He shook his head. “Loud. All the noise. I don’t…. They don’t know me.”
“Not as you are now. But they remember the wolf always following me around.”
He scowled at me. “You die easy. Fall in hole or something and die.”
Because that was something that often happened. “We’re going to have to talk about everything. And it’s not going to be a one-sided conversation.”
He looked away.
“But not yet. Let’s get through this first, okay?”
He nodded stiffly.
And then I heard a howl.
My chest hitched. I knew that song. I knew it very well.
It echoed through the street. The people fell silent. They bowed their heads as if in reverence.
I looked out the door Kelly had left open.
The crowd parted.
There, standing in the middle of the street, was an Alpha.
He was as big as I remembered him, bigger than almost anything in the entire world. He wore a work shirt, his name stitched in two red letters on his chest. He told me once when he’d first been given a shirt like it that it made him feel like he had a place to belong. That he’d found his home.
Oil stained the tips of his fingers.
His dark hair was a little longer, ruffling in the quiet breeze.
He smiled, slow and sure.
I almost fell out of the truck trying to get to him, needing to feel him, needing to know he was real and to let him know that I had never forgotten him, had never forgotten any of them, and please, please, please let me still be in your pack, please let me still be your Beta, please let me stay.
The townspeople spoke in hushed whispers, reaching out to touch me on the arm, the shoulders. They didn’t touch my neck because they knew it wasn’t their place. But I only had eyes for him.
I moved as if in a dream, the colors around me muted and hazy.
And if it was a dream, if I woke and found none of this was real, I would never recover.
I stopped in front of him.
He watched me, the power emanating from him all-encompassing.
I fell to my knees, grabbing his hand and holding on as tightly as I could.
And with the last of my strength, I tilted my head to the side, baring my throat to him.
His smile broke. He took in a great, shuddering breath, closing his eyes. He pulled his hand away from me, and I felt cold. But then he cupped my face, his thumbs brushing my cheeks.
He opened his eyes. They swirled with a mixture of red and violet.
Oxnard Matheson said, “Hello, Carter.”
“Alpha,” I whispered.
The smile returned full force. He held me in his big hands, and I turned my face to kiss his palm. Somewhere deep inside my head, I heard his voice for the first time in a long time. It was faint, but I knew it would grow stronger.