Chapter Forty-Six
Patch
We stay at Kieran’s pack house for the rest of the afternoon.
Dax and Vince appear around an hour after the initial conversation, and I end up drawn into a conversation with Dax and Drew about the feeling of first discovering our mates, one that Adam, when he arrives, shamelessly eavesdrops upon.
Vince and Sam sit with Jamie, who watches with sharp eyes as Kieran and Lucien take Em and Cate aside to talk, though from what I can tell, only about expectations, for them and for us.
It’s a couple of hours before I really think about the decision I’ve made today.
I’m going to leave Alpha Axel’s pack—though that has been a given since last week.
I’m going to join a new one. A strange one.
A well-known one, and not always well-regarded even when it should be, so I know that my mates and I need to be on our best behaviour.
Dax frowns. “What’s that look?”
“What look?”
“Oh, I see it,” Drew says.
“I don’t—What look?”
“It’s not perfect happiness,” Dax says. He pokes my cheek and I bat his hand away. “Don’t get in your head already.”
“It’s not… We just need to behave, is what I’m thinking. You know what—” I glance around. Adam stares shamelessly back at me. I lower my voice. “You know what some of the other packs are like.”
Drew shrugs. “Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s not—”
“It’s not something you need to worry about,” Adam says, apparently giving up on the pretence that he isn’t listening. “That’s what an alpha is for, isn’t it?”
Drew, Dax, and I all exchange a look. Drew smiles at his mate. “Well…”
“I know, I know,” Adam says, flapping a hand in his direction. “But what I mean is, don’t do anything like you did before, and you’ll be fine. We’ll keep you safe. You’ll be part of our pack. It’ll work.”
“I—I don’t even know what I’ll do with myself. I need a job.”
Dax shrugs. “You could work at the gym with me for a while. If you really want to work at a pub, I think Spectra is looking for hires, too. There’s always stuff happening. There’s going to be something you can do.”
I frown and look at my mates. I’m not sure what any of us are going to do, to be perfectly honest—Em’s social media earnings are dead, and he might have savings, but they sound meagre. Jamie just quit one job, and the other one blew up in his face. I’ve always worked pack jobs. “I don’t…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Drew says. He squeezes my arm. “You think Sam offered our pack on a whim? They’ve been talking about you joining since Vince and Dax got together. Jamie’s been part of it for a while. They’ve got ideas. Sam’s always got ideas.”
Adam grins, fangs flashing for just a second. “Such good ideas,” he says, and that grin doesn’t falter when Drew goes red.
“What about…” I look at Dax. “They’re both human.”
Dax nods. “I know. They’ll adapt. They’ve come a long way already, haven’t they?”
They have. Even with what Jamie already knew, he was the one brave enough to say what was staring me right in the face. Em has found what he seems to have always been looking for, and I just have to hope it remains enough. That we’re enough.
Jamie sidles over like he knows what we’re talking about. He slips his hand into mine. I pull him even closer and drop a kiss on the top of his head.
Dax grins, unabashed. “Looks like you finally got what you wanted.”
Jamie tightens his grip on my hand and looks over at Em. He’s watching both of us. Cate is still talking to Sam. “Yeah,” Jamie says finally. “Ended up with even more than that.”
It’s nice having him so close. So warm. I look at Em again, who seems to finally get the hint; he nudges Cate and then makes his way over to the two of us. Jamie grabs for him this time, and Em laughs as he’s pulled against Jamie’s side.
“What’s happening over here?” he asks.
“I was going to ask the same question about over there,” I say with a jerk of my chin.
Em shrugs. “Sam offered to meet with me again next week. If I have any questions, anything like that…” He gives us all a sheepish smile. “He said sometimes wolves forget to mention the obvious stuff.”
Drew pulls a face. Dax’s lips twitch. “Yeah, we tend to do that,” he says.
“He says he’ll talk to the three of us too, whenever we want,” Em continues, and he’s looking at Drew now. “I suppose you all might have got through some issues waiting for us.”
Jamie frowns but doesn’t comment when Drew shrugs. “I guess so,” he says. “I mean, obviously, yeah, come to us with whatever. We’re pack. We’ll help.”
“Thanks,” Jamie says. He sighs and leans against me. “You’re coming back with us tonight, right?”
His scent changes. Desire thumps in my chest, and I get it. We’re through the worst of it. We have a new pack—even if I’m not officially part of it yet, that will all be sorted in the next few days—and we have each other.
“Cate’s going to have to stay,” Em says. “She’s not heading all the way back tonight.”
Across the room, Cate perks up. “I’ll get a hotel,” she calls, proving that she apparently has hearing just as good as any wolf’s.
“No, you won’t,” Sam says with a scowl. “We have plenty of room for you—one of the new flats is still empty.”
Alpha Kieran watches all this from his seat on Lucien’s lap, apparently content to let his second handle things. Cate shrugs even as Em frowns.
“But you—”
“Sounds good to me,” Cate says. “I have like a thousand more questions.”
Sam grins and drops back on the sofa. “Ask away.”
“We’ll have lunch tomorrow,” Cate says to Em. She gives us all a knowing look. “Stress is over, boys. Go have fun.”
“Jesus,” Em mutters. Jamie cackles.
I look at Alpha Kieran. “Do we need—”
“Nothing else tonight, I think,” he says. “We’ll have you all back next week if you want to do your official joining ceremony then? Talk to Nick about the house, too. I’ve no problem with you staying there, but he might want to know how many new housemates he’s going to have.”
“Will do!” Jamie says, and in the next second, he’s the one pulling us both over to the door. “See you all later.”
Their laughs—not cruel, not mocking, but the laughs of people who are genuinely happy for what we’ve found in each other—follow us out into the hall.
“Come on,” Jamie says, “let’s go home.”