Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “And you’re here to finally toss me out of the pack because our new big bad Alpha can’t handle a little criticism?”
“No, you stubborn bitch. I’m here to tell you to knock this shit off before you make even more of a fool of yourself. The Vasilescus aregood for our pack,and your childish lashing out isn’t going to do anything but cause strife. Do you know what I’m doing this afternoon at the Alpha’s order?”
“Harassing more women who’ve lost a soul mate?”
“Knock that shit off. You two weren’t mates, and everyone knew it. No, I’m rebuilding houses. On his personal dime. TheVargas squandered almost all the pack resources, but he’s fixing things anyway. Do you realize how rare it is to get a leader who cares?”
She remained stubbornly silent, still glaring at me, but I soldiered on because she needed to hear it.
“Do you really want to harm the whole pack because you can’t let go? He wasn’t yours. You know he was set to bond with Vee in less than three months. Three months, and you’d have been sitting in this cottage stewing alone, just like you are now.”
My sister had looked the other way because she didn’t actually want to bond with Petró, but she was an alpha by designation, and there was no way in hell she’d have continued to put up with him cheating after they were bonded formally.
Frankly? Lucien Vasilescu had done my family a personal favor in wiping out that shit stain of an alpha, and I couldn’t be more relieved my sister was no longer saddled with him and his philandering ways.
Jerica’s brother, however, had been one of Petró’s closest cronies and thought he could do no wrong.
Hence the fliers.
“Promise me this is the last of it. For your own good. Alpha Vasilescu is patient, but even he can’t let you keep running around doing this shit forever. Youwillget thrown out of the pack eventually.”
Because I’d insist.I would put the good of the pack over one selfish she-wolf any day of the week, no question.
“Fine.” She sniffed, eyes welling up again as if the word cost her. “But I don’t like it.”
“I know. And you don’t have to.” I couched the words in kindness, because despite the fact that I couldn’t stand her sniveling, social-climbing ways, she was part of the pack I fought so hard to protect. That meant something to me.
I let myself out, grateful for the fresh air and sunshine as I checked off the first task on my list. I had three more visits to make, then I could get to work.
I was shirtless and sweating on a roof, hauling slate tiles to replace the damaged ones, when Lucien found me some time later.
“How’s it going?”
“Good,” I grunted, barely looking up from the task at hand. It felt so damn good to finally do something with measurable results.
Interpersonal dynamics were complicated in packs, but this? This shit had a beginning, middle, and end. Simple manual labor.
It left my mind free to wander to a pretty little brunette and her big-ass sword.
“How much longer do you think you’ve got?” he asked, shielding his eyes as he craned his neck to look up at me.
The question was innocent enough, but still, I couldn’t hold back a sigh. He was about to make my life complicated again.
“An hour tops. What do you need, Alpha?”
He ran a hand through his chin-length blond hair with that regretful grimace I was beginning to know well, and I set down my tools.
“I’m coming.”
He waited for me to climb down the ladder and start walking down the road beside him before he spoke again. “It won’t always be like this.”
I snorted. “Right. The pack will grow, the world will change, and it will be even more complicated.”
“True.”
There was no point denying it.
“So, where are we going?”
