Chapter Two #2
Gage gave a casual wave and headed for the coffeemaker sitting on the kitchenette. “I was buttoning up a transmission tune-up on a Chevy. Took longer than I wanted. Want a cup?”
The alpha held up one of those instant, single-serve cups, and Shane shook his head. “Pass. I like real coffee.”
That earned him a chuckle. “Fair enough.”
More footsteps sounded up the stairs. Sheriff Cole Spradley, an alpha who was about his father’s age before he passed, stepped into the room with Hank Cooper, Dominic’s beta.
Muscled and a hair taller than the rest, Hank radiated beta energy by just walking into the room.
From what he had heard, the husky beta operated a dog shelter in Tolstone.
Shane couldn’t imagine Hank coddling strays or walking chihuahuas, not when the dark green staff shirt of the shelter stretched across his broad chest and sleeves hugged his massive biceps.
If he had been dropped into the Warrington pack, Kevin would have recruited him faster than a cat scrambling off a hot tin roof.
Cole went to join Gage at the counter. “I’m not picky,” he said. “Start me a cup, will ya?”
The older alpha wore a navy-blue cop uniform, with streaks of gray in his dark hair, and a stare as sharp as a dagger.
The sheriff’s pack was as permanent to Tolstone as its businesses and streets, from what Shane had been told.
Unlike other packs that came and went through a revolving door, Cole never left, presumably to help enforce order in the town, hence his role as the sheriff.
The Prime Alpha’s beta ambled toward Shane. “How’s the job with Ferrin?”
Though it was Dominic’s pull within the community that got him the job, it was Hank who managed the housing and work assignments.
He was the one who gave over Shane’s resume, but it was up to Shane to nail the interview and get the job.
That part wasn’t a guarantee, but Hank took his responsibility seriously and wouldn’t let a shifter go jobless for long.
“It’s good. I appreciate that you took the time to pair me with a job like that.”
It was then that Shane noticed Hank carried a thick folder and dropped it at his feet. “It doesn’t always work out that way.” A bit of sadness touched Hank’s New York accent. “Do you know how the rest of your pack is doing in their placements?”
Shane mentally fumbled, trying to remember all the jobs his packmates had been offered while the coffeemaker percolated in the background. “I haven’t heard any complaints.”
Just then, Dominic entered the room. His keen shifter hearing had picked up Shane’s reply.
With a pleased sigh, he said, “No complaints. Music to my ears.”
Short black hair and icy blue eyes, Dominic might have belonged better on a magazine cover or movie poster than in a dusty antique store full of old shit. But beneath the plain gray shirt and faded jeans was a shifter unlike any Shane had ever met.
The Prime Alpha, to other shifters, might have looked like a typical alpha.
Nothing special. Until a shifter focused and let their wolf sense the absolute abundance of dominance that he carried within him.
It was subtle, for sure. Shane didn’t notice it when they met for the first time, but at every meeting since then, he had the feeling he shared space with an incredibly powerful alpha.
More powerful than him and his late father combined.
Shane’s gaze bounced around the room to the three alphas.
Which did Kimberly belong to? She had only mentioned a merciful alpha the night before by the creek.
Who did she mean? Or did she mean none of them?
He still didn’t know why she was in Tolstone and what exactly happened to her after her family was kicked out of Warrington.
Since he promised to leave her alone, he doubted he’d ever find out.
Despite his burning curiosity, he didn’t want to break his word. He wouldn’t bother her again. She deserved a kept promise, as much as he ached to redeem himself in her eyes and pick up where they left off somehow.
“Do newcomers often complain?” Shane asked as Dominic took the seat on the other side of Hank.
The Prime Alpha crossed his arms and reclined back in the chair, glowing with the kind of confident and relaxed energy he expected from an alpha. “There’s always someone or something that gets in the way of a smooth transition.”
Gage left the kitchenette to take the seat next to Shane.
The smell of oil, grease, sweat, and old body spray was strong.
“Yeah, or in my case, it took some arm-twisting to make sure everyone was comfortable. Remember how long it took Kimberly to finally confess that she wanted an upstairs apartment so she wouldn’t have to hear footsteps across her ceiling? ”
Shane had to keep himself from launching out of the chair to grab Gage’s collar and shake out more information about Kimberly.
Instead, he stayed as cool as a cucumber or at least tried. “Kimberly is in your pack?”
Gage looked at him sideways as he took a long sip of his coffee. The curiosity amongst the other shifters in the room was palpable.
“You’ve met Kimberly?” Dominic asked before Gage could answer.
Shane quickly assessed how much he should tell, how much he should reveal, how much was incriminating to himself and his pack, and how much might injure Kimberly’s standing within Tolstone.
Would her past make her seem like a liability in Tolstone?
It was her father’s transgression against Isaac, but some alphas were picky about family reputations …
Then again, maybe it was just Shane’s father who was picky.
If spending time with these alphas taught him anything already, it was that there were plenty of other alpha styles that were not only effective, but probably healthier.
“We ran into each other yesterday,” Shane replied. “We have a history.”
Cole arrived in the circle with his cup of coffee and gave Shane a serious look. “What kind of history?”
Shane suddenly felt as if he were on trial. “We knew each other as kids.”
Finally, Gage spoke up. “You’re from Warrington?”
“Yeah.”
His leafy green eyes narrowed, and Shane saw the rim of the foam coffee cup bend a little. “And you took over the pack from your dad, didn’t you?”
Bits of his story weren’t a secret in this circle, so Shane wasn’t surprised to hear that Gage knew that much about him. “Yeah.”
Gage gave a knowing nod, and his demeanor took on a hardness that Shane recognized well. Distrust.
“Ah … Gotcha.” Then he took another sip and looked away.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” It came out before Shane could even check himself.
Gage snapped a combative look his way. “That I heard you.”
Shane’s wolf snapped at the snark in this alpha’s tone, but the human side of him had just enough sense to pull back.
Getting into a fight with another shifter was not recommended.
The safety and protection of his pack were more important.
If he couldn’t play nice with others, especially in front of the Prime Alpha, their stay in Tolstone could be cut way too short.
Almost as sure as that fact was the fact Gage had officially formed an opinion of Shane with that single admittance.
And it wasn’t a good one. Shane knew how someone said something was often more valuable than what was being said.
For shifters, and especially alphas, it was all about the subtext and what wasn’t spoken.
Gage knew something, or at least thought he knew something, and Shane had a feeling that something was directly related to how Kimberly colored the memory of him and what happened in Warrington.
The antique shop doorbell sounded downstairs and drew everyone’s attention.
Shane looked to each of the men, confused about who they were missing.
Quick footsteps hurried up the stairs, accompanied by the cheesy, meaty aroma of pizza.
A woman soon entered. He’d only met her once but knew she belonged to Dominic.
As soon as she came into the room, their mating bond blinked into his wolf’s awareness.
The woman, whom he remembered was named Erica, was now the only human in the building.
So unnatural. Shifters belong with shifters.
Shane gave himself a mental shake. He did not need his father’s toxic ideologies invading his thoughts.
His father’s old rules would not carry over into how he ran his pack or his life.
Some laws were far too archaic to retain.
Being around humans was a reality. They couldn’t avoid it.
Mating with a human used to be taboo. Shane saw nothing wrong with a shifter mating with a human, though it did seem an odd choice for a Prime Alpha.
It wasn’t the logical pick. He needed a mate that could match him, not just in strength and supernatural abilities, but in dominance, too.
That was what he had always been led to believe—that alpha males should try to find their alpha females.
It solidified their authority over the pack, not just to maintain order but to prove the pack was strong and unbreakable.
How would it look to have a mate who was, by comparison, weak and vulnerable?
Far be it from him to question Dominic’s choices, but there had to be something else at play here.