ETHAN
I quickly made my way back to the car as I thought over what the hell just happened.
Emma had been a pleasant encounter. She was certainly unique. The mix between her quick wit and brilliant mind was enough to keep me entertained. She also happened to be hot, so that was another plus.
I still had not figured out the pull to her, but it would become clear in time. I just needed to be patient and keep my eyes and ears open. Without a doubt, I knew that I was supposed to meet her. Now, I just had to figure out what my intuition was telling me. Unfortunately, it was a confusing thing at times.
My phone rang through the Bluetooth the moment I slid into the driver's seat of my black Camaro. Xander's name flashed across the console. My money was on him being hangry like usual.
"Where's the food?" he asked.
He obviously did not like that I had not responded to his earlier text. Too bad. I became a tad busy. Leave it to Xander to always get straight to the point. For someone with such an extensive vocabulary, and such a literary geek, he definitely did not waste his time on too many words with me.
"Hello to you too, brother. I'm doing well. How are you?" I deadpanned.
"Any particular reason why you sound like you ran patrol?" he deadpanned back.
I laughed at his insinuation. It was not that I would had been against it, but for the first time, it had not been on my mind around an attractive she-wolf that caught my interest. However, if she made a move towards that, I was not against it at all.
"I don't think you want those details. Put your big girl panties on and have an ounce of damn patience. I had an interesting evening. I'll be there in forty-five minutes," I said before hanging up on him.
I pulled my car out from its parking spot and hightailed it back to our territory. There was certainly a difference between Blacktree and Blood Moon. Their pack was situated in a small town that had little nature. Our pack was nestled against the mountains and was surrounded by lush forest. It was the perfect place for shifters. We also had a bustling city within our territory. Anything you could want was within driving distance.
I hit the burger joint to grab some food once inside the border before I headed back to the packhouse. Part of me wanted to show up empty handed just to see Xander get pissy, but I was also starving.
My thoughts drifted to my encounter with Emma on the drive home. She was definitely different than anyone I had met before. I had a feeling about her, but I could not quite place it yet. Like she claimed about herself, my feelings also were never wrong.
'She's unique,' Blaze, my wolf spoke up. He was just as curious about her as I was.
'Yeah, she really fucking is,' I agreed, walking into the packhouse.
Our packhouse was quite large because it always housed many families over the generations. The Alpha family once consisted of Xander's parents, his little sister, and him. The Beta family once consisted of my parents, my sister, and me. There once had also been the Gamma and Delta families. A few staff members also lived in the packhouse growing up, so it had always stayed fairly busy.
Now, it permanently housed just Xander and me by design. We were never able to get back into the feel of it being home without our families to make it that way.
In the far end of the packhouse sat our war room and Tech Hub. There was always a team in the Tech Hub, but they did not live here.
"Delivery," I sang out, sitting the food on desk.
I flopped down in a chair in front of his large mahogany desk. It was one of the few things he had moved in from his father's old office after he died. Xander was definitely not the sentimental type, but he had a lot of fond memories associated with it.
I cracked my neck and tried to relax. It had been a long day, and I was ready to hop under the stream of a hot shower. Just a little bit more to do before I can do just that. My comfortable bed was calling out to me seductively, and I was more than ready to answer that call.
He finished typing up whatever he was working on before closing his laptop and greedily grabbing one of the bags. Xander was the King of hangry. Two things you did not deprive the man of was coffee and food. He would eviscerate you for that.
"Finally. What took you so long?" he asked, taking a big bite of his triple layer bacon burger with all the fixings.
I grabbed my own and took a bite. The food from the burger joint never disappointed, so we had it often. Thankfully we had shifter healing, or else our arteries would be clogged by now. Imagine if the Alpha and Beta died of heart attacks by the age of twenty-one. That would leave our pack in quite the predicament while going down in history for the wrong thing.
I took a long sip of my drink, gathering my thoughts together. So much had occurred over the course of the day.
"First off, Dr. Fineman wasn't quite as brilliant as we were led to believe. I would wager that I could do his job better than he. He didn't have much information to provide on the autopsy of the rouges they killed. So, either he is incompetent or is hiding something."
Xander looked thoughtful as I said that. We both realized it was definitely a possibility. It would not be the first time that a pack got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
We did not have much faith in the Blacktree pack to begin with. Their Alpha was an egotistical bastard. If we did not need answers, we never would had engaged him in the first place. He agreed to consult with us because he feared saying no to our pack. The fear was what kept us able to get what we wanted mostly.
Emma was right when she said that we were the most protected pack. People knew not to cross us. It was something we unabashedly used to our own advantage.
"I'm heading back there on Wednesday."
He raised his eyebrow, looking at me curiously. Xander knew me better than anyone, so he knew how strongly I refused to deal with stupidity. I had a severe allergy to it and would rather rip someone's head off than listen to them spewing like the nincompoops they were.
"Why waste your time if he's an idiot? There are plenty of other packs to consult with."
He was absolutely correct. We maintained healthy relationships with many packs around the country. We also had trade agreements with various ones in the states, one in Canada, and two in South America. Our alliances were numerous because people wanted our support in case of war and loved opening trade negotiations with us.
Our main trade was the coal from the mines near the mountains. We also provided a variety of souped-up tech and some medicinal advancements. Trade was an important industry for our pack because it provided a healthy stream of revenue and gave us a leg up on other packs.
Being a trade leader decreased the chances of a successful attack. Sure, some packs attempted to take over our territory, but we destroyed them each and every time. It only served to expand our pack's resources.
"Not for him. I sort of ran into a girl, literally. She knocked me on my flat on my ass and everything. Quite the first impression and all. So, I'm going to see Dr. Fineman just as an excuse to enter Ezekiel's territory. He was delusional, thinking we're seriously seeking his aide. He's a pompous asshat who believes that he's the Goddess's gift to wolfkind."
Ezekiel was far too eager to get our request for consultation on the rogue attacks. It made me think back to the thought I had earlier. Being too eager could be him trying to deflect suspicion that his pack had anything to do with it. Unfortunately, our pack learned over the years that anything and anyone could be a threat. It was not always the most obvious of choices which were threats. Sometimes it was the least likely instead.
"True, but let's backtrack. A girl. Your mate perhaps?" he asked sarcastically.
Xander's view on mates was that they could easily become a weakness. If there was one thing that Xander did not accept then it was weakness. He believed that the pack would be at risk if the Alpha was weak. The sentiment was true, of course. If an Alpha was weak, his pack was at risk. Alphas were the strongest part of the pack – the glue that held it all together. However, mates were meant to provide us strength. They were supposed to complete us, not weaken us.
I honestly thought his true reasoning was that he was afraid to love someone so completely if they could be taken away at any moment. Our world was a dangerous one. Our pack had plenty of enemies, and any mate of his would have that bullseye on their back as well.
After the war, it was our job to inform pack members if their mates or loved ones were killed. Sadly, many never recovered from those losses. The death of a mate always had a drastic effect on the living mate. There was always a chance that they and their wolf would mourn their mate so much that they became feral or even die.
If they did survive, it was possible they would find a second chance mate, but that was a rare occurrence. They could always decide to take a chosen mate, but that typically only worked if they had never felt the unyielding strength of the mate-bond. Since not everyone found a fated mate, chosen mates were a good option. If they remained alone, they would have to live with only half of themselves – half of their soul.
My thoughts aligned more with the fact that they were created to complete us and be exactly what we needed. If a strong mate was needed, the mate would be strong. The Goddess blessed the unions and chose them specifically for a reason and purpose. I truly believed that Xander's mate or my mate would make our pack stronger instead of weaker. Plus, they would have to be strong and fucking stubborn women to keep up with us and keep us in line.
I rolled my eyes at him but smirked, nonetheless. Xander was predictable when it came to things if nothing else.
"Dunno. She's finishing up her senior year, so she probably isn't quite eighteen yet. Although, I wouldn't mind one bit if she was. She's hot as hell and just as brilliant, like seriously brilliant. There's something familiar about her, but trust me, I would remember her – brains, beauty, and everything in between."
He leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head while studying me for a moment. "Thought you had a thing going with Callie?"
"I'm calling it quits with her tomorrow. She's getting possessive, so fuck that. She actually asked if I wanted her to come to the pack house tonight," I told him about her text.