“I am,” I said, and before he could question more, I added, “Cash was my brother.”
His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Yep,” I told him, my voice short. “You got yourself a bona-fide werewolf virgin.”
He stared at me. Rubbed his neck again. Glanced at the pictures, then back at me. “And the baby?”
“Cash’s kid. Joanne was the mom. She ran off because she wanted to be the alpha female in a pack and I wasn’t about to budge.” My smile was tight. “So now I get to raise Eddie as part of my pack.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah.” My voice was flat. “I just thought you should know. I think Roscoe’s figured it out, too. That’s why he’s after me so hard. He wants me, and he wants my girls.”
“He won’t touch them while I have breath in my body,” Jackson said, and offered me his hand. “I promise you this.”
I’d been needing to hear those words. Relief settled on me like a blanket, and that awful tension I’d felt in my shoulders loosened for the first time in two weeks. With Cash at my side, we’d been a strong pair. But on my own, I hadn’t realized how vulnerable a female alpha was. It didn’t matter how strong I was; a male wolf would automatically be more dominant, could always beat me in a physical fight, which was how most dominance battles were fought. “Thank you.”
I took his hand and clasped mine in it. I had a strong handshake, but his was stronger. I took note of his hand, too, the thick calluses, the deep tan. His was a working man’s hands. I liked that.
He didn’t let go of my hand, though. He just kept clasping it and smiling at me in that friendly way that my head wasn’t sure I liked, but my body liked all too much. “When can I meet the others?”
“They’re staying with friends,” I said. “Human friends that don’t know about…the pack. Roscoe won’t know where to find them. I’ll text them in the morning and tell them to come for breakfast.”
“Breakfast’ll be here soon,” he told me, and gave my hand a squeeze. “You should get some sleep. You look exhausted.”
“I haven’t slept well in weeks,” I admitted. Just the thought of bed was a delicious torment. I wanted to crawl into it, and yet…I looked at Jackson. “Since you’re an unmated alpha…”
I let the words hang in the air. He knew the rest. He was an unmated alpha male, and I was an unmated alpha female. It’d be expected for us to share a room.
And to share a bed.
He gave my hand another squeeze and then got up. “Don’t you worry, Alice. You just get some sleep.” He got up and crossed the room to the overstuffed chair near the door, examined it, and then swept the dirty laundry onto the floor. “I’m going to shower, then I’ll sit here and rest, if that’s okay with you.”
I blinked and stared at him. He wasn’t going to force me to share his bed? I nearly trembled with relief…but it couldn’t last. “You know we have to—“
“I know,” he told me, raising a hand to stop me before I could continue. “We’ll worry about mate markings and claimings and stuff later. Not everything has to happen tonight. You’re exhausted and I’ve got a lot on my mind. So if it’s all okay with you, I’d like to sit in this nice, comfy chair here,” he pointed at my chair, “and relax. You sleep.”
His voice was soothing and compelling. I wanted to sleep, and not only because he was telling me to. “What about you?”
“I’ll stay up. Shower. Check stuff out. Make sure everything’s all right.” His voice dropped a bit lower, his tone husky. “You can trust me, Alice. You’re safe now.”
My heart thudded hard, and I hoped desperately that was the case.
Chapter Five
I woke up sometime after dawn, feeling curiously refreshed and at ease despite only a few hours of sleep. Even three hours of sleep was more than I’d gotten in the last two days. I glanced around my room but Jackson was nowhere to be seen. That made me feel a little better, I supposed. The thought of him leering at me while I slept was unnerving.
Then I frowned to myself. If there was one thing Jackson was incapable of, it was leering. He seemed… friendly. As easygoing as he’d said on his profile. It was weird to see in an alpha. Most of the ones I’d known were full of piss and bluster and kept their authority by force. Jackson seemed determined to make everyone comfortable, and that maybe they’d bow to his leadership because they wanted to, not because they had to.
Strange man.
I rolled out of bed and winced at the smell. I smelled like smoke and cleaning supplies and my own stale sweat and fear. That wouldn’t do. I needed to shower, especially if we were calling the pack home. I didn’t want to smell like fear and introduce them to Jackson at the same time.
Before I got into the shower, though, I grabbed my phone and sent a group text out to the pack.
I felt better after showering and washing my hair a few times, though I felt a bit ashamed that things felt like they were sliding back to normal. Jackson was a stranger. My brother was dead. Shouldn’t I hold out for longer? Grieve more? Something? But with an alpha at my side - even a strange alpha - I felt…I don’t know. Not quite so alone. Not quite so terrified.
And that made me feel guilty.
I toweled off and dressed into another plain t-shirt and jeans. I didn’t bother to do more than brush my dark hair. I wasn’t going to fancy up for Jackson. He had to take me as I was.
My work phone buzzed with an incoming text as soon as I slipped it into my pocket, and I clicked on the message.
Ugh. Her timing was hell. I couldn’t skip the pack breakfast, but today was going to be a scorcher, and Eliza had four small children.
I’d take Jackson with me, I decided. If he was stepping into the Savage pack, he needed to learn the Savage business. I wondered how he’d like the idea of being a slum lord. My mouth curved into a faint smile at the thought. He was a plumber - I could use his services on a regular basis. Too bad he wasn’t an electrician to boot.
I jounced down the stairs, my mood a little lighter, sniffing the air for the scents of Dan and Jackson. To my surprise, the overwhelming smell of Pine Sol touched my nose. Curious, I followed it through the house, noting that my living room had been straightened up, all of the laundry carefully piled into one mound, the tables and chairs cleaned off of all pizza boxes.
I headed into the kitchen and blinked when I came across Dan and Jackson there, scrubbing it clean. My eyes widened at the sight. Dan was wearing the striped frilly apron that Holly favored and slinging a mop across the tile of my enormous kitchen. At the sink, Jackson’s hands were buried in suds as he did the dishes by hand.
The kitchen was spotless, the granite counters gleaming. It was clear that they’d been busy for a few hours. “Hi,” I said, since they probably couldn’t smell me over the cleaning supplies.
Dan’s head jerked up and he gave me a sheepish grin, blushing and fisting his hand into the apron. He quickly tore it off and looked over to Jackson for reassurance.
Jackson simply moved a bowl from the sudsy water to the rinse water, and then set it on top of a towel on the counter. “Did you sleep okay?”
“I did,” I said, moving into the kitchen on careful bare feet. The floors were slick with water. Dan wasn’t a great mopper, but I had to give the kid props for trying. “What are you guys doing?”
“Cleaning,” Jackson told me, his voice mild.
Well, duh. “I mean, why?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “From what I was understanding, this is our home now, too. You’ve
