Chapter 3
Three
DRAKE
I miss her already. It’s crazy, but I do.
The beautiful cherry scent that she keeps trying to hide beneath scent blockers is unforgettable. I can hardly concentrate as I slowly pour lemonade into my glass.
My wolf paces restlessly beneath my skin, eager to track her down again, to claim what it already recognizes as mine.
I followed her car all the way to her apartment, quietly watching her, but now I’m back at the pack house, intent on going back.
I’ve never reacted this way to an omega before. Never felt this immediate, visceral need to protect, to possess, to mate.
It’s exhilarating.
And it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for my whole life. The calling and the need to mate with a beautiful omega like her.
“You’re quiet,” my older brother Kieran observes, not looking up from his laptop. His fingers tap methodically against the keys, the sound precise like everything else about my older brother.
I turn, lemonade sloshing dangerously close to the rim of my glass.
Kieran sits at the massive dining table, surrounded by blueprints and digital renderings of our newest luxury resort.
His dark hair is pushed back from his forehead, and his ice-blue eyes flick up to mine for just a second before returning to the screen.
Even in a simple charcoal sweater and jeans, he exudes authority.
“Just thinking,” I say, taking a long sip of lemonade.
“Dangerous pastime,” Kieran murmurs, the ghost of a smile on his face. “I’m hoping you’re not coming up with another harebrained scheme of yours that could damage the company.”
I ignore the jab, sliding into the chair across from him. A year ago, I made a costly mistake by purchasing a property for millions without talking to my pack, which was soon destroyed by a bad storm in a bad area.
We inherited this pack house from our parents, along with their real estate empire and the responsibility for our baby sister.
“I met a girl today. An omega. I think she’ll be perfect for our pack.”
Kieran’s fingers freeze over the keyboard. His eyes lift to mine, the blue darkening slightly with surprise.
“An omega,” he repeats, voice flat.
“Yeah,” I press, leaning forward. My wolf surges with excitement, pushing against my control. “For the pack.”
Kieran sighs, closing his laptop with a soft click.
“Maybe we could wait a few more years,” he says carefully. “Before an omega comes in to distract us all. Maybe until Nora grows up and leaves the home.”
“A few more years?” I say incredulously. “Kieran, I’m thirty. You’re thirty-two. Most alphas our age already have multiple pups running around.”
He shrugs, unconcerned. “Most alphas don’t run a billion-dollar real estate empire while raising an eight-year-old.”
I bite back a growl of frustration. This is exactly why I waited until we were alone to bring it up. Kieran has been putting off completing the pack since our parents died, always with a different excuse.
First, it was grief. Then it was stabilizing the business. Then it was Nora needing stability. There’s always something.
My mind flashes back to the pharmacy, to those haunted green eyes and the scent of cherry blossoms. To the way she looked at me, wary but interested, her omega instincts responding to my alpha even through the scent blockers she wore.
The way her lips parted slightly when our fingers touched, sending electricity shooting up my arm.
The vulnerability in her voice when she thanked me for helping with her dropped items.
I hadn’t planned to follow her home. It just... happened.
My wolf took over, desperate to know more about this unmated omega who’d affected me so strongly. I tracked her car from a distance, watching as she drove to a run-down apartment building that made my alpha instincts howl with displeasure.
No omega should live in such conditions. She needs a pack to protect her.
I’d observed from my car as lights came on in a third-floor apartment. Later, two other women arrived—omegas, I guessed by their builds and the way they moved. Through the windows, I could see them talking, eating. But even from a distance, the sadness in Francine’s posture was visible to me.
Something was wrong. She wasn’t happy. And every fiber of my being wanted to fix it.
“I’m not talking about just any omega,” I tell Kieran now, my voice lower, more insistent. “This one is special. I felt it the moment we met.”
Interest flickers briefly in Kieran’s eyes before he masks it. “I don’t think…”
“This is different,” I growl, my patience fraying. “You know as well as I do that our pack needs an omega. We’re powerful, sure. We’re wealthy. But we’re incomplete. If we want to truly establish ourselves as one of the dominant packs on Howl’s Edge, we need the stability an omega brings.”
Kieran’s expression remains impassive, but I know I’ve struck a chord. Pack politics are important to him, perhaps more than to any of us. He understands the value of perception, of tradition.
“Besides,” I continue, pressing my advantage, “aren’t you tired of fucking random betas whenever the urge strikes? It’s empty, Kieran. It doesn’t satisfy the wolf. We need a real mate—a pack omega who can handle all of us.”
A muscle in Kieran’s jaw twitches. My words are affecting him. He opens his mouth to respond, but the front door bursts open with a gust of cold air and excited chatter.
“It’s so fluffy!” Nora’s voice rings through the house, high and delighted. “Drake! Kier! It’s snowing so much!”
I turn to see Nora bouncing into the dining room, snowflakes melting in her dark curls.
Her cheeks are flushed pink with cold and excitement, her bright eyes sparkling.
Behind her, Rowan strides in, his tall frame blocking the doorway momentarily.
His long dark hair is pulled back in its usual man-bun, a few strands escaping to frame his face.
He’s always serious, but he laughs at Nora’s excitement over the rare snow event.
Elias follows, looking as put-together as always in his button-down shirt and glasses, snowflakes dusting the shoulders of his wool coat. He brushes them off meticulously, his fingers precise. Unlike Rowan’s stoic silence, Elias offers a warm smile as he enters.
“The first real snow of the season,” he announces, his amber eyes gleaming. “Nora insisted on catching snowflakes on her tongue for over twenty minutes.”
“Twenty-eight!” Nora corrects, jumping up and down, the snow on her boots creating small puddles on the hardwood floor. “And I made a tiny snowman, but Rowan said we had to come home for dinner! He’s so annoying. Keir, can we go back outside?”
Even though Kieran is pissing me off, the sight of my little sister warms my soul.
“You were turning into a tiny snowman yourself,” Rowan rumbles, his deep voice carrying a rare note of amusement. He ruffles Nora’s hair, sending more melting snowflakes cascading around her face. She giggles, swatting at his hand.
Kieran’s expression softens as he watches our little sister, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly.
“Go get changed into dry clothes, pup,” he tells her, taking on the paternal role of father after our parents had died. “We don’t want you catching a cold. That’s the last thing I want.”
“I never get sick!” Nora protests angrily, but she’s already skipping toward the stairs, leaving a trail of damp, icy footprints behind her.
Kieran turns back to me, gesturing toward Nora’s retreating form. “See? We have a little one to take care of. There’s no time for gallivanting around chasing elusive omegas.”
Rowan, who’s in the process of shrugging off his black tactical jacket, lets out a chuckle.
“Is that what this is about?” he asks, hanging his coat on the back of a chair. “Drake feeling his age and wanting to settle down?”
Heat rushes to my face, even though he’s only kidding.
“Shut it, Rowan,” I snap, standing so quickly my chair scrapes harshly against the floor. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation about our pack’s future.”
“Okay, calm down,” he says, holding his arms up in mock surrender.
I growl low in my throat, my wolf rising to the challenge. At twenty-eight, Rowan is only two years younger than me, but sometimes those two years feel like decades. My brothers are terrified of anything serious.
And he doesn’t understand the bone-deep need I feel to build something lasting.
“Not everyone wants to die alone, surrounded by their weapons collection,” I retort.
Rowan’s eyes narrow dangerously, but Elias steps between us, always the peacemaker.
“Alright, alright,” he says smoothly, adjusting his glasses. “Let’s not kill each other before dinner, shall we?”
I shake my head, disgusted with all of them. With Kieran’s dismissal, Rowan’s mockery, and even Elias’s calm neutrality, my brothers don’t understand.
“I’m out,” I mutter, stalking toward the door and needing space.
“Drake,” Kieran calls after me, but I ignore him, grabbing my hoodie from the coat rack and yanking it over my head.
Outside, the snow falls in thick, lazy flakes, already coating the driveway in a white blanket. The cold air burns my lungs, but it doesn’t cool the anger simmering in my blood. My wolf paces restlessly. I need her to calm my agitation.
Only her.
I stride toward the black limousine parked at the edge of the circular driveway. Mason, our driver, spots me immediately and steps out of the car to open the door.
“Where to, sir?” he asks, his face professionally blank.
My mind races.
I need to see her again. Need to make sure she’s okay. The sadness I saw in her eyes haunts me almost as much as her scent.
“There’s an apartment I need to go to,” I tell Mason, but before he can close the door, a large hand catches it. Rowan stands there, snowflakes already collecting in his dark hair, his expression unreadable.
“You okay?” he asks, voice low enough that only I can hear.
The simple question deflates some of my anger. Despite his teasing, Rowan has always been the most emotionally intuitive of us all, even though he blocks his own emotions, especially after the death of our parents.
“I’m fine,” I say, not meeting his eyes. “Just got some pressing business to attend to.”
He nods slowly, accepting the lie because he knows pushing would only make things worse.
“Don’t do anything crazy,” he says simply, before stepping back and letting Mason close the door.
Through the tinted windows, I watch Rowan return to the house, shoulders hunched against the snow. A twinge of guilt nips at me. Rowan is the sensitive alpha brother, the one who actually cares beneath all the gruffness and sarcasm. But right now, I can’t deal with him or any of them.
As the limo pulls away from the house, I lean my head back against the leather seat, closing my eyes. I wonder if Kieran will ever be serious about taking an omega into our pack.
I’ve found her. I’ve found the heart of our pack. Now I just need to convince my stubborn brothers that she belongs with us.