Page 25 of Found Objects

“She does, yes.”

“Then she’s even more welcome. Most humans love the instant family of a pack.”

I nodded. “Thank you for letting me know.”

He was going to say something else to me, but two women showed up at the table to speak to him, and after a moment he got up to follow them across the room.

“What are you thinking, Merritt?” Narah asked.

I turned to look at her. “Nothing.”

“Yes, you are.”

I shrugged. “Your husband is a second-born.”

She scowled at Oonagh.

“What? Merritt has a right to know about the pack he may or may not join.”

Narah huffed out a breath and returned her attention to me. “That’s true. He is.”

“Abel needs your son to mate with someone of pure lupine blood to help with the legitimacy of him taking over this pack from his brother.”

She narrowed her eyes. “It would be best, yes, but that doesn’t mean that you and⁠—”

I put up my hand to stop her. “I don’t care about me. We’re not talking about me. The more important part is that Justin doesn’t feel like an alpha.”

“What do you mean?”

I smiled at her. “You know what I mean.”

“I told you,” Oonagh chimed in.

“Quiet,” she growled. “Merritt, please explain what you’re talking about.”

“Justin doesn’t have that overwhelming presence that radiates from an alpha, that pull that draws people to them, makes them feel safe.”

“I’m not sure you know what you’re––”

“And honestly, neither does your mate.”

“Oh, well,” she rushed out. “I think you’re mis––”

“I’m not missing anything. You know Abel doesn’t have that…whatever you want to call it, that demeanor of an alpha, the feel of a pack leader, the gravitas. There is no instant recognition down deep of power.”

Narah’s eyes searched my face.

“He’s trying,” I told her, trying to offer reassurance. “Just in the few moments I’ve observed him, I can see he’s striving to hold himself as an alpha does. And he grew up with two, his father and older brother, so he knows what being an alpha is supposed to look like. He’s learned to mimic it really well, but by birth, as well as nature, he’s a beta.”

She nodded.

“Justin is the son of a beta, so for him as well, all the innate power is absent. I can’t sense any in either of them.”

“But you’re not a wolf, you said.”

“That’s true, but I still know the difference between an alpha and one who is not.”

“You can sense that? The lack of power?”