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Chuckling, I say goodbye and hang up, slipping my phone into my pocket as I make my way over to the only familiar face I can see.
“Hi, Rex.”
He turns and gives me a friendly but stiff smile. It’s written all over his face that this is torture for him, even though he’s trying his best. Rex passed up becoming Alpha, despite being the eldest son, for a reason. His discomfort reminds me of Dean so much that I briefly wonder if Dean had the choice, would he walk away, too?
“Maya, how are you settling in?”
“Great, although ask me again when I start work. Where’s Leila?” I ask, trying to help him with the small talk he clearly hates making.
“Here!”
Leila waddles over and gives me a big squeeze. Her bump presses into my stomach as she leans in, and I can barely get my arms around her.
“Where’s Marcus?” Rex asks, looking with concern at the door she came through.
“Not coming. This is his worst nightmare, so he volunteered to help Bodhi get gear ready for the Bootcamp survival expedition instead.”
A wistful look crosses Rex’s face. I’m sure he’d prefer to be anywhere else but here. Helping the guys lugging heavy equipment around probably sounds amazing. It is his business, after all.
“Don’t even think about it,” Leila warns sternly. “We’ve no Ethan and no Cooper. You’re stuck here for the foreseeable future, Rex. Get over it.”
Rex groans and looks miserable as he takes a long swig from his bottle of beer. I’ve heard about Ethan, the former beta. He left after Rex’s mate, Leah, was kidnapped on his watch. It seems they haven’t replaced him yet. No wonder they’re stretched thin in the packhouse.
“You keep that baby in there until Cooper gets back to work,” Rex warns, pointing at his sister’s swollen belly. Leila scowls and Rex looks genuinely afraid as her mood shifts and she advances on him, eyes narrowed.
“Don’t even joke about it. I have been pregnantforever. Hayley has gotten pregnant and is in labour with her cute teeny tiny little wolf pup. And here I am, with a giant grizzly bear hibernating in here, growing bigger and bigger inside me every day. If I could make this baby arrive right now, I would.”
Rex looks sufficiently chastened and raises his hands in surrender. Even though she’s complaining, she caresses her bump tenderly with wide, sweeping strokes.
“Stop torturing him, Leila.”
Rex grins as a gorgeous blonde with wild curly hair slips her arm through his and leans into his side. His whole face lights up as he looks down at her, before placing a tender kiss on her forehead. She turns to me, hand outstretched, and I shake it, returning her warm smile.
“Hi, I'm Leah, Rex’s mate.”
I guessed as much. Otherwise, she’d be a dead woman for feeling him up like that.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Maya.”
As Leah introduces herself as his mate, Rex’s gaze drops unconsciously to her mark, and he looks adoringly at her. You can see how much he loves her by the way he takes her hand, so carefully, and presses a kiss to her knuckles, deeply inhaling her scent like there is nobody else here. He can’t stop touching and smelling her.
“Oooh! The angry Alpha’s sister,” Leah exclaims, and Rex groans. I nod in confirmation, amused at her frank description of my brother, and Leah grins, practically jumping up and down on the spot.
“Did I miss something?”
Looking back and forth between Leila and the small blonde staring at me, I’m confused.
“No. Ignore her. She’s just far too cheerful. All the time. You’ll get used to it.” Leila sighs and shakes her head in disbelief. “Excuse me. I have to pee. AGAIN.”
Leila disappears inside, and I suspect now she has shown her face and said hello, that might be the last we see of her this evening. She looks exhausted compared to the last time I saw her. Her maternity leave from the hospital has already started. She is supposed to be resting before the baby comes, not on duty here, just on our account.
“Come on, let’s go get a drink, Maya. Rex needs to find our other guests and make them feel welcome. I want to know more about my new neighbour.”
Leah’s expression is open and friendly, but I feel like she means business. She might not be Luna, but she could handle the role if Rex had taken the job. Her aura is commanding, and it’s easy to see how she belongs with Rex.
He gives her a sweet kiss, and me an apologetic shrug, before he disappears, as instructed, to find the four men that arrived with me. They are going to work on Nathan’s construction crews by day, and, apparently, babysit me by night for the next few months.
“So, what do you want to know?” I ask as she leads me through the growing crowd toward the makeshift bar. Her arm is linked with mine, so I have no way of escaping. She hands me a glass of wine and smiles mischievously before leaning in close to whisper in my ear.
