Page 4 of Protected Promise
“I’ve already worked stuff out with him. I know you guys are not going back to Westin this summer. I just need to know what your plans are. And you know I can’t just leave like that.”
“Leave? Why does he want you to leave?”
“He wants me to come to the ARC next week.”
“Will you be bringing Tobi home?”
“Tell her, yes. That’s perfect. I have to report to Seattle, but you know how her anxiety can get and I’m going to be busy with training the first week I’m there. So, you drive down and take her back with you. I’ll get through my training and then come up there because mostly I’ll be working remote after that anyway, and if anything comes up that I need to get back to Seattle right away, then we’re only a few hours away.”
“I really wish I could. I just can’t up and leave like that though.”
“You’ve done it before. Don’t be ridiculous. Go and get our girl. I miss my baby,” Connie said.
I sighed. “Let me see what I can work out.”
“There’s nothing to work out. Tell him you’re coming,” Connie insisted.
“I think he can hear you,” I grumbled as Jackson laughed.
“He’s coming, Jackson,” Connie yelled.
“Great. I’m not going to tell Tobi in case things don’t work out, but this would be amazing if you can swing it. She’s going to be so surprised. Thanks Landon. This is going to be the perfect start to summer.”
I hung up feeling trapped. It wasn’t that I couldn’t leave my territory, I just worried a lot when I did. I had twenty-three other people to look after now. Since officially becoming a pack recognized by the Grand Council, word had gotten out about us. Six new wolves had pledged their allegiance to me, bringing our little pack to twenty-six, if I included Tobi and Jackson who were part time and equally devoted to two packs now.
I didn’t really understand how that could work. Then again, I could never imagine giving my allegiance to anyone. That was the life of an Alpha though.
As long as it didn’t cause any headaches for me, I wasn’t going to force the issue and make them choose a pack. Selfishly I didn’t want Tobi to pledge allegiance to Kyle and if he was okay with that, then I could accept Jackson into my territory without him claiming me as his Alpha too. It was worth it to keep my best friend.
I loved my little pack and I was proud to be their Alpha, but it was a lonely life. For years the others had all but insisted I take Tobi as my mate. Honestly, I would have been okay with that, but I knew that wouldn’t make her happy. I wouldn’t make her happy, not in the same way that Jackson does. So, I’d set my own feelings and needs aside for her.
Seeing her now as she blossomed at school in a life I would never know and with a mate she loved and who truly adored her too, I knew I had made the right decision.
In my opinion, that’s what a good Alpha does—he puts the pack’s needs, and even the individual needs of his charges, ahead of his own desires.
I told my pack that everything was okay, that I didn’t need a mate, but running a growing pack by myself at age twenty-four was a lot. Sometimes I envied Tobi and the happiness that she had found with Jackson, but I also knew that just wasn’t the life I was meant to lead.
Even if I did find someone I could settle down with, what were the odds that she would ever be interested in the tiny remote pack I had to offer?
I already knew I could never pull the Alpha card on a potential mate and force my wishes onto someone else. I wanted my equal, someone I could partner in life with and be a strong Pack Mother for my people. It was more than that though. I wanted what Tobi and Jackson had, and seeing them together, I knew I would never settle for anything less, but the odds of me finding my one true mate out there were pretty much nonexistent.
Kaitlyn
Chapter 3
I stared at the test results in my hand in shock.
A B. I’d gotten a B on my final math exam, and I’d done it all by myself.
A tear ran down my cheek and I swiped it away. I’d passed. I was going to graduate. That reality was sinking in quickly. The thing was, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I’d double majored in business and hospitality, and had hesitated on sending out my resume, so now all of my friends were graduating with big dreams and plans for their futures.
I was just graduating with a piece of paper while I turned homeless.
I knew Sawyer, Alpha of Longhorn Pack, would never allow that. He was my Alpha, and I was his responsibility, but I wasn’t going home. As far as I was concerned, there was no home to even go back to. If he was going to insist on it, then he would have to pull his Alpha powers and force me, because as long as I had a choice, I wasn’t going back to Texas—ever.
I needed to celebrate and blow off some steam. Despite being a Theta girl, I really wasn’t much of a partier. Perhaps I had been in my early days at the ARC, but that was more rebellion than anything, and the novelty of it had worn off quickly.
I knew what the other girls thought, but I had never let that bother me because I knew the truth. I didn’t regret becoming a Theta. I’d had a great time at Archibald Reynolds and I knew there were at least some of my sisters that I would continue to stay in touch with.
