Loner (Norseton Wolves #2) by Holley Trent Page A

take the shape he was stronger in as he traveled. “Damn, I just wish I could go back and undo some things.”
    “Why?” Christina furrowed her forehead. “To make him normal? Or what you think is normal?”
    “To make it easier for him. When he’s afraid, my wolf gets afraid, too. She doesn’t understand what’s wrong, and I don’t know how to fix that. There weren’t any wolves like him in my father’s pack. I don’t understand the personality type.”
    “I can’t say I know what that means, either. Anton won’t bite me, so my inner wolf’s not fully awake. But I do know that Anton isn’t the kind of man who’d want pity for the things that he considers to be flaws. He thinks they’re his lot in life, and he compensates accordingly. I do the same thing when it comes to him. I treat him the way he needs to be treated, and that may change from one day to the next. Our mates will keep us on our toes, for sure.”
    Stephanie grunted in agreement.
    “What is it you think Darius needs?”
    “I don’t know, really. I guess my instinct is to force him to be more social, but not only does he not have the training for it, I wonder if he’s just not equipped for it. His first pack kicked him out because he had the makings of an alpha, but what if he was designed to be a lone wolf all along?”
    “I think he was,” Christina said softly.
    “But what does that mean for a pack structure? What would newcomers think?”
    “There are few rules in this pack, so why does it have to mean anything at all?”
    “Huh.” Stephanie leaned back against the window and stared unseeing at a bookcase across the room. “Why does it? He just needs to pull his weight, right?”
    “Yes. And there are a lot of ways he can do that. The greater concern is what kind of father he’d make.”
    “I don’t have worries about that.” A man who cuddled the way Christina’s wolf did probably wouldn’t have any problems holding a baby. In fact, she looked forward to seeing him with one of theirs. Just by being present, he would already be a far better father than hers was. But, if their children wanted to have friends over, then what? Would he get stressed and flee? Would people talk?
    She didn’t care if they talked. She was used to people talking about her, but she did worry about him .
    “I’m afraid of what’ll happen as the pack gets larger,” Stephanie said softly. “He’s familiar with it, the way it is, and has worked with the guys for a long time.”
    “I worry about that, too. None of our men are especially adept at being in a general population. When there are more personalities in the mix, will the dynamics change, or will the men simply adjust?”
    “We’re good at adjusting. We came here and…” Stephanie let the words trail off as she realized the gravity of them. The mates had all gone to Norseton to try to find suitable wolves. They were suitable for a reason —matches made by their alpha and their goddess. Stephanie’s ability to read Darius’s energy was a mystery Alpha couldn’t explain, beyond saying that an alpha wolf’s mate gave him what he needed. The “vice versa” didn’t need to be said. It was obvious. Even a woman like Stephanie wanted to feel like she fit with someone, and she did.
    “They have us to help them adjust. And if they don’t, then we’ll buffer them from the world. We’ll become their emissaries.”
    Christina’s smile was dreamy. “I think that would make Anton happy.”
    “I’m pretty sure it’ll make my wolf happy, too.”
    ___
    Alpha was at the Norseton gate screening vehicles, and Stephanie let herself into the security shack, bearing one of his wife’s special submarine sandwiches. A shameless ploy, but she didn’t care. When her mother had put her in that car her father had sent to deliver Stephanie to him and his pack, one of the last things her mother had said was, “Don’t be ashamed to appeal to people’s basest natures if it means doing so will