Chapter 9

Thyme gave Remy directions to the house she shared with her friend Dana. She was quiet on the short drive. Hell, he’d be quiet if his family treated him the way hers had. He’d nearly punched Leif for his behavior. Whether she was actually alpha female yet or not shouldn’t give him a pass for treating her like shit. Remy would never talk to his own sisters like that, let alone allow someone else to do it.

Her half-brother was a piece of work and so was her stepmom. Not to mention Jacob, who even though he was Leif’s grandfather, as an elder he should be impartial and want what’s best for the pride, not what’s best for his direct family. It was no wonder that she referred to them as stepmom and half-brother, and not as if they were her actual family, because they clearly didn’t think of her as their family. Leif was a loudmouthed asshole and he definitely needed to be put in his place.

Once Thyme and Remy took over, he’d ensure that her half-brother treated her respectfully. Period.

“I keep wanting to ask if you’re okay but I know you’re not,” Remy said. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry I’ve been quiet.”

“You’re allowed to be.”

He parked in front of the house and turned off the truck.

“I’m just embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. You can’t control their behavior. You’re only accountable for your own behavior.”

“I know that, but it’s still awful. Brilla’s never treated me like family, never treated me like she even liked me, let alone loved me. And then Leif came along and I was like a ghost in my own house.”

“What about your dad?”

“He was always pretty stoic and not very emotionally available to me. He wasn’t the kind of dad who hugged me all the time and told me he loved me. I mean, I know he loved me and wanted what’s best for me. He trained me to be the future alpha. He was raised by an alpha to be an alpha, and alphas aren’t supposed to be touchy feely. I was really young when my mom died, but I remember her being so calm and kind. I think she was his counterpart and they balanced each other well.” She grunted. “Then he mated Brilla almost immediately, and he was different because of her, he was even more closed off than he’d been. She wasn’t calm and kind, she was passive-aggressive and cruel. I think my dad’s opinion of males being unemotional is wrong. Your alpha showed that a male can be compassionate and powerful at the same time, that it’s not weak to show that you care.” She rubbed her forehead and sighed softly.

He watched her as different emotions played over her face, from anger and unhappiness to grief. It wasn’t until she looked at him that a glimmer of something other than the difficult emotions appeared in the depths of her emerald eyes.

“I’ve got a lot of baggage,” she said with a rueful smile. “You sure you want to get tangled up with me?”

“Hell, yes.” It wasn’t anything he needed to think about for even a second. She was his truemate and that meant they were perfect for each other. He cupped her face. “I know things are difficult with your family. I’m so sorry that your dad isn’t here to help with this transition, and you’ve got Brilla and her family to contend with. At least Liam and Arlene are on our side.”

Thyme hummed. “Yeah. He stood up for us and I appreciate that. I just…want to move forward with everything, you know? I want to find a new home for the pride, I want you and I to mate and mark each other, and then I want us to take over the pride and make sure Brilla and Leif stop acting like assholes.”

“That’s not too many things to take care of,” Remy chuckled.

“Just a few.”

“Give me the house tour and then let’s figure out where we’re going on our first date.”

She smiled, really smiled for the first time since they’d gotten to town, and it made him feel ten feet tall. He might not be able to fix everything right away, but he sure as hell was going to do his best to make her the happiest female on the planet.

There were some things that Remy missed about living in an actual house, and one of them was closet space so he could have a decent wardrobe. He especially noticed it now, as he was looking through the duffel he’d packed from the RV, before he took a shower and got dressed.

He didn’t have much in the way of dressy clothes, and he wasn’t sure why. Surely he’d expected to meet his truemate at some point and take her out, right? He must have been out of his mind when he packed up his things to hit the road.

Settling on a pair of dark jeans and a linen shirt, he showered and shaved in what was the spare bathroom of the three-bedroom home while Thyme got ready in the main bathroom.

The house was small and cluttered with Dana’s photography equipment and framed photos of nature and animals she took and sold at local markets, but the house had a warmth to it that he appreciated. There were a few photos from Thyme’s past, mostly her and her mom, and a few with her dad as well, but there weren’t any recent pictures, and after seeing how she was treated by Brilla and Leif, it was no wonder.

When he was ready, he waited for her in the family room, where he discovered a bookshelf with some dog-eared fantasy books featuring dragons on the paperback covers.

“The smutty books are in the bedroom,” Thyme said from behind him. “Just in case anyone looks at the bookcase out here, I don’t want them to think that I routinely fantasize about guys with pointy ears like fairies or mysterious billionaire types who are actually cinnamon rolls.”

He stared at her blankly for a moment. “What the hell is a cinnamon roll?”

“You know, regardless of how they actually appear on the surface, they’re really sweet and gracious, go the extra mile. They’re safe heroes, you know? You can trust them.”

His brows rose. “I’ve…never heard of such a thing.”

“You’re not a cinnamon roll.”

“Wait, you don’t trust me?”

“What? No! Of course, I do! I just mean you’re an alpha. Cinnamon roll heroes are betas. Or I guess in the terms of wolf packs, they’d be omegas. They’re not the ruthless do-anything-guys, they’re the sweethearts who scour antique stores for candlesticks to set a table for a romantic dinner that they cooked.”

“Uh, yeah,” he said with a chuckle as he put the book away. “I’m not the guy to cook for you unless you like toast.”

She smiled and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “You’re real. What I like in the fantasy stuff isn’t what I like in real life. In real life… I like you.”

He hooked his arm around her waist and drew her close. Her breath gusted from between her parted lips and her eyes got darker. “You are so beautiful. I’m…spellbound by you already. I feel like I’ve known you a long time, and we haven’t even been together for twenty-four hours yet.”

“Because we’re meant to be together.”

He nodded and leaned in for a kiss. She melted against him with a soft sigh as the kiss deepened. It was tempting to keep kissing her, to take her to the bedroom and find out how many more sweet sounds she’d make while they were doing other things, but he really did want to get to know her better. Not that he couldn’t get to know her with their clothes off too, but down boy , he wanted to treat her special.

Because she was.

Easing from her sweet lips, he said, “Let’s go out. You can tell me all about your pointy eared fantasy guys.”

“I feel like you’re never going to forget that I said all that.”

“I definitely won’t.”

They linked hands and walked out of the house to his truck.

“Tomorrow you can meet Dana and we can discuss the living situation,” she said. “I think the best-case scenario is that you and I find a new town soon and we’re able to get the pride moved there before the full moon, so we can have a big celebration not only for us taking over but our new place.”

“Do you think we can get things moving that quickly?”

“Maybe. Hope springs eternal, right?”

He laughed. “It sure does.”