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My upper lip twitched, and I reached out for Dom.
“Hey,” I sent, “you busy?”
He replied immediately. “No. Why? What do you need?”
He’d apologized for what he’d said to me back on our own compound, and we hadn’t had another fight like that one. But he still wasn’t back to his usual self and he hadn’t told me what was bothering him. I wondered if it might have something to do with Tavi, but I didn’t think it was time yet for me to try to broach the subject.
“I want you and the others to meet me on the north side of the Kings’ compound where the worst of Troy’s destruction is. We’re going to do some reconstruction.”
“Roger that.”
While Dom gathered the team, I approached the group of workers. They hadn’t seen me from where I stood, at their backs, so all ten men looked up in surprise as I neared.
“Need some assistance?” I asked those who were working.
“What the hell is this?” one of the elites asked. “Night Shepherd offering to help rebuild a cabin? I don’t believe it.”
I glanced at him where he sat in a lawn chair, made a point of assessing him, and then deliberately turned my back to him. You’re not a threat to me. Fuck off. That was the message I was sending.
“Well?” I asked the working men. “Seems like you could use a few extra hands.”
The man who had been hit with the beer can looked from me to the elites and back again. “W-we wouldn’t mind the help—”
“Don’t talk to him!” I heard the creak of a wooden lawn chair followed by footsteps headed toward my back. “We don’t need or want your help, Shepherd.”
“You wouldn’t,” I said, looking at him over my shoulder. “But about half of you aren’t helping. You must be too busy to offer your own assistance.”
His lips pulled away from his teeth. “I don’t need this from you. Some man you are, letting your woman fight your battles for you.”
I turned to face him, meeting his gaze head-on. I noticed the other three men who were sitting and drinking were focused on the two of us. Their eyes ping-ponged between us as we spoke.
“Is that the hill you want to die on?” I asked him. “When you know the circumstances of the challenge your shitty Alpha made to me?”
“D-doesn’t change the fact that you lost that fight,” he shot back.
I narrowed my eyes. I could give him credit for stepping up to an Alpha and challenging me like this, but I knew that most of his bravado came from a desire to look tough in front of the others.
“Maybe you doubt that I can defend myself,” I replied. “Maybe you’d like to see what an Alpha can do at his full strength.”
He inched a step back, but tried to play it off. “You…you’re not worth the effort. Do what you want, Shepherd, see if I care.” He returned to his lawn chair but kept his gaze on me. That was enough of a victory for me. He knew which of us would win.
I crouched next to the man with the saw. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Steven,” he replied.
“Nice to meet you, Steven. I’ve got some men coming this way. Where can we help the most?”
“I think we mainly need guidance,” he said. “We were apprentices to our pack’s carpenters, but many of them were ki—” He cut himself off, glancing at the group of elites and then back to me. “We lost them before they could finish teaching us, so we feel a little out of our depth here.”
I couldn’t believe how badly Troy had fucked his own pack. Then again, he was so unstable, so hell-bent on ruling through fear, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“I can help with that. Where are the plans for the cabin?”
“Aiden’s got it.”
Aiden, like Steven, was wiry and compact. His body was built for construction work like this. He showed me the diagram for the cabin, but the specs were only half-finished.
“The acting Alpha let us know that we needed to take the construction more seriously. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to complete this,” he said, shame causing his cheeks to burn red. He glanced at the wolves who were sitting as he said, “We were told we needed to start working now.”
