“No, let’s sit in the dining hall. I’d like the pack to see us working together and to give them time to adjust to having me around before I start getting into their business,” I say turning to Enya. “Do you want to join us, Enya?”
She frowns. “Why?”
I shrug. “So you can learn about managing a pack.”
“I already know how to manage the omegas,” she says.
“But do you know how to schedule patrols?” I ask her.
“No.”
“Then sit with us. You can just watch,” I tell her.
She frowns, but nods in agreement.
Good. If I can get her to agree to going to the Academy, it will make her classes there easier.
Enya
As I sit with Christian, Shane, and Gamma Braden, I watch the pack. Christian was right again. The pack is watching him, assessing him, and having him here in the middle of an area that is always busy, is giving them a chance to see that he’s here to work and that he’s working WITH Shane, rather than taking over.
“Do you have any thoughts, Enya?” he asks, pulling my attention back to him and the others. I struggle to come up with something
meaningful to say, simply because I don’t want Christian to think I’m a mindless idiot.
“It looks like you’ve evenly distributed the groups and separated the ones who might have been starting to turn against us with those who were solidly supporting us.”
“That’s exactly what I was going for,” he says, flashing me a brilliant smile that makes my heart flutter. I’d say it was a response to his praise, but that would be a lie. That smile … when I’ve heard women talking about a man having a ‘panty–dropping smile‘ I always thought they were being ridiculous. Now I realize I just hadn’t seen one myself. Now that I have, my thighs press together in a subconscious effort to keep my now–damp panties firmly in place.
“Any other thoughts before we implement this schedule?” Christian asks Shane and Braden, turning away as if he didn’t just cause my entire body to respond with just a smile.
“You may get some push back,” Braden tells him. “Some of these guys have been skating by for a couple of weeks now.
”
“They can shape up or ship out, I won’t tolerate any problems in this pack,” he says confidently.
“Speaking of problems, what do you intend to do with the men in the cells, specifically Beta Dorian?” Shane asks him.
“They can sit overnight and fester in their aggravation. Then, they will get the same choice the others did. Get with the program or get out. Beta Dorian will be demoted …”
“What?” Braden asks, surprised.
“Shane, Enya, and I talked about this and agreed that he’s been trying to turn the pack against them. Do you disagree?” Christian asks him. I‘
m surprised he included me as part of the group who agreed that Beta Dorian was causing problems. I’m not the future Alpha.
Braden sighs. “No. He was, or at least, he wasn’t doing anything to stop it.”
“We need a Beta we can trust,” Christian says, then turns to Shane. He opens the mind link to both of us, surprising me once again.
‘If you’re comfortable, you should offer him the position of Beta. But you have to be comfortable with him. You have to trust him. I’d prefer it if you both agreed on this before you offer him the position,’ Christian says to Shane, but he looks at me as well.
I blink then look at Shane.
‘Well? What do you think?” Shane asks me in the mind link.
‘I’m okay with it.‘
‘I am too,‘ Shane says, turning to Braden who is watching the three of us have our silent conversation.
“How would you feel about a promotion?”
“Me?” he asks, looking from Shane to Christian.
“Shane and Enya both agree that they can trust you. Alphas have to trust their Betas implicitly. Dorian is not that man, but it seems as if you are,” Christian says to him.
He stares at us a moment, at a loss for words. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d love the job! Thank you!”
“Don’t thank us. You’ll work your ass off for me and I’ll teach Shane to do the same, Beta,” Christian says, smiling at Braden. For some
reason, the smile he gives Braden doesn’t have the same ‘panty- dropping‘ feel as the one he gave me. Maybe because this one wasn’t directed to me.
I jolt a bit when Christian turns his intense gaze on me again. “You said you’re familiar with managing the omegas, correct?”
“Yes,” I agree.
“Tomorrow, how would you like to give Shane and I a guided tour of the kitchens, the food storage, the ordering system, all of it?”
