Carter waited a week after the full moon before calling the Texas pack alpha and telling him about his decision not to challenge Grayson. He would have done it earlier, but the week before and after the full moon were not the best time for delicate negotiations. The moon made werewolves impulsive and easily swayed by their more savage instincts, and Carter didn’t want to risk Alpha Tiller sending Spencer off to challenge Grayson without a plan.
He’d also wanted to be sure that he wasn’t choosing John because of the full moon’s influence. Now that a week had passed and the full moon was well and truly over, he knew that he wasn’t.
Wanting John was all him.
Steeling his nerves, Carter sat down at his kitchen table and put his phone down in front of him. He stared at it for a second, wondering if he could really go through with giving his pack over to someone else, the enormity of what he was doing making him feel light headed.
He gave himself a mental shake and pulled himself together. He’d made his choice, and hesitating now only made him feel weak and indecisive. Carter prided himself on being neither of those things.
Squaring his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he picked up the phone and made the call.
Alpha Tiller answered on the third ring, and speaking in a calm and firm voice Carter let him know that he wouldn’t be taking over as alpha and that he would support Spencer’s challenge of Grayson.
“What changed your mind?” Tiller asked, sounding incredibly suspicious. He had every right to be. It would be easy for Carter to lure Spencer into a trap and kill him, never mind that in doing so he would spark a war that was all but sure to eradicate the Forest Hill pack.
“I’m in love with a human, and somehow I don’t think that the pack would accept that in their alpha.”
Carter almost couldn’t believe what he’d just said. He hadn’t had any intention of coming out, but he was tired of pretending and he didn’t give a fuck what Tiller thought of him. The man wasn’t his pack.
“That makes a lot of sense,” Tiller said after a loaded pause. “It’s a shame. You would have made a fine alpha. I’ll have Spencer give you a call to work out the details.”
“You do that,” Carter said. He hung up the phone, and it wasn’t until he put it down on the table that he realized how fast his heart was beating.
There was no going back now.
Picking up his phone, he called John. He needed to hear the human’s voice. It would calm him, making the loss he’d just inflicted on himself hurt less.
“Hey, Carter, what’s up?” John answered, sounding cheerful. There was a lot of noise in the background, like he was sitting somewhere crowded, and Carter wondered where he was.
“Just wanted to call and see what you were up to,” Carter said. He hadn’t thought of an excuse to call, but it wasn’t like he needed one. He and John had been texting and calling each other quite a bit over the past few weeks, and most of the time they talked about nothing.
“Oh, cool. I’m on my lunch break,” John said, sounding happy. “Mike and I are trying out a new Mexican place. It’s really good.”
“Mike is there with you?” Carter asked. There was a completely irrational surge of jealousy at the thought of John with someone else, and Carter did his best to push the feeling down and away before John caught wind of it.
Jealousy wasn’t an attractive quality.
“Yeah, he says hi.”
Carter laughed. “Say hi back.”
He listened as John conveyed the message to his friend, and already he could feel himself relaxing. He wasn’t making a mistake in giving up his chance of becoming alpha.
He wished that he hadn’t rushed to pay Yolanda the money for the spell, though. That was a million and a half dollars wasted. Yolanda and her assistant had been crystal clear that there would be no refunds, and Carter wasn’t going to try to change her mind.
“So what are you up to?” John asked, interrupting Carter’s thoughts.
“Nothing much,” Carter said. He leaned back in his chair and smiled to himself. “Just dealing with some pack business. I’ll tell you all about it this weekend.”
“So we’re still on?” John asked. His voice was warm and happy, and Carter couldn’t help but grin.
“Definitely. That new bondage sling I ordered just came in the mail yesterday and I can’t wait to try it.”
There was a pause, and Carter could just imagine how hard John must be blushing. He was tempted to ask for a picture, but John would probably balk at just the mention of it.
“You can’t just say things like that!” John hissed. “I’m in public, and this uniform doesn’t hideanything.”
Carter laughed, his own cock hardening at the mental image of John sitting there, blushing beet red, and getting a boner in his uniform. He loved how tight John’s breeches were; the way they hugged his ass was majestic.
