James dropped the grocery bags in the middle of Finn’s living room.

“We have a couple of hours. Abigail just got him to the mansion,” Thomas announced as he walked with Tony. “If we move fast, we can be gone long before that.”

“We should start laundry then, and have it moving while we’re doing everything else,” James grunted, pulling out the Tide. “Tony?” Antonio knew the most about clothes, so James figured he could be trusted to keep Finn’s stuff looking nice and not screw it up by mixing whites and colors.

“I got it,” Antonio groaned, taking the laundry detergent from him. “Hopefully this is the only time we do this.”

“Yeah,” James sighed. He was fine with this, really. He could come help the fox every day if he had to. Coming the day before had been a reality check for James. He’d been the guy who helped everyone in South Dakota, all the poorer Pack members.

Now he had someone else to help and he selfishly was glad for it.

“Did either of you talk to Abigail last night?” Thomas asked, grabbing a garbage bag and setting to the job.

“No,” James replied. “It was a wild day and she just wanted to pass out last night. In her hotel room.” He hadn’t liked that, but he could accept it. The opening had been hours in the sun, too much food, and ended later than they had expected.

“Yeah,” Thomas mumbled. “I’m not sure what there is to talk about. We knew this wasn’t forever.”

“I know,” James muttered. “I fucking know. I just wish we didn’t have a fucking countdown on us now.”

“We’ll enjoy it while it lasts,” Antonio added as he went around the room, picking up every piece of linen he could find. “That’s all we asked for, remember? Do I want her to leave? No. I also don’t want her to feel beholden to us, like she is required to stay if she’s ready to go.”

“She loves her job. We can’t keep her here and take that away from her,” Thomas whispered, looking down at the trash in the kitchen. James nodded slowly and went about cleaning up trash as well. They could only do what they had always been doing. James was just realizing he wanted more. Right as they were needing to confront the future, he realized he wanted so much more.

“The ball is in her court,” Antonio added. “It always has been.”

“Let’s just get this done,” James muttered.

It took an hour just for Thomas and James to clear the trash and Antonio was running the washing machine and dryer at maximum, hoping to get as much done as possible. Their Alpha dove in on the dishes, while James swept, mopped, and vacuumed all the floors. They cleaned off the furniture and James grabbed the thing that concerned him the most. Half a handle of whiskey.

“Do we cut him off?” he asked his Alpha, who frowned at it as well.

“I don’t know…” Thomas groaned. “He’s obviously in the bottle pretty hard but I’m not sure what our place is. We could pour it all out, but he would just buy more. He’s an adult who can do as he pleases.”

“How did you quit?” he inquired softly. He’d never asked his Alpha before and it was a very personal topic.

“A guy I was deployed with found me drunk off my ass and late for muster,” Thomas mumbled. “He covered for me, but forced me to sober up and remember that I had other guys who needed me, not just the ones I lost on deployment. And I needed to get my head out of my ass over my ex.”

“We’ll talk to Abigail about it,” James decided, putting the bottle back on the counter. “We can at least organize it all for him and make it look nice or something.” That gave him an idea. “Hold on.”

He went back into the garbage bags and pulled out all the empty bottles. They didn’t need to say anything to Finn. They needed to show him, James figured.

There were nearly thirty bottles, most empty, but some with just a finger left. He put them all on the counter, displaying them for the entire apartment, and put the unfinished ones in front. It was an impressive and scary sight.

“That’s going to freak him out,” Antonio mumbled, looking over James’ display. “Sure it’s a good idea?”

“Who knows,” Thomas said with a dark expression. “It’ll sure make a point. Plus, Abigail is the doctor. We’re just the wolves helping and I’m an Alpha. Finn can very quickly find himself hounded hard by me if he doesn’t clean up.”

“You’re not his Alpha,” James reminded him carefully.

“I can be,” Thomas bit out. “Watch me.”

James noted something dark in Thomas at that. Something he hadn’t seen since Thomas first returned from the Marines. The edge of something dangerous. The man who could handle a rifle, plan the deaths of men he didn’t know. Fight in war. Survive a hunt. Rescue them with only a five-two cheetah as his partner.

“Thomas?” James put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ve seen kids destroy themselves like this,” he whispered. “I almost did the same thing. Abigail wants this kid to get his act together and damn it, I’m going to fucking help. We should have ridden this boy harder to start.”

“I know,” James sighed. “He lost his twin in that hellhole, though, Thomas. Half of himself. His brother.”

“So did we,” Thomas growled. James swallowed and nodded. “We can be examples to him. Show him the world isn’t over if he just sees what it still has to offer. Abigail can be his shoulder to lean on and we’ll be the fucking kick in his ass he needs.”

“All right,” James agreed. Antonio just nodded. They got back to work and left the apartment as spotless as it could be. There was paint on a wall they couldn’t get off and James had heard Thomas chuckle at it, blaming it on Riley.

James left with the trash first, while Thomas and Antonio went to the bar for work.

He was lost in his thoughts, tapping a finger on the steering wheel as music played from the radio, when he got home. He narrowed his eyes on the Explorer in their driveway as he pulled up, confused.

They had a visitor? One they didn’t know, definitely. That made him worried. He reached for his glove box as he slowed down and pulled out the small handgun he kept there. Ever since the hunting compound, the entire Pack - except Abigail - had remained armed. They always kept a weapon close by, just in case that entire thing came back to haunt them. None of them carried physically but they left weapons everywhere: glove boxes, bottom drawers to their bedside tables and dressers, hidden in the kitchen cabinets. Abigail had stumbled on one once, but she had been nice enough not to ask many questions. Just closed the drawer and shrugged it off. She probably wouldn’t like just how half-paranoid the Pack really was.

When he could see the front of the farmhouse, he snarled. A man stood there, with his back turned to James. He flicked the safety off as the guy turned around to watch James drive up.

James nearly dropped the gun when he realized who the guy was. He slammed the brakes of his truck, gasping.

Haggard and slimmer than he used to be, Chris Marek raised a hand in a wave. James flicked the safety on the gun again and dropped it on the seat, just staring wide-eyed at Thomas’ brother and their previous Alpha.

“Fuck,” he breathed out, cutting the engine of the truck. He wasn’t even down the driveway yet, but he couldn’t bring himself to drive any closer. Chris sat down slowly on one of the chairs they kept out front and waited. Alphas waited. James was expected to go to him.

“You’re not my Alpha anymore, you piece of shit,” James growled to himself, growing angry at Chris before the other wolf could even say anything.

James got out of the truck, leaving it where it was, and walked casually to the house. He shoved the gun in the waistband of his jeans and when he got to the porch, he met Chris’ gaze.

“James,” Chris exclaimed softly. “It’s good to see you, my brother.”

Brother. James couldn’t stop his lip from curling at the word.

Chris wasn’t his brother. Not anymore.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, cursing internally for not texting Thomas the moment he realized it was Chris. He pulled his phone out and sent a quick message as the other wolf stood up.

“I wanted to…uh…I don’t really know, actually. I need a place to stay for a little while,” Chris chuckled. “Can I come in? Where’s Thomas and Antonio?”

“At the bar,” he growled softly. Thomas immediately dinged back with a ‘WTF’ and a second that said he was on his way. “Working. Thomas will be here soon though.”

“I was there earlier but didn’t see y’all,” Chris whispered.

James rolled his eyes. “We’ve had a busy day. They probably just got there,” he huffed. “Couldn’t let us know you were coming?”

“Why would I?” he asked, looking at James like he was an idiot. “Come on, James. This is no way to treat an old friend.”

Friend. James didn’t like that word either. He bit back a snarl and just opened the front door. He held it for Chris to go inside. He was amazed the other wolf hadn’t just made himself at home, since they had left the front door unlocked.

“I’ll be back. Got shit to deal with,” he mumbled, closing Chris in.

Fucking hell. This was not what he’d been expecting to deal with today. Or ever. They had all been convinced that Chris was gone for good, off to reclaim his fucking ‘rightful place’ in the world. He’d always been a hothead and a bad Alpha - a clear example that not all Alphas were born equal.

James dealt with the trash in the back of the truck and Thomas helped him the moment he arrived. “You left him in the house?” The Alpha asked, pouring old food into their compost out of the garbage bag.

“I could have left him on the porch,” James snapped, agitated and frustrated. And confused. He was confused as hell by Chris being in their fucking house. “He’s playing for fucking sympathy as if nothing happened, so I couldn’t bring myself to be too much of an ass to him. ‘My brother’ this and ‘old friend’ that.”

“All right,” Thomas said, holding out a hand. James knew Thomas wanted him to cool off. He’d never really liked Chris. Ever. He had wanted Thomas to be South Dakota’s Alpha, knew the younger brother was better for the job. Thomas had never wanted to fight with Chris. “We’ll handle it. He probably wants something and once we find out what that is-”

“We’ll send him on his fucking way,” James finished. He didn’t care if it was what Thomas wanted or not. He wasn’t putting up with Chris for longer than necessary.

“We’ll help him move on back out,” Thomas whispered, nodding. James could smell the worry on Thomas. The pain. The sadness. A bit of hope. He wanted to scoff, but he wouldn’t to Thomas. He knew Thomas loved his brother and this could be a chance for them to repair their shit.

“How’s the Pride going to feel about this?” James asked, crossing his arms.

Thomas cursed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll need to talk to Brenton. He and Chris didn’t like each other, and Chris doesn’t like Riley…”

“He practically called her a whore, Thomas,” James reminded him. “Fuck.” He turned and began to walk back to the house.

“What?” Thomas frowned at him as he caught up. “James?”

“Abigail,” James snarled. “She has stuff in the house. I don’t want your fucking brother sniffing around her at all.”

“Jesus,” Thomas groaned. “You’re right. We can put him up in a hotel.”

“Just not the same one as her,” James bit out. He didn’t want the asshole within a hundred feet of their doe.

He stomped into the house with Thomas on his heel. He found Chris sitting on the couch and glared down at him. Thomas pushed him gently to keep moving.

“Go get us a couple beers,” Thomas whispered. Louder, he continued, “Chris. What’s up?”

“Thomas,” Chris chuckled. “It’s good to see you.” The other Alpha got up and James watched them embrace as he went to the kitchen. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like how ‘hey, old buddy’ Chris was being. He didn’t trust the fucker as far as he could throw him.

He grabbed the beers and tossed one to Thomas. He tossed the second after Thomas handed the first to Chris.

“What’s going on, Chris? Let’s catch up,” Thomas sighed. “You’ve shown up out of the blue.”

“I tried calling,” Chris groaned, swatting Thomas on the chest. “A few times, actually. No one ever picked up. The bar or your cell phone.”

“Virginia area code?” Thomas asked, sitting down on his recliner.

James rubbed his face. The weird calls Thomas had been ignoring. They could have known ahead of time if he’d just answered the phone or called the number back.

“That’s me,” Chris confirmed, taking over the middle of the couch. It left James with nowhere to sit in the living room, so he jumped onto a counter and just watched. “So, you own a bar now.”

“Yeah, we bought Rocker’s here in town. You know that, it seems,” Thomas said, cracking his beer open.

“It’s a nice place,” James added, meeting Chris’ gaze. “We were lucky the owner was ready to sell when he was.”

“A bar seems kind of small time,” Chris replied. “Why not something bigger? Are you thinking about sister locations or anything?”

“No,” Thomas chuckled. “We’re not, Chris. There’s only three of us here. We have all we need and more. No reason to get bigger than we can manage.”

“Your choice,” Chris mumbled.

James narrowed his eyes at the Alpha.

“What are you doing in town?” Thomas asked him quickly. “You know what’s going on with us. We’re not secretive. What about you?”

“I would say you’re a little secretive,” Chris laughed. “I can smell a female all over this, a doe. No rumors or anything about it though.”

“Stop changing the fucking topic,” James snapped. It made both Alphas look over to him. “She’s none of your fucking business.”

“Someone grew a fucking backbone.” Chris growled. “Little brother, you need to put him in his place.”

“He’s right. She’s not your business,” Thomas said before taking a swig of his beer. “Why are you here?”

“I need a place to hang out for a few weeks, maybe longer,” Chris answered. “No big deal. I just need a bed.”

“Are you bringing trouble into this town?” Thomas asked, this time sounding angry. James felt his own anger build. They could lose all of this if Chris brought in some drama. The Pride wouldn’t tolerate it, and neither would the Colorado Pack.

“No,” Chris laughed. “No trouble. Just tired. Been traveling a lot. Figuring my shit out. Trying to find what I can do, talking to old allies. Just need a break.”

James reminded himself that he didn’t trust Chris at all, but he couldn’t smell a lie in the statement. He was also feeling bitter about this Alpha for more shit than anyone in the room would want to talk about.

“We’ll set you up in a hotel,” Thomas sighed. “Come on. I know a good place.”

“A hotel?” Chris looked insulted. “Why can’t I stay here?”

“We’re crowded as is,” James called out. “Three wolves call this place home.”

“There’s four bedrooms,” Chris huffed, glaring at him. He looked back at Thomas and James already knew what he was about to do. Play the damn older brother card. “I’m your older brother, Thomas. You can’t just shove me into a hotel.”

Thomas took a deep breath and James groaned, rubbing his face again. He was going to fall for it. Like he always fell for it. Thomas looked over to James and James just shrugged. James was a wolf and he would do as his Alpha wanted.

“What’s on your mind, James?” his Alpha asked softly, ignoring Chris for a moment.

“Abigail,” James answered back, just as quietly.

“Chris, you’re staying in a hotel,” Thomas said decisively, and James felt a swell of pride and respect for him at that moment.

“Come on!” Chris groaned.

“End of story,” Thomas said with finality. “Sorry, this house is full.”

“Full of three wolves and a woman named Abigail?” Chris growled. “When did some bitch become more important than brotherhood?”

James snarled, and Thomas grabbed Chris’ shirt and swung him into the wall. James stayed seated, barely, when he realized Thomas was going to handle it.

“You’ve been here less than an hour and you can’t keep your damn shit to yourself. You don’t talk about Abigail that fucking way, you hear me?” Thomas snarled. “You’ll take the fucking hotel. I’m fucking paying for it. You’ll only come to this house with my fucking permission.”

James grinned and noticed Chris glaring at him for it. Damn right, Abigail was more important than this son of a bitch.

“Got something to fucking say, James?” Chris growled, still held to the wall by Thomas.

“Nah, Chris, I don’t,” James chuckled.

“Don’t pick fights, you two,” Thomas snapped. “Come on, Chris.”

James watched Thomas take his brother out of the house and stayed where he was. He hated that motherfucker with every bone in his body. Chris just walked in here and pretended like none of it ever happened. Like everything would be fine between them all. He’d always been a shit Alpha for South Dakota, with the rest of them cleaning up after him. It had been his idea to go and raid the hunters’ little place and take a bunch of them out.

James slid off the counter and went out to his truck again. He drove it to the small section of the property where five small headstones were lined up. Names of the fallen. Pelts in the ground.

Chris hadn’t even asked if they ever got their brothers back. He had no idea half of his old inner circle was buried out here, only minutes away. James knelt in front of them and lowered his head.

They were good at pretending it never happened. That these brothers fell to real fights, honored. James was willing to ignore that four of them had been on Chris’ side about the hunters. In the end, they were all wolves and a wolf either followed the Alpha or fought him.

In the end, they had all followed and they had paid for it.

Now that motherfucker was back, and James was concerned with the implications that had for the Pack. He wouldn’t sit by if Chris tried to take over. He had some hope for Thomas, who was willing to throw Chris out of the house over calling Abigail ‘some bitch.’ That meant Thomas, knowingly or unknowingly, found something he cared for more than his last family member. Thank God for that.

James pulled out his phone to let Antonio know what happened.

James: Chris is back. Was here at the house. Thomas is putting him in a hotel.

Tony: What the fuck?! This is a fucking joke, right?

James: Sadly, no. He was standing on the front porch when I got here. Wanted to stay at the house. Thomas. Hotel. Thank god.

Tony: What the hell does he want?

James: Not really sure. Just said something about wanting to relax for a little while?

Tony: Jesus fucking Christ, James. He’s a whole bag of fucking problems we don’t need.

James: I know. I’m already thinking about how to make sure Thomas doesn’t fall for his shit. It’s his brother, though.

Tony: I’m not fucking serving Chris again. If Thomas bends, I’m fucking outta here.

Tony: Where you at, man?

James: With our brothers. Just needed to remind myself why Chris is bad news. He didn’t even fucking ask about them, ya know? Pretended like everything was normal and it was just on with business and shit.

Tony: Come to the bar and hang out. Play some guitar. I’ll even sing. We’ll have a good time, call Abby over or something when she’s done with Finn at the Pride’s place. No reason to worry about Chris until he actually does something wrong, I guess.

James liked that idea. The band wouldn’t mind him taking the stage for a moment and just playing for the crowd a little. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and went back to the house. He needed to clean up and change if he was going out into public.