Carter couldn’t disagree with that.
“He is, but the pack wouldn’t accept me if I took over. There’s no point in even trying.”
Owen studied Carter like he was trying to figure him out, the look on his face intense and making Carter squirm.
“Can you tell me the reason?”
“Would you keep it a secret?” Carter asked. He really shouldn’t confide in Owen, but for some reason he felt like he owed him an explanation.
“Unless you’re hurting people, then sure. I can keep a secret. After all, I spent practically my whole life hiding the fact that I’m a witch.”
Carter had almost forgotten about that. Owen might very well be one of the few people to understand something of what he was going through.
“I’m not attracted to other werewolves. I only like humans.”
Owen looked at him, brow scrunching up in a frown. “That’s it?”
“It’s enough,” Carter replied angrily.
“I’m sorry,” Owen said, leaning forward and looking honestly apologetic. “I don’t mean to make light of it. It’s just… I didn’t realize that liking humans was such a big deal. I didn’t even know it was a thing.”
“Well it is.” Carter took another sip of his coffee, hating how upset he felt. His life would be so different if it weren’t for the fact that his stupid dick only pointed at weak little humans. He’d be the alpha, in charge of the pack, and he wouldn’t spend half his time feelinghollow.
“That sucks,” Owen said, making Carter huff. It did suck.
“So I can’t be alpha. No one pays attention to my dating or sex life now, but if I were alpha they’d be all over it. I’d be found out in a heartbeat and driven out by the first full moon.”
“Well that’s stupid.”
“It’s incredibly stupid,” Carter agreed. He looked at Owen with a serious expression. “You’ll keep it to yourself?”
“As far as I’m concerned, who you like is no one’s business but yours. I won’t tell anyone. Though I think people are paying more attention than you give them credit for.”
A lance of cold fear shot through Carter’s chest.
“What?”
“A lot of people are convinced that you’re just biding your time before you challenge Grayson. All of Luke’s friends are talking about it, which means that the rest of the pack is talking about it, too.”
That… wasn’t good.
“I could help you out, if you wanted,” Owen said, hesitating like he wasn’t sure if he was overstepping or not.
“How?” Carter asked. He was wary. As far as he could tell, Owen had no real reason to help him.
“I could let people know that I’d side with Grayson if you challenged him. Not directly, of course, but I could have Luke put the word out there. No one would think it was weird if you backed off then.”
Carter was torn between gratefulness that Owen wanted to help him, and disgust at his willingness to throw his weight around. A witch should have no say in who became alpha. The benefits he brought to the pack were undeniable, but he was also an uncontrollable wild card.
“I would appreciate that,” Carter said. The words tasted like ash in his mouth, but he couldn’t afford to have people paying attention to him. Not the kind of attention people paid to future alphas.
“It’s no problem. And what about the issue with the Texas pack? Are you going to keep looking into that?”
Carter had no idea. What was the point if the pack was safe and he wasn’t going to become alpha?
He never should have taken on the Texas peace negotiations. They’d made people think he wanted to be more than just Grayson’s enforcer—that he was looking to prove he could do more than fight—and in his vanity he had ignored the danger.
And why should he have to prove himself? He was a successful lawyer with an A-list client roster and more money than he knew what to do with. It should be obvious that he was smart.
