“We’re trying to give him a challenge, not a snack,” Nita said, sparking more laughter. “Anything else?”
“Make him walk barefoot across the desert!”
“Clear out the cacti from Ten Acres!”
Finn’s taut shoulders eased down a bit as the suggestions kept coming, each more preposterous than the last. When someone proposed that he beat all comers in a dance-off, he caught her eye. His mouth quirked slightly.
Martha grinned back, shaking her head in response. She hadn’t put her pack up to that one.
Wouldn’t they be surprised.
“Make him wrestle all the other men,” Martha’s youngest sister suggested, her amber eyes wicked. “In mud.”
This proposal met with overwhelming feminine approval. Unfortunately, it was unanimously vetoed by the male members of the pack.
“Well, Ochre Rock, since it seems you all can’t come to agreement, it falls to me as acting alpha to set the challenge.” Nita turned back to Finn, her expression turning serious. “We have welcomed a rattlesnake into our pack today…but a shark? Our new sister Celia at least was born here, and has the desert in her blood. Now we are asked to accept someone into the pack who is as foreign to us as the sea. Someone who cannot shift and hunt with us under the full moon.”
Even though she was pretty certain Nita wouldn’t really reject Finn outright, Martha’s stomach still twisted. She made herself bite her tongue. She’d named her daughter acting alpha, and started handing over the day-to-day responsibilities of the pack. She had to trust that Nita knew what she was doing.
“That is a huge thing to ask indeed,” Nita continued. She looked every inch the strong, serious alpha. “It demands an appropriate challenge in response. So I will lay on you a task that will not be simply done once and quickly forgotten, but a service that you must perform for this pack every single day.”
Finn had gone as still as stone. Martha held her own breath.
“Finn, if you would join the Ochre Rock pack, this is what you must do.” Nita’s voice rang out in the utter silence. “Make my mother happy.”
His eyes met hers. Tears sprang into the corners of her own as the entire pack erupted into howls of approval.
“And keep her too busy to stick her nose into other people’s business!” her son Diego yelled out over the ruckus.
“I thought the challenge had to be possible,” Finn said dryly, causing a wave of fresh laughter.
“That it does. So we’ll go with just making her happy.” Nita raised her eyebrows at Finn. “Well, shark? Willing to face this challenge?”
Finn bowed his head, grave as a knight of old accepting some perilous quest. “I am.”
“Then, as acting alpha…” Nita flung her arms around his broad neck, grinning from ear to ear. “Welcome to the pack, Finn of Ochre Rock.”
Martha hung back as the other pack members surged forward, converging on Finn like a laughing, noisy tide. With every welcoming hug, every hand-shake and back-slap, the warm glow in her heart grew, until it shone brighter than the bonfire behind his towering form.
He was part of the pack. Now, he truly was her mate.
And soon she would be his too.
“I was so nervous!” Nita appeared at her side, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’m sweating like a hog. You always made it look so easy to address the pack. Did I do okay?”
“You were just perfect.” Martha hugged her daughter, half-laughing, half-crying. “Oh, honey. That was perfect. You’re going to make an amazing alpha.”
“Still got a lot to learn.” Breaking the embrace, Nita snagged a beer from her passing wife. “So promise you won’t go anywhere.”
“Now, you know I can’t do that yet. Chevelon Canyon Lake is no more than a puddle for him.” Martha jerked her thumb at the quiet, rippling waters lapping at the shore beyond the bonfire. It was the biggest body of water in the pack’s territory, but it still wasn’t nearly deep enough for a megalodon. “The poor man has to take an eight hour drive just to be able to shift. I can’t ask him to do that long-term.”
Nita sighed, hunching her shoulders. “Well, guess I should be grateful you’re just considering retiring to San Diego rather than Atlantis. But I’ll miss you, Ma.”
“Don’t worry.” Martha cocked an eyebrow at her, grinning. “I promise I’ll call.”
He’d never been touched so much in his entire life. Every time he turned, there was some new relative wanting to clap him on the shoulder or squeeze his arm. He swam through a sea of smiling, upturned faces and warm hands.
I did not know I was so hungry, to be so full.