Chapter 5

“What the hell is all this?” My nose wrinkled as I  flipped through the paperwork that Ricky sat down.

“Work, Alpha. You know, when you aren’t setting fires to cities or helping with picking out colors of balloons for your birthday.”

I growled. “I am doing work. What are you doing?”

“Working, Alpha.” Ricky started to head out. “Our new buyers showed up for the Magis house. I’m going to hand over the keys and show the place.” He scoffed. “Show all the holes and moldy floorboards. It should be the most fun showing I’ve ever done.”

“What took them so long? It’s been weeks?” Scott looked over at Ricky.

He turned, rubbing his forehead. “Get this. They don’t drive.”

“What do you mean they don’t drive? Like they just walked across three states?”

“Exactly! Literally walked across states.”

Scott and I looked at him, our eyes narrowing. “You sure you did a background check on them?”

Ricky shrugged and looked at Scott. “I tried. Literally nothing came up. Not a single iota of information. I even tried through Marcus. He couldn’t come up with anything in the weeds either. Nothing.”

I looked at Scott and he looked at me. My worries were starting to resurface. This was a terrible idea and it was only getting worse the more information, or lack thereof, we were getting.

“Maybe they are just those hippies who live off-grid and wanted to live amongst the trees. Wouldn’t hurt anything.” Scott shrugged and I sighed.

“It’s a pain in the ass whatever it is.”

“Just finish that paperwork and we can move past all this.” Ricky stuck his tongue out and made a quick exit as I threw a crumpled up paper at the door.

Scott shook his head. “I wonder if I should go with him.”

“Nah, don’t bother. He gets into his realtor mode and you can’t stop him. We will deal with it later if it becomes an issue. I’ll have patrol keep an eye out.”

“Didn’t you already adjust their routes to accommodate the new border?”

I nodded. “It’s not very far. Plus, I need to keep the kids from smoking in that area. They’ve been high shifting over there for years.”

Scott chuckled. “Like you?”

“Yes, like me, while you were still in grade school. Get the hell out of my office, Beta.” I pulled the first paper off of the pile Ricky left, picking up my pen.

Scott snickered but left the office. I heard the ‘old man’ from his mouth but I chose to be the bigger wolf and not throw something at him. These two kids were going to be the death of me. Forget getting old or my body crumbling. No, Ricky and Scott were going to absolutely grind me into dust with paperwork. Sighing, I picked up my pen and stared down at the pile in front of me.

I was halfway through the paperwork when Ricky mind linked me.

'Alpha, I don’t think we need to worry about this one.'

'Worry about what?' I held up the paperwork, thinking that I maybe had linked with him over the new requested pipes through the lake-side cabins by accident.

'The new human.'

I put down the paper, slightly annoyed that it wasn’t about that. 'Oh? Why’s that?'

'She’s something else. It’s just a single woman, looks to be around twenty-five, maybe twenty-six. Seems completely harmless. Damn beautiful though.'

'What do you mean by “something else”?'

'Strong. Independent. No fear. It looks like she plans on trying to make the house at least livable. I referred her to your dad’s place for any tools or advice. She walks everywhere though. She was carrying a single backpack and you could just tell she preferred being in the woods alone than being around people.'

I nodded. 'Maybe we were all worrying about a human moving in for no reason. Well, since it sounds like you’re done, you can come back and we can do this paperwork together.'

'Sorry Alpha, that’s all you. I’ve got to file the last bit of paperwork for the house transferral. Have a great night!'

I growled but Ricky cut off his link. Staring back down at the paper, it was going to cost an exorbitant amount of money for new pipes at the beachside houses, but those were our biggest sellers during the summer season. Sighing, I signed off on it and made a note that the prices per night needed to be raised. We also needed it done within the next four months for all of them, otherwise we wouldn’t be ready for summer season. Moving onto the next paper, I rubbed my eyes.

“The font getting smaller on you, Alpha?” I looked up to see that Scott still hadn’t left the pack house.

“The hell you still doing here?”

He chuckled. “You think you’re the only one who got stuck with work to do? Apparently, the dungeon was starting to smell and someone had to clean up the mess. According to Ricky of course.”

I rolled my eyes. “It was not that bad.”

“I think next time he said if it got that bad, he would toss an entire jug of hibiscus tea on the floor and watch you clean it up real quick.”

“I’d love to see him try.” I signed the document in my hand and placed it on the ‘done’ pile. “Go home, Scott. Your mate is probably going to skin me alive thinking I kept you over.”

He smiled and stretched. “I already told her it was Ricky. So no need to worry there.”

“When you guys gonna have another pup?”

I saw him grimace. “Right now, Katie is enough. She’s a ball of energy. I swear, the moon goddess gave us an Alpha in a Beta’s body. She will be the death of me.”

“How old is she now?”

“Six.” Scott laughed. “Six going on sixteen with her attitude.”

I laughed. “Don’t say that. I promise you, it’s very different.”

“Great, I’ll have that to look forward to.”

Scott leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. “Speaking of Liam, how’s he doing?”

“Fine. He’s a smart kid, too smart.” I tossed the paper I was looking at in the trash and continued through the pile.

“Is he really going to take over the pack, Alpha?”

I looked up at Scott who was looking at me seriously. “I don’t think so but until he tells me himself, I will continue to teach him and assume he will.”

“What will you do then? It’s not like Natalie can take over, she has even less Alpha than Liam does.”

I sighed and put the paper down on the desk, looking at my Beta with full attention. “Where is this coming from Scott? This is the second time you’ve brought this up in a few weeks.”

“Desmond, you’re turning forty. You’re still stirring up trouble with other packs and going against the Alpha King. You won’t always be here to protect the pack.”

Lacing my fingers together and settling my chin on them, my elbows resting on the desk I watched my Beta. “Are you saying I’m too old to be picking fights?”

I watched as fear flashed over his face before his brow furrowed. “I’m saying, you need to think more about the pack you’re protecting rather than everyone outside. Your dad was already retired by the time he was your age, even if he was still helping you.”

“Beta, if you think you can currently take me in a fight, by all means, challenge me. Show me how old, weak and frail I am.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

I sat up in my chair. “I will do my job and my duty to my pack for as long as I feel necessary or until I breathe my last breath, Scott. Even if that’s ten or twenty years down the line. Quit worrying about my position and focus on yours. At this point, your daughter will be the one to take over the Beta position. She will need to start training sooner rather than later.”

Scott growled. “My daughter will not be Beta.”

“She will. Unless you provide me with a better alternative, I will train her myself alongside Liam.”

He growled and threw open the door, stomping out of the pack house. I shook my head and sighed. Was my age really such a contention at this point? Plenty of Alphas ran their packs who were currently older than I am. Hell, the previous Alpha King died at seventy and not even to natural causes. He crossed someone and a hunter took his head. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. If anything, everyone else around me was making me feel older.

-

'Alpha? You awake?'

I grumbled. 'I wasn’t.'

'Sorry, we just wanted to make sure that…'

'….make sure that there was supposed to be someone at the Magis house.'

Rubbing my eyes, I looked over at my watch on the nightstand. It was five-thirty in the morning and I took a deep breath. 'I’ve been saying we had a human moving into there for weeks.'

'Okay, just wanted to make sure cause currently she is showering outside the house.'

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. 'So you two think it’s okay just to watch a woman shower naked outside on her own property?'

'I told you we shouldn’t have said that.'

'I mean, she’s fucking hot. She’s even got that huge scar on her back. She look like she would be a crazy lay…'

I cleared my throat. 'Human or not, you’re illegally trespassing and watching a woman shower. If you don’t want her to press charges or worse, want me to teach you a thing or two about decency I suggest you scram.'

'Yes Alpha!' They said at the same time.

I sighed and swung my legs off the bed, running my hands through my hair.

“What are you doing up so early?” Helena groggily sat up next to me.

“Go back to sleep. It was Frank and Kit on patrol.”

She flopped back on the pillow. “Why are you getting up?”

“Because I’m not going to be able to go back to sleep again. So I might as well get up and make some coffee.”

I got up and stretched. Every bone in my body cracked and I winced. Grabbing my robe, I threw it on and walked down the stairs into the kitchen. Turning on the coffee maker, I stared down at it while it heated up. The front door opened and closed quietly. I leaned out of the kitchen and looked at my father carrying a passed-out Liam in his arms, Liam’s backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Dad?”

“The boy passed out at like 8:30pm and I didn’t have the heart to wake him and tell him to go home. Figured I would try and sneak him back in.” He looked at me sheepishly. “Guess I failed.”

“Only because Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dweeb decided to mind link this early in the morning. Once I’m awake that’s it.” I watched as my father carried Liam up to his bed and came back down just as quietly.

He flexed his arms and I chuckled. “Coffee?”

“Sure.”

I turned back around and poured us two mugs before handing him the black coffee. I poured some creamer in mine. You would have to pull all my toenails out to get me to confess that my stomach could no longer take the straight acid. Especially in front of my father who still took his coffee as black as you could possibly make it.

He sat down at the breakfast bar and I sat next to him.

“Happy Birthday Desmond.” He smiled and slapped me on the back. “I know we are celebrating in a couple days but at least today is when your mother said she would kill me if I ever tried to get her to have another pup.”

I laughed. “Thanks Dad.” Taking a sip of coffee, I looked at him. “What are you doing up so early?”

He laughed. “I’m delivering some supplies over to the Magis house. The woman there, Olivia, real sweet girl. She came by the shop yesterday and made a huge order. I offered to deliver it up to her and she said anytime after six in the morning and so here I am, doing the delivery before the shop opens.”

I shook my head. “Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dweeb caught her showering outside the house today.”

Clamping his hand down on his mouth, he took a deep breath to hold in his laughter. “Goddess, they are lucky she didn’t catch them. She would probably have destroyed them. She’s really beautiful but the woman can throw an axe into a tree one handed. I would not mess with her.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Why does she sound less and less human the more I hear about her?”

My father shrugged. “She’s definitely human but I think she’s got a hell of a story to tell on a drunk night at the bar.”

His phone buzzed and he pulled it out. “Shit. Thanks for the coffee. I need to head off, it takes a while to get over there.”

I winced as he ruffled my head and headed off. Shaking my head, sometimes he still treated me like the same kid I was thirty years ago. I swore. Maybe forty was as old as it seemed. Sipping my coffee, I enjoyed the quiet of the house. It didn’t last as long as I wished it had when I heard Natalie thunder down the stairs at 6:30am.

“Morning sweetheart.”

She grumbled incoherently as she grabbed the pot of coffee and poured equal parts creamer and coffee into a thermos. Tossing about three sugars into the thermos as well, she came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“I have practice this morning. See you later.”

“Have a good day at school!” I called after her as she disappeared out the door.

Next was Liam, who was a little more coherent as he came down the stairs. He came into the kitchen and pulled out some orange juice.

“Grandpa brought you back this morning. I thought I said not to stay later than eight?”

He chugged the glass of juice and sighed. “If he said I fell asleep after that, he was being nice. I think I feel asleep at seven.”

I laughed. “Well, there’s no game this weekend. You can finally rest.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah until mom ropes us into some shenanigans this weekend.”

“Yes, well, I am roped into it as well. So we can suffer together.” I gave him a thumbs up and Liam shook his head.

“See you.”

“Have a good day at school!” I also called after him, but he slammed the door behind him. “Or not.”

Helena came down last, dressed to impress her morning ladies. She came over and hugged me, kissing me on the cheek. “Happy birthday dear.”

I smiled up at her. “Coffee is ready if you want it.”

“If you wouldn’t mind putting it in the refrigerator, that would be lovely. I have to meet the girls and we are having breakfast. The finishing touches need to be ironed out for the party. Also, I heard there is a good bit of gossip surrounding our new human neighbor.”

Rolling my eyes, I just wouldn’t stop hearing about this girl all day apparently. She grabbed her purse and keys. Coming back over she kissed me on the lips this time and smiled. “Have a good day. Try not to work too hard?”

I nodded and waved as she walked out of the house, leaving me alone to my thoughts. Realizing that would do more harm than good, I got up and decided to actually start my day.