Chapter 10
Henry
Henry almost threw his phone across the yard when he heard Nola’s voice. His older sister hadn’t reached out in years, since he left the pack, and he hadn’t expected to hear from her ever again. That she called meant something terrible had probably happened. He didn’t talk until he was far enough away from the house that no one would overhear. “What do you want?”
Her tone cooled. He could practically see the disapproving look on her face. “It’s time for you to come back.”
“I told you five years ago I wasn’t coming back. Nothing has changed my mind about that.” He pushed away the darkest memories and clenched his jaw against the rest.
“He’s gone.” Nola took a deep breath. “And the pack needs an alpha.”
Henry shook his head, even though she wouldn’t see it. “I’m not interested.”
“It’s your duty,” she said. “You’re the first son, and—”
Part of him wondered if he should have gone back and fixed up all the things his stepfather had destroyed. “I’m not going to be an alpha.”
Nola took another deep breath. “We need you, Henry. Come back and take a mate and lead the pack. It’s time.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t have a mate and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Just cross me off the list, Nola. We both know I’m not meant to lead the pack. It’s better for everyone if someone new—someone not from the family—takes over.”
“This pack has been in our family for generations. We’re not going to stand by and—”
“Then you do it, Nola,” he snapped. “You stand up and be alpha, instead of trying to pawn the responsibility off on me.”
The silence stretched until he thought she might have ended the call, but after a long time, she sighed. Her voice came out tired and defeated. “Henry, we miss you. Can’t you at least come back to visit?”
“I have a life where I’m at,” Henry said. He hardened his heart. The moment Nola got him back to Montana, he’d never escape. It had taken all of his strength and courage to leave the first time. “I’m happy, Nola, and I hope you are, too. I’m not going to be the alpha.”
She kept arguing, trying to convince him, but Henry had a lifetime of practice at ignoring his bossy older sister. Nola excelled at telling other people what to do, especially when she didn’t have to do anything herself. She’d been great at making plans for his life when he was the one who sacrificed freedom and happiness in service to the pack, yet always seemed to disappear when the pack required anything of her.
He shook away the unkind thoughts as he finally ended the call. She was just trying to do the best she could with what she had. It wasn’t either of their faults that Ma had married a vicious son of a bitch after their father died and Henry was too young to take the pack. No one would have listened to a four-year-old alpha, regardless of how much the pack loved his father. No one knew how bad Ulrich was until it was too late.
Henry growled to himself and paced through the garden as he struggled to soothe his agitated wolf side. Part of him wanted to fix all the problems he’d left behind in Montana, but the rest of him knew it wasn’t his fight. It wasn’t his job. The pack could have overthrown Ulrich, but no one had the stones to work together to deal with it. They looked to Henry, a half-grown kid, to challenge the huge, cruel alpha. He bared his teeth at nothing in the garden, wishing he had someone to fight, and kept moving. He’d tried. He’d challenged Ulrich and thought maybe he could have succeeded—but ended up getting his ass brutally kicked.
Brutally. It almost killed him.
He still carried the scars. He’d run a few years later, though those intervening years had been a living hell at Ulrich’s hands, when the bastard took every opportunity to remind Henry that he’d been beaten. Henry recovered eventually, though the mental scars remained, even after finding Miles Evershaw and his cousin Todd and their pack of misfits.
Henry cut off a growl when he caught Cricket high-stepping through the shaggy grass in the backyard giving him a disdainful look. The cat sneezed in his general direction and continued on his way on whatever cat business Cricket was up to. Henry’s wolf side wasn’t about to keep bellyaching when a regular house cat judged him for it. He just had to get his shit together and deal with the new family drama.
Knowing Nola like he did, Henry didn’t expect her to give up so easily. She had a one-track mind when she had a goal. Which would have made her a great alpha, if she’d stood up and taken on the leadership role. He headed for the house, scowling fiercely enough that even Silas, one of the rougher misfits they’d collected in the pack over the years, got out of his way.
Henry didn’t bother to turn around. “Need to hunt some wolves. You up for it?”
Silas grunted, “Yeah. I’ll get the others,” and headed off to get the rest of the team.
Henry cracked his knuckles and rotated his head until his neck popped. Maybe he’d get a chance to fight after all.
