by R. E. Butler
“Speaking of the full moon,” Acksel said, leaning back in his chair, “I can hold rank fights two days after and you can take your place among the protectors.”
Jeremiah froze, a forkful of mashed potatoes halfway between the plate and his mouth. “Rank fights?”
Acksel’s brow rose. “You shifted. It might not be a traditional wolf shift, but you’re not a non anymore. On the full moon, you and Honey can come hunt with me and the other high-ranked males. The pack will see you in your shift and know that things have changed. For the rank fights, I thought you could fight for ninth or tenth rank. It’s higher than the lowest protector ranks, but not so high that pack members will balk at you moving up so fast. If you find you’re ready to move up in a few months, then we’ll revisit the issue, but I think you’ll be happy in the top ten. Some responsibility with the pack, but not so much as to overwhelm you, especially when you’ve got a new mate.”
He sat there, staring at Acksel in shock. Honey put pressure on his wrist and he lowered his fork to the plate.
“I don’t know what to say, Acksel. I’m surprised. I know you said that things could be different for me within the pack, but I didn’t know you meant so vastly different. What will happen to the omegas? I do a lot of work around town, and I’m the only one who focuses on the retirees.”
“There are some young wolves that will be shifting in the next few months, and I can hold off on rank fights so they can pick up the slack. There are some omegas who could be doing more, and there’s Honey of course. She’s an omega.”
Jeremiah couldn’t stop the snarl. “You want my mate to take over my job?”
Acksel stared calmly at Jeremiah. “Females are omegas; this is nothing new.”
Honey squeezed Jeremiah’s shoulder with one hand and began to rub his back with the other. He recognized it as her attempt to calm him down, and it was working; just her touch made his temper fade. Not that he wasn’t still pissed off about the insinuation that Honey would be taking his place, because he sure as hell was, but he didn’t feel the need to leap over the table and punch his alpha.
“Can he have some time to think about it?” Honey asked.
Acksel nodded. Brynn said, “She’s obviously not going to take over everything, Jeremiah. It’s not like we’d ask her to use the snow blowers or chop wood. Kammie can take her under her wing and show her the ropes. It’ll be great.”
He looked at his mate. In her old pack, she’d been set apart from the other females and never had to serve the way that the omegas in the Wilde Creek pack did. She’d never had to clean someone’s home or run errands for a highly ranked male. She hadn’t had a happy childhood, but she’d been protected in many ways. He didn’t want her to suddenly have to change everything she’d known. He couldn’t abide her working while he lounged around with the other protectors. Sure, he would be patrolling and guarding as Sam, the head of the protectors, ordered, so he wouldn’t be doing nothing, but the omegas worked hard to keep the pack running.
The conversation grew strained as they finished eating. Jeremiah wasn’t happy, and he couldn’t make himself appear content when he was anything but.
Honey pushed her chair back and said, “Thank you so much for dinner. Jeremiah and I should get going.”
Brynn gave Acksel a dirty look and said, “I’m sorry if we’ve upset you, it certainly wasn’t our intention. I thought you’d be happy to hear that you don’t have to schlep around town anymore.”
He glanced at his alpha female, but said nothing as he stood. He nodded at his alphas and led Honey to the front door, where they donned their coats. He knew he was acting a like an ass, but he couldn’t articulate what was bothering him because he wasn’t entirely sure himself. He opened the door for Honey and stepped onto the porch next to her, pulling the door shut behind them. The brisk night wind helped to cool his temper some, and he took a slow inhale of the cold air.
Honey took his hand and they walked down to his truck. He opened the door for her, trudged around to his side, and climbed in the driver’s seat. When they arrived at the garage, he turned off the engine and rested his forehead on the steering wheel.
“What’s troubling you?”
He growled out a sigh. “I don’t know.”
“Didn’t you want this your whole life? To be part of the protectors, hunting on the full moons, a ranked member of the pack?”
He turned to look at her. She was smiling softly in concern. “I did until I met you. Now I don’t care. I don’t want you to have to pick up my slack just because the alphas decided that I’m enough of a shifter to fight for rank.”
“You feel guilty?”
“A little.”
“I’m always going to be an omega. I’m sure there are packs with ranked females, but Wilde Creek isn’t going to change its stripes anytime soon. Even though Stacy wasn’t really my grandma, she was still my family, and I know that I’ll enjoy helping out the retirees in your place. Someone should look after them, anyway, and you’ve done a great job. But you get to start over, to have the rank and respect you always wanted.”
“Do you respect me?”
She looked surprised. “Of course! You’re my mate. You stood up for me in front of your pack. You protected me against crazy odds. You’re sexy and sweet and amazing. Rank doesn’t matter to me. The only thing I care about is that you’re happy.”
He echoed her earlier statement. “I’m happy.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” she said, snorting in disbelief. She turned to face him, folding her arms across her chest. “What would make you happy?”
“Us naked.”
“Really? Don’t make me roll my eyes.”
He groaned. “Shit, Honey, I don’t know. I guess I wish that things were the same but different.”
“That’s impossible, you know.”
“No, I mean I was aggravated with how much work I was doing as an omega, but now Acksel’s talking about taking away my identity entirely. All I’ve ever been was an omega, and…” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“So tell him no. He offered to let you rank fight, but you don’t have to agree with it. I’m sure your pack has wolves who choose to be omegas even though they could be protectors.”
He nodded.
“Let’s get in the apartment. It’s starting to get chilly out here.”
He could have kicked himself for letting her get cold. Hustling her into the apartment, they cleaned up and climbed onto the lumpy pull-out. She burrowed against him until every inch of her naked body was pressed against him.
“I want to make a good life for you, Honey,” he said quietly.
“It already is, Jeremiah. We’re mates and that’s all that really matters. Everything else is just details.”
He held her while she drifted off to sleep, but he couldn’t rest himself. His mind was a jumble of thoughts. He wanted to make the best choice for his mate and their future family. If Honey had never been snatched, then he wouldn’t have found the trigger for his half-shift. Things would have been the same and he’d have been internally bitching about that, too.
He thought about the woman in his arms. She was gorgeous, in her human form and her wolf form. He’d never been so singularly attracted to a female before, and he supposed that was the way it was meant to be with mates. No one had affected him the way that she did. It wasn’t just her beauty, though. He felt like they were old souls, like they had known each other forever. They could each sense when the other was upset, and she had an uncanny knack for calming his wolf. She wanted to help with the retirees. She had a big heart, and even though she had no reason to trust him, she’d agreed to be his mate without reservation.
He was damn lucky.
His heart swelled as he thought about her. He was standing on the edge of falling in love with her. He could honestly say he’d never been in love before, and he was glad that she would be his first and his only love.
Because she liked him for who he was and
not what he was, he knew the best thing to do for both of them was to continue to be an omega. He didn’t need status when he had her by his side. He’d just take Alfonse’s advice and learn how to say no. To everyone but Honey – he’d never say no to her.
* * * * *
The sky was clear when they woke in the morning, and Jeremiah was glad that he hadn’t needed to grab the snow blower or shovel anyone’s sidewalk or driveway. They had a leisurely breakfast, which Honey insisted on cooking for them. She made the best scrambled eggs he’d ever had, and he wasn’t just saying that because she was his sexy mate.
“We have two houses to see this morning, and if we don’t like them there’s another couple we can check out on the other side of town,” he said as they readied to leave.
“I’m sure we’ll like one of them.”
“Do you have an ideal house in mind?” He pulled open the apartment door and followed her down the metal stairs into the noisy garage.
“Not really. I liked your bathroom, it was really big. And I really liked your back deck. I enjoy sitting outside in the summer and reading, although I guess I won’t have a ton of free time now that I’ll be doing omega work.”
He bit back the snarl and said, “You only have to be as busy as you want to be. Kammie is extremely busy, but she loves what she does and actively seeks out things to do for people. There are females who hardly lift a finger outside of bringing food to the full moon parties.”
“Why is the workload so uneven?”
“Maybe because no one really enforces it. When people are willing to pick up the slack, the others don’t have to work as hard.”
They buckled in and headed toward the first rental home. “Stacy said in the old days that everyone lived in one huge house and the alpha pair were like the father and mother of the whole pack. The omegas did all the domestic stuff and the ranked males did the hunting and patrolling.”
He made a face. “I don’t know if I’d like to live with the pack like that.”
“Me, either.”
He drove to the first house, a two-story on a tiny lot. Although the interior was nice, Honey took one look out the back door and declared she didn’t want to stare into someone else’s backyard every night, and he agreed. The second house, a Cape Cod style with three bedrooms, had a better yard, but the interior was hopelessly stuck in the seventies, complete with shag carpeting and mirrored wallpaper in the bathroom.
Before they moved onto the two other houses, he pulled out his phone to double-check the addresses and noticed he’d missed a call from Acksel. He almost ignored it; it was his and Honey’s day to house-hunt and he didn’t want his alpha to ask him to do anything outside of their plans to find a place to live that didn’t smell like grease and tires.
Letting out a sigh, he returned the call. He hadn’t been the best guest the night before, and he didn’t really want to be on his alpha’s shit list.
“Are you house-hunting?” Acksel asked.
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“I’d like you to meet me at 287 Leap Road.”
“Uh, okay. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Acksel ended the call, and he tossed the phone into the cup holder. “That was weird.”
“What’s at that address?” Honey asked. Her sharp hearing had allowed her to overhear the conversation.
“It’s been empty for about a year; a retired mated couple left the pack to live with their oldest daughter in another state. It’s in the retiree development.”
“Maybe someone new is moving in? Anyone in the pack retiring?”
“I don’t think so,” he mused as he drove toward Leap Road. It wasn’t something that wolves looked forward to. Unlike humans, who seemed to love retiring, when a wolf retired from the pack, it meant they couldn’t handle even the simplest act of hunting. Although wolves were naturally immune to most human diseases, they did age and bodies wore down; arthritis could set in and prevent even the most active of wolves from shifting without great pain. Eventually many of them stopped shifting altogether.
“Getting old sucks,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“You have to wonder why some wolves age without issue and some don’t. There were wolves in my former pack who were in their eighties and never stopped shifting and hunting, and then there were some in their fifties who couldn’t handle the pain of shifting.”
“I suppose it’s the same way with humans. Some never have aging problems and some have them too soon.”
“I hope we’re the sort that never have them.”
He chuckled. “Me too, sweetheart.”
Pulling to a stop in front of the house, Jeremiah turned off the truck and got out, looking at the ranch home as he walked around the front of his truck to help Honey out. It was in need of some repair, but it was still in pretty good shape. Acksel’s SUV was in the driveway, and Jeremiah and Honey walked up the sidewalk to the small front porch. He opened the door and followed Honey inside, finding Acksel and Brynn in a small room to the left.
“Hey!” Brynn said, smiling brightly.
He and Honey greeted the alphas, and Jeremiah looked around with a critical eye. The house was furnished, but someone had covered everything with sheets so it reminded him a bit of a haunted house. They were clearly in the living room, and across the foyer was a formal dining room.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked you to stop by,” Acksel said.
“It crossed my mind,” Jeremiah said.
“First, I wanted to ask you if you’ve given any thought to fighting for rank.”
Jeremiah looked down at Honey at his side and she smiled at him encouragingly. He took a deep breath and said, “I don’t want to fight for rank and become a protector. I want to remain an omega with my mate.”
Brynn elbowed Acksel and said, “I told you so.”
“My smart mate,” he said, bending to kiss her. He straightened and said, “I was speaking to the elders last night about this situation, and I was reminded of a time in our pack’s history when the elders were watched over by specially chosen pack members. These special members were called stewards. When a pack member decided to retire from the pack, they were watched over by the stewards. Their needs were taken care of, whether it was food preparation, home cleaning, or repairs. Our pack hasn’t had any stewards in several generations, but I’m told that it was a position of reverence.”
Brynn said, “It makes sense to me. Almost all the retirees live on the same street, but no one is specifically looking out for them and them alone. If my dad was a pack retiree, I’d want to know that someone was checking on him and making sure he was okay.”
Jeremiah’s brow lowered. “I don’t understand.”
“We want you and Honey to become our pack’s stewards. You’ll technically be neither omega or protector, but instead unranked but important members of the pack. You’ll still hunt with us on the full moons and take part in the celebrations as any other pack member does, but you’ll only be helping the retirees. You spend a lot of time helping them already, but your duties are vast enough that you can’t focus just on them. It’s about time someone started looking out for them, and we think you and Honey would be perfect for the job,” Acksel said.
Honey’s gasp of surprise was echoed in Jeremiah’s mind. He was shocked. He looked at Honey, and she was smiling so broadly that he knew she was happy with Acksel and Brynn’s news.
“I don’t think we need to discuss it, do you, Honey?”
“I’m with you whatever you do,” she promised.
“Aw, that’s so freaking sweet,” Brynn said.
Acksel made an annoyed sound. “You guys can get mushy later. Is that a yay or nay on being stewards?”
“Definitely yes,” Jeremiah said.
“Good. You can begin your new duties on Monday. You’re entirely in charge of what you’re doing here. I want you to check in with my Dad once a week and let him know what you’ve got going on. He’s in touch with the
older wolves in the pack and may know of some who aren’t yet ready to retire, but need help. If you need extra help for projects, tell him and he’ll organize it for you.”
Brynn elbowed him again and he rubbed his ribs. “Would you stop doing that, woman?”
“The thing.”
“Oh, right. Brynn would like it if you’d be willing to still help with the wedding. She threatened to turn into a bridezilla if you said no, and I can’t emphasize enough how much I don’t want that to happen.”
Jeremiah chuckled. “We’ll be happy to help with the wedding.”
“Yay!” Brynn cheered and hugged Honey.
“Why did you bring us here?” Jeremiah asked Acksel.
Acksel tossed a set of keys to Jeremiah and he caught them. “It’s yours.”
“What?”
“The house. It’s being exchanged for your property, which is going to become an extension of our woods once spring comes and we can get it bulldozed and planted. Whatever furniture you don’t like you can toss. You’ll continue to be paid through the pack funds, but now Honey will also draw a salary. You two should be really comfortable here, and you’ll be close to the people you’re going to help.”
Jeremiah squeezed the keys in his hand and blinked at the sting of tears. He was absolutely not going to cry in front of his alphas. “Thank you, Acksel.”
Jeremiah hugged Honey with one arm and reached out and shook Acksel’s hand.
“I’m sure you want to get out of the garage apartment. If you need any help cleaning, I’m certain you can find some omegas willing to help.”
They said goodbye and left. Jeremiah looked around the room and then down at his mate.
“Holy freaking crap, we’ve got a house,” she said. “I want to go look at the rest of it!”
He grabbed her before she could get too far away, and drew her close. Her eyes darkened as their gazes locked.
“Honey, where would I be without you?”
“I don’t know where I’d be either, but I know I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.”