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I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting him to say, but that sure wasn’t it. I’d come in anticipating I’d be grounded or locked under house arrest. I thought he’d make me withdraw from school and send me to live with a pack in Alaska until I learned to behave. This conversation wasn’t at all what I’d been anticipating.
As if he’d read my mind, he added, “You need more responsibility, not less. I think this has demonstrated that your skills are rough. They need to be honed.”
“Okay?” I wasn’t sure what he was leading to. I kept waiting for this to be a giant buildup, and then for the punch line he would tell me his plans to banish me forever.
“As you know, the New Orleans territory is small. Not a proper pack, more of a prefecture.”
I knew this all too well because the city was under his thumb. I didn’t have to report to any other Alphas there, which was part of the reason Callum allowed me to live near the school.
“Yes.”
“It’s yours now.”
“Wh-what?”
“The city pack. A dozen wolves, including yourself. You are the Alpha now.”
“But…Ben…” What was I doing? Hadn’t I wanted to prove to him I was ready for a responsibility exactly like this? Now he was handing it to me on a silver platter and I was what…saying no? “Thank you.”
“You’ll need to start small. I think this is a good way for you to learn the politics of being a leader.”
So my brother learned at the side of the master, but I was being tossed into the deep end to teach myself on the fly. The idea exhilarated me. His trust made me feel buoyant and giddy. The responsibility was terrifying, but a giant grin was plastered to my face, and I couldn’t will it away.
“Thank you,” I repeated.
“Now get out of here. I’m very busy and important.”
I was already halfway to the kitchen before I realized he had just quoted Love, Actually.
Once I’d started laughing, I only stopped for bacon.
Chapter Thirty-Four
My house smelled like stale too-hot air when I unlocked the front door and pushed aside the small mountain of mail. It had the stagnant feel of an abandoned place, like no one had lived here in ages.
I’d been gone two weeks, but it was long enough for my plants
to all be dead. I locked the door behind me, checking and rechecking the deadbolt. When I felt certain no one could follow me in, I moved from room to room, opening all the blinds to let the light of day in.
Dust motes caught in the light, and everywhere I looked the sun illuminated some new thing I would need to clean. It wasn’t that the place was dirty—it was as tidy as it had been since I left—but a thin layer of dust and neglect coated everything.
I unpacked my bag, doing my best not to acknowledge all the extra space in my closet and drawers. There were no suits or dress shirts here anymore, no men’s runners at the back door. Only one toothbrush rested in the cup near the sink.
Cash had managed to artfully remove his presence from the house, like he’d never been here. I was the only person who would notice the gaps and lapses, the places where his things had been and now nothing remained.
I wasn’t sad exactly, more melancholy.
Having him here was like having a trophy I could show people. Look, look at my beautiful, intelligent, human boyfriend. Don’t you see how normal my life is?
Except no one would believe that anymore. Normal wasn’t even a shadow of a memory these days.
There’d been a brief period, while I was still out with my uncle, where Cash and I pretended things could go back to normal. But the truth of the matter was, I’d changed, and I think he knew it. It wasn’t about Wilder, it was that I wasn’t the same girl he’d started dating a year ago.
And that was a good thing.
What started as maybe we should take a break ended with him getting all his things. And with him gone, I was hard-pressed to remember how I’d fit him here in the first place.
I’d been able to hide from most of the drama in St. Francisville, but now that I was back in New Orleans, the fallout was everywhere.
