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“Alright, but keep this with you,” Ellen said, taking out a phone from her pocket. “I always keep a few extra with me in case one of the girls breaks one. It’s faster and easier than having to go all the way down to the office to get another.”
Aubree nodded, taking the phone before sending Ellen a text on it so she’d know what number she had. It was actually a good thing that Ellen was one of their supervisors. If she wasn’t, this wouldn’t be nearly as seamless to arrange.
“I’ll go prepare the tray he requested and be up in about an hour with it,” Ellen said, and Aubree nodded again, moving silently down the rest of the hallway until she reached the little nook that was mostly hidden. No one ever bothered looking into the dark corner that was open next to it. There were no windows bringing light to the space, and the potted tree kept the opening underneath the stairs from direct view, making it the perfect hiding spot.
She’d discovered it over two years ago and had quietly made it her own. She’d brought up a small backless bench that fit perfectly in the opening, then brought up cushions to make it more comfortable, before adding pillows and a blanket or two for comfort. It was where she came when she wanted to disappear for a while. The rooms in the hall were rarely used when guests were here. It was further away from the rest of the pack that lived in the packhouse but was also the nicest suite and their alpha didn’t put just anyone in it. With the summit, more guests than normal were here and between the use of it and Ellen’s comments, whoever he was, had power.
Perhaps enough power to help her if she could break the alpha’s command to not speak of their future mating to anyone and get the words out to him. Maybe, he was what she’d been wishing for all this time and why the summit was happening here, now, just before her birthday, so she wouldn’t have to give into the alpha’s demands.
Chapter 2
Heath scrubbed his hand down his face, letting out an irritated breath. What happened downstairs was precisely why he hadn’t wanted to attend this summit. He knew it was important for someone in their family to attend, ensure the rest of the council didn’t act rashly with their attempt to figure out what to do with the humans that were encroaching on packs lands more and more in recent years.
He knew several of the members on the council were likely to act rashly. To come up with plans for attack or retaliation, and that was the last thing they needed. But whyhehad to be the one to come, he didn’t know.
Hell, his brother, Landon, and his mate would be more suitable for this. His mate was human after all, she would know how to go about making plans to keep humans away from them better than he could. Sure, their littlest, Kelli, was only one, but they could have brought her with them or left her at home with their parents and enjoyed a week away together.
Or if not them then his sister Katya and her mate Brian could have come. Their littlest Kami was now two, and he knew their parents would love to have them for the week. Technically, Katya was still the Alpha Squad leader, something that at one point might have infuriated him, but shit, after all these years, he was proud as hell at how strong his sister truly was. After six kids, she could still take him down, despite the fourteen years age difference between them.
Those fourteen years gave him more physical strength than younger shifters. He was in his fullest prime really, even if he did feel old at times, but that was mainly because he was now fifty and still mateless.
All of his siblings had found their ones. It’d been fifteen years since Katya and Brian were mated, followed shortly after by their twin sisters with alpha twin brothers. Seth with Arya, and Carter with Maya. His oldest nephews were all fourteen now, another four years and they could find their mates, which only proved how futile it was to think there was still one out there for him.
Hell, it’d been ten years since Jacob found Lena, and Landon found Shelby. They both had one-year olds now, both little girls, which Jacob was thrilled about. He loved his boys but wanted another little girl for years, and now, he had what he wanted, while Heath was still searching.
They were all part of the council as the alpha regent’s children, but their father had insisted Heath attend, shut down every one of his attempts to push it off onto one of the others. He knew it was partly because of where the summit was taking place. His father didn’t care for the hosting alpha. Had spoken against him becoming part of the council years ago, but as they worked it more democratically, he’d been outvoted.
That was why Heath was here, to not only keep the summit on track, but to also scope out the pack, see if there was more to his father’s dislike of the man than simply what his gut said. Being the acting Alpha Squad leader, it was on Heath then to handle anything he found disturbing while here. He was sure his mother also encouraged their father thinking if he yet again went traveling, he might just run into his mate.
After all these years though, Heath knew he was likely to remain unmated. Perhaps something had happened to her, to take her from him before they’d met. Perhaps he’d simply not been given a mate, coming so quickly after their parents mated. He was born a month early, still bigger than most newborns, and he’d simply continued to grow and grow.
He was huge. Six-foot-eight-inches tall and nearly three hundred pounds. His body was pure muscle and strength, which was why everyone was always shocked to learn that Katya and her five-foot-seven size could beat him in a sparring match. He’d never once thrown a match to her though. She had a different sort of strength, power, that allowed her to get the best of him and their brothers.
His size though drew more attention to him than his brothers ever had. He was four inches taller than Jacob was and five inches taller than Landon. Their father while taller than his brothers, was still two inches shorter than he was, making him tower over the rest of the family. Between that and being the eldest son, everywhere he went, women threw themselves at him, hoping to become the next alpha regent’s mate.
He’d told his family long ago that he’d only ever take his mate, which was why they pushed him out the door more often than the others. They wanted him to find her, but he was certain she didn’t exist.
It was rare that a shifter didn’t have a mate. More common for them to not find their mate, especially if they were human or a different kind. Shifters still kept to their own packs, didn’t interact with other kinds as often as they did with even the human world. With his position though, he worked with other types of shifters often, but not even with them had he found his mate.
It was now to the point that he knew he needed to talk to Katya, see if she would let Tyler come stay with them during the summers to learn more from him and their father to one day take over as alpha regent. Without a child of his own, which wasn’t going to happen without him finding his mate, the reign would fall to the eldest child of the highest ranked alpha regent’s family. That was Katya, which meant Tyler would need to take over as alpha regent, making Tristan the alpha of Brian’s pack one day instead of Tyler.
As though knowing he was thinking of her, his phone rang, and Heath answered seeing Katya’s name on the screen. They could easily link to one another after all these years, but it sometimes took more energy than was worth it if they could be reached by phone.
“Hey Sis,” he said, settling down into a chair that wasn’t nearly as comfortable as it looked. It was hard still, as though it hadn’t been used much, but the whole room felt that way he mused with another glance around it, his eyes settling on the plant that sat off kilter in its pot after the maid’s rush to right it.
“Hey big brother,” Katya said, and he silently laughed, hearing the hope in her voice.
“No,” he told her, certain what her first question was likely to be. The ‘did you find her’ he knew was on the tip of her tongue.
“Don’t give up, she may still show. You were there early and from the sound of it, you’re alone right now,” Katya added making him chuckle aloud knowing what she was getting at.
“Yes, I’m in my room, alone. I needed to get away from one of the women downstairs. She draped herself over me like a leech when we were introduced. Offered me whatever I wanted including her bedroom key.”
Katya’s little smothered giggles pulled at his lips until a small smile settled onto them. “Oh my, she sounds forward.”
“She’s more than that,” he grumbled massaging his temple to keep his headache at bay. Rarely did he ever feel them, but women that touched him without his consent or his encouragement, always made his body tense, tightening his muscles until it caused one. “I could still smell at least two other men’s stenches on her. And not in the way that Shelby smelled of them when Landon found her.”
“Wow, so definitelynotmate material,” Katya agreed pulling a sigh from him. “I know you said you wouldn’t just take a mate, but Heath, it’s better to have a mate,anymate, than be all alone. Yes, Dad’s still going strong, but eventually you’ll take over one day, and then what? If you keep being so stubborn, what will happen to the regent line?”
