9
BRANDON
“My damn sister’s back in town,” Lonnie says.
He’s lounging on the ground, leaning against a rock, tipping a mostly- empty beer bottle back and forth between his thumb and forefinger. It is maddening sometimes that this little idiot is ahead of me in the chain of command and thinks he’s my friend. But the alpha of our pack is his father, so there’s very little I can do about it.
“I’d heard that,” I say calmly. “Back to help take care of your dad, I guess?” I don’t need him knowing I’ve spoken to her, and I definitely don’t need him knowing I’ve slept with her. Lonnie hates Alicia.
“Yeah,” he says. “Dumb bitch. She stays away for twenty years and then shows up at the last minute, and everyone’s acting like she’s some kind of hero.”
I don’t know what he’s complaining about, really, because he’s lying around here instead of helping with his sick father’s needs. If he wants to impress his family and change the way they view him, there are things he could be doing. “Having extra hands is probably good, though,” I say.
“Nothing about her being back is good,” he says. “Don’t you realize what it means for us?”
“Us?”
“Yes, us. You and me. The chain of command.”
Technically, I’m third in line for the alpha spot. I was placed in the chain of command when I accepted Alicia as my mate, because if it had worked out, I would have been mated into the bloodline. It’s just a technicality, though. It’s not like I can make an actual claim to being alpha, since I’m not mated to anyone in the bloodline. If I tried to challenge for the spot, I’d probably be thrown out of the pack. The only way I’d ever come into power is if everyone ahead of me died or abdicated.
“What does it mean for us?” I ask Lonnie.
He rolls his eyes as if I’m the biggest idiot alive. “It means she can challenge for alpha,” he says. “I mean, not her, obviously, but if she takes a mate.”
“Has she got a mate?”
“How should I know?” Lonnie demands. “Did you ask her?”
“Why the hell would the bitch tell me anything? She hates me.” Maybe because you call her the bitch all the time, I think. “What about your other sisters?” I suggest. “Or your father?”
“My sisters would cover for her if she asked them to. They’ve always been against me. They’re the reason Vern divorced my mother, you know.”
Our alpha, Vern, is not the kind of man to be pushed around by anyone. I know his daughters couldn’t have made him do anything he didn’t want to do. “Hmm,” I say noncommittally. “Maybe you could ask Vern. He wouldn’t take sides.”
“If there’s something she doesn’t want me to know, she won’t tell Vern,” Lonnie says. “We’re going to have to find out some other way what’s going on with her.”
“Are we?” I’m beginning to feel some trepidation about this. I don’t love the way he keeps saying we and us. Lonnie’s got a way of treating me as if I’m his beta because he’s second in the chain of command and I’m third, but I don’t work for him. I’m not going to do anything he tells me to do unless I decide it’s something I want to do.
“She likes you,” Lonnie says.
I have to laugh at that. “She rejected me,” I say. “Did you forget about that?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t hear the conversation at our house that night,” Lonnie said. “Dad kept asking what the hell the problem was, why she didn’t like you, why you weren’t good enough. She kept saying you were perfectly fine, and it wasn’t about that.”
That’s interesting. I’m not sure I can trust Lonnie’s account of these events, but I’d like to think that her decision wasn’t personal. “Okay, so maybe she likes me,” I say. “So what?”
“So… you can get close to her,” Lonnie says. “Spend time with her. Find out what’s going on in her life-specifically, whether or not she’s seeing anyone.”
I would have wanted to do those things anyway. This is just an iron-clad excuse. “Okay,” I say. “I guess I could do that.”
“And you’ll report back to me,” he says.
That’s a bigger ask. “You want me to be your spy?”
“Just tell me if she’s involved with anyone,” he says. “I don’t think that’s such a big deal. I’m not asking you to read her diary or go through her
underwear.”
“Right.” I mean, if she’s not involved with someone, telling Lonnie won’t be a problem… right?
“You can also make sure none of the guys on this pack come sniffing around,” Lonnie says. “Put on a show like you’re flirting with her. Stake your claim. If people think she’s taken-and if she thinks she’s taken-she won’t find another mate around here. And, of course, you won’t be taking her seriously, because how could you, given your history?”
He snorts out a laugh. It’s unclear whether he’s laughing at Alicia for the trick he’s planning, or if he’s laughing at me for being rejected all those years ago. Either way, he’s a dick.
But I do want to spend time with Alicia. I’m not going to let Lonnie’s scheming ways prevent me from doing that. If he thinks I’m hanging out with her for his benefit-well, let him think it.
“Okay,” I tell him. “I’ll see what’s going on with her.” “Great,” Lonnie says. “It’s a foolproof plan.”
You’re the only fool I see, I want to tell him, but I bite my tongue. The younger Brandon would have started a fight. But that’s not me anymore.
I walk away.