We walked outside, nodded to the guards, and climbed in the back of a large SUV. We traveled for about fifteen minutes before we reached the small town. It was quaint, small shops with a few people walking down the street. They stopped and stared as the stream of black cars passed them.
Three guards followed us as we exited the car and walked into a bakery, where I was immediately greeted by the smell of fresh bread.
“Theo!” A woman called affectionately over the counter. Theo smiled back and brought us to the counter while the guards took a seat in one of the corners near the entrance. “Where have you been, boy? I know you’re busy, but I haven’t seen you in weeks! Was it something I fed you?”
“Emily,” he chuckled. “You know everything that comes out of your oven is heavenly. I’ve been traveling, but I’m back now. I promise I’ll come in more.”
The woman smiled; the lines around her full cheeks showed prominently. She was older, maybe in her fifties, her brown hair tied back with a ribbon.
“Margo, this is Emily. Emily, this is my mate, Margo.” Emily smiled at me warmly.
“Oh my gosh, you must be so happy,” she gushed, leaning her elbows on the counter. “I have to call your mother; she must be over the moon.”
“Could you wait to call her?” Theo’s eyes narrowed as Emily placed her hand on her hip.
“You haven’t told your mother, boy?”
“This is only her second day here, Emily. I wanted her to get settled in before I throw her to the shark.”
“Well, okay,” Emily conceded. “But if you haven’t told her by the end of the week, I’m going to have to hit your behind with this rolling pin.”
“Emily, I am a grown man.” His bottom lip pushed out.
“And you’re still afraid of your mother,” she reminded him, setting the rolling pin down.
Theo smiled softly, and we took a plate of raspberry scones and pistachio shortbread to a pastel-colored table. The guards looked at us longingly, but Theo assured me they would get a lunch break after our excursion.
“Theo,” I whispered suddenly, glancing around us. He looked at me in concern. “Whose territory are we on right now? I thought you needed permission to bring a human into a pack’s territory?”
Theo chuckled, leaning back in his seat lazily, and continued consuming his meal. “Little one, this is my brother’s territory. Even so, I can go where I please; I am the Enforcer.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” he smirked, wiping a stray crumb from his lip. “I would never do anything to put you in danger.” My head ducked, and I felt a warm blush crawl onto my cheeks from my neck. “How much do you know about Enforcer’s?”
“Not a lot,” I pursed my lips, embarrassed that I didn’t know more. He didn’t seem bothered by my lack of knowledge and proceeded to tell me the inner workings of his job and how his position came to be.
“So all the other Alpha’s voted for you, and now you get to do whatever you want?”
Theo chuckled in amusement. “No, sweetheart. I don’t get to do whatever I want. There are five other Enforcers, one on each continent except for Antarctica. We keep each other in check. There is no one person above everyone else.”
“Well then, what happens if you go rogue and start killing everyone?” I threw the question out, my mind buzzing with hypotheticals.
“Well, the other five would probably come and hold a trial. They would decide what would happen to me.”
“But what if all six of you went crazy at the same time?”
“Is this really what’s going on in your mind all the time?”
“Kind of,” I mumbled, looking away.
“No wonder why you’re so quiet,” he teased.
“That’s mean,” I said softly, not knowing how he would react. He smiled largely and set his food down.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, looking over his shoulder at the guards.
“So, just one brother?”
“Three actually, all younger than me,” he said a little pridefully.
“What are they like?” I rested my cheek against my hand.
“Curious little thing, aren’t you?” He smiled, sliding the plate away from him towards the middle of the table.
“I’m an only child,” I offered, biting my lip. “I never had any brothers or sisters.”
“Well,” Theo began. “Gabriel is twenty-eight, he’s the Alpha of this pack now. I handed the title to him a few months ago when I got this position. He’s a lot like me, we have the same views, but he’s a bit stricter than I was. He takes his job very seriously. And there’s Reese, he’s twenty-five, and the Beta of the pack-although sometimes I don’t know why,” he chuckled.
“Why?”
“Reese sometimes isn’t as serious as we’d like him to be. He’d rather make jokes than do his job most days, but when Gabriel needs him to be, he’s a good Beta. And then there’s Eli; he’s the youngest, he just turned twenty-three. He doesn’t really know what he wants to do yet. He’s not as rugged or competitive as the rest of us. But he’s only twenty-three, he’s got time.”
“If Gabriel is twenty-eight, how old does that make you?” I said hesitantly.
“Old?” Theo scoffed. “I’m only twenty-nine, I’m not ‘old.’”
“You’re older than me,” I nodded.
“And how old is that?”
“Twenty-two,” I said firmly.
“You and Eli will be best friends,” he chuckled.
“And your other brothers?”
“They’ll love you, too,” he assured me seriously. “Just don’t take anything Reese says seriously. And I promise you, Gabriel isn’t nearly as scary as he tries to seem.”
I nodded, thinking his parents must have been patient to raise a house of boys. Theo stood up from his seat and held his hand out for me to grab. I did, hesitantly, and we said goodbye to Emily before leaving the bakery. The guards followed us out quietly and remained a few feet back as we strolled down the street.
“What
