“We could compare stories, I guess,” Jessie said because she was evil.
“Yeah,” Chris growled while glaring at his sister. “Let’s not even go there, because I really don’t want to have to punch my Alpha in the face.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “Please,” she said. “He’s bigger than you.”
“Anyway,” I said pointedly, before this sunk down into something I couldn’t control anymore. “We’ve talked—”
Carter and Kelly started coughing obnoxiously.
Joe snarled at them with red eyes. They smirked at him like it didn’t matter. It probably didn’t. It was the closest I’d seen to them acting like they had before they left. I wondered if this was because they already knew what we were going to say.
“—and we’ve decided to see if this could work,” I finished.
“To see if what could work?” Robbie said with a frown.
“Us,” Joe said before I could answer. He cocked his head at Robbie, but didn’t flash the Alpha eyes. “The pack. Trying to be… one.”
My pack was mostly silent. The humans looked curious. Mark and Elizabeth looked happy. Robbie had a blank expression.
“How would that work?” Tanner asked. “Both of you would be the Alpha?”
I nodded.
“We don’t know him,” Rico said. “We only know you. And you want us to… what. Treat him like you? No offense, Joe,” he added hastily.
“None taken,” Joe said easily. “And you’re right. You don’t know me. Not like you know Ox. This isn’t going to be something that happens right away. It’s an endgame. It’ll take time for you to trust me.”
“Trust you?” Robbie said. “How can we trust an Alpha that left his pack behind?”
“Robbie,” I barked.
Joe put his hand on my arm. I looked over at him. He didn’t say anything, but I didn’t think he had to. He wanted to handle this. He wanted me to trust him.
And I did. To an extent. Maybe not like I did before, but we’d get there. Eventually.
He said, “Robbie, I know this might be hard for you.”
“Do you?” Robbie said coolly. “Because you know the first thing about me.”
I gritted my teeth together. Because as much as I understood his frustration, he didn’t need to be acting this way.
“You care about him,” Joe said simply.
“He’s my Alpha.”
“And I’m not going to take that away from you.”
“No?” Robbie snorted. “Because it seems like you’ve already started.”
“I’ve… made mistakes,” Joe said. “Ones that I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I hurt people here. My mother. Mark. My brothers. Ox, though. I think I hurt him the worst.”
Robbie narrowed his eyes. “So you can see why I—”
“But I’ve never hurt you,” Joe said. “Because, like you said, I don’t know you.”
“You hurt Ox,” Robbie said. “He’s my Alpha. Therefore, you hurt me.”
Joe said, “Okay. Then I apologize to you too. For hurting him.”