Page 47 of Claimed By the Alpha Wolves

He flashes me a smile. “All the most beautiful girls come from Pack Ivory.”

I give him an amused look. “I don’t think your pack-mates would be happy hearing you say something like that.”

“My pack-mates aren’t here right now,” Cayson says, grinning. “And besides, you can’t argue with the truth.”

I know that this is a game to him. A routine he does with every girl he’s trying to get into his bed, but I can’t help it. It’s working. I think… I think I like him despite all logic.

“What’s your pack?”

“You can’t tell?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “Pack Steel.”

Pack Steel is a powerful pack with a lot of males. From what I’ve heard, the leader of their pack is a control freak who insists on perfection from his people, which stands at odds with the packs near it.

Then a thought occurs to me. “Your lands border Ezra’s, right?”

Cayson gives me a playful look. “Let’s not talk about Ezra right now, sweetheart. The guy is a total buzzkill.”

I think of Ezra’s serious, stern expressions and have to stifle a laugh. He may be a buzzkill, but he helps to balance Cayson’s endless playfulness.

“How do you like the region?”

“It’s fine,” Cayson says, before giving me a bite of one of the sandwiches. It’s delicious—with crisp greens and a dill sauce. “But do you know what’s better than the Pack Steel lands? Italy. France. Germany. If you want to have the time of your life, Faye, you have to travel.”

“Travel?” I laugh, looking at him up and down as he reclines casually, his hands planted behind him. “Must be hard to travel between all your alpha duties.”

“Yeah, well,” he says, and something darker passes over his face, for just a moment. “You find it easy to avoid responsibilities when you have a dad like mine.”

Interesting. He has issues with his dad.“Like what?”

“Do we really want to spoil this fine picnic with talks of an old asshole?”

“I would love to hear about an old asshole.”

He raises his eyebrows, like he wasn’t expecting me to repeat the vulgar language.

“Well,” he says, starting slowly, like he doesn’t quite know where to begin, “growing up, my dad, being the man that he is, always found me lacking. So I decided that if I was going to be judged poorly for trying my best, I might as well drop the effort altogether.”

I’m confused. He’s an alpha. That’s not how it works. “But doesn’t your pack need you?”

“That’s for them to figure out,” Cayson mutters. “What about you? You’re not looking for an alpha. So what, you have someone to go home to, then? Because I find it impossible to believe you’re just actively choosing loneliness.”

I swallow thickly, trying not to think about the empty cabin waiting for me in the outskirts of my pack’s territory. It’s liberating to have so much freedom, but also incredibly lonely at times. Not that I mind being lonely.Do I?

“No, no one is waiting for me,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I actually—well, I’m something of an orphan.”

“Oh, shit,” Cayson says, scrubbing a hand over his hair. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” I say, forcing a laugh and running my hands over my arms. “My parents and grandparents died some time ago. My brother just three years ago”

“Was he sick?”

The image of Miles’ dead body flashes into my mind again and I grimace, willing the image to leave my head. To my surprise, it does. I’ve never been able to do that before… get the images to leave me alone instead of swallowing me whole.

“No,” I say, pressing my lips together to try and keep my composure. “He—he was murdered.”

“Murdered?” Cayson’s eyes go wide. “By who?”

I shake my head, knowing I can’t tell Cayson the truth about this. “I don’t know,” I say, then I reach forward to tear a piece off a scone. “But you’re right, we shouldn’t be ruining such a nice picnic with talk like this.”

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