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Morgan would have preferred to live in a small cabin rather than a sprawling estate, but witnessing the Alpha house being rebuilt after the fire was physical proof that something could be fixed, which had been an important step in his pack’s healing. The night his family died, meeting the pack’s needs had become Morgan’s responsibility, so he had set aside the wishes he’d had for his own life. The first step was designing a spacious Alpha house that would be the pride of any pack and then moving into it and instituting an open-door policy. In his fondest fantasies, Morgan heard the sounds of his own children’s joy mingled with the laughter of the other pups as they ran through the sprawling gardens and he danced with his own mate in the ballroom where he hosted quarterly galas for the pack. In reality, however, he had no children, no mate, no family.
Trying to rid himself of the morose thoughts, Morgan shook his head and walked through the entryway. Challenge days were always difficult. Not so much because of the toll on his body, Morgan was used to battle wounds, but because of the toll on his soul. It was impossible to face the grieving, rage-filled Alpha who wanted revenge for the actions taken by his Omega without thinking about that awful night seven years earlier. And it was impossible to think about that night without remembering the hopes and dreams that had burned along with his family in the inferno. Morgan wasn’t the Alpha who should have been leading the pack, but he was the only Alpha left so the pack’s future depended on him. Year after year, the Golden Valley pack grew, and the Alpha’s responsibilities grew with it.
“Alpha?” Lillian said, sounding strained. “Is that you?” Normally, the pack’s Beta did everything with calm precision, but her footsteps tapped across the floor more quickly and loudly than usual.
“It’s me.” Other than Lillian’s shoes and the pounding in Morgan’s head, the house was utterly silent. “Where is everyone?”
“I told them to leave.”
Brow furrowed, Morgan said, “You what?” The Alpha house was always teeming with pack. Even when it had been under construction, pack members came by to see the progress and assure themselves that they had a future. “Why?”
She stepped closer, leaned up, and whispered, “Remember that pack Alpha who’s visiting today?”
Morgan scrolled through his mental calendar. “Purple Sky’s new Alpha, right? Ryan Berger?”
“Brian Berger but yes.” She licked her lips. “He arrived and he brought his Omega.”
“Okay?” Morgan kept his gaze locked with Lillian’s and waited for her point. Visitors were fairly common in a pack as large and prosperous as theirs. If they didn’t want to scope them out with the goal of waging a take-over, other packs wanted to get into their good graces in the hope of gaining access to their resources.
“Berger’s protective of his Omega to the point of rudeness.”
Shifters could be possessive of their mates, and Alphas were protective of their pack, especially Omegas who were smaller, gentler, and more sensitive than other wolves. It only made sense that an Alpha wolf blessed to have his own mate, particularly an Omega mate, would cherish her to a point that exacerbated his natural tendencies. Intelligent, thoughtful, and calm, Lillian wouldn’t normally be alarmed by a little growling and rudeness, and she certainly wouldn’t remove their pack members from the Alpha house because of it.
Confused about her actions, he said, “Can’t promise I won’t behave the same way if I have his fortune.” Morgan prayed he would be that lucky. He was only twenty-three, still young enough that not having met his mate yet shouldn’t be a cause for concern. But despite being constantly surrounded by people, his days were lonely and his nights lonelier. He had hoped to be mated by this age and despite Lillian’s insistence that the legends about Alphas rarely being blessed with mates were false, Morgan’s greatest fear was that he wasn’t a good enough Alpha to be a worthy of a mate and he would live his life alone. Forcing himself to smile despite the pang in his heart, Morgan said, “Hell, Lil, if I had a mate, we’d need to get a second chair for my desk because I wouldn’t want her to leave my side for even a second.”
Lillian squeezed his shoulder. “Who are you kidding? When you find your mate, she’ll be sitting on your lap.” She sighed and dropped her hand. “And it’s him not her.”
Morgan tilted his head to the side in question.
“The Omega currently visiting our pack lands is male.”
Instinctively, Morgan’s muscles tensed. The only male Omega he had known had murdered his family, thrown his pack into chaos, and decimated his dreams. He now understood Lillian’s actions. If the two of them were anxious about the presence of a male Omega in Golden Valley, the rest of the pack’s reaction was sure to be worse. No wonder she had cleared the house.
