We're A Pack

Lyon's POV

Elder Cass had to be the last foolishness I was tolerating. Especially where Christie was concerned.

"A word, Lyon," he said, his eyes still fixed on Christie like she was something that needed to be removed from the floor.

"You can have several," I said. "Step outside."

I followed him into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me. He turned on me before I could speak.

"She spent the night. That was never discussed. The pack laws regarding humans on pack territory are very clear and you of all people—"

"My mother is alive this morning," I said. "Do you understand what I'm telling you? She is breathing without the sound that was tearing through her chest two days ago. Her temperature is down. The monitor is green. That woman in there did that."

Cass straightened. "Lyon—"

"So I need you to explain something to me," I said, keeping my voice low. "You and the other elders would have let her die. You'd have stood in a circle around her bed and watched her stop breathing before you allowed a human doctor to touch her. Is that what you're telling me?"

He didn't answer.

"Because if that's the position of this pack," I said, "then I want to hear you say it out loud. Right now."

Cass pressed his lips together.

"The girl leaves today," he said finally.

"The girl stays until my mother is stable and she decides she's ready to go. If anyone in this pack touches her, looks at her wrong, or goes near her room, they answer to me directly." I looked at him for a long moment. "We're done here, Cass."

I went back into the room before he could respond.

Christie was watching the door when I walked in.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Fine. Are you hungry?"

She blinked. "I could eat, yes."

"Come on then."

She followed me downstairs to the kitchen. Two members of the house staff were already in there prepping for the day. They looked up when we walked in and immediately straightened.

"Sir, we can prepare whatever the doctor needs—"

"I've got it," I said. "Take your break."

They looked at each other. Neither of them moved for a second.

"Now," I said.

They left.

Christie sat on a stool at the kitchen counter and watched me open the refrigerator.

"You don't have to cook for me," she said.

"I know I don't have to." I pulled out eggs, bread, some cheese. "What do you want in your eggs?"

She was quiet for a second. "Just cheese is fine."

I cracked the eggs into the pan. She rested her chin in her hand and watched me with this expression I couldn't fully read. Half amused, half genuinely surprised.

The question she had asked was still lingering but she wasn't pressing for an answer. Yet.

"The staff looked horrified," she said.

"They'll recover."

"Does the Alpha of the pack usually cook breakfast for his houseguests?"

"This Alpha does what he wants," I said.

She smiled. Small, quick, like she caught it before it got too wide. I turned back to the pan.

We ate at the kitchen table after I moved us away from the counter. It was the first time since she arrived that there was no emergency pulling at the edges of the room.

"Can I ask you something?" Christie said.

"Go ahead."

She turned her fork over in her hand. "Who was Sarah?"

The name landed quietly. I put my fork down.

"The woman I was supposed to marry," I said. "My first love. She died five years ago."

Christie nodded. She didn't ask anything else. She just picked up her fork again and let it sit there between us without making it heavy.

I appreciated that more than she knew.

The kitchen door swung open.

Kendra walked in wearing a full outfit like she was headed somewhere important. She looked at Christie, then at the two plates on the table, then at me. She picked up a glass from the counter and set it down so hard it cracked at the base.

"Dear Alpha," she said, her voice completely controlled. "The elders called a meeting and I'm sure you know what it's going to be about."

She walked out.

Christie looked at me.

"Why do they keep calling you Alpha?"

"We're a pack," I said. "I'm the head of it. The leader."

She looked at me steadily. "What kind of pack?”