Are you ready to go yet?”

I slammed the trunk of my car shut after putting in some backpacks with supplies just in case they were needed on the venture out to Kyle’s pack’s cabin today.

It was located in a remote area in the woods just outside of Anchorage. Kyle told me that it would take at least an hour for the drive, and I was excited and looking forward to the quality alone time with him on the way out there, even if the reason for the journey wasn’t exactly ideal.

Kyle stood reluctantly on the sidewalk below his loft, wringing his hands together with visible anxiety.

“Come on.” I grinned and shifted my weight. I wasn’t going to allow Kyle’s nervousness about today to hinder my ability to remain cool, calm and collected.

I was the Alpha in this situation and I had to do what it took to keep my pregnant Omega partner from unhinging.

“I…can’t…” Kyle trailed off and stared at the ground in shame.

I took a deep breath and began walking toward him. This was going to take a substantially greater deal of coaxing to get Kyle to even so much as step off the sidewalk and into the car.

I grabbed Kyle’s shoulders on each side and gently shook him with affection. “Hey,” I whispered and waited until he finally appeased me with a glance up to meet my gaze.

“It’s…too hard.” Kyle’s voice was trembling.

“Nothing is impossible,” I said and stroked his cheek with adoration. “I’m your Alpha and it’s my responsibility to protect you.”

He looked unconvinced and I got placed on the inadvertent defensive for a moment or two. “Do you not trust me?” I eyed him, trying not to growl.

Kyle looked mortified. His cheeks blushed with fresh regret. “No…of course not…I mean yes…I do trust you…it’s just…”

He was a wreck. The trip to visit his pack was going to prove a difficult task at hand.

I inhaled a deep breath of the fresh, crisp Alaskan air. “Kyle…” I said in a lecturing tone although I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. “We have to get this over with. It’s now or never. It will be like ripping off a Band Aid,” I suggested. “The pain might sting for a few moments, but once it’s over with you’ll be relieved and be so glad to have it behind you.”

“Behind us,” Kyle reminded me of the fact that I was just as part of this situation and played a monumental role as he did.

“Right.” I grinned. He was a pistol, I’d give him that much.

He groaned and glanced up at the stark, gray sky above us. He looked like a sullen child who was being told what to do and was defiantly protesting.

I patted his back. “You can do this. You are strong, and I’ll be right there with you. I’ll pounce on anyone who tries to defile or harm you.”

Kyle beamed with pride, his eyes glowing radiantly. Finally, the man I was growing to care for so intensely and even love…was back underneath that timid shell somewhere.

“Let’s go.” I gestured to the car. “They will be waiting for us.”

Kyle climbed into the passenger seat. “If we are late, it won’t set the mood off to a favorable start,” he admitted.

“Exactly,” I said with a nod while putting the car in gear. “Everything will work out.”

He glanced over at me. “How can you be so sure of that?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged with nonchalance.

Kyle leaned back in his seat and placed his head against the headrest, staring outside as if he were searching for meaning in the world out there whizzing by.

“I wish I had your confidence,” he said.

“You are confident,” I attested. “You just don’t know how to use it yet. You are too…” I trailed off, brainstorming the right word to describe him.

Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “I’m too…what?” he said brashly.

I just had to chuckle. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I am scoping out the perfect compliment to give you. You are so laid back and down to earth. You always want to please people.”

“I do not,” Kyle said resentfully and pouted out his bottom lip.

“You sure are defensive today.” I chuckled. I was aiming to keep things light under any circumstances. The goal was to keep Kyle from completely freaking out and losing his shit today. “What I meant was,” I continued, “you are so kind and genuine that you put others above yourself.”

His face softened at that comment and he looked slightly smug with himself. “Yes,” he agreed. “I suppose that part of my personality is true.”

“Of course, it is.” I smiled warmly and rubbed the back of his neck while keeping my other hand on the driver wheel. “You are a great person, Kyle, and anyone who doesn’t realize that is a total fucking idiot.”

“Thanks.” He blushed.

I stared straight ahead at the snow trodden trees around us, blurring by on the highway as a blanket of white.

It wouldn’t be long now before we got to the cabin. I glanced over at Kyle. “Which way from here?”

Kyle pointed to a four way stop just ahead off the horizon. “When you get to that stop sign, make a right. Then, it will be the third street on the left.”

I approached the four way stop and turned on my right signal, turning the wheel as instructed.

“I love to come hunting out this way,” I admitted.

“With a gun?” Kyle asked, but his face revealed that he already knew the answer.

“Nope.” I grinned. “I have no use for tools like that.”

“I should have known better.” He chuckled, then pointed to a side street. “Turn here.”

The driveway was steep, and icy. Even with snow tires adorning my wheels, it was going to be tricky business maneuvering up the hill.

Kyle gave me a nervous glance. “Are you sure you can make it?”

I scoffed and snorted. “Please. This hill? It’s nothing.” I was doing my best not to add fuel to the fire when it came to Kyle’s worries.

A couple of minutes later, we arrived at a charming and quaint looking cabin tucked away in the center of a pine wooded forest.

“It looks cozy,” I said and placed the car in park, glancing over at Kyle.

He looked green and was breathing rapidly.

“Hey,” I said and took his chin in mine, cradling it there while I squeezed his hand with my free one. “Everything is going to work out.”

“You promise?” Kyle’s voice was a whimper.

I gave him a genuinely warm smile. “I promise.”

“Okay,” he said and took a deep breath. He clutched the passenger door handle and pushed it open. “Here we go then.”

“That’s a way to be brave,” I chimed and walked around the side to walk up to the front door with him.

Kyle rang the doorbell, and I stood behind him with the goal in mind to be the foundation of support, his gallant rock that I knew he’d desperately need in the face of mocking and disapproval.

“Coming,” I heard someone from the inside proclaim as footsteps approached.

Kyle was visibly shaking, and I wanted him to snap out of it. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on our side and yielded no extra moments to give him a resounding pep talk because in the next instant, the door swung swiftly open.

I stared into the face of an Alpha and an Omega that I was certain were Kyle’s parents. “Hello,” I stated, wanting to be the first one to greet them with charming, zealous appeal.

The Alpha stared me down with furrowed eyebrows and the Omega stared at Kyle.

“Hi Alpha Post,” he nodded to his father and then to the Omega, “Rodney.”

“Hmm,” Alpha Post grunted, but he stepped aside to allow us through into the foyer, so I supposed it was as good a sign as any that we were on the right track.

I glanced at Kyle to coax him along and he followed me inside. The cabin from the internal perspective was equally as cozy as the outside.

There were warm, soft colors and the wood on the walls was rustic and visibly pleasing.

Alpha Post wasted no time with small talk as he led us into the living room. “So,” he said and turned to face Kyle and me with a massive scale of judgement. “Why did you call this pack meeting today?”

For a brief and fleeting few seconds, Kyle was saved by the entrance of several other of his pack members that he greeted with smiles and hugs.

“It’s so great to see all of you,” he said in a friendly tone, but his voice was audibly shaking as he glanced back at his noble and prideful Alpha.

“Who is your friend here?” one of them perked up and asked.

Kyle looked at me and licked his lips, trying to compose himself. “This is uh…”

I held out my hand to shake with the Alpha that I saw in front of me. “I’m Alpha Riley, of the Crow pack.”

The Alpha pumped my hand. “Pleased to meet you, Alpha Crow. I’m Alpha James Wood and this is my Omega husband Dusty.”

“Alpha Wood is my cousin,” Kyle explained.

I nodded with polite flare with a smile as Alpha Post grunted with a domineering sound behind us.

We spun around to look at him. He was scowling, eager to get this meeting underway. I recognized that glare, I had seen it a thousand times in my own father’s eyes. The backlash was inevitable, but Kyle and I could withstand the rough tides and make it back to shore if we just stayed strong for a little while longer.

I knew that Kyle was wavering, and it was my job to step up to the plate if he needed me.

“Well…” Kyle began with a hard swallow. “I arranged the meeting because I wanted to uh…” he trailed off again, chuckling. “You see…,” he said and frowned, shifting his weight.

I tried not to roll my eyes at Kyle’s shady behavior. If he wasn’t going to get this shit over, I was hell-bent on it.

“What he is trying to say,” I swooped in to rescue him with a charming smile flashing across my face. I had a way with Alpha’s, because I was one. “Kyle here is not good with the words today.”

I meant it to be a lighthearted and fun joke, but it was a tough crowd to say the very least. Alpha Post grumbled gruffly, and his Omega partner snorted, clearly amused and entertained by this fiasco unfolding in front of him. My Alpha cousin and his Omega looked confused, but kind.

I took a deep breath. “Kyle is um…pregnant.”

Alpha Post’s Omega partner gasped audibly and then you could hear a pin drop in the room, it became so silent.

Everyone had faces displaying pure shock as their mouths hung open. Everyone that was, except Alpha Post.

His eyes were dark, cold and profoundly livid. “Is this true, Kyle?” He glanced at his son with so much loathing that it made me tremble.

Kyle hung his head in shame and sagged his shoulders in defeat. “Yes.” He nodded with confirmation.

“Who is the father?” Rodney asked with a grin on his face. He was clearly relishing in far too much enjoyment over Kyle’s demise.

“I am the father,” I boasted with prideful arrogance, puffing out my chest and daring any one of the lot in this pack to speak against me.

Alpha Post glanced at me as if I were a bug that he wanted to squash under his boot. “You are the father?”

“That’s right.” I didn’t falter. I could hear Kyle’s breath quicken and I saw him visibly stiffen.

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

I spun around. Someone else had entered the room, an elderly pack member.

“That’s my grandfather,” Kyle whispered.

I nodded with understanding as the grandfather came into the room. His eyes were frosty blue, and his hair was as white as the snow-capped mountains.

“Kyle, why would you shame our family like this?”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from going off on this asshole.

“I’m sorry, grandfather,” Kyle apologized.

“What are we going to do about the issue at hand?” Rodney asked.

Alpha Post nodded. “Right,” he said assertively. “Apparently, he was frustrated and finished with trying to pull answers out of Kyle, so he addressed me directly. “How do you plan on rectifying the situation with the visa?”

I stood my ground. I didn’t care if there was outrage among Kyle’s pack members. I promised Kyle to protect and defend him no matter what animosity we faced, and that’s what I planned to do.

“You can choose a beta to take Kyle’s place.”

Alpha Post grumbled. Clearly he wasn’t sold with my proposition, but he didn’t verbally have a comeback in protest.

“It’s honestly not any of Kyle’s concern,” I added bravely. “He shouldn’t spend the rest of his life trapped. Kyle is too nice to say it out loud to any of you,” I said and gestured around the room with my hands. “He always seeks out everyone else’s approval and nobody puts his needs first. I’m an Alpha who is willing to do that for him.”

Kyle flashed me a look of pure love and respect. I was upholding my image and promise to him, but we weren’t out of the woods yet…literally and figuratively speaking because I still had ground to break with Alpha Post.

“This was not part of the plan,” Alpha Post said gruffly, trying to tower over me. It was clearly a battle of the Alpha’s in here.

Kyle stepped in between us, ready to become the whipping boy once again, but instead, he surprised me with what he suggested next.

“We don’t have papers or anything yet, Father,” Kyle reminded him. “Any other person in this pack can be used in my place to have the arranged engagement with the female shifter.”

Alpha Post’s eyes flashed in heat and anger and his jaw squared, locked.

Kyle got another burst of confidence and ran with the streak. “It would be different if I’d already signed my life away with the documents, but it’s still early enough that we can find someone else to take my place.”

“It’s not a matter that’s up for debate anymore,” I told the pack in front of me. “Kyle is pregnant, and we are keeping the child. We are ready to start a pack of our own and Kyle is not going to go through with the engagement.”

It should be the end of the story.

Alpha Post’s face relaxed and his demeanor softened slightly. He glanced at Rodney, his Omega partner. “What do you think?”

Rodney shrugged. “You are the Alpha of this pack. You have the final say.”

“Fine.” Alpha Post looked between me and Kyle. “You will have my blessing.”

Kyle and I glanced at each other and hugged, purely elated for the change of heart coming from his father.

“However,” Alpha Post interrupted our celebration. “I have one condition.”

I should have known there would be a catch. “What is it?” I asked with suspicion.

“You must agree to marry Kyle if he is to bear your children.” Alpha Post looked stern.

I chuckled, and my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t even have to think before responding. “Absolutely. I would love to marry Kyle, because I am in love with him and we have already soul bonded.”