Page 174 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“Okay,” I said, slapping my hand on the counter and grinning at Langston. “Who the hell is your dad? Jesus, it sounds like he’s got more money than God.”

Langston chuckled, and Porter snorted. “Maybe I’ll tell you one day.”

“All that time in the service together,” Trent said, “and I never knew you were a spoiled rich kid. Weird.”

Langston grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl on the counter and tossed it at Trent. It bounced off Trent’s head.

“What the fuck?” Trent said.

“That’s for calling me a rich kid.”

Porter had his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his laughter.

“You asked for that,” I said, glancing at Trent.

“Whose side are you on?” he shot back with a grin as he rubbed his head.

“What do we do to get Scotty moved?” I said, trying to get us back on track. “If we have a house, great, but we have to move him. And,” I added with a weary sigh while eyeing the basement door, “we do need to figure out how to feed and take care of the guy until then. I, for one, do not want to be cleaning up piss and shit when he eventually needs to go. I’d rather not have him doing that in his pants.”

“You find the guys,” Langston said, looking at me and Trent, “and I’ll set up the rest. I doubt Dad has the house rented out at the moment, but if he does, we’ll figure something else out.”

“Got it,” I said. “Just keep track of what all this is costing you and your family. Harbor Mills will pay back anything we need to, plus interest.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Langston smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not worried about money. I’m doing this becauseI love Ashton and Avery. I’ll do anything for them. They’re family. My father would wring my fucking neck if anything happened to either of them. He loves them, too. They might not have been official members of our pack, but they were as close as you could be.”

Thinking about how wealthy Langston’s family was and the fact that he ran the biggest pack in the state of Iowa, I voiced a question that had been stewing in my head.

“What kind of pull does your dad have? Does he have the power to get Kyle to come to heel? He’s obviously got more strength and resources than Kyle has. Than I have.”

“Dad’s getting old. I’ll be pack alpha one day.” His smile faded. “I told him about this before I left. He offered to come out and help, but I need to prove that I can handle stuff like this, that I can do hard things on my own. Plus, it might all be over before he managed to get a big crew out here.

“Even if that wasn’t the case, Avery asked me to come help, not my father. That’s not something I take lightly. I know you had some issues with me earlier, Cole, but you need to know, there was never anything between Avery and me. Is she beautiful? Of course, but I say that the same way a brother would admit his sister is gorgeous. Okay? This is about loyalty to friends, nothing more.” Langston grinned again. “And if you need more assurance, I’ve already found my fated mate. It looks like fate had more reason to bring me to Georgia than just helping my friends.”

I raised an eyebrow, letting the words rattle around in my mind before coming to the only conclusion that made any sense.

I gaped at him. “Stormy?”

“I need to go make some calls to arrange things,” Langston said, ignoring my question, but his smile lit up his whole face. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Langston departed, leaving me and Trent to look at each other incredulously.

“Fated mate?” Trent said. “Is he serious?”

“The dude can’t stop talking about her when we’re alone,” Porter said. “He’s got it bad.”

“Never saw that coming.” I opened the fridge and perused the contents. “We do need to feed Scotty. I’ve got some frozen burritos in here. Who wants the duty?”

“Fuck it,” Trent said. “I’ll be the nursemaid. But I’m not doing the whole ‘here comes the airplane’ thing while I’m feeding him. I have standards.”

Thirty minutes later, Avery’s car pulled back up in the driveway, with Zayde’s close behind. Trent was down with Scotty, and Porter was doing a sweep of the perimeter.

She got out and hurried in, looking breathless and worried. “So, uh, how did things go?” she asked, glancing around the room.

“Are you looking for blood splatters?” I asked.

Swallowing hard, she snapped her attention back to me. “Uh, well, maybe not blood. I sort of figured?—”

“We didn’t have to resort to violence. The guy talked.”

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