Chapter 2 - Devon

"Your guard is slipping." Devon followed his verbal correction with a physical one, landing a right hook on Jonah's cheek.

Jonah stumbled and caught himself, swearing. He launched at Devon, but the bigger man slipped to the side and took him down with a kick.

"Tighten up. You're not going to beat a Rosewood grandmother with that kind of fighting." Devon stretched out his hand to help Jonah to his feet.

"I was going easy on you. Can't beat up the alpha, you know." He swiped the back of his hand over his bleeding lip. "Otherwise, I would've had you."

"Right, right. How about next time you don't hold back then, and we'll see what happens."

Jonah scowled. He held up two fingers, barely an inch apart. "You're holding on to your position by about this much, big man. This much."

Rage pulsed across Devon's body. He grabbed the front of Jonah's shirt and yanked him close. "Do you want to find out what I'll do to keep it?"

Their eyes locked. Devon waited for Jonah to look away. His grip tightened.

"Calm down. I'm not interested in your job."

He let go and slapped Jonah on the back. "I need you in my corner, Jo."

The White Winter pack was tied together with a thread. Pull on it, and the whole thing would unravel.

"I'm there." Jonah held up his hands. "So maybe you should go easy on me once in a while."

Devon snorted. "I need you strong. You're my beta. And you know Em wants that spot."

"Not that I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but why isn't Emma your beta? She's your sister," Jo said, wiping sweat off his brow with a towel. "She's strong as hell and the scrappiest fighter I know."

Dev sat down on the weight bench. "She wants to be alpha."

"Yeah, dude, we all do."

He was right. Their pack was a cobbled-together group of misfits that couldn't fit in anywhere else. Most of them had attitude issues that got them kicked out of other packs, and most thought they could run the White Winter pack better than Dev could. On his worst days, he believed them.

"She wants it too much. Like, sleep with one eye open too much."

"You don't trust your own sister?"

"Have you met her?" Dev pulled his water bottle from his gym bag and downed half of it.

Jo flashed a wicked grin. "I'm well acquainted."

"Gross." He jabbed a finger at Jo. "I don't want to hear it."

"You know that tenacity carries over to all areas of her life—"

Dev hurled the water bottle at Jo's head. He ducked, and it smashed into the door behind him.

"Woah. Shots fired." Caleb walked in, wearing a white tank top, navy gym shorts. He nodded his chin at Jonah. "Not the first one either. Nice fat lip you got there."

"Yeah? Amanda won't mind it." Jonah smirked.

"I told you to stay away from her," Devon cut in. "The last thing we need is you idiots getting a human girl involved right now."

"How can you be into her?" Emma walked in behind Caleb, sliding her hand into the hair at the back of his neck. "Weak, frail little thing. Could snap her to pieces with a look."

She was in a sports bra and joggers, blonde hair up in a sleek ponytail. The only female in the White Winter pack, and she liked it that way. Another girl might've brought some maternal energy to the group, given the boys someone to be good for, but not Em.

For the boys, she was a dangerous mix of potential mate and bossy older sister. Dropping her into the situation, there was a fifty-fifty shot that a fight would break out.

"Don't even think about it." Caleb shoved her off of him. "She's off limits."

Emma raised one slender, arched eyebrow. "Sounds like she's off limits for you, too, unless you want Dev breathing down your neck."

"Not the kind of threesome I'm into." Caleb flashed her a boyish grin. "Now, if you"d like to get involved…"

"I don't share." Emma sat beside Devon, stretching her arms overhead to show off her toned stomach. "Unlike you two."

Caleb and Jonah didn't even try to hide their ogling. She reveled in it, their eyes on her and the friction it caused between them.

"Knock it off. Don't stir up trouble." Devon shoved her with his elbow.

She turned toward him, chin up. Something stirred in her eyes, darker than his rebuke warranted. Something born the moment Dev had become alpha. Then it was gone.

"Lighten up, I'm only teasing." She bent down and started wrapping her hands. "Better they fight over me than some human. You should be thanking me."

Devon got to his feet. He couldn't match his pack's levity or shake the tension from his shoulders.

"Done already?" Caleb shadow-boxed, hands wrapped, ready to get in the ring. On a technical level, he was the best fighter. But outside the ring, he lacked the ruthlessness required.

"We've already been here two hours, man. You two slept in." Jonah tossed his gym bag over his shoulder.

"Guess it's just you and me, Em."

They shared a look that made Dev want to bleach his eyes. "Gross. I'm out of here. Coming, Jo?"

Jo lingered, eyes darting between Caleb and Emma in a way that spelled future trouble.

Devon snapped his fingers. "Let's go. We've got shit to do."

He left the gym and trotted up the stairs. Jo followed a moment later, and Dev breathed a sigh of relief. It was one thing dealing with disobedience from his sister. Getting it from his beta was another.

The White Winter pack had a massive house set back in the woods, courtesy of Dev and Emma's parents. They'd had more money than they'd known what to do with, and when they'd taken off to Europe, they'd left the house to their kids. To Devon, really, the older of the two, but Emma bristled when he reminded her of that.

The entirety of the basement was laid out as a gym. Weight room, boxing ring, little area for stretching that Em insisted on. A sauna. That was Emma, too. Upstairs, the den had a TV, an array of couches, and a killer view out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. One more floor up, there were enough bedrooms for the entire pack to sleep in, though some had places of their own they preferred to crash in.

"Look who it is. Can the plebs enter the gym now?" Eli, the pack"s newest member, and the biggest problem, popped up from the couch when Jo and Dev climbed the stairs.

Something snapped in Devon. He crossed the space between them in three strides and shoved Eli back onto the couch. The younger man's eyes widened, then narrowed.

Dev didn't give him a chance to get back to his feet. He pressed his forearm to Eli's throat, leaning his weight on it until fear chased the outrage off of Eli's face. His hands scrabbled on the couch cushions.

Jo was beside him. Three others watched from the couches. No one interrupted. No one helped.

"Question me again, and I won't stop." Devon snarled in Eli's face. He leaned harder against Eli's throat before releasing him. "Understand me?"

Eli doubled over, coughing.

"I didn't hear you. Do you understand me?" He grabbed Eli by the hair, forced him to look up at his face.

Eyes watering, Eli nodded. "Got it."

His voice was a wheeze. Satisfied, Dev stepped back. He scanned the room but the others kept their heads down, too afraid to meet his eyes. Everyone was silent.

"Come on, Jo. We need to talk."

He took the stairs two at a time, hopped up on adrenaline and rage.

"The balls on that guy," Dev said, tossing his gym back onto the floor of his office.

It was the best room in the house, easily. Fireplace on one wall, dark wood, plush carpet. He hadn't changed much since taking it over from his father. Added a couch, swapped some of the art, just enough to make it feel like his. Like he wasn't just a kid playing dress up in his father's room.

"Yeah." Jo scratched the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at Devon. He plopped down onto the couch, still looking past Dev, out at the mountains on the other side of the windows. "Bit much, maybe?"

"His balls? Not anymore. Not after he nearly wet himself in front of the rest of the pack."

"Erm, no. I meant more your reaction." Finally, Jo dragged his gaze over to Devon.

Dev didn't like what he saw there on his oldest friend's face. Something like fear. Hits different, seeing it on someone he's known since he was six.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do? This whole pack is held together by brute force, and, news flash, Jo, I'm the brute." Dev pushed his hair back off his face. Even here, with just Jonah, it was hard to say. "Take the assholes from every pack, the castoffs, and shove them into one pack, and what do you think is going to happen?"

"I get it. Really, I do. But like, I don't know. Isn't there a better way than just beating down anyone who questions anything you do? Eventually, they're going to get sick of getting smacked around."

"Then maybe they'll stop, I don't know, questioning me?"

Jonah pulled a face. "Right. Remember what you just said about the assholes and castoffs? They're stubborn. You've got to have a better plan than that, or you might as well walk away now before they eat you alive."

It was tempting. That was the worst part. How tempting it was to shrug off the mantle of alpha and walk away, to leave his ragtag band of misfits behind to fend for themselves.

"I can't walk away, you know that."

He paced in front of the long line of windows.

"Because of your dad? Dude, maybe it's time to let that go. He's far, far away from here."

"Yeah, and even from across the pond, I can feel his disappointment. Can hear him thinking what a screw-up I am. He wanted Em to go with them. Did you know that?"

His friend sat up straighter, head cocked to the side. Some people looked like their wolf forms, even as humans. Jo was one of those. All shaggy brown hair and a way of tilting his head perfectly mimicked how he'd turn one ear to listen as a wolf.

"I didn't know. Why?"

"She's the favorite. Obviously. And he wanted her to have his company. Wanted her as his second in command.

"But she didn't go."

Dev shrugged. "Not yet, anyway."

Jonah blew out a breath. "What are you going to do, Dev?"

"We need stability. Cohesion. Something that brings us together."

"A good hunt?"

"That's temporary. Camaraderie for a night." He sat down in his chair. His, not his father's, and put his feet up on his desk. "I need a mate. The pack has no future now. Em's our only female. She mates with someone, it gives them the edge. An heir to pass the lineage down."

"Is that why you're so testy about me and Em?"

"No, that's because it"s gross. She's my sister." Devon shook his head, disgusted. "I want one of the Rosewood females, Jo."

"You'll never convince one of them to leave their pack. They're thick as thieves over there. A real family."

"I'm not asking her." He pointed at Jonah. "You're going to get her for me. Willing or not, she'll be my mate. Take the pack. Stay close to the Rosewood border. They have a female who can't seem to follow the rules."

"Dev, dude, if we do that, the Rosewoods would start a war to get her back. They're not going to take a kidnapping lying down."

"Then we kill two birds with one stone. Stabilize my position, weaken the Rosewoods. It'll give our pack something to fight for."

He could see the trepidation on Jonah's face. Unlike the others in the White Winter pack, Jo was a good boy. Honest. Kind. Just too loyal to leave Dev's side.

"I'm not asking. Take the pack and get out there. Bring her to me."