Chapter 3
While the Purple Sky healer saw to Keith Iredell, Brian went down to his living room to make a call that couldn’t be overheard.
Though in the state he was in, Alpha or not, Keith wasn’t likely to be able to hear him, even if he had been talking right outside the guest room door.
Brian had never seen a shifter in such bad shape, and he needed to understand how an Alpha wolf who was in an unlocked room and seemingly had the ability to leave had gotten in that condition.
“Hi. How’d your meeting with the Green Field pack go?” Jobe said as soon as he answered the phone. “Did they agree to partner with you to acquire the river?”
“We didn’t get that far.” Brian dragged his hand through his hair as he paced back and forth across the living room of the Purple Sky Alpha house. His house, he mentally corrected. Nearly a year in and he still didn’t feel like this was home.
Immediately, Jobe’s tone turned to one of concern. “You don’t sound good. What happened?”
“So much.” He reached the west side of the room, turned around, and walked east. “I’ll fill you in, but first, can I talk to Wesley? I have a question for him.”
Jobe’s mate Wesley Stone had grown up as the presumptive Alpha of the Purple Sky pack so he would know the history of the packs in the area.
“Of course. Give me a sec.”
He completed another round of pacing.
“Brian? Jobe said you’re upset and I can help?” Wesley said.
“I’m not sure about that, but I do have a question for you. Do you know Keith Iredell?”
“The former presumptive Alpha in Green Field? No, I don’t. I’ve heard some things about him, but he’s younger than us and I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
“What have you heard?” Brian asked. Wesley was silent for long enough that Brian made yet another lap across the room. “Wesley? What have you heard?” he bit out, annoyed at having to repeat himself.
“All I know is that he was the former Alpha’s son so he was born the presumptive Alpha, but he became, uh, unhinged and stepped down.”
“Unhinged?” Green Field’s current Alpha and presumptive Alpha were appalling and clearly not qualified for the role. That pack was in shambles. How was it possible for anyone to be a worse leader? “What does that mean?”
“You’re not going to like this, but you should be talking to Morgan Peters, not to me.”
Already frustrated and tired, he growled at the suggestion of interacting with yet another asshole Alpha, and then he immediately regretted it.
Jobe was calmer and more even-tempered than anyone he knew, but he’d take him down if he heard him disrespecting his mate. “Please don’t tell Jobe I did that.”
Wesley chuckled. “You’re on speaker and it’s fine.
We both know you have a problem with Morgan Peters, and honestly, I did too when you first told us what he did, but I’ve talked to Ricky Marx several times since he went back to him and, as usual, Jobe was right to give Morgan a chance.
You should call him. Whatever you saw when you visited Golden Valley was a misunderstanding. He’s an honorable Alpha.”
He wasn’t looking to make amends with the neighboring pack’s Alpha. The only Alpha that mattered was the one in his guest room. “Tell me what you know about Keith Iredell,” he said, repeating his question more loudly and less politely than he should have.
“I'm not doing this,” Wesley snapped back firmly, reminding Brian that he too was an Alpha, and he wouldn’t appreciate another shifter’s demands.
“My information is gossip. If you want facts, put on your big boy pants, come to terms with the fact that you were wrong about Morgan Peters, and call him.”
“I wasn’t wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve never met the guy. I have and—”
“That’s enough,” Jobe interjected. “Brian, I can hear the distress in your voice, but you will not speak to Wes that way.”
He cringed at the reprimand. No matter how far away he now lived, he couldn’t stand disappointing any Root, be it Jobe or one of his parents. “Understood.”
“Thank you,” Jobe said calmly. “I’ll also remind you that I have met Morgan Peters. I met him, I spoke with him, and I trusted him enough to tell him how to find his mate in Blue Mountain.”
It was a near thing that Brian didn’t growl at the reminder that Jobe had hidden the Omega away in a pack none of them had heard of except for him and then given the person they were hiding him from his location.
“Are you going to say that you don’t trust my judgment?” Jobe asked.
“Of course not.” There was literally nobody whose judgment he trusted more.
“As I'm certain Ricky’s parents have already told you, he is very safe and very happy in his new home, and he is extraordinarily beloved by his Alpha. And in case you’re wondering how he got there, it wasn’t because the Grants in Blue Mountain turned him over to Morgan Peters.
They refused. Ricky Marx is with his mate because Keith Iredell drove far from home and convinced three angry Blue Mountain Alphas, a tough as nails Omega, and Ricky himself to accompany him back to Golden Valley.
Call Morgan, ask him what you need to know, and then tell me what we can do to help with whatever has you this out of sorts. ”
He swallowed down the thickness in his throat along with his pride. “I will.” Eventually.
“Good. And Brian?”
“Yeah?”
“Go have a beer or three to take the edge off before you make that call. Morgan Peters is a levelheaded guy, but the last time you interacted with him, you assaulted him. If you call him and growl at him the way you did at my mate, you’ll be further eroding a relationship you should be nurturing.
Despite his young age, he is the Alpha of the strongest pack in your region and other than you, everyone who has ever met him sings his praises. ”
“He was a jerk when I was with him,” he insisted. “I’m not going to tell you I’m wrong about that.”
“Sure you will.” He didn’t need to see Jobe to know he was smiling. “Have a drink. Chill out. Talk to Morgan Peters. And then call me later to tell me about your mate.”
“How did you…” He rolled his eyes and didn’t bother finishing his question, because of course Jobe had figured it out. “Screw you, man.”
“That’s my job now,” Wesley piped in. “I’m going to put the baby down for her nap and then I’m going to fulfill my favorite duty.
Have fun eating crow, Brian.” The sound of them kissing seemed louder through the phone than it would have been in person.
“Don’t keep me waiting too long,” Wesley whispered to Jobe.
“I don’t need to hear this right now,” he grumbled, resumed his pacing, and then reconsidered. “Or maybe I do. How does it work?”
Jobe coughed and then started laughing.
“Cut it out. I’m serious,” Brian said.
“You’ve been with plenty of women and even more men. With your very active background, I am absolutely certain that I don’t need to explain the birds and the bees.”
“My background hasn’t involved other Alphas, and you know that so stop laughing at me.”
“Yes, I do, but the parts are all the same. Why does that have you so out of sorts?”
“I thought Mother Nature would give me an Omega mate.” When he had imagined his future mate, it was always someone smaller and softer than himself, someone he could protect and care for, someone submissive, and though he’d never admit it to anyone, someone who would idolize him.
Another Alpha held none of those traits.
“That type of personality is a perfect complement to me.”
“Is it?” Jobe asked levelly.
“Yes. Don’t tell me you didn’t expect that for me. You’ve always said I’m a traditional Alpha.” Not like the Red River Roots who were always a mated Alpha pair.
“I know that’s what you hoped for, and yes, I’ve said the same thing about you. But Mother Nature gives us the mate we need at the time we need them, and it seems that when it comes to you, that time is now and that mate isn’t an Omega.”
Having grown up in affluent, well-established Red River, Brian’d had a carefree and blessed life, benefitting from Mother Nature’s generosity.
His physical appearance and power had made romantic encounters easy to come by, his parents and sister had been loving, his pack had been prosperous, the shifters in it had been satisfied with their work and their homes, and their Alphas had been wise and admirable.
When he moved to Purple Sky, he realized just how lucky he had been, and he had committed himself to turning his new pack around so his shifters could one day live in that same type of environment.
And he had assumed that just as she had always had, Mother Nature would provide for him by giving him a sweet, submissive, Omega mate to support him while he fulfilled his destiny and led the pack.
“He’s an Alpha.” Which meant he wasn’t likely to be any of those things.
“What’s the matter, Brian?” Jobe sounded amused. “Don’t think you’re capable of handling a powerful mate?”
His chest puffed out and he grumbled involuntarily. “Jobe, I swear to God.”
“I trust in Mother Nature, and more to the point, I trust in you,” Jobe said, his tone no longer teasing.
“I do too.” Everything in his life experience supported those beliefs. He hadn’t expected an Alpha for a mate, but Mother Nature was generous, and he was strong and powerful enough to fulfill whatever destiny lay in store for him. “I must be the mate he needs.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
After ending the call, Brian went back upstairs to check on Keith. He had been gone too long. As he reached the landing, he heard a commotion. Hurrying his pace, he turned a corner and saw the two shifters who assisted the healer standing in the hallway and the healer backing out of the room.
“What happened? Is Keith okay? Did the IV help? Have you figure out what we can do for him?”
The healer raised both arms up in defeat. “He won’t let us near him, Alpha. We couldn’t get close enough to get the cannula into his vein. There’s nothing I can do.”