“He brought you gifts.”
“Dead animals.”
“Rather dated, but he’s got an old soul. Always has. And you know the traditions of wolves, Gordo. You’ve been in the pack since you were a child.”
“I am going to murder him,” I promised Thomas. “I’m sorry if you love your brother, but I am going to drop-kick him with silver-toed boots.”
“Should he not have told me?”
I sputtered more. It went on for a good, long minute.
“I am here as your Alpha,” Thomas said, finally putting me out of my misery. “And I have received a formal request from one of my Betas.”
I groaned and slumped farther in my chair.
Thomas put his hand on my hair. It felt good. Like home. “Don’t ever change, Gordo,” he said quietly. “No matter what happens, stay as you are. You are a wonderful creature, and I am very happy to know you.”
I sighed. When I spoke, my voice was slightly muffled. “I like him.”
“I should hope so.”
“But he says we have to wait.”
“There is that, yes. You are fifteen years old. He is three years older than you. Nothing… untoward should occur until you’re of legal age.”
I lifted my head and glared at him. “You were seventeen when you met Elizabeth. She was fifteen.”
“And I only made my intentions known,” he said. “Nothing more. Because to claim one as mate is a request. There is always a choice. I was very lucky that she chose me, in the end.”
“Didn’t she tell you this morning that if you were to come near her again with your penis, she was going to claw your face off?”
He grinned. It was a dazzling thing to see. “She’s nine months pregnant. She’s allowed to say whatever she wishes. And if she wanted to claw my face off, I would let her.”
I sighed. “I like your face where it is.”
“Thank you, Gordo.”
“Mark, huh?”
Thomas shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better, he was very nervous when he came to see me.”
“Nervous? Why?”
Thomas spread his fingers out over the desk, tracing scars in the wood. “Mark is—he cares. Deeply. For his pack. For his Alpha. For you. And now that he is to be my second—”
“What about—”
“Richard made his choice,” Thomas said, an edge to his voice. “He… he didn’t understand. Doesn’t understand. And I can’t find fault with that. It… he needs to find his own way. And I hope that one day, our paths shall cross again. I will welcome him home with open arms and embrace him as my brother. If that doesn’t happen, I cannot find fault in him for it. He lost much that day. As did all of us. Grief… it tends to change people, Gordo. As you are well aware.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
“But Mark will make a fine second. He is brave and strong. A very good wolf, if I do say so myself. Why, I doubt there is a better wolf in any other pack out there—”
So I said, “Are you trying to pimp your brother out to me?”
The Alpha of all sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t say it like that.”
“Because it sounds like you’re trying to pimp your brother out to me.”