The alpha scowls, his attention shifting away from me to focus on the woman. He flings a hand toward me. “Your son has disgraced our entire line by taking up withthat.”
That means the latest arrival to this shit show must be Julien’s mom. For all that this is a rather awkward way to meet my new mother-in-law, I’m glad she appears to be sort of on my side. Or at least not on Everett’s.
Julien’s mom crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the door frame. “You would do well to remember that ‘my son’ is your Alpha.”
“Yes, Julien is the most recent in a long line of Matisse Alphas leading this pack, but he’ll be the last if he continues carrying on with this mongrel. There won’t be any heirs if Julien insists on being mated to this useless degenerate. Is that what you want, the Matisse line to die out?”
She rolls her eyes. “Besides the fact that’s none of your business, adoption is a thing.”
“But the Matisse bloodline—”
“Can rot if that’s what makes my son happy,” she snaps. “It’s notyourbloodline anyway, so what do you even care?” She turns to me. “Keir, let me apologize for my jerk of a brother.”
“No problem,” I say, shuffling my feet and smoothing the edges of Julien’s shirt over my thighs, suddenly self-conscious about my lack of pants. “It’s fine. He’s uh…”
“A complete and total asshole?” She raises her brows.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“And I did.” She smiles. “If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m Julien’s mom, Rachel.”
“Nice to meet you.” My gaze darts to Everett. “Wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Julien was supposed to introduce us earlier, but you were fast asleep and then he decided to run off to argue with the elders by himself.” She lets out an exasperated huff. “What he should have done was just taken you with him, introduced you as his mate, and told them to take a hike if they don’t like it.”
Everett snorts. “And you think that would work out well for him, do you? Julien might be Alpha in name, but you know as well as I do that the elders are the ones actually in control of this pack.”
“I know no such thing,” she snaps back at her brother. “I’ll admit Julien hasn’t been as forceful with them as he should be. He saw no point in arguing with them over minor issues like how to kick off full moon ceremonies or who should pick the contractor to renovate the rec center, but now he actually has something important to fight for.” She glares at Everett. “Besides, I imagine at least one of the old coots might remember the last time this pack had an omega and will understand that’s better than any mating alliance.”
“An omega?” Everett’s gaze swings to me, his eyes going wide.
“Yup,” I say. “Bet you feel kind of stupid now.”
“Impossible.” He scoffs.
“You know, I’m getting really tired of people telling me my existence isn’t possible.” I roll my eyes, then lift my partially shifted hand, wigging my claws. “I assure you, me being an omega is quite possible.”
Everett gapes, his mouth opening and closing silently.
Rachel walks over to him and shoves his shoulder. “Get out of here before you stick your foot any farther down your throat.”
“But…” he protests.
“Now,” says Rachel firmly, flicking his ear, then pointing toward the door.
And he actually listens, walking back out the front door without saying another word.
Once he’s gone, Rachel turns to me. “What do you say I go ahead and take you over to meet the elders? There’s no point in letting the situation fester and the quicker you’re officially part of the pack, the better.”
“That sounds great,” I say. “But I should probably put on some pants first.”
“Yes, you should.” Another laugh. “As nice as your legs are, I doubt the elders would appreciate them as much Julien does.”
Thirty-One
Julien
Theworstthingabouttaking over as pack Alpha while barely into my twenties—well, besides my dad’s premature death—is that the pack elders still think of me as the wide-eyed little kid who used to follow the former Alpha around everywhere. Even now, five years later, they don’t see me as an adult and they sure as hell don’t see me as the leader of this pack even if I could command every one of them to their knees if I wanted to.
