Before going back to the apartment, I shoved the tips into my jacket pocket. They wouldn’t check there. I got paid that morning but the money was already gone. Rent. Utilities. My brothers would raise hell about there not being more for their never-ending hunger, since they were shifters, but I could only make so much. Plus, I was supporting a family of four on one income.
They all refused to work.
I still didn’t understand that logic, but intelligence hadn’t ruled their decisions so far.
The closer I got to the apartment complex, the more I began to shake. My home life was hell, and I had no idea how to get out of this situation.
If I tried to move out, they would hunt me down, not a hard task in this small town, and either drag me back or leave me unable to flip another pancake in my life.
They were that bad.
My only chance, the tiniest bit of a chance, was buying a bus ticket, but I only had enough saved up to get across the state.
Not far enough as far as I was concerned.
I knew better than to get home with no groceries, so I stopped at the market and picked up what I could with what was left from my paycheck. It was enough to last me an entire week, maybe two, but for them? I would be lucky if it lasted three days. Damned lucky.
Their bad behavior was all blamed on being a shifter. When I was younger, I wanted to be like them. Shifting into wolves. Running wild. Having supernatural senses.
Now? I wanted to be nothing like them. Have nothing to do with shifters.
I took the stairs to our apartment as slowly as possible, but as I reached the top step, the door flung open.
Let the torture begin.
Chapter Three
Gabe
Father and I had completed yet another nonproductive conversation a week after my return to the pack. I did not see it as permanent, but that was not a hill I was prepared to die on just yet. I hated not having any siblings who might take this weight from my shoulders. When I was a child, I’d wished for a brother or sister to play with, but growing older, my reasoning changed. A sibling might have been thrilled to take on being the alpha, freeing me to search for my mate and live my life according to my own desires and skills.
After spending so little time on the lands for the past few years, I didn’t have any official jobs to do while trying to find a way to resolve my differences with Father. Dad begged me not to just go away while we were at such odds. He was baking himself into a frenzy in his panic at our argument coming to a head, and I couldn’t leave him like that.
So, I hung around, helped out where I saw a need. All my experience growing up with the different tasks made me excellent day labor. One morning, I drove a tractor pulling a cultivator to weed between rows in the fields. Another, I mended harnesses for the horses. And one evening, I carried firewood we’d spent the afternoon splitting, to some of the elders who could no longer do that for themselves. My packmates were the best, and I wished I could serve as their alpha, but my fated was out there somewhere…
While talking to our pack mechanic about a difficult repair he was making on a pack SUV, I got a message that my father wanted to speak to me. “Shit,” I muttered before I managed to stop myself.
The mechanic, Ronny, who I grew up with, looked away, but I caught the edge of a grin on his lips.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, probably not.” He faced me again, his smile gone, but eyes still dancing. “But we all have our moments. He may be the pack alpha, but he’s also your father.”
“Thank you for understanding.” And since we had enough youthful incidents of mischief on each other for blackmail purposes, I knew I could trust him not to repeat my goof. “It’s just…yeah.”
“You’d better go though. I might be able to put my dad off, but he is only the farm manager.”
I made my way to the alpha house with great reluctance, already formulating my arguments when I entered the office.
“Took you long enough,” Father growled.
“Sorry, I was in the shop.” I couldn’t decide which of my responses to give until he opened the discussion. “Did you need something, Father?”
“Why would I call you if I didn’t?” He lifted some stacks of paper on his desk and found a thick manila envelope. “Here it is.”
Some kind of a contract? Could he actually be getting me to sign off on the alpha role? In order to avoid any sort of challenge that could create disharmony in the pack, I reached for the envelope. Maybe it came from the legal rep we had in town. About to open it, my father’s next words stopped me.
“Take this to the Erreldell pack and give it to their alpha. Stick around until he has had a chance to review and sign everything.” He picked up another sheet of paper and began to read, while I wondered if I was dismissed. Finally, he sighed and looked up at me. “Still here?”
