Chapter 343: Chapter 343

Xander | was used to the boring parts of being the Alpha.

Meetings, s hit like that. There was more to running a pack than leading its warriors into battle. Honestly, most of running a pack was more about delegating small tasks and s hit like annual reports than anything else.

Mason hadn't grown up with an Alpha dad, and although he had the Alpha powers, he’d never had the chance yet to actually, like...lead, Man, was he eating it up.

| got a real kick out of watching my brother on the other side of the big table, leaning in to offer his suggestions to the other Brightsky bigwigs Malachi had h oo ked us up with. Me? I’d been doodling on the notepad we’d each been given when we walked through the door. | didn’t really care much about the requisitions and acquisitions and storehouse inventories and who was going to set up a new trust to pay for the infrastructure and blah, blah, blah...

Yeah, all important stuff, but | hadn’t even been put on a committee for anything, and | wasn’t used to being part of a...well. A team.

Alphas ruled. Usually alone, with the support of a Luna and a Beta. It was hard enough for me to adjust to sharing my pack with another Alpha, and so far, all of that had only been an idea. Mason and | had never actually had to do it.

“Dude, this sh it is so boring.” | sent my complaint to Zane through the link, careful to keep my expression from giving away my real feelings.

It took him a few minutes to reply. “What's going on?

“Boring Alpha s hit. You’re lucky you're out there getting to pound on some s hit.”

“Boring Alpha sh it is your job i thought you didn’t really like that being an Alpha didn’t mean much here? Sounds like they’re trying to give you a chance to fit in”

Zane sounded annoyed?

What the f uck?

“Dude, you okay? | thought to him Unlike you. Im not bored right now in the middle of conversation.”

Hip clipped response shocked me enough that | dug my pen into the paper hard enough to tear through to the next layer Apson shot me a look, but | was glad to see that nobody else seemed to notice | didn’t think anything to Zane again, but it bothered the hell out of me that he’d been so snippy | kind of felt like he was a little bothered when i told him Malachi was sending me and Mason into this meeting but “Bro, get your sh it together,” Mason thought to me.

“They're asking what you did in Constantine about hiring outside human contractors to handle work tha couldn’t be done with our own kind.”

Blinking, | sat up straight, suddenly aware that everyone at the table was staring. F uck. | looked like a re douche.

“Can't say that we ever really ran into that problem,”

| said quickly. “My dad didn’t think working with humans was in the best interests of the pack, and he never outsourced stuff.”

I The second | said it, | felt like | wanted to bite back my words.

Obviously, Orion had not really believed that working with humans was going to compromise the integrity of the pack, since he was fully involved with that nasty hybrid testing facility staffed and run by humans.

The slight awkward tension in the silence after | spoke told me that most of the people in the room knew that, too.

But tme,” | put in hastily, “If | had to get some work done that could only be done with a human team, | would...first, I’d make sure to get references. You know. Make sure they were trustworthy working with wolves.

“Of course,” Jacques said with a smile. “We absolutely would do the same.”

The conversation picked back up, this time volleying ideas back and forth for an enclave expansion.

Mason reached out to me through the link. “What’s up with you?”

“| think Zane’s pi ssed off with us. Or at least me. | was linking with him, and he sounded mad.”

“Because we're in a fancy leadership meeting without him, | bet.”

“| guess so.”

My brother’s lips quirked into a small smile he kept hidden from everyone else. “Sounds like a great excuse to duck out of this thought you were gobbling it up like it was a big slice of beef” | thought-laughed.

Mason gave his head a slight, subtle shake only i saw “S hit, no Im so bored | want to stab out my eyes i And ears. Let's go find our Beta and remind him how important he is to us.”