“No. You need to get yourself together, Mike. I’m going to go home and have a nice pleasant birthday in front of the television like I should have done in the first place.”
“Alright, fine. Well, I can at least join you for that, can’t I?” he asked, smiling broadly.
Kat glanced over at him as she drove. There was something about his tone that told her it was as much for him as her. There was a reason he wanted to hang around her place, and she probably didn’t want to know what it was.
“Sure, big brother. We’ll find something to watch, and you can crash on the sofa if you want, save you the drive home.”
“Good times!” he beamed. “Hey, pull over here. I want to grab us some snacks.”
“I’ve got snacks,” she told him.
“Just pull over,” he insisted.
“Fine.”
Kat pulled into the low budget grocery store that sat on the edge of where pack lands began. It was called Wolf Garden Grocery, but most folks referred to it simply as GarGro. Like “Kat,” it was just another casualty of a society too busy to even use a full name for something or someone. She watched as Mike climbed out of the car and lumbered toward the store. He was a big guy, tall and stocky. It used to be all muscle, but the last year or so of drinking and drugging had softened him.
Born into a different family, his life might be different. Their father was a Beta and their mother was an Omega. Mike and Kat were the same, meaning he was destined to a lower tier of society where Betas served whatever Alphas were in charge. She, of course, was in the lowest tier of Wolf society. As an Omega, she was intended to marry and have lots of babies for some Alpha who valued her ability to procreate and give him a large, powerful pack family over anything she might accomplish in her life.
Her best hope was to marry well and at least find an Alpha who might actually love her. It could be a good life with the right partner, but most Omegas didn’t get a chance to choose their mate. They were bartered off like cattle to whoever might help move the family’s standing upward. She was lucky to have a father who was a Beta with no desire to trade his only daughter for prestige.
Her brothers were also Betas, but all had accomplished remarkable things outside the pack. One was a doctor, two were lawyers, and three were in various high-powered financial positions in the city. Even Mike had made a success of himself as a prominent real estate broker in the human world before he had made bad decisions that landed him back in the pack.
“Alright, we can go,” he said, returning to the car with a large bag in either hand.
“Did you get enough?” she asked, noting how he tucked them under his legs out of her sight.
“Hopefully,” he replied, offering nothing further.
She started the car and headed toward home, Mike chatting amicably beside her about starting his own business in town rather than returning to the city. She knew the truth was that he couldn’t return to the city. He’d burned bridges there. It was unlikely that he’d find anyone willing to hire him or do business with him if he branched out on his own.
“So, what do you think?” he asked finally.
“About you starting a pod commune in the woods?”
“Well, it sounds kind of stupid when you put it like that,” he said.
“Ya think?”
“Listen, you’ve not spent time in the city like I have, Sis. The people there are all stress and adrenaline. They need a place to relax.”
“And you think they want to come out to some podunk village in the middle of nowhere to sleep in bubbles?”
“Yes, I do. These things make a killing, and they are easy to build. Find a decent wooded lot and make separate little clearings in it for a half dozen or so of them and rent them out as vacation pods, writers retreats, glam camping ... they’ll pay for themselves in less than five years, and it’s all gravy after that.”
“And how do you intend to get the money for this little endeavor of yours?”
“Same way everyone does. Borrow it,” he laughed.
“Good luck with that.”
Kat didn’t want to be overly critical, but it sounded like a pipe dream for someone who didn’t have his shit together. Granted, Mike was once brilliant, but he wasn’t at his best now, and unless he got his house in order, there was no hope of him being successful at anything. Even if he managed to get it off the ground, the money would soon go to get drunk, high, or both.
“Alright, let’s get this party started,” he said cheerfully as they pulled into the drive of the cottage on the edge of their parents’ property. When she had turned twenty-one, they had given it to her as a gift. It wasn’t very big, but it was cozy, and she had all the privacy in the world with the grove of trees that surrounded the property.