Joe glanced at me before looking back at Robbie. “Alpha Hughes?”
“Yes.”
Joe sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. He stood at my side as I chopped peppers for Elizabeth, who was humming lightly near the stove. Mark, Carter, and Kelly were off somewhere in the woods. Gordo was still at the shop, though he was supposed to be over later. I’d given the others the night off. They had lives beyond the pack, and I didn’t want to take away from that, even if they looked at me funny when I said so.
“When?” I asked.
Robbie snorted. “Now, probably. She doesn’t like to wait.”
“She never did,” Elizabeth said, not looking up from the stove. “This will hold. Just try not to take too long.”
I scooped up the sliced peppers and placed them on a plate next to Elizabeth. I kissed her cheek before looking at Joe.
He shrugged at my unasked question. “No time like the present.”
“What does she want?” I asked Robbie as we followed him to the office.
“I don’t get to ask questions like that. Not to her. Most people don’t.”
“I’m not most people,” I said, because I wouldn’t be cowed by anyone.
“Yeah, Ox,” he said, sounding fond. “I know.”
Joe kept a blank expression.
A laptop was open on the desk. I thought it was Robbie’s. I didn’t have one. I dealt too much with the computer at the garage to ever want one at home. Joe sat in the desk chair, and I pulled a second chair next to him.
Robbie pulled out his phone and typed a message. It was a moment before his phone pinged and he sent a response. He shoved the phone back in his pocket before turning the laptop toward himself. He clicked on Skype and said, “She’ll call you in a minute.” He put the laptop back in front of us and left the office, closing the door behind him.
Joe waited a beat before saying, “It’s going to be a long time before he sees me as anything but an enemy.”
I rolled my eyes. “He doesn’t think you’re an enemy.”
“He thinks I’m something.”
“You are something.”
Joe smiled. “Probably thinking of two different things, Ox.”
I t
ook his hand in mine, still marveling that I could do this. We’d stayed in the old house, Joe in my bed every night. It was cramped and small, but it gave us the excuse to sleep on top of each other. I didn’t need distance from him now. I probably wouldn’t for a long while.
“He’ll get there,” I said. “I told you what he said about Kelly. Maybe we could—”
The computer chimed. A little flashing screen popped up.
“Ready?” Joe asked.
I kissed him once, brief and sweet.
I said, “Yeah, Joe.”
He squeezed my hand and then connected the call.
I didn’t know what I expected her to look like. If I were being honest, I hadn’t given much thought to this Alpha at all. She didn’t know me. She didn’t know my pack, not really. She might have been the big Alpha, but what she did meant nothing to me in the long run. She hadn’t come after me and mine, but she hadn’t done anything to protect them either.
But she was young, younger than I thought she’d be. Maybe in her late thirties, early forties. She looked calm, relaxed even, her dark hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, the white collared shirt she wore opened a few buttons at the throat. She didn’t scream Alpha, but I’d only met a few in my life that I could compare her to.