“It’s not cute. He’s a fucking menace,” August growled. He turned to Dylan with an annoyed expression. “Ryker likes him. He thinks he’s charming.”
Dylan was surprised at the stab of jealousy he felt at that statement. It seemed his plan had backfired.
“I do like him.” Ryker didn’t sound sorry. “I’ve decided to make friends with him.”
Dylan sat and watched as August and Ryker started good-naturedly bickering about Steve. From what he gathered, there had been some sort of confrontation between Ryker and Steve, which bizarrely had ended with Ryker feeling protective of the younger werewolf and wanting to invite him to hang out with them on the full moon.
August didn’t seem to be opposed to Steve being included, but he couldn’t seem to help himself by vehemently opposing any statement which put Steve’s past behavior in a forgiving light.
“Is he going to be part of your pack?” Dylan asked, curious.
“What? No,” August said, wrinkling his nose like the very idea offended him.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Ryker said.
August whipped his head around and glared at Ryker, and a much less amicable argument started.
“We will not see how it goes,” August growled.
Ryker shrugged. “I’m not saying we force anything, but if he’s alone and needs a support system, we can provide that if it looks like we’re compatible.”
“He’s an alpha,” August said, looking at Ryker like he was crazy. “Just because you established that you’re more dominant than him doesn’t mean he’ll be a good fit for us.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Ryker said, shooting Dylan a grin. “We’re on a date, in case you forgot. And we’re not adding anyone to the pack without you agreeing to it. I don’t know why you’re getting all huffy.”
“I am not-”
“Dylan, tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up,” Ryker asked, speaking over August. He took a sip of his beer and looked at Dylan over the rim of his glass.
August closed his mouth, his attention successfully diverted as he looked at Dylan and waited for him to answer the question.
“I’m from Anchorage, in Alaska. My parents moved there a few years before I was born. After high school I went to college at Washington University for my undergrad, and now I’m here in Fort Plainslac for my masters.”
“Alaska, really? That’s interesting. Did you do a lot of skiing?” Ryker asked.
Dylan shook his head. He had gone skiing a few times growing up, but it wasn’t something his family did.
“I’ve always wanted to go fishing in Alaska,” August said. “It’s too bad the pack up there is so crazy.”
“The pack territory is pretty far from Anchorage,” Dylan said. “You could still visit.”
August laughed. “The official territory that they tell the humans about, sure, but if Ryker and I stepped outside of the airport we’d be hunted down and torn apart. The Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon and Alaska are all Northwestern pack land as far as any werewolf with a brain is concerned”
“But that’s like the whole state and half of Canada. How many packs are there?”
“Just one,” Ryker said. “And we’re not ever going to disrespect them by visiting their territory without an official invitation, and even then it would be with our tails between our legs. Their alpha is not someone you want to mess with.”
Dylan was flabbergasted. According to the Alaska Studies course he’d been required to take in high school, the local pack’s territory started a little north of Fairbanks and then went all the way up to the Arctic, and that was it.
He’d never seen any werewolves – at least obvious ones – when he was out and about in Anchorage. Nothing about the place had seemed like werewolf territory.
“So what made your parents move all the way up north?” August asked.
“Work,” Dylan said, shrugging. “The economy there is pretty good, and they got better jobs than they could find back home in California.”
Dylan had liked growing up in Alaska very much. It wasn’t markedly different from any other city he’d been in, with the exception of bears and moose walking around and making a nuisance of themselves, and it had been a great place to grow up.
“What about you guys?” Dylan asked. “Which pack are you from originally?”
