Page 1 of Same Difference
Chapter One
“What do you say, Second?” Liam Northman, the former Alpha of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack asked.
Beside Delta, her new mate frowned. Even looking troubled, Nate looked handsome in the muted light of the dingy hotel room they were staying in. “You mean pretend Second?”
“It’ll be real to us. Fuck the Elders, and the big hunts, and the registrations.”
Nate chewed the corner of his lip and, through the video call, stared at Liam. “Would we run it like a real Pack?”
“Yep.”
“And when all this blows up in our face?”
“Whoever wants to leave, can take their home and go,” Liam said. “But…”
“But what?” Nate asked low.
Liam leaned closer to the phone, cast a glance at his mate, Nory, and back to Nate. “I’m going to work my ass off to keep us all together. From the ground up. I’m going to build this. I need my Second.”
Nate ran his hand over his jaw and looked at Delta. His eyes had lightened to a soft gold hue. “Why don’t you look surprised by any of this?”
“Because I knew,” she admitted excitedly. “It’s been so hard to keep it secret. We didn’t want to say anything until Nory’s offer was accepted and they closed on the land. And Liam had to liquidate everything he owned to come up with the down payment, and it was a chaotic, stressful week, and I want to go back, Nate. Please. I want to go somewhere they can’t take from us. I want to be with Nory, and with those stupid boys, and I want to be under Liam, and I want your rank back. You spin outwithout rank, and I am proud to be mate of the Second.” Delta got really excited and clenched her fists and closed her eyes and did one of her tics. She had a mild form of Tourette’s that showed up when she was excited mostly. Unable to help herself, she did a little shake with her hands in front of her, and then she gasped out, “I want to go make a home. I want to be Rogue Pack.”
Nate puffed air out of his cheeks and swung his gaze back to Liam. He looked unsettled still. “I guess text me the address, man. We will look at it at least, and price out some home options. I’ll see if I can get my old job back if Delta really wants to do this.”
“We’re going to figure this out,” Liam promised.
“We will see you soon.” And right before Nate hung up, he respectfully said, “Alpha.”
But when the screen of Delta’s phone went blank, Nate just stared at it, and trouble swam in his lightening eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“About Nory buying the land?” Delta asked, confused. He should be happy right now. They had somewhere to go now. No more spinning out and trying to figure out where to land. “I already told you we didn’t want to say anything until it was official. I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Nate just sat there, his elbows resting on his legs, blank stare for the phone that was propped up on the dresser.
“I thought you would be happy,” she said softly, baffled.
“I just wish you would’ve said something before…”
“Before what?”
“We’re supposed to be paired, Delta. You aren’t supposed to keep big stuff from me.” He stood and paced the room.
His phone vibrated in his back pocket. Again. He took a lot of texts lately but never explained who he was talking to.
Delta frowned. “But you keep things from me.”
“It’s not the same,” he told her with a shake of his head. “Mine is business. You kept something big that affects our life, and you did it easily.”
“I don’t…I guess I don’t understand why you are so upset. We get to go back home.”
“It was only your home for a few weeks,” he said, eyes scanning yet another text on his phone. “For me, I was already moving us forward.” He scrolled through a text thread, but kept the phone angled away from her so she couldn’t use her heightened vision to read any of the messages. He was the king of keeping his phone face down, and angling it away, and excusing himself to make calls. Even when they’d done the video call with the rest of the Pack, he’d insisted they use her phone, and she knew why. He didn’t want any texts popping up on the screen that she could read.
“Who is she?” Delta asked.
“What?” he asked, his eyes blazing gold.
