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“I suppose just meeting me at chambers would have been too much for all of you?”
“You love us, brother dearest,” Brynn, his sister and the lone Brentwood female, teased from her perch on the edge of the couch.
Gideon pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, seriously. Why are you all here?”
“Because you need us,” Brandon, his youngest brother and the Talon Omega, said from the couch.
“Do I really need you here?” he asked, knowing he was fighting a lost cause.
“Of course,” Max, his cousin, answered. “We’re all going to the meeting anyway. Why not go together?”
“We’re one big happy family,” Mitchell said dryly.
“What they aren’t saying is that we’re worried about you,” Kameron, his brother and Enforcer, added in.
Gideon growled while Ryder closed his eyes and cursed.
“Really, Kameron?” Ryder put in. “I thought we had a plan.”
Gideon stiffened. “A plan? Why the hell would you need a plan to deal with me? Why are youhere?”
Brynn stood up and walked toward him. She brushed her long, dark brown hair—the same color as the rest of the Brentwoods—behind her shoulders and blinked up at him with the Brentwood blue eyes.
“You’re our brother, and you’re hurting,” she whispered. They were all wolves so they could hear her clearly. “You had to kill a lone wolf who threatened the border and wouldn’t back down. Now you’re having to make decisions that, as we see it, won’t have an easy outcome. So, Gideon, brother mine, brother ours, we’re here for you. Even if we annoy you to no end. We’re here.”
Gideon narrowed his eyes, even as his heart warmed at her words. Yeah, his siblings and cousins were there for him, but some things were meant for only the Alpha. If he had a mate, he’d be able to lean on her just a little, but since the goddess hadn’t blessed him, he didn’t have that option.
At this point, he wasn’t sure he ever would.
On that depressing thought, he led his family out of his home and headed toward the meeting room. He wanted to get this over with. It wasn’t as though they were going to get anything done anyway. They couldn’t. Not with the rest of the Packs in the US keeping silent. Parker, the Voice of the Wolves, was on a mission at the moment searching for the other Packs and trying to convince them to talk to Gideon and Kade, but Gideon didn’t hold out high hopes. Parker was a Redwood, and though he’d been adopted into the Redwood family, he was the biological son of a mass murderer. Corbin had been the Alpha of the Centrals and had almost destroyed their world.
Some wolves just couldn’t see past that, and Gideon was worried that might hurt their chances of finding a way to make all of the Packs work together. However, he could work on only one problem at a time—even if it felt like he was working on a hundred at once most days.
They made their way as a group to the other side of the den where the Redwoods would be entering the woods. They had to go past the sentries at the wards to be let through, but most of them had done it before. Actually, on second thought, Gideon wasn’t sure who Kade was bringing.
The Redwoods were in the middle of a shift in hierarchy. The younger Jamensons were taking over for their parents slowly but surely. That meant that Kade could be bringing any number of his powerhouse to the table. It didn’t really matter since Gideon had met most of them and liked those he’d met. Not that he’d tell them that. No, he was still the grumpy, badass Alpha to the outside world.
It worked for him.
Kade came up first, a small smile on his face. With so many people and coming into a different den, the ceremony of walking to a meeting was a little ridiculous, and both of them knew it. It had to be done though.
Kade had brought his mate, Melanie, as well as both sets of Betas, Omegas, and Healers with him. He’d left the Enforcers at home to protect the den with countless other wolves apparently. Interesting, but it made sense. As the younger generation came into their powers, they were learning from the older generation. It would be interesting to see how the whole lot of them reacted in the future when the older generation, Kade’s brothers, had to step down fully.
He’d also brought his Heir, his son Finn, with him, which made sense, as well as another wolf. A younger woman who, from the look of her, was a Jamenson, but Gideon wasn’t sure he’d ever met her. Her long chestnut brown hair flowed over her shoulders, blowing slightly in the wind. She wasn’t small. No, she was at least of average height, but where most of the wolves in front of her were all muscle and strength, her body held curves and a softness he didn’t see in most wolves.
Odd, he thought he’d met most, if not all, of the Jamensons. He wondered how this one had slipped by him.
Her cheekbones angled high, and her plump lips thinned into a line when she looked at him. She tilted her head and blinked up at him with bright green eyes, and he froze, his wolf howling.
Shocked, he almost took a step back, and it was only because of his strength as Alpha that he didn’t.
Mate.
That scent, that pull on his wolf.
Mate.
“Gideon, Brentwoods,” Kade said, his voice deep, “I think you’ve met most of us before. Probably not Brie, though. Brie, these are the Brentwoods. Brentwoods, this is Jasper and Willow’s daughter, my niece, Brie.”
She smiled softly, but her eyes were on only him, not on the rest of the Pack or her family. In fact, he was looking only at her, not at Kade or the others.
Holy shit.
He’d just found his mate, and she was a fucking Redwood.
And from the way her wolf reached out to his seeking protection yet wanting to comfort as well, she was a submissive as well.
A Talon Alpha and a Redwood submissive?
Yeah, fate royally sucked.
