Probably judging his comfort level with the conversation, she quickly changed tactics.
“If you’d told me a year ago I’d be surrounded by so many people, so many friends and family, and that I’d actually like it, I would have called you crazy. We don’t live in the pack house, so we do have our privacy when we need it, but there’s always someone who wants to talk, needs advice, wants to share something, or just needs a hug. It’s…” She looked at her husband. “Amazing.”
Zach smiled and met Adam’s eyes. “Sorry, we’re still in the honeymoon phase.”
“From what I hear, we’ll get worse, not better,” Hillary laughed.
Zach grinned. “No comment.”
“Ha. Well, no complaints on this end, at least not so far.”
Adam watched with some amusement as Zach playfully growled at Hillary and she batted him away. She looked over at him, cleared her throat. “Um. Sorry. Again. Anyway, as I was saying, my life has changed in so many ways, but I don’t regret a single thing.” She shook her head. “But that’s not what I meant to go on about, either. Tell me about you. About your cabin in the woods.”
“Not much to tell.” He sat back as the waiter put a plate in front of him. “Like I said, I live a simple life. Books and my computer, running in the woods.” He shrugged, ate a couple of bites. “I wouldn’t exactly say I’m a hermit, though I suppose it’s a close thing. The cabin in Montana is the longest I’ve settled in somewhere. Before that I moved around a lot, exploring the country, even Canada for a time.”
Hillary took a drink of her soda, pointed the glass at him. “You get around. Think you’ll stay in Montana now or get itchy feet again?”
He thought about it. He’d been there a couple of years now. He liked the woods well enough, the town well enough, but it was just a place to be for him. He didn’t love it. Didn’t need it. He just needed a place that was his. “I don’t have any plans to move right now, but I guess I don’t see myself staying there forever, either.”
“Hmm,” was Hillary’s response.
Zach laughed. “Uh oh, Larry’s getting ideas. Better watch yourself.”
“Oh, shut up. I was just wondering what type of women, or men, you like. We have some great single wolves in the pack that I’ve been getting to know.”
He choked on his drink—and interestingly enough, so did Zach.
“Uh. Baby. None of the unmated wolves are near close enough in power for this guy.”
“So, it’s not all about being mates.” She laughed at the outraged look on her husband’s face. “Not until you actually meet your mate. You had relationships before we met.”
“Okay, but what makes you a matchmaker all of a sudden?”
“Hey, aren’t Stee and Alex deliriously happy?” She looked at Adam. “My employee, the one I mentioned before, turned out to be mates with Zach’s second.”
“I don’t know that you can take credit for matchmaking there when you just happened to be the one who introduced them, and they were mates.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and returned her attention to Adam.
“I’m perfectly capable of finding my own women, thank you very much. Besides, would you really want another alpha wolf in your territory?”
“Wouldn’t bother me as long as you’re not an asshole. But you’re right, you’d do better with your own territory, your own pack. You’re clearly meant to be an alpha. We need to find out who all the single alpha ladies are out there so you can go check them out.”
“Taking care of other wolves is not high on my agenda.” And he certainly didn’t need any other alpha females getting under his skin. He was having a hard enough time getting the scent and feel and look of one particular one out of his head.
“Hmm,” she repeated.
They returned to the SUV and headed out. The couple told him about their land, part of it pack land, part of it Jenner land, part of it public land. They drove through a town bigger than the one he currently called home, then another twenty minutes until Zach turned down a road marked “Private Property.” It was still a couple of miles farther before they reached a security gate that Zach coded them through.
“You all have much trouble out this way?” he asked.
“Nope, but we do what we can to keep it that way. We’re way proactive on that, my second is a security expert, so I let him do his thing.”
Adam couldn’t argue the logic on that.
When they spotted the house, he was a bit surprised. Zach hadn’t seemed like a particularly rich guy, but the house was huge. He supposed being an alpha might require a bit more space to entertain and host than his cabin in the woods. Putting a loner wolf like himself up for a couple of nights, for example.
He dumped his pack in the room Hillary showed him, then followed her back down the stairs, past a living room that looked like no one used it and into a den that looked well lived in. He took a seat on the leather couch at Hillary’s indication. She sat on the other end, curled her leg under her and faced him as Zach came in, handed him a beer, and took a seat in a lounge chair.
