2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zane

I leaned into the hood of an old busted-up truck that I was bound and determined to get running again. The damn thing had been on the property when we took over this territory, and then it had become my pet project. There was just something about it that called to me.

It was good too, because that thing kept me busy when I wasn't doing things for the den. I didn't get a lot of time to work on her, but she prevented me from getting into my own head and giving me a focus that wasn't just the den.

One of these days, the engine would turn over and stay running, then I'd need to get a new pet project.

Today was not that day.

The engine sputtered and spat, while smoke billowed from one of the belts. As sad as that was, it was progress. Sputtering was a heck of a lot more than it did the first dozen or so times I attempted to get it going.

"Call it a night, Zane, before we break something in here. You're going to set off the fire alarm… again," Russ, one of my mechanics, yelled from across the shop.

I tossed my rag into the bin. "It was one time. One."

"Math is hard. It was one time this week." He rolled his eyes. "Good thing Alpha's brother is coming here to take over accounting, because if you can't count all the times you made this alarm go off, you sure as shit couldn't balance the books."

Russ grabbed the back of his neck, the way he did when he was good and done for the night. "Call it quits." I might've been Beta and technically his boss, but he wasn't asking. And frankly, I needed to hear it.

"All right, climb out of there," I said.

My apprentice, Nate, opened the creaky door and hopped out, slamming it shut. With it, the window came down. That was yet another thing on my to-do list. Or maybe it was a feature—every time you closed the door, the window came down. That could be a perk. Unless it was raining. Or snowing. Or hailing. Fine. It wasn't a perk at all.

"You gotta give up on that truck. You're going to put more into parts than it's ever worth." Russ grabbed a wrench from the workbench and put it in the toolbox it belonged in. The man couldn't sit still for a second. He always had to be doing something—just not helping me with the truck.

"Well, I'm not looking to sell, so what does it really matter?" I said.

He shook his head. We'd had this conversation before, and it always ended with me being stubborn and him thinking I lost my mind. It was no surprise that today was the same.

"Are we on for poker tonight?" Russ latched the box.

Now that we had started the weekly poker game with the group of Betas and some older alphas in the den as a way of building camaraderie, we had never missed a week. Only this week, our Alpha wouldn't be there since he was visiting another den.

These games were a perfect way to unwind and learn about what was happening within the den in a safe setting. As second-in-command, it was my responsibility to take care of any situations that arose that our Alpha couldn't deal with because he was away or that he assigned to me. I loved my position, but damn, was it hard, especially when the den was so new and alphas outnumbered the omegas two to one.

Having that sort of imbalance led to fights. I'd blame it on our beast, but I had a feeling it was more to do with alphas being lonely. Sure, we had each other, but when the sun went down and everyone went to their own places, it got lonely. There were no two ways around that.

"Yeah. Wouldn't miss it." I wasn't king of poker, but also, it wasn't about that.

"I'll see you there then. I gotta shower before I go anywhere." Russ pretended to smell his armpit and be disgusted.

"You guys aren't going to get a clean me. I have to close this place up and do some paperwork before I head home," I said. They would have to deal with my greasy self.

"Isn't the accountant arriving soon?" Nate asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I don't want him to find all the paperwork a mess. Just because he agreed to take it over doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to make it organized for him." Not that I was counting on our "organized" to be what he would do, but the best we could was far better than the pile of horror that was waiting in there for me now.

"Yeah, yeah. Tell that to Patrick." Russ stuck out his tongue. Some days I swore he was a teenager trapped in an adult body.

Patrick was the chef at the diner. He was also the owner, but really, he just liked to cook. As far as I could tell, the paperwork, the schedule—and everything else that had to be done to manage a business—was a goddamn mess. I knew it drove Aydan insane. Maybe his accountant brother could help with that, too.

My phone rang just as Nate and Russ were leaving. Speak of he devil. It was Aydan.

"Alpha."

I could practically hear the eye roll and see the steam rolling out of Aydan's ears. "Listen, man, when we're on the phone, and most certainly when we're not around people, you can just call me Aydan."

"Yes, sir," I said. I wasn't even that kind of rule-following guy. It'd started out as trying to figure out my role and morphed into an ongoing joke.

He chuckled. "Smartass. How are things going there?"

"Good. Damn Chevy still won't start. But we're close." We were not any closer than we had been two weeks ago when I last tried it, but I still considered that close.

"Awesome. Listen, my brother should be there today, and you should know that I'm moving forward with this arranged mating idea. Corey has agreed to it."

My eyebrows shot up my forehead. I'd assumed this old-fashioned notion was going to fall by the wayside. Looked like I was wrong. His brother wasn't mine, but if he were…

"Really? I know you want to bring in more people to the den, but this is how you want to do it?" An arranged mating wasn't something I'd agree to. I hadn't given much thought to settling down, but I'd always assumed I'd find my fated mate or none at all. Why accept less than the goddess was offering, right? But this wasn't about me. This was about my Alpha and his brother, and Aydan's mission to establish our den.

"Corey agreed. It's what's best for the den. It really is." Was he trying to convince me or himself?

"I trust you, man." We had talked about it at length. I didn't like the idea, but several of the other Betas didn't hate it. And really, it was his brother whose opinion mattered the most.

Who knew, it might be a good thing. This arrangement would bring more people here, especially if an alpha from another den mated with Aydan's brother the way it looked like he was going to. This guy was a "buy one, get three free." He was a package deal, bringing along his three omega brothers with him to start their lives here as well, with the hopes of finding their own mates.

"Can you show Corey around for me? I feel bad leaving him on his own after he moved all that way. He is going to need a friend."

"Of course," I said.

"Good. He's moving into the house next to us."

"He's not moving in with you?"

I didn't say "us," even though I did live in Aydan's home officially. I liked staying at the apartment above my garage. It was small, but it was mine. Officially, though, my residence was with the den Alpha. But it wasn't really living with him, not the way I had assumed his brother would.

"He wanted his own space, and so he's got it."

That made me smile. It meant that his brother didn't let him walk all over him and that this truly was his agreement. Aydan wasn't a dick, but he could be persuasive, and mating wasn't something to be persuaded into.

"All right, then. Sure. I can show him around." I didn't necessarily love the idea of babysitting the Alpha's younger brother, but I would do what I had to. It was my job.

"And Zane, you know the rules. Keep your hands to yourself."

I rolled my eyes. "Jesus, man. He's practically engaged. And I am most certainly not looking for any sort of relationship. Least of all with your brother." That was a fast route to getting my ass challenged in front of the entire den. I was so not in the mood to be bled out all because I wanted to get a piece of ass. Heck no to that one.

"Hey, you don't even know him." Leave it to Aydan to be offended on his brother's behalf when I just promised to do exactly what he wanted me to.

I chuckled. "Trust me. I won't be interested."