Chapter Thirteen
When they got to the pack house, Hunter disappeared off with Angus, leaving Cade in the kitchen with Sybil and a handful of younger kids. Children always gravitated toward Cade, wherever he was, so he soon found himself surrounded, one child on his lap, one pressed against his side and two sitting on chairs either side of him.
“Let the poor boy breathe,” Sybil said, shooing them away. But they were back seconds later, chattering eagerly to him and to each other. He put a hand on each of them, sensing they were wolves but suspecting none of them were going to shapeshift. Seth couldn’t either, he was almost certain. And Angus… he hadn’t got that close to him, but if the alpha’s eldest son couldn’t shift, then chances were neither could the alpha himself.
How long could a pack last like that? Baelon hadn’t been able to shift either and Cade had seen the cracks forming during the time he’d spent there. He’d heard of whole families abandoning the pack, fleeing to the human world to live out their lives like they were no different to their human counterparts.
The youngest child, a little girl named Katie, seeming particularly enthralled by him. She stared up at him, then patted his cheek with one hand.
“Kitty,” she gurgled, and Cade rewarded her by shifting his eyes. She chortled at that, squirming happily in his lap.
“Pancakes?” Sybil asked, and Cade quickly returned his eyes to normal before he turned to her. “Yes, please.”
They weren’t stingy with the food here. But maybe if he’d been Angus’ fifth mate and not Hunter’s first, things wouldn’t be so different to how they’d been in Baelon’s pack.
“What is Hunter doing?” he asked. He had to start learning the alpha’s routines. And the pack’s. He needed to know where people would be so that he ran at a time he’d be less likely to be spotted.
“Oh, Angus is just running through the normal stuff, border patrols and the like, with the boys. They’ll eat afterward.”
Angus arrived in the kitchen with Hunter and Seth about half an hour later.
“Welcome, Cade,” the alpha said, taking a seat. “We should have a talk about the rules.”
Hunter looked uncomfortable, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck, but he didn’t say anything.
“What sort of rules?” Cade asked.
“Well, for the first while, I’ve decided you should have a companion with you at all times. Someone to show you the ropes, help you get settled in. Most of the time, that can be Hunter. But he has responsibilities to attend to. When he’s busy, Joe will be with you. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I’ll be holding Joe equally responsible for anything untoward that happens.”
Cade tried not to let his irritation show. They obviously had figured out already that he liked Joe, so they were making Joe responsible for him as a way to guilt him into behaving. He feigned bewilderment.
“Untoward? I don’t know what you mean.” He turned to Hunter, wide-eyed and beseeching.
“Uncle Angus just doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Angus leaned forward, capturing Cade’s attention. “You’re here now, as Hunter’s mate, and part of our pack. There will be no running. This is your home now.”
Inwardly, Cade glowered. This would never be his home and some ignorant wolf telling him it was wasn’t going to change that. Outwardly, he nodded meekly. “Yes, alpha.”
“That’s enough of that,” Sybil said. “Your food’s going cold.”
Hunter and Seth grabbed some breakfast, eating hurriedly and chatting to each other.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Sybil chided them. “You’re supposed to be showing an example to the rest.”
“Aren’t clean plates good enough?” Seth protested good-naturedly. “Sorry to eat and run but we have to—”
“Patrol, yes, I know. Be off with you.”
They disappeared, Hunter pausing just long enough to squeeze Cade’s shoulder. Cade felt it was more for show than anything else, yet he couldn’t deny that he liked it; the closeness, the familiarity.
After that, Sybil shooed the children from the room, the older ones heading to school, which was located a few houses away, and Angie taking the younger ones out for some fresh air.
“Don’t take them down to the beach,” Sybil called after her. “The water’s too choppy.”
She turned to Cade, who was piling up the plates to carry to the sink. “Have you been down to the beach yet?”
“Not yet.”
“You should ask Hunter to take you later. It’s the pride of the pack. There’s a few secluded coves and smaller beaches if you walk around the head over the cliffs.”
It sounded lovely. If he and Hunter weren’t engaged in some weird dance where neither of them actually wanted the other, it would be the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Okay, after the previous night, that wasn’t totally true, but if you asked Cade’s head, he didn’t want a mate. Other parts of his anatomy might have said differently, but they were traitors.
After he helped Sybil wash up, she sent him off. “You’re not here to be my helpmeet. I have plenty of pairs of hands if and when I need them. I’ll call Joe to come and show you around.”
Cade sat outside the house, Angus keeping an eye on him while he waited for Joe. The beta in question walked out from between two houses. Cade waved at him, then faltered. It wasn’t Joe, it was Andy.
“Sorry, I thought…”
“Yeah, from the side we totally look like twins. Less so from the front. Joe’s actually over toward the farm, why don’t you come with me?”
Cade glanced over at Angus, waiting for the alpha’s nod before leaving with Andy.
“Keeping you on a short leash, huh?” Andy asked quietly once they were out of view.
“I guess I’m the new kid on the block.” Keen to change the subject, he asked the question that had been on his mind. “You and Joe are littermates, right?” he said, wanting to confirm what his eyes were telling him.
Andy looked a little surprised. “Yeah, we are. Most just assume we’re twins.” Twins was a human thing, shifters had litters. “It doesn’t help that we were the last litter in the pack. And they’d only had litters of two for a decade before that. In the older litters, the threes and fours, usually at least one mated outside the pack.”
“So, most of those here aren’t litter mates?” He had wondered when he watched Sybil’s kids. They all seemed to be singletons, spaced out. That wasn’t how it used to be.
“Let’s see. There’s me and Andy. Jessa and Beth, Beth went to live with her mate.”
“Another pack?”
“Nah, they live in a city now. Her mate is an engineer. There’s also Gino, he’s one of a mate of three. One died in a fight when they were teenagers, the other mated out. Um… we did have two of a litter of four, but one died and the other moved pack to be near to his brother.”
“Then you’re the last.”
“Yeah. It’s weird. I mean, from all the stories my grandma tells, having littermates was the norm and being a singleton was unusual. Now we’ve gone totally the other way.”
It had to be another sign of things breaking down.
They turned a corner and Cade caught sight of Joe, carrying a box in his arms.
“See you later, Cade,” Andy said, slipping into a nearby house. Cade jogged toward Joe, offering to help him carry the box.
“That’s okay. It’s not so heavy as all that.” They walked together through the houses.
“So, I’d been thinking about your alpha problem,” Cade said.
Joe screeched to a stop, glancing around. “Shh, not so loud.”
“Sorry,” Cade said. “Maybe there’s somewhere we could talk in private?”
“Let me get these eggs to Harry first, and then we can take a walk. I can show you the sights. Unless Hunter has already?”
“Oh, no. He’s gone on patrol. I’m at a loose end and I hear you’re my designated babysitter.”
They dropped the eggs off, Harry giving Cade a wink and a smile on learning he was Hunter’s new mate. “You’ll have your hands full with that young man. I hope you’re ready for it.”
After that, Joe walked them down to the beach, pointing out different people’s houses as they strolled along. Cade asked a few questions he felt Joe would expect before questioning him about the borders. The query didn’t seem to raise any suspicion in Joe, who was happy to point in the direction of each border and talk a little about who was on the other side. Their largest border was with Seth’s uncle Shane, so there was no concern there. And they were on friendly terms with those directly north of them, the Knaves. Cade was starting to get a sense of where and how far from home he was.