me being here than he is if I was in his position. That doesn't mean I'm happy about it.
“Other packs will be here, Drew. Not in their full numbers, but there are plenty of women here who might give you the time of day. I want to support you, but outside of a divine intervention, the women of my pack are off limits to you.”
I clench my jaw, but my father nods. He's still acting Alpha. Until I take my place, I don't get to have an opinion about anything anyone says. If Alpha Bridger declares his pack off limits, then that's how it is. This is going to put even more pressure on an already intense situation.
“I understand,” my father says. “He won't disrespect your wishes.”
“I didn't think he would. Regardless of what happened, I know Drew is going to make a good alpha.
I know he's in a tough situation, and I know what I would be trying to do if I was him; so I'm doing him a favor.
I'm putting you and your Second in your own quarters, Drew. They will be in a different cabin than your family.”
“His Second?” my father tentatively asks.
Alpha Bridger nods. “Yes. There's no talking around the situation. If Parker doesn't agree to the female, there's no chance of a successful pairing. I think giving them room and privacy to figure things out would be the most beneficial thing I could do for them.”
“Thank you,” I say. “That's more than fair, and I appreciate it very much.”
We say our goodbyes, but Alpha Bridger's Second catches my elbow as I'm walking out the door.
“You should know that Eugenia Barrett is here with her family.
Even though you disgraced her, she is still the heir to her father's pack and she will remain so until she's either mated to another alpha, or the Barrett pack is overrun.”
“Thank you for letting me know.” I can't think of anything else to say. I'm going to need a minute to process the possibility of actually being near her.
Then he makes it worse. “She is here looking for the same thing you are, Drew. She has been offered the males of our pack on a golden platter. If you interfere, I will take personal offense to it.”
“I understand.”
I pull away from him and catch up with my father outside. There are too many emotions rushing through me. I can't grab hold of one long enough to completely feel it. One thing is certain. Anger is threaded through all of them, even the dread of seeing Eugenia.
I still don't know what she looks like, and the very real possibility of my first meeting with her being when she's actively searching for another mate makes my wolf pace inside me, his seething frustration nearing a boiling point.
You would let her choose another?
What else am I supposed to do? I rejected her.
He snorts in disgust but doesn't say anything else to me.
I follow my father to the communal lodge in silence.
I have no right to the indignation and jealousy threatening to eat me alive from the inside out.
Who am I to stop her from finding a solution to her own problems?
She's got a better chance at it than I do.
Like the Bridger Second said, it's being offered to her on a golden platter.
I don't have a right to stand in her way.
I should be wishing her the same success that I need for myself.
Parker closes the distance to meet me when we approach the lodge. He's as stone faced now as he was before we got here. The weight of this situation hangs on his shoulders differently than it does mine, but it's still there. “Well?”
I slow my pace to let him fall in place beside me and he slings his arm across my shoulders. “The Bridger pack is off limits,” I tell him. “With no wiggle room. And we get our own place while we're here.”
“That's good, at least.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“What else?”
I don't immediately answer. It's already going to be hard. “She's here.”
He lowers his voice to a whisper. “Eugenia is here?”
I nod.
“Shit.”
I nod again.
“Well.” He sighs. “It can't get much worse. At least we get our own place.”
“It can.”
“What is it?”
I take a few steps before I answer. “She's here looking for a replacement for me.”
“Oh.”
Yeah, oh.
“We'll just have to avoid her, that's all. It'll be alright, Cross.”
He's wrong. It only takes us three days to find out exactly how not alright it is.
The Bridger pack females are off limits and I don't intend to test that boundary.
I've exhausted the females in my pack in more ways than one and I'm not trying to test that boundary, either.
The Barrett females would as soon shoot me as they would let me court them.
That only leaves the Talbot pack and the Fisher pack; and those women have been persistent.
I can hardly take a drink or wipe my ass without running into one of them.
I have had to fend off so many different types of women that I'm dizzy with their clinging scents.
“I'm going to go for a run with my dad,” I announce when Parker steps out of the bathroom drying his hair with a towel.
“Everything alright?” he asks.
“Yeah. I just need to think and he wants me to run with him and the other alphas.”
Parker nods and yells as he goes down the hall to the bedroom where all of our clothes and things are. “I might head over to the lodge. There's supposed to be a bonfire.”
“Okay,” I call. “Be careful. I should be back in time to meet you.”
“Sounds good.”
I leave wearing just my runners and a pair of gym shorts. I'll be stripping soon anyway, so there isn't much point in putting on anything else. Alpha Bridger's cabin is a few minutes' jog away and I can manage that in a pair of shorts if I pretend no one is watching me.
Two minutes feels like two hours when every pair of unmated female eyes are glued to every step I take. Some of them are eyeing me with interest, others curiosity, and a large portion with distaste, but I make it to Alpha Bridger's back yard without being catcalled or screamed at.
“You alright, son?” Dad asks me, trying to hide the smirk taking up half his face. “Somebody chasing you?”
I roll my eyes. “No. Are we about ready to go?”
“Yes,” Alpha Bridger announces. “I'll take point.”
As if anyone would challenge him for it in his own territory.
I need this run. I've been shadowing my father for the past few years and these runs with the other alphas are a way for us to work together a few times a year. They remind us that we are more than just territories and packs. Each Alpha has his Second with him, except for my father. He has me.
“Stay near me, Drew,” my father says quietly as we're stripping to shift. “Alpha Barrett has a look I don't like.”
I nod without responding. I noticed the tension in Alpha Barrett as soon as I walked around the side of the house, and I'd have to be blind to not see the hard eyes of his Second. Nothing will happen. Not during this run or the Summit. But, like they say, it's the thought that counts.