Chapter Two

There was no way Leo was waiting two weeks to see Delphinia Greenbranch again. He couldn't. He just… couldn't. Now that he had her scent in his nose, knew what that thick black hair felt like wrapped around his fingers… she'd awoken something in him. The sight of her, the scent of her. The way she talked so passionately, so confidently about her plans for the programs she was developing, but let her hair fall in front of her face when she was talking to him, like it was providing some kind of shield… Two weeks? There was no way in hell he was waiting that long. He was going to track her down and find out if his uncontrolled filthy mouth—something which had never happened to him before with a female he didn't even know—had managed to alienate the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

But first, he needed to explain to his Alpha why he'd all but signed up their notoriously insular pack to be involved a human-supernatural program designed to introduce young kids of different species to each other's ways while keeping them from dropping out of school at the earliest available moment. Though some members of the pack admittedly did follow the path of further education and training and were even involved in Mystic City's government or one of its universities, most finished as much high school as they felt necessary—which often wasn't all of it—then functioned within the pack, contributing to, and being supported by their communal way of life. Putting time and energy into keeping the young wolves in school—let alone the issue of doing it in programs that purposely integrated them with humans and other supernaturals—was going to be a hard sell to James and the rest of the pack.

Leo had been anticipating having at least a day or so to prepare for the inevitable argument, but when Emmett and Raj showed up at his door the next morning before he'd even finished his coffee, he couldn't say he was particularly surprised. News traveled fast in the pack.

Leo, Em, and Raj had been best friends since their school days, gravitating towards each other as the kids who made trouble tended to. Since then, they'd fallen into their own roles within their trio—Raj, who was over six and a half feet tall and never short of a ludicrous suggestion for something that would inevitably be a good time but have repercussions he chose to ignore until they were upon him; Emmett, the peacekeeper of the three of them who was usually the one who talked Raj out of whatever strange idea he'd decided was the best way to drag some fun into their usually work-focused lives; and Leo, who did his best not to abuse his power as Beta when dragging the three of them out of the trouble that following through with Raj's ideas got them into. He was aware that he was probably the worst friend of the three of them, since his commitments as Beta often interfered with plans that they'd made or even took him off-grid for a day or two at a time, but he still did his best to keep up with their nights out at the pub or staying in watching football. He lent an ear or a shoulder of support when one of the others needed it—more often than not Emmett, who had a habit of falling in love with every beautiful woman he came across and out of it just as quickly—or even just training together or assisting when each of them led the training sessions for the rest of the pack, as they'd been doing for a couple of years now.

The three of them were each formidable enough fighters that they no longer often found themselves in scraps with others, but when one of the older wolves had seen them holding off a larger group of wolves from the Apex River Pack with whom Blue Crescent shared a border—if Leo remembered correctly, because they'd crossed the border to try out a pub in Apex River territory and Emmett had tried to put the moves on one of the locals' girlfriends—they'd been conscripted into regularly contributing to training sessions for the other fighters within the pack and eventually, leading them. Though territory lines within Mystic City had been drawn when the city was founded and remained unchanged, border skirmishes between wolves, who were notoriously volatile, were not unheard-of, so as many of the pack as wanted to train to fight attended the sessions that were run several mornings a week. More than a few of the older wolves were surprised to see the group of young troublemakers assisting in running the sessions, but by doing so the three of them—even Leo, who had thought he was viewed as more responsible since he'd taken up the role of Beta—had garnered significantly more respect from the rest of the pack.

The whole Apex River debacle had earned Leo an extreme dressing-down from James, and he'd taken it on the chin and made Emmett buy drinks for all three of them the next time they went out as recompense.

Today was a different situation completely. The hammering on the door when Leo was only halfway through his morning coffee could only have been one of his two best friends, and when he opened it, he found both leaning on the doorframe.

"Morning, Beta," Emmett said, using the title he knew frustrated Leo to no end. "What's the story?"

"Story?" Leo blinked.

"Give the man a chance to wake up before you start the interrogation, Em," Raj said, as he pushed past Leo to enter the house. "He's hardly conscious."

As usual, once inside, Raj sprawled on Leo's sofa, the massive wolf taking up almost the entire couch. Emmett and Leo shared an unsurprised but amused glance before they each took the easy chairs that also faced Leo's TV, leaving the three of them in a semi-circle that Em broke by dragging his chair into position to face Raj and Leo more easily.

"So, what the hell, man?" he asked. "You're putting us in with the humans now?"

"Ah," Leo said, thinking longingly of the half-full cup of coffee currently sitting on his kitchen bench before turning his attention to his packmates. "You heard about the meeting last night."

"We heard about you committing Blue Crescent to being involved in some kind of integration program," Raj said lightly, as though it were nothing.

"There were some good points made," Leo said, not sure whether he should put some effort into sounding apologetic as practice for what was sure to be almost the exact same conversation he would have with the Alpha. Would that play better with James? Mostly, he admitted to himself, he was considering what would make it easier to spend as much time as possible in Delphinia Greenbranch's company without negatively impacting the pack.

"They've been making points about integration for years now," Raj pointed out from his position on the couch, "And you've never been particularly interested in it before."

"We have humans living in our territory," Leo said without much conviction. "They contribute to the running of the pack."

"All right, then we have all the involvement with humans that we need," Emmett said. "Why the sudden interest in signing us up for more?"

"It's not just humans," Leo replied. "There were vampires there… another werewolf. From Apex River, I think. Witches. The meeting was run by a witch."

There was a moment of silence before Raj said, "Shit, man. You're involving the whole pack in this program because you want to tap the witch who's running it?"

"What? I didn't say… it's not just…" Leo heard himself sputtering. "It's not about the witch," he added finally, hearing the helplessness in his own tone. "They made some really valid points. As a pack, we've been so isolated for so many years. We live and work among the humans, some of us even with the vamps and the witches as well. Doesn't it make sense that we'd actually put some work into allowing our pups to understand what they're getting themselves into when they sign up to be involved with other species?"

"Don't try to bullshit a bullshitter," Raj said with a significant degree of amusement, stretching out so his bulk covered even more of the couch. "The minute you mentioned her, your eyes shifted."

"What?" That hadn't happened to Leo since he was a pup still learning to control his changes. Sure, every now and then he'd feel his irises going slightly silver, but he'd always been able to tamp down on it. Control it. It hadn't happened completely like that, without his active control of the shift, in years. "You're kidding."

"Why would I joke about that?" Raj asked.

"He's telling the truth, Leo," Emmett put in. "What is she, your mate or something? Or are you just that hard-up that you'll go gaga over the first pretty woman to look your way?"

"Wh…" Leo had to work hard to control the surge of anger that rose at the idea of anyone, even one of his best friends, thinking something like that about Delphinia. He focused on the first half of what Emmett had said instead. "You know I don't believe in that crap."

The myth of each werewolf having a single ideal mate somewhere out in the world was nothing but a fairy tale they told pups to lull them to sleep, as far as Leo was concerned. To the best of his knowledge, no one in the pack had come across this fabled perfect mate, or even knew of any wolf who had. "She just," he finished lamely, "she just smells incredible. I've never… I've never known anything like it. It's like sex and Christmas all wrapped up in one. I just talked to her, that's all. But once I had her scent… I couldn't stay away."

Emmett laughed. "Kind of sounds like the mate myth, man."

"Hell, I'd wrap the pack up in this afterschool program crap too if I knew I'd get my mate out of it," Raj laughed. As a librarian, though, he spent significantly more time around books and fairy tales than either Leo or Emmett, though, so his believing that the story of finding one's mate might be more than a myth was somewhat unsurprising. "James isn't going to be thrilled, though," Raj added with a dark chuckle.

"When is James ever thrilled?" Leo asked, choosing to ignore Emmett's comment. The truth was the most popular version of the mate myth did make mention of a wolf being inescapably drawn to their mate's scent. He shook the thought from his head. It was nothing but a story. He'd track Delphinia down, potentially repair any damage he'd done by speaking to her the way he had last night and find a way to get her and her incredible scent out of his system so he could think properly around this need to be near her that had been hounding him since she walked away last night. That was the extent of his plan, and at this point it should be—it was, he insisted to himself—all that he needed.

But before he did any of that, he was going to need to justify his decision to involve the pack in the program to James.

***

The Blue Crescent Alpha didn't often leave the Italian restaurant-and-bar he'd made the seat of his power. He didn't seem to notice the parallels to the classic practices of the patriarch of a mafia family, or if he did, he didn't seem to care. Most of Leo's meetings with James happened in the back room of Horatio's, regardless of the time of day, and James had long since clearly disregarded the societal convention that would disapprove of him having his ever-present glass of whiskey at hand before noon.

It was probably—probably—not just the influence of the whiskey that had him so furious with Leo, though. To be fair, Leo thought, he might have been equally surprised—if not, perhaps, as openly outraged—if he were in the Alpha's position. Leo was aware that he had never given the impression of having an issue with the pack's insular nature in the past. Why would he go to the effort that it would require to change it now?

James, however, was on the far edge of furious, and had been since Leo had entered Horatio's, answering the Alpha's obviously unimpressed summons.

"What the fuck, Tyler?" James asked, the moment Leo had entered what he thought of as James' room in the establishment. It featured the table behind which the Alpha sat as well as a few others, like a smaller version of a restaurant, and always held a few of James' closest followers lurking around the Alpha.

"Do you know what you've done?" James continued.

"I figured that's why you sent me to the meeting," Leo said. For once, the vaguely deferential role that he'd made a habit of taking around James felt uncomfortable, like a too-small pair of shoes. "Why would I have been there if you weren't interested in being involved?"

"To make it clear to them that we damn well weren't interested," James spat. "Instead, you've all but committed the entire pack to involvement in this bullshit. I mean, integrating our pups not just with humans, but vamps and witches? Why the fuck would you think that was a good idea?"

"More than a hundred humans live in pack territory," Leo reminded him. "Some of our pack go out and work with them, and the witches and the vampires, every day. I kind of figured we were halfway to integrated already."

"They live independently in our territory," James emphasized. "The deal is that they keep themselves to themselves, and we don't make an issue out of their presence."

"We have to live in this city," Leo pointed out. "We have to deal with the humans and the other supernaturals every day. What harm does it do to let the young ones make some connections outside the pack?"

"It's not how we do things around here," James said flatly, taking a gulp of his drink. He sat forwards in his chair. "And just because you inherited the role of Beta, doesn't make you untouchable, Tyler. You'd do well not to forget that."

"I didn't even commit to anything," Leo protested. Was James really threatening him? With what? To demote him from the role of Beta? To evict him from the pack altogether? Those would be massive repercussions to ensue from something as minor as telling a single witch, in the presence of a single vampire, that Blue Crescent might be interested in being involved in their programs. "All I did was say we were potentially interested in being involved in the program. I didn't promise her anything." Except that I want to introduce her body to my mouth in the most uncivilized of ways, some part of his brain reminded him, and he pushed the thought away as fast as he could.

Apparently, not fast enough.

"Her?" If James had been in his wolf form, Leo had no doubt his ears would have pricked up. "Is this about a fucking female, Leo? Is that's what's stolen your common sense, some goddamn woman?"

"No, of course not," Leo snapped, but it felt like a lie to even say it. It felt wrong. Like he was somehow betraying the draw he felt to her—betraying her—with the denial.

How could he be feeling this way over someone he didn't even know yet? Hell, since when did he feel like this, feel anything like this, over a woman at all?

"I should fucking hope not," James said with another sip from his glass. He gave the appearance of having relaxed somewhat, sitting back in his chair, but his eyes were still coldly calculating as they surveyed Leo. "If there's some female involved, get her under you and out of your system, and then bring me back my Beta with his fucking brain intact, all right?"

Even though his own half-formed plan had been somewhat similarly worded, the same thing in Leo that had balked at denying Delphinia's sudden importance to him wanted to snarl at the suggestion of getting her under him and out of his system. Wanted to growl at the very thought of any other male picturing Delphinia in an intimate moment, even if the man involved with her in that moment was him. Those moments should belong to him and him alone, dammit. Not to even start with the idea that having her under him would get her out of his system at all.

Unless…

He'd had those kinds of interactions with women before, when falling into bed together once had been enough to sate the attraction and they'd parted ways afterwards without needing more from one another. Was it possible that this insane draw to Delphinia Greenbranch could be satisfied in the same way? That if he could just find a way to be with her, sate the incredible urge in him to bring her so much pleasure she lost her breath from screaming his name, maybe he'd be able to excise her from the massive portion of his brain that she had suddenly occupied without warning? Maybe he could stop worrying that other men were noticing her perfect curves and get rid of his constant concern that she wasn't being properly cared for, that no one was taking responsibility for making sure she was eating properly or getting places safely when she went out.

The confusing, uncomfortable thing in his belly that had relaxed when he thought about introducing her to the pack as his partner almost went into meltdown at the very idea. Clenching his teeth, Leo ignored it. If he wanted to prove to Raj and Emmett that this insane attraction wasn't proving right their belief in the mate myth, having a one-and-done interaction with Delphinia would definitely be one way to do it.

Tyler, you are a colossal asshole.

It wasn't like he would go in with any pretenses, he argued to the part of himself that was disgusted by the very thought. If they were both on the same page from the beginning, what was wrong with it?

"Just find a way to tell them we're not interested in being part of their integration programs," James said derisively, bringing Leo back to the conversation he was still meant to be having with his Alpha. "I don't care how you do it, but Blue Crescent is not interested in 'integrating' with anyone, let alone a mix of vamps, witches and humans."

"I—" Leo started, then cut himself off. This was how it worked. The Alpha made a decision, gave instructions, and the Beta carried them out. If part of him wished for an Alpha who took the wishes of those he led into account a little more, well, that was his own problem. "Yes, Alpha," he finished, forcing himself back into the uncomfortable deferential role, and stood to leave.

Now he had two reasons to need to find a way to get in touch with Delphinia Greenbranch.