My breath heaves out in a sigh, my body confused by these different reactions and feelings. “Thanks, Mom…I…that means a lot. And yeah, I’m not in the least surprised that Spence added everyone to his social groups; the man could make friends with a fencepost. It’s how I ended up in this pack after all. So, how are you doing?”
“Oh, you know us, your dads and I are surviving. Doing the bare minimum in retirement. I’m making them build me a new greenhouse out back, which has mostly resulted in a lot of profanity and broken glass, but we’ll get there, eventually. That, or they’ll stop being cheap-asses and just hire somebody before one of them gets cut too badly. I’m hoping for the latter option, but right now I’ll take what I can get.” The smile in her voice is evident, despite her words.
“Of course your brothers are all fine too, busy with their different careers. Mostly they stay with us during their different off seasons, so their rooms pretty much have revolving doors at this point. None of them seem interested in settling down anytime soon, which means I’ll probably get old and die without any grandchildren.”
Oh fuck me, here it comes.
“I’m kidding, Alistair. I know you aren’t looking for a mate, and honestly, after your last pack…incident, I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I just wish you’d be honest with me about what—” Her statement is cut off as Sarah sticks her head in through the library door.
The omega’s voice blares across the room, shattering any hope I had of a peaceful phone conversation with my mother. “Come on, Teach! Your teammates need help not having their asses handed to them at Scrabble. I’m not gonna lie, Greg and I rock at that game.” She disappears again before she has a chance to see the chaos she’s just rained down on my life as my mother draws in a sharp breath on the other end of the line.
Oh, fuck my life.
Hard.
In the ass.
With a spoon.
My mom’s voice is chipper when she speaks again. “Alistair, was that a woman I just heard screeching at you about board games? Oh my gosh! When did you get mated! I’m so excited, we have to come meet them all!” Save me from excitable family members.
“No…Mom, just, no. That’s Sarah. She’s just visiting, and Paul and Spencer invited her over for dinner. It’s not like that.” She makes quiet humming noises on the other end of the line, as if musing over all the information that’s been presented.
“So…this Greg is her partner? And she’s not looking for anyone else? Is she a beta?” What’s with the twenty questions? But I know my mother and her scheming, so it’s better to just lay all the information out now and deal with the fallout.
“Greg is her scent-matched beta. She’s an omega. She’s visiting some friends in the area and met Spencer at his job, and she’s friends with his bosses. She’s not looking for anyone else; she has a scent-matched alpha back home, at the omega center in Los Angeles. So, it doesn’t matter that Spencer is already head over heels in love with her, or that even Paul is warming up to the little hellion, she’s not interested in us. And I refuse to chase after an omega that doesn’t want me. I wouldn’t do it before, and I won’t fucking do it now.” My voice is a frustrated growl as I’m forced to face the fact that I’m growing attached as well.
The complete silence from the other end makes me replay my last words and groan internally. I never outright lied to my family about my last pack; I just never went into detail about how I was kicked out when the new omega they bonded decided she didn’t want an alpha like me. Relief starts to fill me as the silence continues. Maybe we got cut off before she heard that, and I can escape free and clear without dragging up one of the more horrible moments of my past.
That hope is promptly dashed as my mother’s voice comes back on the line, her tone cold enough to send chills down my spine. “What do you mean you refuse to chase after an omegaagain? Alistair Brandon Miller, you better start explaining yourself right now! What happened with your old pack? And don’t give me any of that ‘we decided it wasn’t working’ bullshit. I’ve let this go on long enough, young man. Explain yourself now, or your fathers and I will be on the first flight out there.”
Oh great, the full name.
I’m screwed.
The silence stretches long enough for me to try to gather my thoughts—at least Mom understands that sometimes getting my mind in order takes a while. When I can’t put it off any longer, my breath comes out in a sigh. “Well, you know I was in a pack with three alphas from my old job: James, Dustin, and Pete. Well…they were all a bit older than me, bigger, as is the norm. We all pooled our resources to fund the pack house and to properly court an omega through the center. Ironically, the same center Sarah lives at now. I thought everything was going fine. She wasn’t overly affectionate with any of us, so I didn’t realize that there was a problem until her first heat after she moved in. She didn’t want me. She invited the rest of my pack into her nest and told me to leave. James said I should go stay at a hotel for a few days until her heat was over so she wasn’t uncomfortable and I didn’t risk a rut.”
I run my hand over my face, hating to talk about this almost as much as I hated living through it. “When I came back, they had all bonded, as well as some large alpha, Jason, that I didn’t know she had brought in. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I no longer lived there and was not welcome in the pack. Pete, our pack-lead, was already submitting the new paperwork. As soon as I signed the dissolution forms, I was told I had three hours to remove my belongings. The rest you know. I fit everything I could into Nadine and left. I couldn’t exactly face you all after that.”
My voice breaks as I finish. “Being told I wasn’t alpha enough when I’ve always felt that way…So I just started driving, and I ended up here. If I had stayed, it would have caused more drama, and I just…I left whatever wouldn’t fit in the car and have been slowly building everything back up. My packmates here are different. None of us have anything in common, and it’s not like we’re only work acquaintances since we have separate jobs and hobbies. Hell, I don’t even know how we work, but wedo. Spencer is…I thought he was an idiot, but he’s shockingly intelligent in regards to certain things and completely naive with others. Paul is honest and altruistic to a fault. Fuck, maybe they need my jaded ass to make sure that they don’t get taken advantage of.”
My breath shudders out and I just stop talking—I feel like a balloon that someone let all the air out of and now I’ve collapsed with nothing to hold me up. The silence is broken on the other end when a loud, surly voice pipes up, alerting me to the fact that Mom had me on speakerphone for at least part of this confession of my inability to be a proper alpha. “You mean to tell me that you paid for part of the house, the courting costs, and everything else, and they just took it? They didn’t even let you get your stuff? Please tell me you didn’t use a joint bank account.” My silence must be answer enough because one of my dads starts swearing a blue streak and the fact that Mom doesn’t stop him just proves how mad she is as well.
“So, yeah, now you know why I’m not overly fond of the idea of having an omega in our pack, why I up and disappeared and now live halfway across the fucking country.” My voice sounds broken and shaky to my own ears.
Her response is predictable. “Language!” But her chiding is only halfhearted, and that in itself is concerning. She sounds deep in concentration right now. Which doesn’t bode well for anybody. I love my mother, but she can be kind of spiteful and determined when she sets her mind to something and I’m not looking forward to what kind of repercussions I might have coming my way if she thinks I was running away from my problems instead of facing them…or going to her and the dads.
It almost feels anticlimactic when her voice turns abrupt. “Al, honey. I have to go. There’s something I need to discuss with your brothers about dinner tonight. You know it’s trainingseason and they’re bound to eat anything they can find. I’ll talk to you later. Just…I’ll talk to you later. I love you, Nut.”
Then, before I can question her quick personality shift, she’s gone, hanging up without another word. Well, at least I finally ripped the bandage off, and hopefully they’ll leave it alone now. Not that I think that’s likely, but I can fucking dream.
A quiet click draws my attention to the door to the library just as it’s closing. I know I left that thing open. It’s not like I had planned on spilling my guts about how much of an alpha I’m not, but when Mom makes demands, we were all trained to answer as quickly and honestly as possible.
Still, it’s not a comfortable feeling to think that one of my pack members may have heard that emotional outburst of a story. At least if it was the omega snooping around, she’ll be gone soon. Whether we want her to or not.
Chapter 67
My chest warms as I plunge my hands into the hot, soapy water. Tonight was an all-around success, as far as I can tell. There were a few tense moments, but Sarah and Greg both ended up going back for seconds, so I’ll count that as a win. Even more surprising, Spence didn’t inhale everything like a food vacuum. Normally there aren’t any leftovers, no matter how much I cook—he may snack on them later tonight; somebody that size takes a lot of calories to keep going.
