Mild? He’d felt Andrea’s emotions as she climbed into the truck eighty miles away. He could feel her excitement growing the closer she got to the compound. Whether she realized it or not, she loved him, and he loved her. There was no way he would even consider not completing the claiming.
His phone rang, and he seriously considered throwing the damn thing across the room. Only the thought that it could be Andrea calling to tell him they were on their way home stopped him from following through.
He snatched up the receiver and pressed it to his ear.
“Your father is on his way,” his secretary informed him. Finally a touch of good news. “And Dave is on line two.”
“Thanks.” He’d meant the word to be genuine, but the idea of speaking to anyone related to Sheila at the moment set his teeth on edge. His secretary squeaked a good-bye and disconnected quickly. Xavier sighed and rubbed his forehead. He really should have hired someone a little less easy to scare. He’d gone along with his mother’s recommendations when he’d hired the woman, but he still couldn’t figure out what his mom had been thinking when she’d recommended such a frightened mouse for an alpha’s secretary.
He glared at the flashing light on line two. Dave had been his best friend since grade school. He knew the man almost as well as he knew his brothers. It was just unfortunate that Dave’s younger sister was such a manipulative, ambitious, scheming bitch. Xavier really should take this call.
Annoyed at his own uncharacteristic behavior—he usually faced trouble head-on, not hiding in his office—Xavier snatched up the receiver.
“What?” Okay, not his most friendly greeting, but it was the best he could muster.
“Rough day?” Dave asked casually.
“You could say that.”
“Sorry, but I think I’m about to make it worse. I just saw your mother and my sister heading toward the main gate with nearly half the pack in their wake. I think they plan to challenge Andrea’s status in the pack.”
“Great, fucking great.” He’d half been expecting a challenge for leadership of the pack, but it seemed that his mother had a scheme to somehow keep him in the alpha position but deny him the mating he wanted. “Where’s my dad?”
“Not sure,” Dave answered. “Last I saw him he was headed to your office.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you at the gate. Hopefully I’ll run into Dad on the way there.”
“No worries,” Dave said. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry my sister is one of the instigators. But I promise you have my support, no matter what.”
“Thanks.”
Xavier hung up the phone slowly. Considering that as alpha he had the power to ostracize Sheila if he believed it best for the pack, it might prove a difficult promise for Dave to keep.
* * * *
Isaac couldn’t help the silly grin that covered his face. Finally he had everything he wanted in life. A good job, a great family, and a mate perfectly suited to them all. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about getting their woman pregnant ever since she’d made the suggestion.
The vibration of his cell phone was an unwelcome intrusion.
He glanced at the caller ID and really wanted to press the ignore button, but knew she was unlikely to give up, so he answered the damn call.
He tried to sound casual. “Hi, Mom. What’s up?”
Isaac could feel the tension level increase in the two people beside him and deliberately opened his mind to Daegan so that his brother could listen into whatever their mother had to say. Isaac felt relieved in a guilty sort of way that their link to Andrea wasn’t yet strong enough to allow this type of communication.
“Something awful has happened.” The woman sounded genuinely distressed, and for a suspended moment, Isaac’s heart damn near climbed into his throat.
She sounded like she was crying, but when she didn’t say anything more, Isaac growled, “Explain.”
There was a moment of silence—perhaps shock that he’d spoken to her in such a disrespectful tone—but then she dragged in a deep breath and continued. “The pack has decided they don’t want a human mated to the alpha. Several of the men are considering challenging Xavier for leadership.” She took a few gasping breaths, and suspicion wormed into Isaac’s brain. His mother wasn’t the type to cry. She’d always held great pride in being able to endure, with grace and poise, any hardships that came her way. For her to be blubbering over what amounted to a rumor seemed very much out of character.
“Where’s Xavier?”
“I don’t know. But it’s too dangerous to bring the human here,” she said, confirming Isaac’s suspicion.