Chapter 5

Fen

I didn’t want to do this. Driving into Bordertown was nice at first, the memories Riley summoned all good ones, but just as quickly the happy feelings fled, because there was a worm at the centre of the glossy apple of our childhood, and coming to the alpha residence laid it bare. Just looking at the building set my fangs on edge. It had been my childhood home, and yet I couldn’t remember anything good happening there right now.

That was the wide veranda where I’d sat down with my dads and been given the talk. Not about how to be a good alpha and care for my mate, but to make clear that Riley could be nothing more than a friend. These pricks were there when my parents swept in, my dads talking us through our first shift, our mother whisking Riley away before I even got a chance to say goodbye. My grip on my mate’s waist tightened until she was forced to stare up at me.

Wondering why I was hurting her.

I forced my fingers to relax and then watched Cheryl stalk closer, her eyes shining as silver as the moon. My brothers saw her hands become claws, the flash of her fangs and moved as one, putting themselves in between our mate and the ruling omega. Omegas were notoriously territorial, prepared to scrap it out with any other that dared to get close to their mates, but Riley stood perfectly still. Only I felt the fine quiver of her muscles, every one tensed and ready.

But she’d never need lift a finger to defend herself from Cheryl.

“Omega Taylor,” I corrected. Haze stopped where he was, crossing his arms and shooting the lot of them a smile so insolent the Williams started rumbling in response. “Because we’re the Taylor pack now.”

Cheryl’s eyes met mine and I saw the same thing I did all the times before: hope and its slow death. She was the Williams pack’s true mate, but she refused to accept it, not while she believed she still had a chance. Vanguard trumped Williams in her mind, something she made clear every day after Riley left, but my parents had misunderstood something. They could’ve put Riley on a rocket ship to the moon to study the landscape there and I’d have waited for it to rise each night, just for a glimpse of her. So instead of paying these idiots any mind, I moved. Pressing my nose, my lips to the side of her neck and breathing her in, Riley’s scent was sweet and sour, the tang something I could almost taste. I left one sweet kiss there, trying to convey everything I thought, everything I felt, before turning to sort out this issue.

“It’s customary for a visiting pack to present themselves at the alpha house,” I said, putting myself in front of Riley only to feel her hand land on my shoulder. “We’ve done that. My mother would’ve informed you that we were coming, so this can’t have been a surprise. Me and mine are prepared to observe the old ways, to acknowledge the fact that you rule over this town.” I paused then, letting my words sink in and sure enough, the tension started to leach out of the Williams alphas. “We aren’t here to challenge anyone?—”

“Good,” one of the Williams alphas muttered. “Hate to put you on your arse in front of your mate.”

Haze snorted, looked up and then blinked, as if realising what he’d just done, but that cool blue gaze of his quickly made clear that was no accident. His wide grin had the Williams shifting forward, but Keith held up a hand.

“You have our permission to remain in our territory while visiting your parents, but anything more than that will be read as a challenge to our rule here.”

If only he knew how little I gave a fuck about that.

“You’re… pregnant?”

Cheryl was struck temporarily dumb as she stared at Riley, and with each panting breath, her wolf was shoved back until the woman stood there, not the beast.

“And you’re not.”

“Jesus…” Colt growled, arms akimbo, claws forming as he readied himself for an attack. My brothers did the same as our mate rallied.

“I’m sorry, that came out wrong.” Riley’s hand fluttered when she lifted it, but by the time it came to rest on her stomach, she’d shaken the nerves off. “I mean you’ve accepted the Williams pack as your mates, you’ve gone through your first heat.”

One sidelong look from Cheryl had me wondering if that was indeed true, but she rallied quickly, standing tall.

“I’m Omega Williams,” Cheryl restated.

“Well, let me give you my business card.” We all let out a growl of protest as Riley stepped forward. “If you’re having any difficulties conceiving?—”

“I’ll give her a card.” Ryan looked harried as he snatched one out of his wallet and then thrust it into Cheryl’s hands before turning to join us as we hurried our mate towards the car.

“Now?” I snapped as soon as we got into the car, not able to take a full breath until the doors were closed. “Now’s the time to chase new clients?”

“Not chase…”

I felt a godawful wrench in my heart as I watched Riley look back at the alpha residence, one I hadn’t felt when I saw my old home again. Because the house meant nothing to me, but the girl… She was everything.

“I thought I’d want to scratch Cheryl’s eyes out,” Riley explained. “She was always trying to push herself between us, taunting me with the fact that she was an omega and probably your fated mate, while I…”

Her hands moved restively over her stomach, so mine covered hers, feeling the slow, dull kicks of our children. That was a sensation that never got old. It kicked all the bullshit of Bordertown to one side and made me focus on what was important. My eyes met Riley’s, and I stared into those beautiful blue depths. Our future.

“I’d be an unwilling spectator to the moment when you chose her.” Her hand twisted to grab mine. “But you didn’t.”

“Never,” I said, all my brothers echoing my response.

“You didn’t.” She repeated her refrain as she looked around at the lot of us, a smile slowly forming. “The Vanguard boys ended up being my mates not hers, so it was the least I could do to offer her some reproductive help.”

“Taylor boys,” I corrected as I shook my head, then shoved the key into the ignition. That was one omega down, all I could hope was that my own mother wouldn’t end up being an even bigger pain in my mate’s butt than bloody Cheryl.