Rhett pivoted slowly toward him. He met Malachi’s eyes and held them with a storm-gray gaze full of ire and betrayal. “You became alpha four years ago.”
“Definitely too young then. But after the accident that killed William, the pack was lost, bereft. I had a responsibility to them, and given what I am, no other wolf could have taken the role even temporarily. See—a circumstance not addressed in the lore.”
“Fine. Whatever. Not in the lore. It doesn’t excuse not giving me a say, not even telling me.”
“Given your history, I wanted to give you time to put roots down here—which you have. If this hadn’t happened, I had planned to tell you within the next few months.”
“Well, guess what, I would have refused anyway. Refused and walked out.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Malachi said with a low growl.
“Yeah? I almost did that night, after I found out. Out there patrolling, I was this close to leaving.” He didn’t bother indicating the gap between two fingers. “Almost hopped on my bike and disappeared, and Aaron would’ve just had to man up. Or the pack could call a council, let a few challengers hash it out against each other, the pack accepts or rejects…blah blah blah. That’s how it’s done plenty of times, if the beta’s lost too or whatever. And that’s what your pack will have to do if you get killed, Malachi, because I’ll be gone.”
Malachi let him rage, prowl, stare at the horizon, stare into Malachi’s eyes with pure fury. He let Rhett express all of it, because none of it was a challenge of the alpha’s authority. Even when some jagged edge inside Rhett might want to, he would never challenge Malachi again, and they both knew it. He had submitted once, and a wolf like him never had to renew his loyalty. It stuck for life. It grew roots and, if he let it, bloomed into friendship and family ties to his pack.
When Rhett stood still, his shoulders heaving with agitated breaths, Malachi said, “You won’t leave them.”
Now the pivot and the glare, the crossed arms. “Do me the respect of believing me when I tell you what I’ll do.”
“Domethe respect of being honest.”
“I don’t lie,” Rhett growled.
“You think you would’ve abandoned the pack that night?”
“If you’d gone and tried to make me alpha? Dang straight I’d be out of here and I wouldn’t look back!”
“You bought toys,” Malachi said.
Rhett went very still. “I…what?”
“They were in a corner of the den. I assume they were from the safe room, and once the twins saw them, they asked Jeremy to bring them up the ladder. Colorful stacking cups, a three-wheeled scooter, a princess wand with streamers, half a dozen stuffed animals…” He stopped, though he could go on naming items.
Rhett shrugged, but his face was bright red. “Added some necessities in case we had to hole up down there. I’m not personally interested in carrying little pups around on my shoulders.”
“You’ve guarded April when I’ve had to leave home. You’ve checked the perimeter of my property nightly ever since she came, well before the patrol was set up—don’t deny it, I’ve woke to your scent multiple times. Months ago, when the police came to Ezra’s home in the dead of night, you showed up to watch out for him. Andthis, Rhett.” Malachi spread his hands toward Rhett’s cabin, set atop a sense-proof room large enough to shelter the whole pack. “You built your pack a fortress in case of danger. All yours—your idea, your skill and strategy, your care. Not to mention the provision of the cameras and the sat phones. Now look your alpha in the eye and tell me that if I were lying dead and buried next to William’s bones right now, you’d be hundreds of miles away.”
Rhett bowed his head with a low howl of angry surrender. He shut his eyes.
“You are pack to me,” Malachi said. Then he said the part this wolf never quite heard, no matter how often Malachi said it. “And you’re pack to all of them.”
“They don’t trust me.”
“When you showed up at Ezra’s, did he tell you to mind your business? Get off his property?”
“No,” Rhett said through gritted teeth.
“He thanked you for showing up. Some of the pack don’t always like you, Rhett. They don’t understand you, and they wish they did. But all of them trust you fully, and all of them consider you pack.”
Rhett turned to meet his eyes at last. He motioned Malachi to follow him to the porch, then motioned again for Malachi to take one of the chairs as he did. Though they were hard, painful against the scars on his back, Malachi sank into one and faced Rhett. This wolf needed to say more, needed his alpha to hear him.
Rhett’s voice leveled, no more angry bark and bite behind it. “I need to understand this. Why you picked me and not some wolf you’ve known from a pup. Right, so Aaron didn’t want it. Why not Ezra? Or Cassius? They’re strong, level-headed wolves.”
“When I first became alpha, I talked to Cassius about the possibility. He didn’t want it; leading isn’t his natural personality. But he said, if I couldn’t find anyone else, he would serve the pack as he was needed. I decided not to ask it of him. I was young enough to take my time choosing.”
“So Ezra then.”
“He has the mind for it, yes. But he doesn’t have the energy. Ezra needs to be able to shut himself up in his cabin for a few days and replenish, uninterrupted. He asked me just a few months ago if being alpha is ever too much for me. He didn’t fully understand when I told him no, said he’d be exhausted if he had to lead a pack.”
