Page 10 of Her Second-Hand Mate

“Hello?”

I raised my eyebrows and looked at her until she averted her eyes from mine.

“What are you doing here, Heather?” Dominic asked.

“I heard you were back, so I brought you a casserole, but I see you have company, so I’ll just leave it here.”

“This is my mate, Penelope. Your new Luna.”

The female seemed taken aback by this statement, even somewhat hurt, which upset my wolf greatly, but Dominic held my hand and explained, “Heather was Cassie’s cousin and best friend.”

Heather sniffed.

“I work closely with Dom, and I often look in on him because Cassie would have wanted it. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” I managed, wishing for a moment I was more like Theresa, who was always ready to fight any she-wolf for any reason.

Theresa would immediately have her claws out, whereas I was always calming the waters instead of rocking the boat.

“Well, I’ll get out of your hair then. I’ll see you at work, Dom?” she asked sweetly and Dominic just nodded. When she left, Icouldn’t help but wonder why his first mate’s cousin was still living in this pack.

“Was your first mate from this pack?”

“No,” he looked annoyed again but then exhaled noisily, which seemed to calm him down. “She was from the Yosemite pack in California. For them, it’s customary to bring an unmated or widowed female with you if you’re mated into another pack to keep you company until you get used to the new surroundings, normally for about 6 months. Heather stayed longer than that and then Cassie died, so she just...” he trailed off like he wasn’t sure why she stayed either.

“Maybe she hoped to find her mate nearby,” I said and he shot me a look.

“Heather’s widowed. She lost her mate when she was 19, only a few months into their mating.”

“Oh God, that must have been horrible. She was so young!”

“Yeah,” he looked very sad as he said that. “And then she was in the accident with Cassie. Poor female can’t catch a break.”

“She works with you now?”

“Yeah, she’s one of the administrative assistants at the pack house. She enrolled in college when she moved here and managed to make a life for herself, despite everything.”

“How nice. Is she your assistant then?”

“Some of the time, yeah. Mostly she does what needs to be done for any of the departments. Before I forget,” he abruptly stood up and pulled me up the stairs and into the bedroom.

In one of the walk-in closets, there was a wall safe which he opened, talking me through the process.

“Remember these numbers. The money inside is yours to use, however you want and on whatever you want.”

“Dominic, it’s too much -”

“I didn’t say you need to spend it all at once, although you’re free to do that as well. I also told mom to set you up with your own credit card through the pack accounts, but that takes a few weeks, I think.”

“I – thank you.”

He nodded. “We don’t use Omegas like other packs do, but I will get you a paid domestic helper as soon as possible. We used to have one, but I let her go when it was just me.”

“We don’t have helpers at home either. Back home, I mean. It’s fine, I can take care of our house. I don’t mind.”

He peered into my face, again looking for something. I submitted to the gaze until he seemed satisfied with what he saw.

“Fine. But tell me if that changes. Once you start your Luna duties, you might have less time and energy for the house, it’s no problem.”

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