The Beta's Heart (Wilde Creek Book 8)

by R. E. Butler

  He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. He stopped in front of the alphas’ home and turned off the engine.

  “Did I ever say thank you?” he asked, staring out the windshield.

  “For what?”

  He looked at her and he could feel his wolf simmering under his skin. “For coming for me. I didn’t know you before the full moon, but now I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

  “I feel the same way.”

  Ren got out of the truck and opened her door, offering his hand as he helped her out. They walked up the sidewalk to the front door, which swung open as they approached.

  “Welcome,” Acksel said.

  “Thanks,” Ren said.

  “I thought you might do that portal thing,” Acksel said as he shut the door behind them.

  “We opted to drive,” Ren said. “I wanted to show her around town.”

  Brynn joined them in the living room and hugged Kismet. “If I could just open a door in the air and go anywhere, I’d never drive.”

  “There aren’t vehicles in the fae realm,” Kismet said. “When you can portal anywhere, you miss out on the landscape.”

  “Good point,” Acksel said.

  “I’m starving, so I hope you don’t mind if we just sit right down to eat,” Brynn said.

  Kismet smiled. “Not at all.”

  Brynn rubbed her extended belly with a sweet smile. “My mini-me is all about red meat and I’m hungry twenty hours out of the day, I swear.”

  They followed them into the kitchen, where the table was set for four. The air was punctuated with the scent of pot roast and vegetables, which made Ren realize how hungry he was. Ren pulled out Kismet’s chair and tucked her close, then took the seat next to her.

  “No ranking rules at this table,” Brynn said as she stabbed a large fork into a platter of sections of roast beef and set one large piece on her plate.

  “What’s a ranking rule?” Kismet asked.

  Ren lifted a bowl of mashed potatoes and held it for Kismet.

  Acksel said, “The alphas usually fill their plates first before anyone else does, or in the case of a restaurant, we would order first.”

  “Right,” Brynn said as she poured gravy on her roast. “But I’m trying to get us out of the stone ages. I think a lot of our rules are dumb.”

  Acksel let out a sigh that sounded a lot like a growl. “Sweetheart.”

  Brynn waved a hand at him dismissively. “He thinks it’s okay to be a caveman, all me-eat-first and everything. But I think those kinds of rules aren’t meant to be around anymore. I’m trying to bring us into the twenty-first century, but it’s slow going.”

  Ren held up the other platters and bowls for Kismet, allowing her to fill her plate first, then he filled his, before passing the serving dishes to Acksel. “Do fae have rules like that?”

  “Not within the home. But for a formal dinner, like the military ball I attended with my father, the highest-ranked males are served first. I think there’s something elegant about that sort of thing, but I don’t think I’d care to deal with it all the time.”

  “See?” Brynn said to Acksel with a triumphant smile.

  He shook his head with an amused smile. “If you had your way, there wouldn’t be ranks at all.”

  “Yep. And non-wolves could be part of the pack, too.”

  “Good grief,” Acksel said.

  “Will the pack mind that I’m a fae?”

  “Why would they?” Acksel asked.

  “You don’t let non-wolves be pack members.”

  “That’s true and not true,” he said. “You’ll be an honorary member through mating. As the mate of the beta, you’ll be considered an important female within the pack, although they’re not ranked.”

  Kismet looked at Ren. “An important female?”

  “If you were a wolf,” Ren said, “you’d be an omega and expected to serve in the pack like the others. But as my mate, you’d be thought of as higher status than the others.”

  “Huh,” she said. “But I’m not a real pack member so I’m not an omega.”

  “Right,” Brynn said. “You can hang out with us here on the full moons, or you can go back to your home. If you want to get mated officially on the next full moon, we can have a party while the pack hunts to welcome you to the group.”

  “That sounds fun. What do you do while the wolves hunt?”

  “Eat,” Acksel said.

  Brynn smacked him on the arm. “Hey! It’s your baby making me hungry.”

  Acksel leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I know, I know. But I’m not sorry.”

  “You’re a jackass,” Brynn said, “and I’m not sorry for saying that. You’re just lucky you’re cute.”

  Ren stifled a chuckle and Acksel said with a low tone, “I’m not cute, I’m alpha.”

  “Alpha-cute.”

  “Brynn,” Acksel said, his tone slipping into one that had an edge of impatience to it.

  “Uh oh,” Brynn said with a teasing gleam in her eye. “He’s getting testy. Fine, fine. You’re all alpha, and not remotely cute. Except for your butt.”

  Ren smiled at Kismet and rolled his eyes. Although they bickered, it was clear that the alphas loved each other.

  “Anyway,” Acksel said. “Damn it, I can’t even remember what we were talking about.”

  Brynn laughed but offered no help.

  “Omegas,” Ren supplied.

  “Right, right,” Acksel said, sitting back and scrubbing a hand over his face. Then he picked up Brynn’s hand and kissed it. “You won’t have an official title or job within the pack because you’ll only be a member through mating. You can feel free to work wherever you’d like, or not work if it’s something you’ve decided as a couple. We only ask that you obey the laws of the pack as well as the town.”

  “The pack laws won’t really apply to you, since a lot of them are related to ranking and hunting,” Ren said. “So just don’t be a criminal and you’ll be fine.”

  “I promise not to be a criminal,” Kismet said.

  After the meal was over, Acksel and Ren shooed her and Brynn to the family room to relax while they put the dishes away and brought out dessert.

  “How are things going?” Acksel asked.

  “Good,” Ren said, gathering plates and carrying them to the counter where Acksel rinsed. “I met her dad.”

  “Yeah? He’s a fairy, right? Her mom is a witch, I think?”

  “Yep.”

  “What was that like?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t tell Kismet, but her dad is scary as hell. I mean, big and muscular, with enormous wings. He looked like a pissed-off angel, and I was the object of his wrath.”

  Acksel’s brows rose. “I guess I pictured fairies being nicer.”

  “Yeah, well, apparently not if you mate and mark one’s only daughter without asking permission. But, I stood up for myself and our relationship, and he backed off, said he was testing me to see what sort of male I am.”

  “Damn. I knew Brynn’s dad for years, but once I knocked her up and had to officially meet him as Brynn’s mate? He was crystal clear that if I ever hurt her, he wouldn’t have a problem shooting me and burying my body somewhere I’d never be found.”

  Ren snorted. “I’m glad Kismet’s dad is protective of her. I think you and I will be that way with our daughters, too.”

  Acksel finished loading the dishwasher. “Oh man. I don’t want to think about any sweet little girls of mine dealing with males like you and I were in high school.”

  Ren cracked his knuckles. “Let’s make a pact that our daughters can’t date until they’re at least twenty-five.”

  “Yeah, yeah, that works.” Acksel extended his fist and Ren bumped it. Then they laughed. “Brynn would have a fit if she heard me say that.”

  “Where are those brownies?” Brynn called.

  “We’ve been summoned,” Ren said.

  He and Acksel carried out brownies and drinks, visiting for a while until Bry
nn couldn’t stop yawning, which was their cue to say goodbye.

  “Thanks for opening your home to me,” Kismet said as she accepted a hug from Brynn.

  “You’re welcome. I’m so happy you and Ren found each other. I can’t wait to get to know you, and it’s not just because you’re a cool fairy.”

  Kismet laughed.

  Ren held the door for her and they walked out of the house and into the cool, spring air. She looked up at the sky and Ren tilted his head and looked at the winking stars and bright moon.

  “Did you always like the full moon?” she asked.

  “Yeah. The wolf’s pretty vocal about this time of the month, even before I shifted. It’s just such a big part of our pack life. The big ceremonies all happen on the full moon.” He opened the truck door for her and she sat down. “Do you like it?”

  “I never gave it much thought, but I like it now.”

  “Any particular reason?” he asked, giving her a teasing smile.

  “Oh, I only found my destiny on the full moon. You know, no big deal.”

  He shook his head with a chuckle and shut the door.

  “I think it’ll work,” she said, when he sat behind the wheel and turned the truck on.

  “What?” he asked as he pulled away from the house.

  “Living in Wilde Creek. I really like it here.”

  “Where you are is home for me, Kismet. You’re the only person I need.”

  She gave him a smile so sweet he felt like the king of the world. It was amazing how much had changed in such a short amount of time, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, Kismet woke early and made tea, grabbed a blanket off the couch to stave off the chill, then sat on the back patio to watch the sky change from indigo to powder blue. She’d always enjoyed being outside in the mornings to watch the sun come up. There was something very cool about being a witness to the dawn of a new day.

  The back door slid open and Ren kissed her cheek and took the chair next to her. “Okay, now we really need to get nice furniture for out here.”

  She smiled as she took a sip of tea. “Did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet.”

  He settled down in the chair and folded his hands over his bare stomach. “I think even if you’d been entirely silent, I would have woken up anyway; my wolf is in-tune with you. I don’t mind a bit, though. Unless you wanted to be alone.”

  “Not at all. I just like watching the sun come up.”

  He turned his gaze to the sky. “I’ve always been partial to sunsets, but I think that’s because my wolf likes the night.”

  “What’s on the schedule for the day?”

  “The shop isn’t open on Sundays, so the day is ours. What would you like to do?”

  Her mind flitted to the bedroom immediately, and her body flushed with warmth, but she tamped down the urge to take her mate to bed and do anything but leave the room. They couldn’t just stay in bed all the time.

  Well, they could, but it wasn’t exactly realistic.

  “What do you usually do on Sundays?”

  He hummed in thought. “Well, normally on Saturday nights I’m at Poke’s with some pack members and that goes late, so I sleep in and then maybe grab a late breakfast at Luna’s. I save Sundays for pack stuff that needs to be handled. I’m heading up a training program for young wolves and it’s supposed to start this week. I have a handful of males helping me out, but I need to be ready for that to start.”

  “Is there anything I can help with?” she asked.

  “Not unless you know how to throw a punch.”

  “Well, it depends on the situation.” She made fists and jabbed the air a few times. “I might just call for some vines to wrap up whoever is trying to hurt me and then run away.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Could you really do that?”

  “Sure. I could split the earth and make a big chasm if I wanted to. My father taught me how to defend myself with a sword, but I was never really inclined to work hard on it. He let me focus on my powers for defense.”

  “That would be cool as hell to see. Of course, I hope you’re never in any danger.”

  “Me, too.”

  He stood and offered her his hand. “How about we grab a shower and go have breakfast. Then I can get some work done and we can do something special tonight.”

  “Special? Like naked special?”

  His eyes flared amber. “What are you, psychic?”

  “I just enjoy having my truemate.”

  They walked into the house and he let out a playful growl. “Me too, sweetheart.”

  * * *

  Luna’s was busy, but a male waved at them when they walked into the restaurant and said, “Let me clear this table for you.”

  “Thanks, Zander. By the way, this is my mate, Kismet.”

  Zander smiled as he filled a dish tub with the dishes. “Nice to meet you. My parents own this place, and they told me they met your truemate.”

  “Zander’s a protector,” Ren said to Kismet.

  “Neat,” Kismet said.

  Zander wiped the table down fast and then set it with napkin-wrapped silverware and glasses of ice water. A female came over to hand them menus and Zander excused himself and disappeared.

  “Morning. What can I get you to drink?”

  “Dang it, I forgot the herbal tea,” Kismet said.

  “Paula just bought some yesterday. We have a few varieties, I’ll bring them out, so you can pick.”

  “That’s so nice, thank you.”

  Ren ordered coffee and the young woman disappeared into the kitchen.

  “Is this some of that special treatment you were talking about last night?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Yeah. It’s not abnormal for lower-ranked wolves to want to make the high-ranked ones happy. You’re important to me, and that makes you important to the pack. Are the fae like that? I don’t even know if you have groups like packs within your people.”

  The waitress, whose nametag read Kaitlyn, appeared with a carafe of hot water, a mug and saucer, and a plate with four tea bags on it. She filled Ren’s coffee mug.

  “Are these okay? Paula said to tell you that she can get different ones if you don’t like these.”

  “These are perfect, thank you, Kaitlyn. My name is Kismet, by the way.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. Are you ready to order?”

  After placing their orders, Kismet selected a peppermint teabag, poured hot water into the mug, and lowered the bag into it.

  She looked at her mate. “Anyway, you were asking about groups like the packs for the fae, and the answer is that we don’t have that sort of thing. There are guilds of fae, where those with similar powers work together, but it’s not like the way things are for your people. They don’t live and work in the same area and have a ruler like Acksel who creates laws for them.”

  “You have a court system,” he said. “There’s no fae king or queen?”

  “There is, but they’re over the whole of our people. It would be like if Acksel were the king of every wolf.”

  He hummed in thought. “It’s interesting how different our people are, but you and I fit together very well despite the differences.”

  She smiled. “Yep.”

  Their food arrived, and her stomach growled in response.

  Ren cut up his eggs and said, “There’s a double wedding Saturday night. Would you like to go?”

  “I’ve never been to a double wedding before. Is it pack members?”

  He nodded. “Yes, it’s the two couples who are stewards in the pack and take care of the retirees – Jeremiah and Honey, and Adam and Dani. Everyone is a wolf but Dani, who’s a reindeer.”

  She paused with her egg and potato-laden fork nearly at her mouth. “A reindeer shifter? I didn’t know there were any. I always pictured shifters as predatory animals like wolves and big cats.”

  “There are a lot of different types of shifters. Where my parents li
ve, there’s a nest of owl shifters, and when I was a kid, my dad told me he’d met a group of rabbit shifters.”

  Kismet tried to picture a human body changing into something as small as a rabbit. “Were they regular-sized rabbits? Or were they like monster size?”

  Ren grinned. “Normal. Hard to imagine, right? And is there anything less masculine than a rabbit? If my shift was something small and fluffy, I’d be embarrassed as hell to call myself a shifter.”

  “But you’d be so cute!”

  His upper lip curled as his eyes danced. “Betas are never cute.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You’re pretty darn cute right now.”

  He chuckled and said, “Anyway, before Dani came into town, I’d never met a reindeer shifter before, either. She came through Wilde Creek one full moon and she and Adam scented each other.”

  “I’d think her animal wouldn’t be too happy to shift around a whole group of wolves.”

  “She actually stays home with Adam on the full moons and they run around their backyard in their shifts.”

  Kismet pictured a reindeer and a wolf playing together, and thought it was adorable. “I’d love to go to the weddings.”

  “Great. I’d like to take you out on a real date on Friday night, too.”

  “Oooh,” she said, wiggling her brows. “What’s a ‘real date’ entail?”

  His eyes gleamed with heat. “You’ll see, mate of mine.”

  * * *

  By the time Friday came, Kismet was entirely smitten with her mate, and captivated by the town of Wilde Creek. Whenever she and Ren were out and about, it was clear that he was a respected pack member because he was treated so well. It reminded her a lot of the way her father was treated by his subordinates as well as his counterparts.

  She waited while Ren parked the truck in front of her sort-of brother-in-law Rich’s home.

  “Tell me again how he’s kind of your brother-in-law?” Ren asked as he looked past her out the window to Rich’s home. Rich was the pack doctor, and his home doubled as a treatment facility.

  “When Noah and I were young, our mother married a witch male named Franklin, who was the widower of a she-wolf named Patricia. Franklin and Patricia had a daughter named Vivian, who was all wolf and not witch, and she mated Rich. Vivian was technically mine and Noah’s stepsister, although she was a good bit older than us. Because I spent so much time in the fae realm, I have very little memory of her. When she died, Noah and Rich became close, and both of them use me for herbs and plants for their healing needs. I guess you could think of Rich as my sort-of step-brother-in-law, but honestly except for those times when we’re being formally introduced to people, we just think of each other as family and don’t worry about titles.”