Abraham was tall, as expected, with the broad shoulders and heavy build you’d expect from a man who could attain and then retain a position like alpha. What was unexpected was the wide smile across his face. What was even more surprising was when he walked around his desk to greet us.
“You must be Wyatt and Wesley Carter. I’m Abraham McCoy. It’s nice to meet you two. I hope you found the place all right.” He held out a hand for each of us to shake and we did, although hesitantly. Truthfully, I wasn’t used to alphas being this friendly. At least not to strange wolves that showed up on their doorstep asking for a place in their pack.
I cleared my throat and finally found my tongue. “Hi. Yes. I’m Wyatt, and this is my brother, Wes. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to meet with us.”
Abraham waved my thanks away. “It’s my pleasure. Why don’t you two come in and have a seat and we can talk some?”
Surprising me yet again, instead of inviting us to sit in front of his desk, he gestured toward a leather couch off to one side. He took a chair opposite the sofa and crossed one jeaned leg over the other as he waited for us to take our seats.
Whenever we’d met with alphas in the past, they’d always had us sit in front of their giant ornate desks while they reclined in expensive-looking office chairs. It served to make us uncomfortable and worked every time. Abraham though, seemed to want to speak in a more relaxed atmosphere, and that put me at ease right away.
When Wes and I were seated, Abraham smiled at us again. “So, you two are coming all the way from Tennessee, is that right?”
“Yes, Alpha,” Wes answered.
Abraham frowned and shook his head. “Call me Abraham.”
Wes shot me a quizzical look before nodding. “Okay then, Abraham.”
The alpha smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Tell me about yourselves.”
I looked at Wes briefly before speaking up. “We’re just two pretty average guys who are looking for a new pack. We were enforcers in our old one and would be interested in doing that here too.”
“We can always use more enforcers.” He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “Tell me what brings you to North Carolina.”
I met Wes’ eyes quickly again and saw the same resignation there that I felt. This was a question we always dreaded answering. The more packs we interviewed with and got turned down by, the worse it looked to the next alpha. I didn’t want to admit that he was our sixth choice, but knew lying would probably be worse. Alphas communicated frequently and Abraham probably knew the answer to this question already.
“We, uh, weren’t having any luck joining a pack in Tennessee so we thought we’d try across the border.”
Abraham nodded slowly, his shrewd eyes assessing both of us equally. “Why did you leave your old pack?”
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to answer when there was a knock on the door. Abraham glanced away before focusing on me once more. “Come in, Bea.”
The office door opened and in walked a tall, beautiful woman with icy blue eyes and short, straight dark hair. She gave us each nods before walking over to stand beside Abraham. He nodded at the woman and said, “This is my sister, Beatrice. She’s the beta of our pack.”
Wes leaned forward. “You’re the beta?”
I winced at his tone and my hand itched to slap the back of his dumbass head.
Beatrice smiled, but it was frosty. “Yep.”
Abraham laughed. “Trust me, Wes. She beat every other enforcer in the pack for this position.”
Wes chuckled. “I need to see that.”
Beatrice’s smile widened until you could see most of her teeth. “I’d love to give you a demonstration sometime.”
My idiot brother clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Hell yeah.”
I shook my head, hoping he’d keep the stupid comments to himself for a minute.
Abraham focused on me again. “So, you were just about to tell me what caused you to leave your old pack.”
I did my best to hold his blue gaze while I tried to find a way to explain our circumstances without giving away the real reason we had to leave. Finally, I decided to just tell the whole truth. He’d find out eventually anyway, so what was the point in prolonging the inevitable? Besides, if we were really looking for a place to belong, that meant we all needed to belong here, not just me and Wes.
I took a deep breath. “Our old alpha wasn’t too fond of our mother living on pack lands. When our father was alive, he’d been able to hold them off, but when we lost him, things started to go downhill. Some of the other wolves were becoming unhappy with her living there with us. We left before things could get too bad.”
Abraham’s expression didn’t change as he watched me. “And why did your old alpha have a problem with your mother?”
I glanced at Wes, who just shrugged. Turning back to Abraham, I simply said, “Because she’s human.”
When the look on his face still didn’t shift from the deeply contemplative one he’d been wearing for the past couple of minutes, I glanced at Beatrice. She too didn’t look surprised. Finally, Abraham spoke up, “Is that all?”
I rocked backward at his question.
Is that all?
That was enough to get us ostracized from our last pack and given a firm no from another five. And yet this guy wasn’t even batting an eye?
“Um. Yeah. That’s pretty much it.”
Abraham’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds like there’s more to the story. I want to hear it all.”
“Well, our mom is sick and the doctor at our old pack wasn’t treating her anymore. She was getting sicker and sicker and we needed to do something before we lost her too. It was either leave and find a place that would help us help her or watch her slowly die from her disease. I’m sure you can understand we really only had one choice there.”
Abraham’s expression softened. “What’s wrong with her?”
I swallowed once. “Lupus.”
He nodded before glancing at his sister. She wore a similarly sympathetic expression and my heart raced in my chest.
“I’ll be honest with you two,” Abraham began, “I’d already reached out to your old pack and learned most of this for myself. Of course, your old alpha put a certain spin on the events as you can imagine, but I’m not too surprised about that. He’d also mentioned that your mom was human, but her being sick was never brought up.” He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, his hands clasped between his knees. “I want to apologize for the treatment your mother has received in the past and assure you that won’t be the case here.”
My heart soared in my chest, thumping loud enough that I was positive everyone in the room could hear it. I could feel how close we were to having a new place to live and I held my breath as I waited for him to continue.
“Is your mom here with you today?”
I shook my head. “No, she’s back at the motel.”
“I’d like to meet her. Could you bring her by tomorrow?”
I turned to my brother with a frown and found a similar expression on his face. “You want to meet our mom?”
“Of course. I like to get to know all the members of my pack.”