They were used to having to come up with stories for some of Derek’s misdeeds. He had gotten himself into trouble quite a few times with other packs over the years. Like the time he’d been making out with the daughter of the Alpha from a pack in New Mexico. The Alpha had lost his damn mind, screaming and shouting, and waving a silver knife in Derek’s face.
The Alpha’s daughter was twenty-one years old, so Derek failed to see what the issue was. She was an adult by anyone’s standards, and quite competent to make her own choices.
But the Alpha didn’t agree, and Roman and Jameson had been left dealing with the fallout. Eventually, Derek had offered to train some of the young males from the New Mexico pack in knife throwing, a skill he excelled at, for two weeks straight. The Alpha accepted the gesture readily enough, but he continued to harbor a lot of resentment and relations between their pack had been strained ever since.
A year ago, he’d heard that the female had left the pack to become a microbiologist in California, much to the Alpha’s despair, and when Derek found out, he’d had a good long laugh at her father’s expense.
Another instance had been a little bit more of Derek’s fault. He’d bought some witches’ brew ale in North Dakota on their way to a pack meeting in Wisconsin. He’d served the ale to the entire group of Elder wolf shifters, and most of them had gotten ragingly drunk. The Alpha’s mate had become belligerent and the Alpha himself had wandered off into the woods for three days. Roman had actually been pretty pissed off about that one.
“You can’t just hand out ale without warning them!”
“I told them it was potent!” Derek shouted.
“Yeah, but they thought it was human liquor! Not a witches’ potion!”
“Maybe they shouldn’t drink something if they don’t know what it is!”
“I think they need to be able to trust us, as fellow pack members,” Roman had hissed through gritted teeth.
“Fine. I’ll apologize.” Derek would have never allowed humans to imbibe something that could harm them, but there was absolutely no risk to a wolf shifter who got drunk. They wouldn’t die from a fall or blood alcohol poisoning. Hell, even if they fell into the lake, they’d be able to cough up all the water. It was funny, and it was consequence free. But Derek could admit that as second-in-command, he shouldn’t have done it.
Not only had Derek apologized, but he’d offered to purchase them a month’s supply of the brew, now that they knew what was in it. That Alpha had forgiven him easily, and accepted the gift happily, and now their packs were on great terms.
But that was quite a while ago. He had been living life on the straight and narrow for several months now.
Jameson nudged him, and he realized he’d been lost in thought.
"I was leaving the club and –” Derek said.
Jameson made a face. "Don't tell me you met someone at the club."
Derek rolled his eyes. "Do you want to hear my story or not?"
"Sorry,” Jameson said.
Derek knew he had plenty of reasons to doubt his sincerity. He'd never given a reason to think otherwise. But this was different. Kyra was different.
"Anyway, as I'm walking out, I see this gorgeous woman. Only she's not a woman. She's a shifter. I stopped and talked to her, after I almost knocked her down. And then my phone rang. It was Roman telling me the baby was on its way. So I tell her bye, and I take off. Then I realize I don't know her name, or her phone number, so there's no way for me to find her. Which sucked, because, man, we just had this instant connection.”
Jameson stared at him. “Right. Love at first sight?” he asked with no small amount of sarcasm.
"No. You know I don't believe in that. But she was gorgeous. And a little bit feisty, and you know how much I like that. So I went back.”
"You went back?” Jameson interrupted.
“Yes, I went back. I couldn't just let this chance go. I ran back and I told her my name, and I asked her for hers… And I asked for her phone number, and would you believe it, she gave it to me."
Jameson lifted one shoulder. "Uh yeah. I do believe it. I mean you've always had a lot of success with females. So I'm not really surprised.”
“She was just different, man. There was something about her.”
Jameson started laughing out loud.
“What?” Derek demanded. “What’s so funny?”
“It's just what they all say. You know – when they fall in love,” Jameson said.
Derek shoved his brother. “I'm not in love. We had a two-minute conversation.”
“Whatever you say, man. Why is she here?”
“She said she’s in school, but other than that, I don't know. She just moved here, and she's been living among humans.”
“Interesting.” Jameson slapped him on the back and nodded toward the healer’s cabin. “Keep it up, and we’ll have you mated just like Roman.”