“Unless you’re inviting me to come back with you and watch?”
Dylan turned beet red, and there was a second before he started shaking his head no where he looked like he’d considered granting Steve’s implied request.
“Maybe next time,” Ryker said, startling Dylan and making August roll his eyes. He winked at Steve, expression filled with promise, and Steve had no idea what to think. “Come on you two, let’s get this over with so that we can go eat. I’m starving.”
Ryker put his hand on Dylan’s upper back and pushed him toward the door into the clinic, Dylan following along in a daze before he abruptly looked up and demanded, “What do you mean, next time? Do you think I’m going to do this again?”
He sounded outraged, and Ryker laughed.
“Maybe. It would give August an excuse to do a medical roleplay scenario.”
They walked out of the reception area, Dylan looking thoughtful. The door was just closing behind them when Steve heard the little human ask, “Could we turnthisinto a medical roleplay scenario?”
The door closed, though Steve could still hear Ryker’s amused chuckle and August’s sharply indrawn breath.
He listened with half an ear as Ryker shot down Dylan’s suggestion, the alpha telling Dylan that it was too close to the full moon for them to be doing roleplay scenarios. He walked over to the chairs on the other side of the room, taking a seat as he strained his ears to listen to what was going on down the hall.
It wasn’t much use. August’s clinic had much better soundproofing than most modern buildings, and once they left the hallway and went into the examination room, Steve could no longer hear what was going on.
Leaning back into the chair, Steve put his hand on his bulge and wondered what Ryker had meant with his statement. Had he been teasing, the words ‘maybe next time’ intended to be sarcastic, or was he actually implying that Steve might be invited to join more than just full moon runs?
Steve pushed down the surge of hope and want that rose up inside of him. He was pretty sure that Ryker and August were going to invite him into their pack in some way – there was no other explanation for the full moon invitation – and asking for more than that would be greedy, and worse, lead to terrible disappointment if he didn’t get it.
It wasn’t unusual for Ryker and August to want to expand their pack. As alphas, it was in their natures, and though it would be difficult to attract betas, it wouldn’t be impossible.
Steve kneaded his bulge, working his cock through his jeans as he pondered the predicament Ryker and August’s potential offer to join their pack put him in. He stretched his legs out in front of him, leaning back into his chair and letting out a sigh as he fondled himself.
His father would never accept him joining another pack. It was bad enough that he’d spurned him and gone off to live in neutral territory, but if another pack tried to claim him, his father would hunt him down and drag him all the way back to Fairbanks by his ear.
The only exception would be if Steve took over the pack he was joining, but judging by his performance against Ryker and August individually, he had zero chance of taking over their pack through force – nor did he want to.
The realization that he’d have to decline any official overture to join August and Ryker’s pack was a bitter pill to swallow, but he couldn’t see any way around it.
Then again, when August and Ryker realized that his father was the alpha of the Northwestern pack, any invitation to join them would probably be withdrawn. August and Ryker were both unusually dominant alphas, but they didn’t hold a candle to Steve’s father or older brother, and Steve was sure that they knew it.
Steve’s father had a reputation.
Any relationship he had with August and Ryker would have to be unofficial, at least until his father died and his brother took over – which was not something Steve wanted to happen.
He might have a lot of conflict with his dad, but he still loved him and dreaded the thought of something happening to him.
Standing up, pushing his chair back and accidentally slamming it into the wall, Steve decided that he was being silly. He didn’t even know that Ryker and August wanted anything more from him than a friend to spend time with on the full moon. He could be getting completely ahead of himself and freaking himself out over nothing.
The idea that they would let him join in on their thing with Dylan was even more preposterous. Ryker had just been joking, and Steve, hopped up on good vibes from the full moon, had read way too much into it.
No wonder, given how happy his wolf was. He hadn’t realized how lonely he’d been since moving away from home, nor how much his wolf had suffered.
Steve gave himself a mental shake. He needed to stop worrying and just go with the flow. He’d made some new friends, that was it. There was nothing to be getting worked up over.
Feeling better, Steve looked around the fancy waiting room. Everything, from the soft lighting to the gleaming hardwood floor, screamed money.
Some doctors chose their profession because they wanted to help people, but judging by the look of August’s clinic, he was not one of those people. Walking over to the reception desk, Steve trailed his finger over the back of a sleek iMac computer that looked like it cost more than his rent.
Dylan – or more likely his parents – must have really good insurance if this was the kind of doctor’s office he went to. Furrowing his brow, Steve looked around again. The furniture was designer, the glass door fridge against the wall was stocked with water that cost four dollars a bottle, and he was pretty sure that the building they were in was one of the most expensive locations in the city.
The vibe of the place suited August’s cocky rich-boy vibe perfectly, but it didn’t seem like the kind of place Dylan would go to for medical care.
His curiosity of what was going on with Dylan prompted Steve to walk over to the door leading into the clinic and carefully push it open. He stood there in the doorway, once again able to hear Dylan and his two alphas in one of the rooms down the hall.
