“Just give me a little time,” I tried to put some conviction in my tone. My wayward thoughts messed it up and made me sound unsure. Alex only nodded at me before turning to leave my room. When he opened the door, I could hear the raised voice of Delilah and growling voice of Jarren. So much for them getting along.
“I told him to be nice,” Alex looked furious as he stormed into the living room. I was right on his heels, hoping I could defuse the situation a little. Delilah and Jarren stood facing each other, both were breathing hard. Delilah’s eyes were shining, and her face was red. I had been on the receiving end of that look, and I knew she was going to hit him any moment. Jarren looked equally as angry. His shoulders heaved with his breath and he was baring his teeth at her. “Jarren, enough. We’re going.” I was a little shocked at his command, but more shocked when the angry male snapped to attention and stalked out the door without as much as a backwards glance. Alex followed him with a small nod and smile to Delilah and me.
The instant the door shut Delilah whirled around and started firing of questions about who they were, where they were from, what did they do, did I even know them. I told her what I knew without mentioning the one little fact about them being supernatural beings who shouldn’t exist. I would keep my promise, I couldn’t betray Alex. After Delilah seemed mollified that I at least knew a little about the men, she went on to complain about how horrible Jarren was.
“He was absolutely rude, Zee,” Delilah huffed out as she paced the living room, “I offered him a drink and he ignored me. When I repeated myself, he glared at me as if I’d done something wrong. Then when I tried polite conversation, he informed me that he didn’t have time for little girls.” And so it went, as Delilah picked over every horrible thing Jarren had done. I only half listened as I tried to think about what I should do.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex
Home. I stepped out of the rental car, and took a deep breath of mountain air, the scents of my father’s pack overwhelming me for a moment. I looked over at Tegan and registered her surprise. The house in front of us looked deceptively calm, but I could hear the sounds of dozens of people in the yard behind it.
“So much for clearing my head,” I smirked at Tegan. She’d been sick of my pacing and grumbling. She said I needed to clear my mind. Her perfect solution was to visit home. My mother was ecstatic, we had been gone a month and she had been begging me to come visit for the past three weeks. Besides all of that, I didn’t have a good reason not to, the pack was doing well.
Wyatt and Ryker were busy putting out feelers for offering survival training courses. We’d done it in Colorado, and thanks to reality TV it was popular. It was an outdoor job that played well on Wyatt, Ryker, and I’s strengths, and who better to learn survival skill from than a wolf. Scouting appropriate camping locations, drop off points, and the skills that would be taught, was keeping both males out in the forest where they could easily watch the borders.
While Tegan was content to stay home, she had been combing ads for a possible job. I was fine with her staying home. The pack was financially sound, but there was only so much time you could spend in one spot. Having a busy mind kept the restlessness at bay. Aaron was even looking for side carpentry jobs when he wasn’t working on his family’s new cabin.
The only pack member who wasn’t showing signs of finding a job was Delaney. She hadn’t been herself for a few days. I didn’t think it was because of me, she was completely avoiding me, but that was fine with me. I thought it was more along the lines of her not wanting to work. Those were the thoughts running through my mind when I had walked into my office and found her on my computer.
I wasn’t sure what to think, until she started showing me spreadsheets. She had been working on the pack finances. I usually handled them, but her way turned out to be more efficient. Then she did one better and showed me some ways we could put some money in the stock market and start trading. I gave her an investment amount, and from then on, every time I saw her in the house she was concentrating on a computer.
Jarren’s time was being spent hunting for the scent from our borders. It had faded, but he found it in a few place in town. There never seemed to be one exact location, and even those trails were fading. I was moving away from my worry of Hunters. I told myself it could have been anyone out there, and they hadn’t come back, so there wasn’t a real problem. Jarren didn’t share my optimism.
I had left Wyatt and Jarren to care for the pack, and the next day Tegan and I were standing in front of the home we had grown up in. A brunette woman, with a face full of laugh lines and twinkling brown eyes, stepped out of the door. I heard her gasp before she stepped off the porch. Ever a regal woman, Ophelia Kallis didn’t run across the yard to us, but I’d say she moved as quickly as her sophisticated air would allow.
“Hi Mom,” I managed, right before her strong
