Goodbye My Alpha (Taya and Griffon)

The blood drained from my face, and the young man from the past's face came back to my mind.

I tried my best to control my emotions. I knocked on the open door and asked respectfully, "Elder Thorin, you wanted me?"

Brooks put down the coffee cup and looked up at me. "Taya, you're in charge of the welcoming of the Sterling pack, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

Brooks glanced at his watch. "Please arrange dinner for this evening. You can book a high-end restaurant for six p.m., and I'd like for you to go to the airport to pick up Alpha Sterling." "Pick up Alpha Sterling?"

We worked with packs from all over the Midwest, and most of them made trips into MPC to handle business with other packs on neutral territory, or to arrange projects between packs. Many times, a pack wouldn't have the labor force for new construction, roads, utilities, and the like, so they contracted other packs to do the work via MPC. We ensured everything was above-board and there were no side deals being made that might have a negative impact on other packs.

But the Sterling pack Alpha had never come in.

Thorin wanted me

I'm here to hand over my work today. Perhaps it would be better to have someone else attend to Alpha Sterling and dinner?" The three people

gaze, and my broken, diseased heart skipped a

had happened, quickly looked away, and turned to

of human aging. Wolf shifters aged different, more slowly. I'd met wolves who

with a hint of disdain on his face, and people either felt terrified, awed, or inspired by him. Of course, that might have something to do with the

to look into his eyes, but I did. Maybe

never made me feel anything other than cared for, like he was somehow watching out for me to make sure I was safe as the proverbial-and almost literal-lamb among

all been because his daughter was abroad, he missed her,

***

darkened after being looked at so directly

like his daughter, and he was kinder to her than he was to