2. Khalil
Khalil
The back door is open when Dax and I get home, which tells me exactly where our company came from. Cold air cuts through the kitchen carrying damp earth, pine, and four familiar scents from the woods behind the house.
The human neighborhood ends at my back fence, but Hawthorne territory keeps going for miles beyond it, first through thick forest and then into the small town where most of the pack lives.
A few nights every week as the full moon gets closer, anyone who wants to run cuts through the woods and meets here before we shift.
Dax kicks off his shoes beside the door and looks toward the family room. “Malik brought Jonah out this late?”
“I’m pregnant, not dying,” Jonah calls back before either of us can move.
Dax grins and disappears around the corner ahead of me. “I didn’t say anything about you. I said something about the psychopath you mated who thinks you need supervision to cross a room.”
“He tried to carry my groceries yesterday.” Jonah is stretched across the end of the couch with one hand resting over the curve of his stomach, looking comfortable enough despite being several months along.
He holds the other out when Dax approaches, and Dax catches it before leaning down to hug him.
“Tell him if he does it again, I’m biting him. ”
Malik doesn’t bother looking offended from the chair beside him. “You bit me yesterday.”
“You deserved it yesterday too, Alpha.”
Rhys laughs from the opposite couch while Dax moves over to clasp his hand next. “You running tonight?”
“Unless your father has gotten slow enough that I can finally beat him.” Rhys looks past Dax toward me and grins. “I’ve been waiting years.”
“You’ll be waiting longer,” I offer, taking in the men of my pack sitting around my home.
Elder Amos stands near the open back door with his coat still on, which is the first sign this isn’t only about the run.
He normally complains if anybody tries talking pack business when his wolf is already restless, but tonight he hasn’t even taken off his shoes.
Dax notices too, his smile fading as he sits on the arm of Jonah’s couch.
“What happened?” Dax asks.
“Nothing yet.” Amos turns his attention to me while I undo the buttons at my wrists. “That’s why I came before everyone shifted. You have until next Saturday, Khalil.”
Dax’s shoulders go rigid. “No.”
Amos barely glances at him. “You know the law.”
“I know the law, and I’m telling you I’m not taking over this pack next Saturday.
” Dax gets back to his feet, all the easy warmth from a minute ago gone.
“I’m still in school. I’m still learning half the shit Dad handles without thinking about it, and I am not waking up Sunday morning responsible for a bunch of wolves because he refuses to find somebody. ”
I shake my head, my shoulders falling slightly. “I’m standing right here, son.”
“Great. Then fix it.”
Rhys rubs a hand over his mouth, unsuccessfully hiding his amusement. “I’ve never heard anyone order their father, who’s also the pack Alpha, to find a mate before.”
Dax looks at him. “Would you like to be Alpha next week?”
“No.”
“Then shut up.”
Jonah nudges Dax’s leg with his foot before looking at me. “He isn’t wrong about the timing, Khalil. Nobody here thinks Dax won’t make a good Alpha someday, but someday and next Saturday are two very different things.”
Malik rests his forearms on his thighs. “You’ve known this was coming. Amos has been warning you for months.”
“And I’ve met every wolf anyone thought might be compatible with me.” I pull my watch off and leave it beside my keys. “I’m not claiming someone because the council thinks our bloodlines look nice beside each other.”
Amos’s expression doesn’t change. “Nobody asked you to. We asked you to take finding a mate seriously.”
Dax lets out a breath and looks toward the ceiling. “Maybe tell everyone you’re divorced again. That seems to solve everything.”
Rhys turns toward him. “He’s still using that lie with humans?”
“There was never even a fucking marriage,” Dax spits out playfully, sending me a glare that’s more warning than anything. My lack of finding a mate is only because I don’t want to have someone tying me down to one place.
The corner of Jonah’s mouth lifts while Amos looks considerably less entertained.
The divorce story was useful when Dax and I moved into this house.
Humans understand divorce. They stop asking why there’s no spouse, why an adult son still spends so much time with his father, and why neither of us ever gives a straight answer about where we lived before coming here.
Amos steps farther into the room. “Your human cover story is your business. The Hawthorne Pack is mine when you start pretending the life on this side of the woods changes what waits on the other side. At moonrise next Saturday, you either stand before this pack with a mate or the Alpha position passes to Dax.”
Dax points at me. “Find someone.”
Malik’s attention shifts before I can answer. His nostrils flare once, then again, and his focus settles on my collar. “You already found somebody tonight.”
Dax looks between us. “What?”
“I had dinner next door,” I state, confused where Malik is taking this. “I smell like humans and lasagna.”
Malik shakes his head. “Lasagna doesn’t smell like that.”
Dax is close enough that he catches it once he starts looking for it. His brow furrows, then his entire face changes. “Why the fuck do you smell like Elio?”
I reach for the glass of water I left on the counter earlier, more because Dax is waiting for an answer than because I’m thirsty. “Because Elio kissed me.”
Dax stares at me long enough that the room goes quiet around him. “Tonight?”
“Yes.” I take a drink and set the glass back down.
His gaze flicks toward the front of the house as if he can still see straight through the wall to the Bennetts’. “At Mrs. Bennett’s?”
“In the kitchen.”
For a second, he only looks at me. Then his eyebrows draw together and he plants one hand on his hip. “Dad, what the fuck?”
“Nothing happened that required an announcement.” The words are out before I consider how they sound, and the change in his expression tells me I chose poorly.
Dax points at me. “See, that right there. Nobody says it like that unless there’s something else they’re trying very hard not to say.
” His attention stays fixed on my face, irritation giving way to suspicion.
“That wasn’t the first time you kissed Elio.
” When I don’t answer quickly enough, his scent changes slightly, showing me how close his wolf is to the surface. “You slept with him.”
“Yes.”
Rhys lets out a low whistle from the couch before apparently remembering who he’s sitting with. Dax turns toward him so fast Rhys lifts both hands.
“Don’t,” Dax says.
“I didn’t say anything.” Rhys settles farther into the cushion, though the amusement is still sitting plainly across his face.
“You were about to, and I don’t want to hear it.” Dax turns back to me, but whatever embarrassment had been there is already fading. His eyes narrow as he studies me again. “Was it just Elio?”
Jonah shifts upright, one hand braced against the side of the chair. “Khalil, really?”
“Zaire, also.” I see no point in lying. Mostly because I refuse to let it happen again.
Dax’s face empties completely. He looks at me, then at Jonah, as if somebody else might tell him he heard wrong. “When did this happen? They’re always at the fraternity or at the house. How could you—”
I cut him off. “Son, it was a while ago.”
Dax lets out a breath through his nose and walks two steps toward the kitchen before turning back around. “So while I’ve been bringing them over here, eating with them, running around with them every fucking week, you’ve already slept with two of my friends.”
“I wasn’t aware I needed to submit a report.”
“This is not about me needing a report and you know it!” His voice sharpens, but he keeps it low. “Those are my friends, Dad. They’re human. They know nothing about pack life.”
“I know they’re human.”
“No, you know they don’t shift.” Dax shakes his head and looks at me like I’m deliberately missing the point.
“That is not the same thing.” Dax’s voice loses most of its irritation, leaving something sharper underneath it.
“They don’t know Alphas are real. They don’t know what scenting means or what a claim can do or why they sometimes feel shit around us they can’t explain.
They trust you because they think you’re my hot divorced dad who lives next door to Zaire’s mom.
They have no idea there’s an entire fucking pack behind your house. ”
“I have never brought either of them into pack business. They don’t need to know anything more than I already gave them.
Dax growls in my direction before cutting it off as I raise an eyebrow.
My wolf bristles beneath my skin, daring Dax to challenge me.
I wouldn’t ever take on that challenge but my wolf doesn’t know that.
He scrubs a hand down his face and shakes his head.
“What happens when you end up in bed with them again? What happens when they see Jonah at some point and realize men can get pregnant?!”
Rhys raises his hand. “Actually, Dax, men can’t. Omegas, can, though.”
Dax throws his hands up in the air as I stifle back a chuckle. I lean against the wall, folding my arms against my chest. The full moon crept up on me and now we’re here, debating my sex life and who’s going to spend the rest of their life at my side.
However, the moment I’m mated, they’re all going to demand an heir. Children at 43? No, thank you.
“It’s a good thing turning humans is impossible, then.
” Amos speaks before Dax can answer, his voice calm enough to pull everyone’s attention toward him.
“Khalil cannot make either of your friends wolves by sleeping with them. Humans stay human, no matter how much time they spend in an Alpha’s bed. ”
Dax turns toward him. “That’s not the only thing I’m worried about.”