Chapter Two
Shane never thought shifters could get this tired or worn out.
Alone in the apartment space above Renewed Relics, he waited for the other alphas of Tolstone to arrive for their biweekly meeting.
Below, he could hear Dominic Beaumont, Prime Alpha of Tolstone, negotiating with a customer over the price of a china cabinet.
When he had learned that Dominic owned an antique store off the main town square and used the upstairs to meet with the other alpha shifters, Shane thought it pretty brilliant.
It made perfect sense and likely ensured their secrecy, maintaining a low profile in a town this size.
If anyone asked why a bunch of guys met at his store every two Fridays, the Prime Alpha could pass it off as a poker night or something benign like that.
His father, Isaac, wouldn’t have thought the same.
Shane had heard his father talk about the Prime Alpha only a handful of times, and none of his opinions were favorable.
Isaac Snyder believed in maintaining a strong persona to the world, not just to his pack but to humans.
He expected Dominic to follow that same pattern and be someone of importance like the mayor, not a common shop owner.
Isaac, himself, had been a highly in-demand lawyer in their county, and prided himself on that reputation.
Shane fought fang and claw not to follow in his father’s footsteps and enroll in law school, as Isaac had pushed for years.
He made the constant excuse that it wasn’t the right time, or he didn’t feel ready.
Instead, Shane did the opposite and preferred the life of a freelance farmhand.
It gave him far more satisfaction to help his community on the ground level. Rankling his dad was just a bonus.
Shane was just thankful for the little nugget of privacy above the antique store as he stretched out his aching legs and slouched in one of the folding metal chairs that formed a circle in the big room. Shane hadn’t had the chance to sit and chill practically all day.
If running through Larson Caves Park on Thursday night wasn’t enough to make him this bone-tired, working long hours as a carpenter for Ferrin Williams Construction did him in.
He got maybe three hours of sleep on his lumpy, thrift store mattress back at his studio apartment before starting his eleven-hour shift. Those three hours were shit, though.
His rambling mind kept him awake, trying to think through a plan to get his pack back on its feet.
It was his responsibility, as the alpha, to make sure his pack found a new home.
Tolstone was simply a layover. A temporary residence.
It was up to Shane to find something more permanent.
Yet, all he could think about was their old home and how no place could truly measure up.
His childhood home became an utter hell after he became alpha, but the nostalgia for the simple days was a mighty memory.
When Shane’s father died the previous year, his body broken down by decades of acute stress, their pack of thirty-six became his.
Shane decided it was time to change things.
No more micromanaging, no more iron-fisted authority.
He would run the pack the way he believed was right, with mutual respect and courtesy.
Some seemed to welcome the change. Others, like his beta, Kevin, did not.
Shane regretted not reassessing the pack hierarchy when he took over.
He should have picked his own beta to replace Kevin before it was too late.
He should have seen that Kevin, who had been his father’s beta, was cut from the same cloth as his father.
Hard, driven, a take-no-bullshit-from-anyone type of guy that saw kindness as weakness.
As beta, it was Kevin’s job to maintain order, and he did it with all the flair of a Nazi concentration camp commandant.
Shane had been na?ve to think Kevin would bow to his alpha rank, despite the fifteen-year age gap. Instead, Shane saw it all slowly crumble and slip through his fingers.
Kevin turned the pack against him. It started simple enough, at first. Kevin planted little rumors that made Shane look too soft.
Most of the pack began to see him as too weak to lead, too unlike his father, too radical.
A snowflake alpha, they called him. Previous generations of alphas had their own brand of leadership, but Kevin poisoned their minds to believe that the new ways were ineffective.
How could an alpha effectively lead if he didn’t lay down the law with traditional corporal punishments, duels, and banishments?
What was a wolf shifter pack without the occasional fight for dominance and setting the example by shedding the blood of a transgressor?
Shane addressed the rumors and even told Kevin that if he didn’t like him as an alpha, then he could leave. Shane shouldn’t have given him the option. He should have shoved Kevin out the door and out of Warrington completely. Maybe then, the pack wouldn’t have split the way it did.
Kevin led the shifters who wanted to be controlled, and Shane had his measly six remaining, along with their families.
Whether it was out of fear of Kevin, loyalty to the Snyder legacy, or a genuine preference for Shane’s style of leadership, he didn’t know.
All he knew was that the majority faction that sided with Kevin wouldn’t let them rest. Shane’s shifters were bullied everywhere, forced out of public spaces, and had their homes and property vandalized.
When the fights broke out and the Matthews children were hurt in the crossfire, Shane had to act.
He challenged Kevin for Warrington. And he lost. That was when he applied for sanctuary in Tolstone, and that was why they were there.
He lost to a wolf with more strength and more years, but less dominance.
Over and over, he replayed the fight. At first, he couldn’t understand why he lost. All the odds were in his favor, especially when considering his own dominance.
But somewhere in the fight, Shane froze in what he could only describe as a mild panic attack.
It gave Kevin the edge, and Shane was beaten down like he was a freshly turned pup.
It wasn’t until recently that it finally clicked in his head.
Kevin and Isaac, Shane’s father, were practically the same.
And Shane could never stomach the idea of actually injuring his dad, not even as he grew older and could almost match him in strength.
They’d butt heads and argue, they’d yell at one another, but Shane could never return his father’s blows when their fights got too heated.
He could never raise his hand against his dad when he was alive, and he hesitated when it came time to fight Kevin.
He reminded Shane of a younger version of Isaac with all the arrogance.
In the fight, for just long enough, Shane felt like a kid being threatened by a man bigger and meaner than him.
His stupid subconscious made him lose, and he lost the only home he had ever known.
Or, more accurately, if it hadn’t been for the memory of Isaac Snyder, Shane would have won.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
He had to make it right for those who followed him.
That was why he didn’t just call out sick that day when he could barely drag himself out of bed.
Every shifter that came to Tolstone was assisted in finding employment.
Shane, with his background in manual labor, was pushed to Ferrin Williams, one of the local contractors who needed help building a few new homes in the area.
Shane not only had to keep that job, but he needed to make sure he earned enough money to pay back what he’d owe Dominic once their pack left Tolstone.
They had to reimburse Dominic for the rent they accrued while living under the Prime Alpha’s hospitality.
While they could defer that repayment until they were settled in their new place, Shane didn’t want it to be a burden to his pack.
Therefore, he elected to work longer hours, as well as take the occasional weekend project to earn a little extra to stash away.
But, with luck, they wouldn’t have to stay in Tolstone long enough to incur any significant debt against the Prime Alpha.
To do that, Shane had to get moving on finding a new territory for his pack. He just wasn’t sure where to start.
That thought, that his stay in Tolstone was temporary, brought both hope and crushing disappointment. There was only one thing in Tolstone he wanted to take with him. Kimberly Ross.
Seeing her the night before had been nothing short of a whirlwind that kicked up sand in his eye while offering a refreshing breeze.
Her rejection of him, the way she glared and basically told him to fuck off, was the stuff of his teenage nightmares.
Only back then, he could wake up and remind himself that it was all in his head.
Kimberly was his and always would be. Until she wasn’t.
“You’re here early.”
Shane looked toward the door at the top of the stairs that led down to the antique store.
He had met this alpha at the last meeting, two weeks ago.
Gage Phelps. Dark hair, green eyes not unlike Kimberly’s, tattoo sleeves, and he exuded a cocky male energy.
He was supposed to be one of the best mechanics in Tolstone.
He didn’t run his own shop, but all the shifters were told to take their cars to him for any maintenance or repairs.
He still wore his grease-stained uniform shirt, with his name embroidered on a patch on his chest.
“Came straight from work,” Shane replied and tapped his booted feet together. A bit of dirt sprinkled from the grooves on his soles. “Looks like you did too.”