Single Wolf Female

He followed behind me as I headed into the kitchen, and stopped as I skirted the large drying puddle. “He’d been through my house, grabbed all my lingerie, and, well, made sweet love to it.” If I squinted hard, I could still see the heart drawn in the mess. “I think he was trying to tell me something.”

“Either that or he’s real lonely,” Jackson drawled.

My mouth twitched at that. “I think he wants my pack more than me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, so I wouldn’t rub my arms. “He doesn’t like that I told him no.”

Jackson nodded, then motioned for me. “I’ll get started on changing the locks, Ms. Savage.”

Ms. Savage. I wondered briefly if he thought I was the widow of the old alpha. That would be the natural thought. Sisters sometimes took the alpha female’s place, but that was a rarity. He must have imagined that I was grieving for more than just my alpha. I chose to let him think that for a while longer, but offered, “You can call me Alice, if you’ll be joining us.”

The smile returned, and with it, the dimples that fascinated me. “We’ll be staying,” he agreed. “Thank you, Alice.”

“As long as you won’t disrupt my pack, that is,” I stressed, trying to put my foot down. It was hard to judge a new alpha. I knew where to step with Cash, but this man was a stranger.

The smile disappeared again, and he nodded. “Of course.”

I nodded and exited, all too glad to get out of the room.

Chapter Four

Two hours later, I cleaned out Joanne’s old room, my thoughts astir, while Jackson worked on adding deadbolts to my front and back door and Dan put out the fire. Since we lived out in the country, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to burn trash. Maybe a little weird at three in the morning, but the neighbors thought we were weird anyhow.

And so I readied a room for the newest member of the pack. Partially because it kept me busy, and partially because it allowed me to hide from Jackson’s too-knowing gaze. Dan was a sweet, quiet boy from what I could tell. He dropped his gaze every time I looked at him – appropriate around a new alpha. But I didn’t know how to act around Jackson.

As if my thoughts had summoned him, Jackson strolled down the hall and into the room a moment later. A tool belt was slung low around his waist, and I found myself staring at it. It emphasized the lean lines of his hips and his ass in the jeans, and I flushed bright red when he caught me looking.

He didn’t say anything, though. Just glanced past me, at the sheets I’d tossed down onto the twin bed. “Dan will need to shower before he heads to bed,” Jackson said, with a nod at the window, where I could clearly see the wilting teenager dumping the ashes out of the barrel outside.

Poor kid did look dead-on-his-feet tired, but wasn’t complaining. I liked that about Dan. “He can sleep here. It’s not Joanne’s room any longer. She left us about six months ago.”

He nodded at me. “I’ll change the last set of locks while you get him comfortable.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, then glanced out the window one last time to see Dan trudging up the steps. “I’ll show him where the towels are.”

As Dan showered, I cleaned out Joanne’s old room for him, and I heard Jackson working on the doorknobs. He hummed to himself as he worked, a faint sound that I barely caught over the drum of the water in the shower.

“Thanks for taking us in, Ms. Savage,” Dan said a few minutes later, as I piled blankets into his pajama-clad arms. “It’s been a while since we ran with a pack. Been just myself and Jackson for about a year now.”

“Alice,” I corrected, but didn’t add anything to that. The kid was a goldmine of information, as long as I could keep him talking. “And I’m glad you’re here too.”

I wasn’t lying, either. So far I liked Dan a lot. He had a honest, open face and a polite demeanor. Nothing like my rowdy boys, Spence and Len, who were constantly into mischief.

“Jackson likes you too,” Dan offered as he made the bed.

“Of course he does,” I retorted, heading for the door of the room. “He’s the alpha. He likes what I come with.”

“No, I mean he likes you.”

“Oh?” I lingered in the doorway a minute longer. “What makes you say that?”

He gave me a sweet, tired smile. “Because we’re still here.”

Interesting. Did that mean Jackson was choosy or was Dan just seeing things through rose-colored glasses? Who knew. I shut the door behind me so the kid could sleep. Jackson still worked on the front door, testing and jiggling the door handle. I moved behind him, arms crossed, and watched him work for a few minutes.

Jackson stopped working as I stood behind him. “It’s late,” he said, glancing up at me. “If you want to go to sleep, I’ll finish up here.”

Sleep? With a stranger changing the locks on my door? With another stranger asleep in the hall? With Roscoe still out there? Knowing he could break into my house again? With my pack scattered to the four winds? Sleep seemed the furthest thing from my mind. “It’s not that late.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

Okay, so it was a little late. I gave a small shrug. Now that it was just the two of us, my body was locking up into all kinds of tension.

What if Jackson wanted to assert his place in the pack…tonight? With me? Make his alpha-ness known? Claim the alpha female?

Uh oh.

I yawned really loudly. “Wow, it is pretty late,” I said, doing an about face.

He gave me a skeptical look. “I’ll shower after this if you leave me a towel. And then I’ll come to bed.”

Uh oh again. Of course he expected us to share a bed. If nothing else, we had to be united in front of the pack. That meant one bedroom, one couple, one set of leaders…an icy chill went down my spine. I couldn’t back down, though. Like it or not, this was what I had bought into.

So I said, “I’ll leave out a towel. Just come to bed when you’re ready.”

He turned back to the door, his humming now silent. That didn’t make me feel any better. I ran a hand through my messy hair and headed up the stairs, to my bedroom.

And found the biggest, thickest, most concealing pair of pajamas I owned and dressed in them. I even tucked a pair of mismatched slipper socks over my toes. If I’d had curlers and a clay facial, I’d have armed myself with those too.

If Jackson had come here expecting a sexy alpha female just begging for a shagging, he was in for a rude, rude awakening.

I bundled myself up and sat on the foot of the bed, waiting. Nerves jittered and cranked through my body, and I twitched in place, unable to relax. Eventually, Jackson was going to follow my scent and come up to bed…

And then what? I’d have to lay under him and submit to the will of the pack? How was that any different than being with Roscoe? Anger set my mouth hard, and I bit down on the long sleeve of my pajama top to keep from screaming my frustration. Why was it that humans were living in an enlightened age and werewolves were stuck in some sort of dark age pack mentality?

You were fine with that pack mentality as long as it made you the boss, my brain reminded me. It’s just now that you have to show throat to someone else, it’s a problem.

And that was the whole of it, really. Being an alpha was fine. But being the sister of an alpha had put me in a special situation and hadn’t prepared me for life with a regular alpha. It hadn’t prepared me to submit to being someone’s mate. That was the part I kept getting hung up on. I was a virgin. I didn’t know what to do in any sort of relationship, much less one as crucial as an alpha-to-alpha one.

Worst of all, I had a horrible thought. What if I took on Mr. Easygoing as an alpha and he was weak? What if Roscoe challenged us anyhow and then I ended up as his mate despite everything? I chewed on the cuff of my