Page 125 of The Alpha’s Heir

“Roger that, Lieutenant,” Marcus said.

I shook my head. “No more of the titles. It’s just Roman now.”

“Screw that.” Marcus laughed as he stomped on the gas. “You’re always going to be LT to me.”

46

Meg

“Like this?” Katrina asked as she tightened the drag on the fishing line, having traded her skirts and aprons for a pair of waders as she stood in the frigid stream that cut through our pack land.

I still hadn’t found a new honey-hole yet, but this place was beautiful with the reeds and sandy shore.

“You got it.” I smiled. “Not bad for a city girl.”

“It’s not too bad,” she agreed, looking over to the bank where Charles played in the sand.

The boy had changed a bit over the past weeks. He’d gotten more color in his cheeks from being outside all the time. His clothes had changed to the softer textiles spun from natural fibers the rest of us wore out here, courtesy of being spoiled by Trish whenever she visited to help Katrina learn how to cope with the boy’s magic—which mostly showed itself in tantrums now.

But it wasn’t too destructive. They reckoned he’d have some sort of earth-based magic, since it’d grown stronger after leaving the city walls.

Sarah had proved herself powerful with healing. And there were others, so many others, that either stayed here in our pack of refugees or moved on as we snuck them across the borders to Amarock pack with their temples of witches.

Things had been strange lately between the packs as different gods descended among them. We were all still trying to figure out the new rules and adjust, but—thank fate and knock on wood—we’d been left mostly alone as we built up our own pack and defenses.

“Did you read the one about the grizzly mountain men and the woman who came home for Christmas that I left in your library cart?” Katrina asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Not yet,” I admitted.

That was the worst part about being Alpha.

I had so little time to read.

“You should.” Katrina tugged the line a bit. “It was… beary good.”

“Excuse me, did you just make a bear shifter joke?” My smile widened.

“Maybe.” She shrugged, reeling in the line to cast it out again.

I might not have had much time to read, but that was okay. Things were chaotic. The future unsure. But I was still living my own romance novel, complete with great new friends.

Speaking of romance…

The sounds of vehicles approaching and entering my territory had my Alpha senses on alert.

“I’ll be back.” I ruffled Charles’s curly hair on my way up the hill. At the top, I surveyed my pack lands.

As of last week, we were up to forty-three members, but we’d grown with every trip back to the city. Our shelters were mostly canvas, made of supplies donated from other packs. But Lutten and Stone were working on cutting down new lumber for our first permanent plans that my dad had helped draw up.

A small thrum of magic seemed to jump from tent to tent as I looked over my people. I’d ridden along on many trips to the city, but Roman was now learning to suss-out the hint of magic in others too. It didn’t take much convincing to get them out here. It helped that they were already in hiding, many of them in the lower districts, and they’d have ended up in the Fringes anyway, or worse.

Mom and Aunt Coral and Kera—despite their knowledge of the humans and having grown up in the city—had been spared from how bad it could truly get in the hidden sections of the lower working class.

The stories Roman and Katrina told me of how people were treated as less than human, subservient, had my wolf wanting to tear the whole human city apart.

But we needed to play it safe and small to avoid the eyes of the gods for now.

One day… She gave a soft growl.