my will on them. “We’re going to behave like a civilized pack.”
Silence. I looked over at Len, the most vocal of my small group. He was staring at my neck, his jaw clenched in a mutinous scowl. Oh great. He’d seen the mate mark and he wasn’t pleased. His gaze swung to Jackson and I admit, I looked over at Jackson, too.
My mark was plain as day on Jackson’s tanned throat. For some reason, that embarrassed me. It was like advertising to the world ‘Hey, I’m going to shack up with this guy.’
“You all know the problem we’re having with Roscoe. And you all know that the last thing I want for us - for all of us - is him stepping in and taking over. The girls won’t be safe with him at the lead.” I looked at Trina and Holly’s pale faces. Spence pulled Trina closer to him, hugging his younger sister. The scowl on his face echoed Len’s. “And you know that since Cash died…” A knot formed in my throat and I swallowed hard. Grief threatened to choke me again.
As if sensing my distress, Jackson handed the baby off to Dan and stood. He moved to my side of the table and placed a hand on my shoulder.
The unfamiliar touch made me jump, startling me.
Len’s eyes narrowed, watching us.
Jackson’s hand rubbed my shoulder, comfortingly. One might almost say possessively. It was expected, especially with a new alpha stepping in. But I’d made things awkward by flinching away. Even now, I stood next to him, stiff as a board.
“My name is Jackson Wilder,” he said, and gestured at the other end of the table. “That’s Dan St. James. We were passing through Texas when Alice called and suggested we pool our resources. I liked what I saw and that’s why I’m here.”
Trina’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t get it. We don’t know you. How’d Alice get your phone number?”
“There’s an Alliance agency,” I began, not mentioning that it was a
Spence and Len groaned. “Alliance? You serious?” Len asked. “Those nutjobs? That’s for packless freaks.”
“The Alliance is made up of a lot of different shifters,” Jackson said, clearly unruffled by the tension at the table. No one was eating. They were just staring at the mountain of wrapped sandwiches. “And it’s good to have allies when you’re down on your luck.”
“We’re wolves,” Len sneered. “We don’t need allies. We have the pack.”
“We also don’t need their dating agency, then, do we, Len?” I glared at him.
He slouched lower in his seat, scowling.
“So anyhow,” I continued, clenching my hands on the table so I wouldn’t start wringing them. “Jackson is our new alpha and he’s my…mate. It’s going to take some time for everyone to get used to each other, but as of today, I want you all back in the house. You know the rules, too. No changing to wolf unless on Savage territory. No pack runs without clearing it through an alpha first. No interaction with other wolf packs without clearing it first, for the protection of everyone.”
“What about Jackson’s rules?” Holly asked, her voice whisper-thin. “Doesn’t his pack have rules?”
Jackson’s thumb caressed my nape again. “We’re going to go with Alice’s rules for now. She knows you better than I do. If anything needs changing, we’ll discuss it.”
Len snorted.
“What?” I snapped at him.
He shrugged his shoulders, glaring up at me and Jackson. “I can’t believe you picked up a stranger on the internet.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye, though. That would have been a challenge, and male wolves never challenged female wolves.
“We needed an alpha,” I told him, my teeth gritting. I could feel the growl rising in my throat. “Another alpha was the only way to keep the girls out of Roscoe’s grasp—“
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t seem very alpha,” Len said, getting to his feet. He was a yard away from me, in the seat closest to mine at the table. I’d noticed that he’d picked that spot - probably very deliberately. When he stood up, he towered over me. “You should be with me.”
“Len, don’t even start,” I said.
He reached for my arm — only to have his hand batted away by Jackson.
“That a challenge?” Jackson asked in his low, careful voice.
“It’s not,” I said quickly, trying to push between them. “Len doesn’t even want me. Not really. He just wants to be in charge, but he doesn’t realize—“
“Oh, it’s a challenge,” Len said, refuting my words.
“No,” I began, but no one was listening to me any longer.
Over my head, Jackson seized Len by his shirt, and before I could blink an eye, he’d thrown Len against the kitchen wall and held him there, pinned. Jackson’s lips were bared in a snarl, and as I watched, he stared down Len. Just stared at him. No thrown punches, nothing.
A long, tense moment passed…and then Len edged his chin up, showing throat.
It was over so quickly.
Jackson released Len’s shirt, now stretched out from his fists, and Len collapsed against the wall, chest heaving as if he’d ran a mile. He stared at us for a long moment, then bolted for the door.
I needed to go after him, smooth things over.
Trina had the same idea. She got to her feet, intending to go after her brother.
“No,” Jackson said, pointing at her. Then he looked at me and gave a slight shake of his head, as if he knew what I was going to do.
Trina thumped back into her seat, eyes wide.
“Let’s finish breakfast, shall we?” Jackson’s voice was easy. “It’ll make Alice unhappy if we waste all this food.”
I didn’t give a shit about the food. Every instinct in me that wanted to keep the pack together screamed that I should go after Len. It was hard to ignore that and sit back down, but I did, the thump of my seat echoing Trina’s from a few moments ago. I forced myself to pick up a sandwich, unwrap it, and take a big bite.
Following my lead, the others began to eat.
Chapter Seven
When breakfast was over, the kids scattered to unpack their things and return their rooms to normal. Holly, always the thoughtful one, offered to help Dan set up his room. Trina naturally wanted to help as well, and tagged along. Before I knew it, they were all hanging out in Dan’s new room, pointing out how he should arrange furniture and asking him what sports he liked, what TV shows he and Jackson watched.
They seemed to be settling in okay. “Jackson and I are going to run and visit the rent houses. You have my number if anything comes up, right?”
They nodded. Holly smiled gently at me. Trina texted into her phone, ignoring me. Heck, things were almost back to normal.
“Okay then,” I said, and left them upstairs. I headed back down to where Jackson was hanging out in the living room. He seemed to realize that hovering would only make everyone more anxious, so had split off from the group once he’d finished eating. I headed in to the living room and his gaze immediately went to me, though he didn’t get up off the sofa. “I want you to come on a business call with me.”
“Sure thing,” he said, voice easy.
“Unless you have somewhere you need to be?”
“No plumbing calls at the minute,” he told me. His gaze didn’t leave my face, though. “Business is slow when you’re new to an area. I imagine that’ll change soon enough.”
Thinking about the future made me all flustered again, especially when he was looking at me like that.
We got into my truck, since I insisted on driving. Jackson was fine with that - again, not something I was used to. Cash would always fight me on this sort of thing, because he liked to be in charge of everything. Just one
