Alpha Desmond novel Chapter 6

“What the hell is all this?” My nose wrinkled as I flipped through the paperwork that Ricky sat down.

“Work, Alpha. You know, when you aren’t setting fires to cities or helping with picking out colors of balloons for your birthday.”

I growled. “I am doing work. What are you doing?”

“Working, Alpha.” Ricky started to head out. “Our new buyers showed up for the Magis house. I’m going to hand over the keys and show the place.” He scoffed. “Show all the holes and moldy floorboards. It should be the most fun showing I’ve ever done.”

“What took them so long? It’s been weeks?” Scott looked over at Ricky.

He turned, rubbing his forehead. “Get this. They don’t drive.”

“What do you mean they don’t drive? Like they just walked across three states?”

“Exactly! Literally walked across states.”

Scott and I looked at him, our eyes narrowing. “You sure you did a background check on them?”

Ricky shrugged and looked at Scott. “I tried. Literally nothing came up. Not a single iota of information. I even tried through Marcus. He couldn’t come up with anything in the weeds either. Nothing.”

I looked at Scott and he looked at me. My worries were starting to resurface. This was a terrible idea and it was only getting worse the more information, or lack thereof, we were getting.

“Maybe they are just those hippies who live off-grid and wanted to live amongst the trees. Wouldn’t hurt anything.” Scott shrugged and I sighed.

“It’s a pain in the ass whatever it is.”

“Just finish that paperwork and we can move past all this.” Ricky stuck his tongue out and made a quick exit as I threw a crumpled up paper at the door.

Scott shook his head. “I wonder if I should go with him.”

“Nah, don’t bother. He gets into his realtor mode and you can’t stop him. We will deal with it later if it becomes an issue. I’ll have patrol keep an eye out.”

“Didn’t you already adjust their routes to accommodate the new border?”

I nodded. “It’s not very far. Plus, I need to keep the kids from smoking in that area. They’ve been high shifting over there for years.”

Scott chuckled. “Like you?”

“Yes, like me, while you were still in grade school. Get the hell out of my office, Beta.” I pulled the first paper off of the pile Ricky left, picking up my pen.

Scott snickered but left the office. I heard the ‘old man’ from his mouth but I chose to be the bigger wolf and not throw something at him. These two kids were going to be the death of me. Forget getting old or my body crumbling. No, Ricky and Scott were going to absolutely grind me into dust with paperwork. Sighing, I picked up my pen and stared down at the pile in front of me.

I was halfway through the paperwork when Ricky mind linked me.

'Alpha, I don’t think we need to worry about this one.'

'Worry about what?' I held up the paperwork, thinking that I maybe had linked with him over the new requested pipes through the lake-side cabins by accident.

'The new human.'

I put down the paper, slightly annoyed that it wasn’t about that. 'Oh? Why’s that?'

'She’s something else. It’s just a single woman, looks to be around twenty-five, maybe twenty-six. Seems completely harmless. Damn beautiful though.'

'What do you mean by “something else”?'

'Strong. Independent. No fear. It looks like she plans on trying to make the house at least livable. I referred her to your dad’s place for any tools or advice. She walks everywhere though. She was carrying a single backpack and you could just tell she preferred being in the woods alone than being around people.'

I nodded. 'Maybe we were all worrying about a human moving in for no reason. Well, since it sounds like you’re done, you can come back and we can do this paperwork together.'

'Sorry Alpha, that’s all you. I’ve got to file the last bit of paperwork for the house transferral. Have a great night!'

I growled but Ricky cut off his link. Staring back down at the paper, it was going to cost an exorbitant amount of money for new pipes at the beachside houses, but those were our biggest sellers during the summer season. Sighing, I signed off on it and made a note that the prices per night needed to be raised. We also needed it done within the next four months for all of them, otherwise we wouldn’t be ready for summer season. Moving onto the next paper, I rubbed my eyes.

“The font getting smaller on you, Alpha?” I looked up to see that Scott still hadn’t left the pack house.

“The hell you still doing here?”

He chuckled. “You think you’re the only one who got stuck with work to do? Apparently, the dungeon was starting to smell and someone had to clean up the mess. According to Ricky of course.”

I rolled my eyes. “It was not that bad.”

“I think next time he said if it got that bad, he would toss an entire jug of hibiscus tea on the floor and watch you clean it up real quick.”

“I’d love to see him try.” I signed the document in my hand and placed it on the ‘done’ pile. “Go home, Scott. Your mate is probably going to skin me alive thinking I kept you over.”

He smiled and stretched. “I already told her it was Ricky. So no need to worry there.”

“When you guys gonna have another pup?”

I saw him grimace. “Right now, Katie is enough. She’s a ball of energy. I swear, the moon goddess gave us an Alpha in a Beta’s body. She will be the death of me.”

“How old is she now?”

“Six.” Scott laughed. “Six going on sixteen with her attitude.”

I laughed. “Don’t say that. I promise you, it’s very different.”

“Great, I’ll have that to look forward to.”

Scott leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. “Speaking of Liam, how’s he doing?”

“Fine. He’s a smart kid, too smart.” I tossed the paper I was looking at in the trash and continued through the pile.

“Is he really going to take over the pack, Alpha?”

I looked up at Scott who was looking at me seriously. “I don’t think so but until he tells me himself, I will continue to teach him and assume he will.”

“What will you do then? It’s not like Natalie can take over, she has even less Alpha than Liam does.”

I sighed and put the paper down on the desk, looking at my Beta with full attention. “Where is this coming from Scott? This is the second time you’ve brought this up in a few weeks.”

“Desmond, you’re turning forty. You’re still stirring up trouble with other packs and going against the Alpha King. You won’t always be here to protect the pack.”

Lacing my fingers together and settling my chin on them, my elbows resting on the desk I watched my Beta. “Are you saying I’m too old to be picking fights?”

I watched as fear flashed over his face before his brow furrowed. “I’m saying, you need to think more about the pack you’re protecting rather than everyone outside. Your dad was already retired by the time he was your age, even if he was still helping you.”

“Beta, if you think you can currently take me in a fight, by all means, challenge me. Show me how old, weak and frail I am.”