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“Then you’ll stop calling it the Ruins?”
He smirked. “Old habits die hard.” He opened the passenger door of his truck for me; it was much newer and nicer than mine.
“Thank you, kind sir.” The interior reeked of onions and garlic. “Are you defending your vehicle against vampires?”
He chuckled. “No, it’s my turn to cook dinner. I stopped at the store before I came here to see you.”
“An alpha that cooks,” I remarked.
West turned the car onto the road. “I do it all. No one is superior to anybody else in the pack.”
“Except they call you alpha. Is everybody else called alpha too?”
“The pack needs leadership, but it doesn’t have to be as much of a hierarchy as people think to be strong and fully functional.”
“Who taught you that?”
His face hardened. “A poorly run pack.”
I’d forgotten until now that West hadn’t grown up here. He’d been a member of a different pack somewhere else when he was younger. I couldn’t recall the details.
“Who’s the pack treasurer?”
He shot me a curious look. “Dare I ask why?”
“I’m learning how to budget. I thought maybe they could give me some tips.”
“He can certainly do that.” He straightened his shoulders. “It’s me. I’m the treasurer.”
“You’re the alpha. How can you also be the treasurer? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
“We’re not a company. I’m the one with a finance degree.”
“You went to college?”
“I can’t decide whether to laugh or be insulted. Yes, I went to college. Do you think all werewolves are ignorant imbeciles?”
“Of course not. I didn’t go to college.”
He glanced at me as he turned the wheel. “Why not? You seem smart.”
“It wasn’t in the cards for me.” The moment I turned eighteen, I kissed foster homes goodbye and never looked back. College would’ve been another uncomfortable experience of sharing space with strangers. I didn’t want it. I only wanted to be on my own, like Pops had taught me.
“I encourage all our wolves to attend college if higher education interests them. Trade school’s good, too. We pool our resources so that everyone who wants to go, can afford to go. We do the same for trade schools.”
“And here I thought you were a democratic pack when you’re clearly communists.”
He laughed. “We support each other. Nothing wrong with that.”
“I completely agree.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You seem very firmly in the Ayn Rand camp.”
“That sounds like the least fun camp ever.”
