Chapter Two
“Well, she’s going to have to make adjustments,” Liam Northman gritted out. “We can’t all get exactly what we want.”
“She’s not wanting to move the meeting place—”
“Nate!” Liam barked out. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my life is a little upside down at the moment. I’m dealing with a hundred things at once. If the Arrangement is still wanting to meet tonight, she will have to travel out closer to me. I’m in the middle of moving in.”
“You found a place?” Nate asked quietly. “Where?”
“Up by that big car shop on Brighton.”
“Oh shit. That’s a human-only area. How’d you swing that?”
“I wore sunglasses, man, I don’t know. I toured three places and got the boot immediately. This place does one-month leases. They charge an arm and a leg, but I’m in a spot right now.”
“I told you, you could’ve just crashed with me and Delta,” Nate, his Second, said.
“I need my own space, and so do you two of you. You’re newly paired.
You don’t need me crammed in your place.
The contractor says it’ll be months before they can get the house rebuilt, and that’s after insurance stops dicking me around.
I just need to get through this and then I can get us all back to normal. ”
“Normal, where you’re hosting arranged pairings.”
“That isn’t my idea, Nate. It’s just my responsibility. Anything else?”
“I’m worried.”
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” Liam gritted out.
“Not about you. I’m worried about the Pack. The mate you choose will affect the dynamics here.”
Liam sighed and hooked his free hand on his hips, frowned out the window of his bare one-bedroom apartment. He could see the mailboxes from here, and a flash of that woman from earlier washed across his mind. She was a looker.
He ticked up the corner of his lips and told Nate, “I’ll pick a good one.
I want the Pack steadied out more than you or Dodger, or Tabian, or anyone else.
Why do you think I’m hosting Arrangements?
Do you think I want that? The Elders’ rules say the Alpha has to be paired, so I’m minding the freaking rules.
If she wants to meet me tonight though, she’s got to come out here.
I’ll be slammed until the end of the weekend. ”
“Fuck, man. This one is a spitfire.”
“Well, you were named Second so you can handle the stuff I can’t get to. I don’t even have her number. You and the elders have been arranging these. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to.”
Nate snorted. “You’ve met three Arrangements, and told them all to piss off, one by one.”
“Well, they weren’t my type.”
“I don’t think that’s the point of all of this.”
“Well, I have to live with them, so it’s a big enough point for me. Why don’t you shock me and send me a potential mate that doesn’t act like she’s queen of our Pack already. Some humility would be nice, I’m just saying.”
“Liam,” Nate uttered tiredly.
“The last one scraped her teeth against the fork every time she took a bite of food.”
“Oh my God, Liam, that is not a deal breaker.”
“Okay well she also told me I will be giving her a four thousand dollars a month allowance because she, and I quote, is ‘too pretty to be trapped in a cubicle.’”
“Oh,” Nate muttered. “Why didn’t you lead with that one?”
“Female werewolves are all the same.”
“Not Delta.”
“Well then you got lucky. I’ve got to go. Text me if the elders say the Arrangement still wants to meet tonight.”
“Liam?”
“Yeah?”
Nate inhaled deeply. “They’re saying this is the last one they will Arrange before they choose one for you. They’re really, really pushing for this one to work.”
Great. Liam gritted his teeth and then hung up the phone before he lost his shit on Nate. It wasn’t his Second’s fault.
Honestly, he had no one to blame but himself.
He hadn’t chosen a mate before he Challeged the last Alpha of their Pack for the rank.
Technically, he wasn’t supposed to Challenge at all if he was unpaired, but well…
that had all gone down out of necessity, and now he was trying to play catch-up.
Or rather, the Elders who presided over all of the werewolf Packs in Idaho were trying to catch him up.
Werewolves and their Pack rules.
And now here he was, in complete chaos, trying to figure out the next month of his life while running the Pack, and the Elders were going to choose a mate for him?
God, he hoped the Arrangement tonight wasn’t like the others.
He looked around the small apartment and narrowed his eyes at the four boxes he’d brought from his house.
They were making this place smell like smoke, so he was putting off unpacking.
The apartment was furnished, thank goodness, but he would need to go to the store across the street and grab some bedding, and some food to fill the pantry.
On the table sat the stack of mail the pretty woman had left at the mailbox. She’d seemed unnerved by that asshole who was bothering her and must’ve left her mail in a panic.
He picked up the small stack and read the apartment number. 3012.
Puffing air out of his cheeks, he grabbed the keys off the counter and made his way outside and strode for the next building over.
He’d seen a picture of the Arrangement tonight, and yeah, she was gorgeous, but that was all she-wolves. They all looked the same to him. It was the culture to be perfectly kept. They also seemed shallow to him though. Always had. That was the part he was having trouble with.
He climbed the stairs two at a time and squared up to apartment 3012. He knocked twice and waited. And waited.
Maybe she’d left. He knocked again. Or maybe she didn’t answer the door because Stalker Boy clearly bothered her.
“Hey lady? It’s the guy from the mailbox? You left your mail down there.” He slapped the envelopes against the open palm of his hand a few times, thinking. “I’ll leave your mail at the office for you,” he called, and turned to leave.
The door opened with a creaking sound, and he turned back around to find the woman standing there. Whoa, she was prettier than he remembered.
She had pulled her brunette hair back into a ponytail, but some of the shorter strands that framed her face had fallen out of her hairband.
She had vibrant green eyes that were round as dinner plates and trained uncertainly on him.
She was petite, maybe five foot three, but she had curves in all the right places.
He could tell because of the skin-tight leggings she wore under her t-shirt.
She had little flip flops on her feet, and her toenails were painted a burgundy color.
She smelled like coconut shampoo and some kind of cherry scented lotion, and inside her home it smelled like she was cooking something delicious.
He loved the unexpected combination of smells.
In her hands, she carried two food containers.
“Were you just leaving?” he asked, pointing toward the stairs. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just bringing you the mail you left at the mailboxes.”
She didn’t move and didn’t say a single word. She just stood there like a little garden gnome, staring at him with those big pretty green eyes.
“I uhhh…” He frowned. “I didn’t want Stalker Boy to get ahold of your mail. He feels off, just so you know. I could tell he was making you uncomfortable. So…” He handed her the mail, and she fumbled for it, and nearly dropped the food containers.
Liam reached forward too fast, and caught them, and her eyes went even wider as they stood there staring at each other.
Shit. If she hadn’t guessed he was a werewolf before, that little move would make her suspicious.
He cleared his throat and tried to hand the food back. “I should go.”
“That’s for you!” she said in a rush, and disappeared inside with her mail, and slammed the door closed.
Shocked, he just stood there like a bump on a log. Liam looked down at the food and pried open the corner, took a sniff, and oh God. It was beef stew. And from a quick peek at the other container, it was stew and cornbread, and it smelled and looked homemade.
For him? Well, this was against the rules.
“Hey lady,” he called, knocking again. “I can’t accept this.” Although literally every cell in his body disagreed. He hadn’t had stew and cornbread since he was a pup, and his mouth was watering.
The door opened suddenly, and she plopped a plastic baggie on top of the containers in his hands. It looked like she’d given him a spoon and a napkin. She flashed him with a tense smile and then closed the door again.
He bit back a smile. Okay, this girl was so fuckin’ cute. Submissive as hell, he could tell, but interesting.
The rules, the rules, the rules…
“I’m going to set this next to your door,” he called. “I’m not supposed to accept gifts.”
The door opened again. “I can make you a second portion for your girlfriend. Or fiancé. Or wife? I can meet her too if you want so she doesn’t feel threatened by me.
” The woman was rambling. “I mean, not that anyone would ever feel threatened by me. I can barely string two sentences together in public.” She was staring at his shoes while she blabbed.
“I have shyness problems. And I stammer when I’m nervous. ”
“You’re talking just fine now.”
“Right. Probably because I know I’ll never talk to you again. Thank you for what you did at the mailbox. I was going to bring this down to you but…I’m…a wuss. Okay, I’m going to get you some more food for your girlfriend, wait right there, okay bye.”
She moved to close the door again, but he said quickly, “I don’t have a girlfriend.
” He lifted the food in his hands and said, “Thank you for this. It smells delicious.” Fuck the rules.
Who was going to find out he accepted a gift from a female human?
No one. The wolves didn’t come around these parts unless they had to.
It seemed to mean something to her that he accept her food, so okay. Dinner was stew and cornbread tonight.