After spending a year in his mother’s pack, Arren has returned home. Only now his best friend hates him, and his father wants to get him mated before he retires. Arren wants nothing more than to spend his days lazily swimming in the lake. But Cole, the new beta, has his own plans. To him, Arren is a brat, and he doesn’t want the task of finding Arren a mate. After a good spanking Arren seems to be falling in line, but his submission is just beginning. Cole quickly realizes that playing with this coyote comes with trouble, and that the best mate for Arren might be himself.
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Arren
Copyright © 2020 Caitlin Ricci
ISBN: 978-1-4874-2831-0
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Arren
Homecoming Book 1
By
Caitlin Ricci
Arren
Cole shook out his fur as he lumbered out of the icy lake. The sun wasn’t up, so it couldn’t have even been six yet. He still had plenty of time to enjoy his morning. The pack would all be asleep for hours. He let his bear self fall away and reached with trembling hands for his backpack. The shift always left him hungry. He sat there, naked and cold, as he ate his granola bar and watched the sun come up over the lake.
The doves had all gone to bed just after sunrise and the crows had taken their places in the trees by the time Cole came back to his house around noon. Bastian, a little hawk shifter who was always underfoot, was waiting for him on his front steps. As one of the pack’s three betas, Cole had the luxury of not having to share his home with anyone else like most of the rest of the pack did.
“What do you want?” Cole growled at him.
Bastian stopped tapping his feet and looked up at him with wide, interested eyes.
Maybe he should have bothered to put a shirt back on after his swim. Maybe the boy should have been interested in someone more in his own league.
Bastian smiled and tilted his head back a little more. His hair fell around his face.
The kid needed a haircut. Desperately. “Arren is coming home today.”
He said the name like Cole was supposed to know who that was. “Who?”
“The alpha’s son?”
“Oh.” The one that had gone to spend a year with his mom’s pack, then. Leo had multiple kids, spread out over various packs at any given time. Cole didn’t bother keeping track of them all. “And? What?” He didn’t care what the kid did or where he was.
“Leo wants you to go pick him up. His flight lands at the Springfield airport at two.”
Cole had no interest in doing that at all, but if it was a direct order from Leo, he couldn’t very well say no, either. He turned on his heel and stomped barefoot through their lakeside community to Leo’s cabin.
Cole knocked because that was the polite thing to do, but he really wasn’t feeling polite at that moment. He’d had a day of being lazy planned, not one of driving an hour into the city to go pick up some kid he’d barely had any contact with at all. Despite being one of the pack’s betas, he didn’t know everyone very well. Not even the alpha’s son. He had so many of them, and they came in and out of the pack all the time.
It took a long time for Leo to come to the door. Once he did, he was hastily pulling his shorts up and a woman was being shown out. Cole resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It wasn’t any of his business if Leo wanted to work on having another child with someone in the pack Cole barely knew.
“Did Bastian find you?” Leo asked him as the woman left and he ushered Cole inside.
Cole nodded. “He did. So, your kid is coming into town?”
“He is. Arren. One of my younger ones. He’s twenty-two. A good boy, for a coyote. That’s why I want you to go get him. He can be tricky to get along with, though he doesn’t mean to be, generally. He needs help getting from point A to B sometimes.”
Cole didn’t want to spend the afternoon babysitting anyone. “Bastian could go get him.”
Leo huffed. “If that boy was to go out and get my son, they’d likely end up at some casino in Oklahoma. No, I trust you. I know you’ll get him and bring him here and that will be it. He’s been a wild one, ever since he was a child. He had his year of freedom with his mother, and one with his uncle before that when he was younger. Now it’s time for him to get back home and settle down so that he can one day help lead this pack. He won’t ever be alpha, but I could see him being a good beta someday. I know you’ll be a good influence on him. He’ll listen to you, and if he doesn’t you have my permission to smack him upside his head.”
Cole pursed his lips. “That’s it? Just go pick him up and bring him back here? Then I’ll have the rest of the day off?”
Apparently that wasn’t the right thing to say, because Leo gave him a dark look. “Do you have something better to do today than bringing my son safely home?”
“I was hoping to have some time for myself, but...you’re my alpha. If you want me to go do something for you, of course I will.” That, at least, was exactly what Cole knew Leo would want to hear.
Leo gave him an approving smile. “Yes. Well, take him out to lunch first, then bring him back. I’m sure he’ll be hungry.” Leo reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet. He put a hundred on the table between them and Cole took it. “I expect a receipt.”
“Of course.”
Leo waved him away. “You can go now. Arren’s flight gets in at two. I’ll text him and let him know to meet you out front. Take the blue SUV. It’s the cleanest.”
Cole nodded and left. He was glad to be dismissed. And since he didn’t have anything to do until about one when he would have to leave to go get Arren, he went home. Unfortunately, Bastian was still on his front steps. “What do you want?” Cole grumbled.
“Are you going to pick up Arren?”
Cole nodded. “You can’t come with me, though.”
Bastian cracked a smile. “I know. I already asked, and was told no.”
Well, that was one thing in his favor. “So what are you still doing here?”
“Are you free right now?”
He looked so damn hopeful. But Cole wasn’t in the mood. “No.”
Bastian nodded. At least he took rejection well, despite Cole’s icy tone. “Was I boring last time? I can be less boring.”
That hadn’t been the issue at all. He’d been too...Cole wasn’t quite sure. But Cole hadn’t been bored. Bastian had just gotten on his nerves. “You need to find someone more your speed. I’m not it.”
Bastian looked hurt. “I can try.”
Cole was starting to get a headache. He shook his head. “Look, you’re a nice guy. But you’re no
t for me. I’m sorry.”
Bastian nodded, then got up and walked away. Cole felt like an ass, but that was better than having sex with the guy again just to give him some sort of hope that things might be different between them this time around. He’d tried, but Bastian wasn’t into kink. Not really, anyway. His obvious distaste for it had been there, and for Cole, seeing his partner just trying to get through the moment with him wasn’t enjoyable at all.
He had a few hours to go before he had to get to Springfield to pick up Arren, so he stretched out in bed and grabbed one of his books down from the shelf above his head. He didn’t have a lot of storage in his house, but he didn’t have a lot of stuff, either. What he had were books, and lots of them.
He spent an hour reading, then went back outside. Arren would need a job in this pack. Everyone had one, even the alpha’s son, and it was Cole’s role to decide what jobs everyone in the pack did. The kitchen was always an option, and he knew they needed help in the mornings getting breakfast ready for everyone. He decided to try Arren out there for a bit as he got to know him better and figured out the best spot for him. There was plenty to do around the pack, so Cole knew he’d be able to find something that was a good fit for even the alpha’s son.
If anything, there were always the chickens to take care of. They had a bunch of them, and not many in the pack could be near them without wanting to either chase or eat them, so the chickens always needed help. Having them was good experience for the children before they got out into the world with humans and their pets, and with the number of eggs the pack went through, chickens were much cheaper to keep than buying dozens of eggs each week in town would have been.
He sent a quick text to Leo when it was time to go, letting him know that he was leaving. He grabbed a bottle of tea from the pack kitchen, along with a cookie because they looked too good to resist, then he headed out.
Driving to Springfield was easy. It was mostly on highways and the traffic wasn’t too bad. It was just the long trip stuck in a car that bothered him. When he got to Springfield though, that was a whole other matter. There were too many people there, even in the middle of the afternoon. At least the airport was small. He parked right in front and searched for anyone who might look even vaguely familiar. He didn’t remember Arren at all, but he must have met him at some point.
A guy in his twenties with shaggy blond hair and a nice tan came over to the passenger side of the SUV. He had a backpack with him, and nothing else. Cole rolled the window down for him.
“Cole?” he asked.
“Arren?”
“Yeah,” he said, getting in. He looked Cole over, and Cole lifted his chin at Arren’s inspection. “You’re a bear?”
“And you’re a coyote. What do you want for lunch? Your dad wanted me to take you out.” Cole pulled out of the airport parking lot and started driving down the road.
“Indian or Thai.”
He couldn’t have said something simple like pizza. But Cole at least knew of a place with an Indian buffet in the middle of the day. It was pretty cheap too, not that Cole cared much about that. “That’s fine.” He drove, only looking over at Arren once in a while.
“Are there other bears in the pack right now?” Arren asked him.
It was a strange question, but Cole didn’t mind strange questions from cute guys generally. “I think so.” He didn’t remember what everyone in the pack was, it was too big for that, and many of them rarely shifted at all.
Arren smirked, then he laughed. “So you’re probably the bear that Bastian had sex with? He was all broken up about that when he texted me this morning. I told him that sex was just sex and not to worry about it. You like rough, he likes...well, a whole lot of not rough at all.”
Bastian had said that they were friends. Cole just didn’t realize that the two of them had been talking about him. “Well, at least you get it.” He did feel a little bad about not enjoying sex with Bastian more than he had. It wasn’t as if he’d tried to upset the guy.
Arren just kept laughing. “Yeah, I do. And don’t worry about it, he’ll move on within a week. Or less. It’s not like it’s a small pack, by any means.”
“No, it’s really not.” Cole pulled into the Indian restaurant’s parking lot and they got out.
Cole wasn’t really into Indian food, but he ate anyway. Arren, on the other hand, stuffed his face, and then kept going back for rice pudding, which Cole now knew was called kheer, not that he really cared. Arren had gone on about how good it was for a decent ten-minute stretch.
“Are you done yet?” Cole asked as Arren finished slurping up his fourth bowl of kheer.
Arren cocked his head and grinned as he licked his lips clean. “Split some oranges with me?”
Cole shook his head. He wasn’t hungry anymore. But before Cole could tell Arren that, Arren was already up and back with ten orange segments on his plate. With a sigh, Cole sat back and waited for him to be done.
“I don’t remember you from before,” Arren said after his third one.
Cole shrugged. “I don’t really remember you, either.”
“Seems odd. Me being the son of the alpha, you being one of his betas...”
“I wasn’t always a beta. I only stepped up and decided to take on that role about a year ago. Before then I was just another middle member of the pack.”
“Ah. That explains it then.” Arren finished off his oranges and licked his fingers clean. Cole followed that simple action far closer than he should have. “Are you done now?” he huffed.
Arren pushed the plate aside and smiled at him. “Yes, I guess I am.” He licked his fingers again, as if intentionally goading Cole. “Are you in a hurry to get back home?”
“I was off today. I want to get back to doing nothing.” At least it was the truth.
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go, then.” Arren got up and, after paying for them both, Cole was quick to leave with him.
They were silent on the drive back. Cole didn’t mind. Arren seemed to be too focused on his phone to care much about anything else either.
When they got back, Cole parked the SUV, Arren hopped out, and that could have been the end of it. But Cole needed to tell him what his role was going to be in the pack now that he was back with them. “You’ll be in the kitchen starting tomorrow morning. Six AM to make breakfast for everyone. There will be a few others working with you, so you should be fine.”
Cole had expected some push back. He hadn’t anticipated the absolute look of disgust that Arren gave him. “But I’m the alpha’s son—”
“I don’t care who you are. You’re in the kitchen tomorrow morning.”
Arren pursed his lips, then turned on his heel and walked right to his father’s house. He didn’t knock as Cole had. He just let himself in. Sighing, Cole started heading to his own house. He was almost there when Leo’s yell stopped him short.
“Cole!”
He turned back around and started heading for Leo’s house, where Leo and Arren stood waiting for him on the front porch. Arren didn’t look smug, so maybe his father had sided with him instead of his son. “Yes?” Cole asked him.
“Arren will be in the kitchens tomorrow morning, but I’m making it your responsibility to make sure that he’s there.”
Cole didn’t bring up the fact that Arren was perfectly capable of setting his own alarm and making sure that he was there on time. If Leo wanted Cole to give his son some extra incentive to get there on time, Cole was more than willing to do that. “Within what parameters?” Cole asked Leo, just to be sure. He wouldn’t cross a line if Leo gave him one.
Leo pushed Arren forward. “I told you he was a lot to handle. You have my permission to do whatever you want to him. Don’t permanently harm him, of course, but if you need to give him a smack upside the head once in a while, go for it. If you need to drag him by his ear into the kitchen tomorrow morning, you can.”
Arren was looking more upset by the se
cond. His cheeks were red, and he was glaring at Cole. But Cole just nodded. He was glad to know where they all stood. Now it wouldn’t be a surprise to either of them if Arren ran to his father and reported that he’d been spanked for not behaving. Cole didn’t look forward to spanking him, but he knew that if he had to, he would put Arren over his knee in a heartbeat. He caught Arren’s gaze and gave him a nod. Arren seemed to understand this as well, as he set his jaw and stormed away from them both.
Leo didn’t call his son back. He simply shook his head. “Maybe you can get some sense into him. The kitchen will be good for him.”
Cole caught was Leo was saying. Arren was his responsibility. If he couldn’t handle the young coyote, that was his problem. Leo didn’t want to be bothered about him again. Cole nodded. “I’ll make sure he’s kept in line.” He wasn’t quite sure how yet, but he would figure that out once Arren crossed the line. It wasn’t a matter of if something happening to push him to the point of having to discipline Arren. Cole knew it would come to that sooner or later.
* * * *
Arren had set his alarm. But he’d also let his phone die sometime in the middle of the night, so an alarm hadn’t really mattered much. By the time someone was banging on the door of the small house Arren shared with Bastian, the sun was fully up, and he knew he was in trouble. Grumbling to himself, he got out of bed, but didn’t bother to put a shirt on, figuring his loose shorts would be more than fine. Then he went to answer the door.
Cole was there, looking pissed. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Arren squinted up at the sun. “Nine? Maybe? I dunno. My phone died. Give me a bit and I’ll get showered and dressed.” Maybe he could still do dishes or something.
“You were supposed to be in the kitchen hours ago.”
Yeah, and he’d already explained why he hadn’t been. “My phone died.” He turned and walked away from Cole, letting the door close behind himself.
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