Colten stood from the kitchen table as the first of the knocking started.
He should have been able to pull out the scents of each guest but Grayson and Tribune's aromatics were causing his sense of smell to be compromised. He hoped the rest of Fornone would not be spooked by it before he had a chance to introduce them to Tribune's Alpha and Luna.
Colten grabbed the door and opened it, revealing a few of his pack members and their children. He greeted them and led them to the back, deciding to just leave his door open in hopes the knocking would not continue with the continued guests.
It wasn't much longer before his backyard was decently filled and Grayson and Chloe were seeming to be extremely popular too.
He started the barbeque but was pushed off by the females and gave up, by means of going to sit in a lawn chair with a beer.
Chloe was very open and bubbly. He watched her become everyone's friend with ease, it left him thinking about how, if all else failed, Grayson and Chloe could be the best fit for Fornone. You know, if he ended up dead in a ditch somewhere.
He wrinkled his brow and took a sip of his beer.
“Colten.”
He glanced up as Sarah stood beside him.
“How are you, Sarah?”
“Fine.” She stuffed, “We just got here. Sorry for the late arrival.”
“Oh, we haven't started making burgers, no worries-”
“Who's the Alpha?” Sarah cut him off.
Colten looked to Grayson across the yard, “Grayson Holtz from Tribune.”
“Ella's uncle?” Sarah put it together.
“Yeah, the woman there, that's his Luna; Chloe and blonde beside him is his beta; Mike. They've come to help me with Oscuro.”
“I see.” Sarah nodded. She looked bored with him and Colten knew that expression well.
“Where's Sally and Jake?” He looked around.
“Gone off to look at your new foal.” She told him.
He nodded and took another sip of his beer, hoping it would end the conversation if he looked like he didn't have much else to say.
“Peter is gone?”
“Yes, I'll discuss it when we start the meeting.”
She huffed, “I see. Well, I better go make myself useful.”
“Sarah,” He swallowed, not liking the tone between them and being who he was, he wanted to fix it, “I'm sorry.”
Sarah lifted her eye brow, “For?”
“For how... it all ended.” He thought he was making pretty decent sense but then again, he wasn't completely sure.
Sarah shrugged, “It's fine, you're Alpha. I just hope you find your mate soon.”
Colten nodded, “Yeah, that'd be nice.”
“I'm sure.” She breathed, “I'm going to help.”
He swallowed, “Talk to you later, then...” He winced as she walked away and he realized that situation was likely going to stay awkward for awhile.
He sat back in his lawn chair. With the sour taste that particular woman was leaving him with, he was more than glad the relationship was done.
“Thank you, Peter...” He said to himself and sipped his beer again.
“Nice pack.” Grayson showed up beside him.
“Thanks.” Colten said back with a nod.
“Pretty laid back folks.”
“Yeah, for the most part.” He never really had much to complain about regarding Fornone.
“You thinking of starting this meeting soon?”
“Yep.” He could smell the burgers cooking, “First we'll eat. I'm starving.” He got up, feeling like he could eat more than a burger. Maybe something more like the original source of the burger.
Grayson walked across the yard with him to the food tables and they inspected the status on meal time.
“You're always so impatient, Colten.” Alma smiled at him.
“I'm starving.” He admitted.
Grayson laughed, “You don't know starving, man, till you have a mate you can't mate with.”
Colten winced and looked away as Alma gave him a look. The look of you're screwed, Colten Turner.
Grayson slapped his shoulder, “I'll watch your pack for awhile if you wanna go out looking for her. It'll all change once you find her. It's literally one of the best things, even if my Luna just happens to be that sweet, little annoying thing.”
Though Grayson was kidding, he felt his love for his mate through it, it's what he felt for Abigail.
Colten nodded, he didn't need to go look, he needed to figure out a way to have her and soon.
Alma told them another few minutes and they walked away, going to check on his horses. Which were being harassed by the children.
He walked into the barn and showed a few little ones the new foal. As he dropped the last child to her feet, she took off squealing and he smiled.
He turned to walk back out as Chloe walked into the barn.
“Alpha.” She smiled at him.
He sighed, “In theory, right?”
Chloe's face softened with sympathy and she walked over to the stall, “Who's this?”
“My new filly.” He told her, “Haven't named her yet, though.”
“Hmm...” Chloe looked the baby over, “Yeah, I'm not sure either.”
“Well, if you think of anything, let me know.” He told her.
“Sure.” Chloe watched the baby.
“Are you enjoying Texas so far?”
“So far?” She smiled, “It's been like six hours but yeah, makes me miss California.”
He smiled, “Alaska was a lot more picturesque in my opinion.”
Chloe nodded, “Yeah, I guess so. Not like I have a choice, it's where I'm meant to be.”
Colten liked how dedicated she was to Tribune, she would obviously never let them down being their alpha female.
“You know,” She started, “I'm not totally dumb.”
He looked to her and tilted his head, “What?”
“Yeah.” She laughed at him now, “I know there's something else going on other than this rival pack. I mean this is not going to be a big deal, you and Grayson will deal with it easily.”
Colten shrugged, “I hope.”
Chloe shook her head and moved closer to him, “Are you going to tell me or do I have to interrogate you or go to the nanny?”
Colten lifted an eyebrow, “My nanny?”
“Yeah, I'm not dumb. I mean, I know I look totally So-Cal but I'm not.” She put her finger to his chest, “I just like Gray thinking I am. It's all a ploy so I get a lot of babies out of him.”
Colten laughed, “Jeez, I still don't know what you're talking about though.”
Chloe didn't look impressed anymore, “Colten, tell me who is your mate!”
He blanched and stared at her.
“Come on, Colten. You smell like hormones, Grayson's even noticed and he usually doesn’t notice anything but what's going on in his pants.”
Colten smiled, “You're funny.”
She stepped in closer, “Come on, spill it out of your Texan mouth!”
He stepped back and sighed, “Chloe...”
“This is serious. If you have a mate, you need to seal the deal.” She pressed.
He sighed as the conversation got worse and worse for him, “I-”
“Colten, do you really have a mate! Am I right?” She stared up at him.
He winced his way through his internal conflicts, “Yeah.”
“Yeah?” She exclaimed, “What!”
He nodded, rubbing his forehead as he walked into the back of the barn. Chloe followed at his heels as they moved out of ear shot of Fornone. He didn't want anyone to hear them, especially in regards to Abigail Redding.
When he turned towards her, she looked like she'd figured most of it out, he had a mate without a doubt. Obviously. Colten collected his thoughts as Chloe waited.
“Well?” She pressed.
“Her name is Abigail, she's human.” He said in a low voice.
“Holy crap!” She exclaimed, “Are you serious!”
He swallowed, regretting saying anything aloud.
“Where is she? Does she know!” Chloe's questions attacked him and he didn't know what to do.
He wallowed, “Yeah, well, she knows what I am.”
“Whoa!” Chloe stared at him, “What did she say? Did she reject you? When did this happen!”
He winced, “Technically, no. Well, I don't know.”
“What's that mean?”
“It means, her Dad knows what I am and he said no and then she said no.”
Chloe fell quiet and stared at him.
He sighed, “It's a mess. I tried.”
“No!” Chloe cut him off, “There's no way, you need to try harder.”
Colten swallowed, “I don't think she-”
“Are you serious!” Chloe stared at him, “Do you even know what I went through when I met Grayson? The longer I knew him and was around him, the more I felt like I was being pulled and ripped at. I needed to be with him, no matter what. I did everything wrong when it came to him but then again, I didn't. She can't reject you, it'll kill her.”
“Kill her?” Colten felt his anxiety rise.
“Well...” Chloe shrugged, “It hurts... a lot. Where does she live! We need to go there now.”
“No.” Colten stopped her, “I'm not a priority. Fornone is.”
Chloe looked him over and nodded, “Yeah, but you're their Alpha and they need her.”
Colten wanted to beat his head to a wall and hope it would all end but instead he agreed with her.
“I'm going to work on it.” He told her.
Chloe's head cocked and she didn't look to sure, “We can go to her tonight.”
“Her father runs this town but I'm still trying to figure out how he knows about us.”
“Okay, do the meeting and maybe we can figure this out but, damn.” Chloe shook her head at him, “You constantly surprise me.”
He sighed, “Yeah.”
“I know it can get complicated with humans, it's a hard concept to grasp that you now need to turn into a supernatural chihuahua.”
Colten smiled, “A what?”
Chloe started to ramble and grabbed his arm, dragging him out of the barn. The rest of what she was saying he lost track of.
***
The meeting had gone smooth. Fornone seemed happy with the help of Tribune's front line and what wasn't to like? Grayson was a strong Alpha, Chloe was a friendly Luna and Mike was the silent, good fighting Beta. They together made the perfect team to come in and lead him out of the mess he'd gotten himself into with Oscuro.
The start of the bon-fire was welcomed and the children had retired to the living room to watch his old VHS collections with popcorn provided by Alma.
It seemed the older woman just never stopped working.
He watched the kids a moment before heading to the kitchen to get himself a beer and maybe even a shot of whatever was on his table.
He looked over the bottles and decided on the whiskey, it was always a solid choice. He poured himself one and looked it over, thinking about wether or not getting a slight buzz would be worth it.
Grayson walked in the back door, “Stop looking it and just do it.”
Colten downed it in a quick lift to his lips.
“Better.” Grayson walked to the fridge and pulled out another beer.
Colten smiled, “Not too many now, you're under my watch.”
Grayson cracked open his fourth beer of the night and smiled, “Funny.”
“Youngin'.” Colten poured himself another shot.
Grayson walked over, “I'm in too.”
Colten grabbed an empty shot glass and filled him one, taking a sip of his newly opened beer.
“Bottoms up, Turner.”
They drank as Chloe walked in,“Gray, do not get Colten drunk.”
Grayson looked to his mate and smiled, “Colten's the one that should be making sure I shouldn't be getting drunk.”
Colten chuckled and dropped his shot glass to the table, “I'm not responsible for either of you, forget it.”
Grayson laughed, “Right from the mouth of the elder Alpha, little.”
She huffed at them and rolled her eyes, “We have things to do.”
“Like what?” Grayson laughed at her.
She lifted an eyebrow at Colten and he avoid further eye contact with her.
He tried to ignore where she was going with it,“Alright, Luna, I won't get your Alpha too drunk...”
Grayson laughed, “I think we need one more. In celebration of kicking Oscuro ass soon.”
“Comin' up.” Colten grabbed the bottle again and Chloe put her hands on her hips.
“Colten!” She exclaimed.
He smiled at her, “You want one too.”
Grayson reached out as she went to speak, “You're not pregnant!”
She huffed.
Colten laughed at them, “But what if she is Grayson, then what?”
“Dude, come on!” Grayson exclaimed, dropping his hands from his mate.
She swatted at him and hit his chest, “Idiot.”
Grayson and Colten were quick to down another shot of whiskey each.
It swept down Colten's throat and he liked the burn, it seemed to ease his breaking Alpha heart.
“Colten?”
He dropped the shot glass from his mouth and turned to the soft voice behind him.
Chloe and Grayson looked up to the lean blonde now standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Abi.” Colten stared at her, moving towards her and tripping on his kitchen table in the process. He groaned, putting the shot glass down to the table top.
She took in a soft breath and watched him recover from knocking into the furniture. Her blue eyes broke his and she glanced at Chloe and Grayson before returning to him, “Colten, I...”
He dropped the bottle of whiskey in his hands and it hit the ground, crashing to a million pieces.
Chloe yelped and jumped back, “Ah!”
“Crap.” Colten stared at the broke bottle at his feet, but that wasn't really what was on his mind.
“Oh...umm...” Abigail walked to the sink and found a damp rag.
Chloe caught on to who the human in the kitchen was and jumped forward, “I'll do it!” She took the rag from Abigail, “I'm Chloe.”
The blonde stammered from the abrupt introduction, still her eyes fell on Colten again, “Abigail.” She bustled her name out.
Chloe smiled at her, “Nice to meet you. This is Grayson, my – my boyfriend.”
Grayson nodded to the blonde and looked between his Luna and Colten, figuring it all out.
Telling himself to get it back together, Colten walked through the broken glass, his boots crushing it to his old wood floors, “What are you... why are you...”
Chloe gave him a hard look and he shut up his rambling dumbness.
Abigail swallowed, “Sorry to just, show up.”
“No!” Chloe scared her with her outburst, “No, it's fine.”
Colten nodded, “It's okay.”
“Umm....” Grayson started but Chloe snapped her eyes to him.
“Go get a broom, Grayson, stop being useless!” She shoed him away.
He wrinkled his nose at her and walked out of the kitchen, grumbling in displeasure.
“I'm going to go – help him.” Chloe looked between them and bounced out of the kitchen.
Colten watched the Luna leave, then his eyes peeling back to his mate. He took a breath and inhaled all her sweetness. His slightly buzzed brain approved one hundred precent.
She swallowed, “Um...”
He let out a sharp breath, “Are you hungry?”
She let out a laugh and looked away, “Colten, no.”
He wanted to beat his head to a wall but instead he just stared at her, not knowing what to say.
Her blue eyes came back to him, “I... I didn't mean what I said to you yesterday.”
He swallowed, “Abi, I understand... it's not like I expected you to accept me...”
Abigail walked to him and bit her bottom lip, “Accept you?”
He held back from reaching out for her, “Umm...” His voice was low, he was unsure of the moment with her but he tried to keep it together.
She swallowed and her now tear stricken eyes moved to him, “Colten, what do I have to do?”
He looked to her and the air around them thickened, “What?”
She nodded, her bottom lip finally releasing and her next words made his heart stop.
“What do I have to do to be with you?” She repeated to him.
He stared at her, not believing what was happening in that moment.
There was footsteps at the back door and it snapped his eyes away from his mate.
“Colten, Ella needs-”
He watched as Sarah stepped inside, Ella on her hip and the brunette's step halted as her sight fell on the beautiful blonde; Abigail, in the kitchen.