Luke nods and motions for me to stay back as he and Macy walk up to the front door. Macy rings the doorbell, then takes half a step backward, her hands loose at her sides even though her shoulders are tense.
A minute or so later—much longer than it should have taken—the door opens. A large bearded alpha stands in the doorway, his face impassive as he stares at Luke and Macy. His hair is brown, but there are hints of red in his beard and something about him looks really familiar.
I almost face palm. Of course he looks familiar. I might not remember him but he was—is?—my pack Alpha.
“Can I help you?” he asks in a deep, rumbling voice, his tone laced with a hint of irritation.
“Good afternoon, are you Alpha Earl Jenkins?” asks Luke.
“Yeah. Who’s asking?”
“I’m Alpha Luke Anderson of the Sweet Water pack and this is my second.” He gestures at Macy. “I believe your Alpha Mate would have told you we were coming?”
Earl’s gaze darts to Macy, dismisses her and returns to Luke. “I didn’t invite nobody out here.”
Luke clears his throat. “Well, your Alpha Mate gave us permission to enter your territory yesterday over the phone. I apologize if she didn’t pass that information on to you.”
“She didn’t tell me shit,” he replies in a flat voice. “What do you want?”
“We believe we came across a missing pack member of yours and—”
“No one from my pack is missing,” he snaps, cutting Luke off. “That is unless you’re talking about…” His gaze bounces from Macy to Luke, his eyes narrowing. His nostrils flare as he studies Luke’s face and his scowl drops away.
“Jonathan?” His voice is almost soft with surprise.
“Er, no,” says Luke, slowly shaking his head as his brows draw together. “My name is Luke.”
But the Alpha will not be deterred. He steps out of the house and pushes past Macy with absolutely zero acknowledgment. He stops directly in front of Luke, his eyes roaming over my mate’s face almost hungrily. “Where you been, boy?”
Luke bristles, taking a step backward. “First of all, I’m not a boy, and you must have me confused with someone else.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, I think I’d recognize my own son, even after all this time.”
His son?My gaze runs over the Alpha’s features again and it dawns on me that the familiarity I saw before might not necessarily be from a memory. He has the same square chin and brown eyes as Luke.
Before Luke can respond, another alpha comes to the door, this one a female. “What’s going on out here?” she snaps, and I recognize her voice form the phone call yesterday. This must be Wanda, Rockcastle’s Alpha Mate. Her gaze lands on Luke. “Youthe Alpha who found our stray? I wasn’t expecting you to show up this quickly.”
Earl spins toward his mate. “What the hell are you doing inviting people here without running it past me first?”
“I was planning to, but I—”
“Oh, just shut up. I’ll deal with you later,” he says, turning back to face Luke, his lips widening into an overly large smile. “My boy has come home at last.”
“What are you talking about ‘at last’? We just saw Clay this morning,” says Wanda.
“Not that useless twit,” he replies. “Jonathanhas come home.”
“Jonathan?” Her upper lip pulls back from her teeth and she shakes her head. “That’s impossible. He’s dead.”
She says the words with so little inflection that it seems like she’s talking about a total stranger and not her son. Something niggles at the back of my mind, telling me that’s wrong somehow, but I don’t quite know why.
Earl claps Luke on the shoulder. “There’s no doubt in my mind. Even if he isn’t the spitting image of me at his age, I recognize his scent.”
Luke opens his mouth, glancing at Macy from the corner of his eye as if to askwhat the fuck, but Macy is just as astonished as Luke, and why wouldn’t she be? This is definitely not the family reunion any of us were expecting.
Is it possible what the Alpha is saying is true? Is Luke his long-lost son?
“You’re claiming that Alpha Anderson is actually your son?” asks Macy in a slow, careful voice that barely manages to hide her disbelief.
