The Woodland Packs

I turned on a light in the lounge and opened the door, my eyes blinking rapidly to adjust to the artificial brightness.

“Morning,” Grayson said, stepping inside without an invitation.

Unusual for an Alpha.

We didn’t invade each other’s houses like that. It wasn’t respectful.

“Come on in, Gray,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes of sleep.

Grayson grinned at me. “Put your coffee pot on, Tayte. You’re gonna have a visitor soon. You and your pack need to wake up.”

Despite my confusion, I stumbled to the kitchen and put the kettle on like he asked.

Grayson was one of the few selfless Alphas in the larger pack. If there was anyone I trusted to care for my Beta and Omega, it was Gray.

“What’s going on?” Sam asked as he practically fell down the stairs. He slept like the dead, that one.

Dane, my Omega, walked down slower, already pulling a tank over his bare chest.

I only wore the trackies I slept in. And it didn’t bother me.

The Omegas were more self-conscious than we Alphas.

“Hey, guys,” Grayson greeted them, too cheery for this early in the morning.

“You going to tell us why you’re here, Gray? Something wrong?”

Grayson had found his mate last month and gone through hell to get her away from a bear shifter.

His next-door neighbour, Dexter, had been the first to find a human mate in the pack.

I didn’t know Dex’s pack well, but to say I was jealous of their newfound happiness would be an understatement.

“Nothing’s wrong. I got a call from Nevaeh at the hospital. Seems a woman staggered into Emergency last night, looking for Claire.”

The hairs on my neck prickled up.

Ever since that night two months ago when I’d told a stranger about Claire, I’d been worried something like this would come up.

“Is Claire okay?”

“Yeah, she wasn’t working tonight. So, Nevaeh looked after the girl, and she’s bringing her home now.”

Huh? She was bringing a human into the pack. Why? And why was it worth waking us in the middle of the night to communicate that odd piece of news?

Sam and Dane looked at me, confused.

Then the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place for me.

“This girl… blonde, blue eyes, about five feet tall?”

She was tiny, and sweet, and very sexy, if my drunken brain hadn’t exaggerated the details of that one-night-stand.

“Not sure. I haven’t met her yet. But she asked for Claire by name at the hospital and she told Nevaeh that you were the one who told her about Claire.”

Grayson gave me a hard look and if I’d been able to blush, I would have.

Instead I thrust my hands into my pockets and shrugged.