She nodded. “Betas aren’t as strong and fast as alphas or omegas. But on the upside, we typically have fewer issues with control than you guys do.”
He gave her an appraising look. “You seem pretty fast to me. In fact, you could probably outrun most of my pack. And you look like you’re strong too.”
Jayna had no idea why his words made her feel so ridiculously good, but they did. “Maybe,” she conceded. “I’m a little faster and stronger than the other betas in my pack, but in general, a beta’s true strength isn’t in their muscles or their agility. It’s in their loyalty to each other. Our pack bonds are the strongest of the three types of werewolves because they’re the only thing that keeps us safe from rogue omegas. They know that whatever beta they come after, they’ll always have to face the whole pack. Betas are linked in a way alphas and omegas never can be.”
“Wow. I’ve never heard of any of that,” he said with something close to boyish wonder. “But then again, I didn’t know female werewolves even existed until about two months ago when Khaki joined the team. So apparently there’s a lot I don’t know about werewolves.”
Jayna didn’t have to ask who Khaki was. There couldn’t be two female alpha werewolves running around Dallas. “Yeah, well, if we’re being honest, I have to admit I didn’t know female alphas existed until I saw your pack mate in the warehouse. That threw me for a loop. I didn’t know women could be alphas. I also didn’t know alphas could form a pack.”
His eyes twinkled. “I guess there’s a lot of stuff we can learn from each other.”
She studied him over the rim of her cup, trying to figure out if he was playing her. Was he looking to trick her into giving up information about her pack? But every instinct she had told her that wasn’t what was going on here. Eric seemed like he was genuinely interested in talking to her. There was only one way to find out if he was toying with her: ask him a question that might pose a threat to his pack and see how he responded.
“How many alphas are in your pack?”
He didn’t even hesitate. “Seventeen now that Khaki joined the team. And every one of us would bleed and die for each other.”
Jayna’s eyes widened. Seventeen alphas all in one place bonding with each other? Liam had said that wasn’t even possible. Eric’s pack alpha must be one fierce beast to keep all of them in line.
Across from her, Eric leaned in a little closer. “Not counting the omegas, how many members are in your pack?”
She was so distracted by his scent that she almost didn’t hear the question. Why did he smell so different—and so much more delicious—than every other werewolf? She wanted to bury her nose in his neck and breathe in even more of him.
Jayna quickly sat back before she did.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t tell him anything that would put her pack in danger, but telling him how many of them there were wouldn’t pose a threat. It wasn’t like he and his alpha buddies had anything to fear from five betas. Besides, he’d been so open with her. It seemed wrong not to answer him.
“There are four other betas besides me. And our alpha.”
“How long have you been with them?”
“Four years,” she said. “I changed about a year before that.”
She expected him to ask why she’d changed and what she’d done for that year on her own. But instead, he took the conversation in a totally different direction.
“How did you and your pack get mixed up with a gang of Albanian mobsters?”
When Jayna had gotten on the back of his bike, she hadn’t intended to tell Eric anything at all, but she’d already revealed how many members were in her pack and now she found herself confiding in him about things she shouldn’t be, including how her pack had been forced to steal stuff over the years just to survive.
“None of us liked stealing, but we didn’t have much of a choice. No matter how much we worked, we never seemed to have enough to buy food and keep a decent roof over our heads at the same time.” She broke off another piece of cake but didn’t eat it. “Then a few weeks ago, Liam—that’s our alpha—admitted he’d had to borrow money to help us through some rough patches. And it wasn’t from a bank.”
“I’m guessing this is where the Albanians come in,” Eric said.
She nodded. “For some reason, Liam told the Albanians about our pack. When they got their hands on all of his outstanding IOUs, we had no choice but to work for them to pay off that debt. Either that, or they’ll kill him.”