Protected Promise by Julie Trettel

Landon

Chapter 2

 

 

 

“Did you call Jackson?” Connie asked.

“Not yet, but I told you I would.”

Connie was my best friend Tobi’s mother, and she would do just about anything to ensure her daughter was home for the summer. Last year Tobi met her mate, Jackson. Jackson surprised her with a trip home. They spent a few weeks with us, but to Connie, that simply wasn’t enough.

I’d been secretly working with Jackson and his Alpha, Kyle Westin, to get Tobi and Jackson home for the entire summer. The problem was that Jackson was supposed to start a new job in Seattle with Wilcott Designs. The good news was, that would put them much closer to my small Pack in British Columbia, than it did Westin Pack, so Kyle had charged me with overseeing them. Plus, there was a small chance that he’d be able to work remote designing a new gaming program along with some updates to the popular game, Chaos, that he had designed and sold to Wilcott.

I knew they probably wouldn’t be spending the entire summer with us, but I’d take what I could get. The truth was, Connie wasn’t the only one that wanted to see them home. I missed my friend.

A part of me had always assumed Tobi and I would be together forever. In a pack as small as mine there simply weren’t many options. Tobi and I were the same age, and we were best friends. I could have done a whole lot worse.

When she’d called and told me she’d met her one true mate, at a gaming convention in Seattle, and that she was going to stay at Archibald Reynolds College to be with him I had been shocked and a little sad. I’d been thrown into the role of Alpha at such a young age that I had never gotten to really experience life. I now lived vicariously through Tobi and Jackson.

He was a great guy and a strong mate for Tobi. I had no objections to their mating. I loved seeing my best friend so happy and in love, but I sometimes envied the bond they shared. I felt left out and even more alone at times.

She still called me once a week or more. I loved that we had managed to stay close despite the distance between us, but I also knew things would never truly be the same.

“But when are you going to talk to him?” Connie insisted.

I sighed. “Fine, he should be free now. I’ll call him.”

I knew she wasn’t going to let it go this time. Classes had ended a few days ago, and Tobi had called to tell me she had passed her finals, as if I had any doubts. She had always been independent, and hesitated when I told her I had enrolled her at the ARC and that the Pack was going to pay for it. To me it had been an investment in her, but also in the few of my Pack.

We were small and didn’t need a lot, but even the little things added up and stronger more employable people that could help channel revenue to the Pack was exactly what I needed. I’d been talking a lot with Kyle Westin, Alpha of the largest wolf pack in the world, about this stuff even before she mated Jackson. It was just my luck that he was from Kyle’s pack and their bond had helped strengthen an alliance between our packs.

“Landon!”

“Fine,” I said picking up my phone to call Jackson. I already knew there was a graduation this weekend and while Tobi wasn’t graduating for another year, apparently many of their friends were and they were sticking around to cheer them on.

I dialed Jackson’s number while Connie stood by waiting.

“Landon? What’s up man?”

“Hey, can you talk?” I asked really meaning, are you alone.

“Sure. Tobi’s having lunch with the ladies of the doghouse. I’m free to speak.”

“Great. You know that stuff we were talking about for this summer?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I’m going to need a confirmation on that, like ASAP. Connie’s driving me nuts here.”

She smacked me.

“Ow. I am still your Alpha,” I reminded her.

“And not too big for a good swatting when you need it, either.”

Jackson laughed. “Sorry man. Hey look, Kyle will be coming up for graduation this week. Why don’t you come on down, too.”

“I’ve already worked stuff out with him. I know you guys are not going back to Westin this summer. I just need to know what your plans are. And you know I can’t just leave like that.”

“Leave? Why does he want you to leave?”

“He wants me to come to the ARC next week.”

“Will you be bringing Tobi home?”

“Tell her, yes. That’s perfect. I have to report to Seattle, but you know how her anxiety can get and I’m going to be busy with training the first week I’m there. So, you drive down and take her back with you. I’ll get through my training and then come up there because mostly I’ll be working remote after that anyway, and if anything comes up that I need to get back to Seattle right away, then we’re only a few hours away.”

“I really wish I could. I just can’t up and leave like that though.”

“You’ve done it before. Don’t be ridiculous. Go and get our girl. I miss my baby,” Connie said.

I sighed. “Let me see what I can work out.”

“There’s nothing to work out. Tell him you’re coming,” Connie insisted.

“I think he can hear you,” I grumbled as Jackson laughed.

“He’s coming, Jackson,” Connie yelled.

“Great. I’m not going to tell Tobi in case things don’t work out, but this would be amazing if you can swing it. She’s going to be so surprised. Thanks Landon. This is going to be the perfect start to summer.”

I hung up feeling trapped. It wasn’t that I couldn’t leave my territory, I just worried a lot when I did. I had twenty-three other people to look after now. Since officially becoming a pack recognized by the Grand Council, word had gotten out about us. Six new wolves had pledged their allegiance to me, bringing our little pack to twenty-six, if I included Tobi and Jackson who were part time and equally devoted to two packs now.

I didn’t really understand how that could work. Then again, I could never imagine giving my allegiance to anyone. That was the life of an Alpha though.

As long as it didn’t cause any headaches for me, I wasn’t going to force the issue and make them choose a pack. Selfishly I didn’t want Tobi to pledge allegiance to Kyle and if he was okay with that, then I could accept Jackson into my territory without him claiming me as his Alpha too. It was worth it to keep my best friend.

I loved my little pack and I was proud to be their Alpha, but it was a lonely life. For years the others had all but insisted I take Tobi as my mate. Honestly, I would have been okay with that, but I knew that wouldn’t make her happy. I wouldn’t make her happy, not in the same way that Jackson does. So, I’d set my own feelings and needs aside for her.

Seeing her now as she blossomed at school in a life I would never know and with a mate she loved and who truly adored her too, I knew I had made the right decision.

In my opinion, that’s what a good Alpha does—he puts the pack’s needs, and even the individual needs of his charges, ahead of his own desires.

I told my pack that everything was okay, that I didn’t need a mate, but running a growing pack by myself at age twenty-four was a lot. Sometimes I envied Tobi and the happiness that she had found with Jackson, but I also knew that just wasn’t the life I was meant to lead.

Even if I did find someone I could settle down with, what were the odds that she would ever be interested in the tiny remote pack I had to offer?

I already knew I could never pull the Alpha card on a potential mate and force my wishes onto someone else. I wanted my equal, someone I could partner in life with and be a strong Pack Mother for my people. It was more than that though. I wanted what Tobi and Jackson had, and seeing them together, I knew I would never settle for anything less, but the odds of me finding my one true mate out there were pretty much nonexistent.