Damn Alpha Chase

I was sweating balls by the time I finally got all of my shit up to the room that was going to be mine, and was wheezing like I was dying, too. The last thing I wanted to do was walk back down the stairs to grab Ricco’s clothes, so I took a break by hanging my shirts up in the closet. There were already about two hundred hangers packed into that thing, and while I only had enough tops to fit ten percent of those hangers, I did appreciate the thoughtfulness human-Ricco seemed to have put into preparing the space for me.

While I hung shit, my mind went back to the tampons and floral shampoo.

Were those for me too?

When I asked wolf-Ricco, he confirmed my suspicion. And honestly, I was kind of touched.

Human-Ricco might have been grumpy at the party, and he might have had less than zero interest in looking at me or sharing a bed with me, but he had still gotten his house ready for me. He’d made sure I wouldn’t run out of toilet paper, or tampons, or shampoo, or hangers. He’d even gotten me a damned bed.

I was actually starting to think that the whole house-sharing thing could work out nicely for us.

When I finished hanging up clothes, I was still sticky and smelly, but I was no longer actively sweating, so I grudgingly headed back down the stairs.

Carrying Ricco’s clothes up only took three trips. Like me, he didn’t have a whole ton of clothing. I noticed that his closet was equally split between button-down shirts and old t-shirts as I hung things up for him, and realized he probably had to get a bit dressy for his job. Considering I had always been on the messy side of casual, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Then again, we were just going to be friend-mates instead of spouse-mates. So it really didn’t matter.

There wasn’t a dresser to tuck his other clothes into, so I left the folded piles of jeans and joggers on the floor of his closet. He didn’t own any slacks, and as I headed back down the stairs, I couldn’t help but picture the freakin’ gorgeous blond guy in jeans and a button down.

Hot friggin’ damn… maybe I didn’t mind the dressy shirts he had after all.

When I headed back down the stairs, my gaze landed on the boxes of not-built-yet furniture.

And I grimaced, hard-core.

That shit was going to suck to drag up the stairs.

I headed for the toilet paper, and spent the next twenty minutes dragging that crap up instead. Most of it went on the storage shelves in Ricco’s closet, since the bathroom was packed too full.

When that was done, I grudgingly walked over to the pile of furniture. I’d never built a piece of furniture before… which really freakin’ sucked for me.

“It’s better than living in my car,” I muttered to myself, as I leaned over the pile and wrapped my arms around a massive box.

Wolf-Ricco licked my thigh. Whether it was a “condolences” lick or a “I’m glad you’re here” lick, I didn’t know.

I heaved the box up—and let out a screech as I wobbled. That thing was even heavier than it freakin’ looked.

And I dropped it right back down onto the stack.

Swearing under my breath, I leaned over and tried one more time.

Somehow, it was even heavier the second time.

I panted, sagging against the couch.

This sucked.

Not the whole situation—just the damned heavy furniture.

“I’m going to have to go ask one of your buddies for help,” I grumbled to the wolf.

He nodded his head, and something in his gaze told me the bastard had always known I was going to have to do that. I scowled at him, and he whined in apology before licking my leg.

I pushed him away with a grunt, standing up and heading toward the door. The wolf growled, and lunged between me and my way out.

I blinked at him.

Had he growled at me before? I didn’t think so.

He growled again, and poked me in the bare leg with his nose.

It took a moment for me to register why exactly he was poking my thigh.

Astrid had said he would be possessive… and what possessive guy wanted his chick walking around half-naked?

“Ohhh. You want me to put pants on.”

The wolf nodded violently.

I sighed. “Buddy, I’ll put on pants this one time, but the possessiveness is going to have to chill. Most of my actual clothing covers less of my skin than this t-shirt.”

The wolf growled at me again.

“Don’t make me flip you off,” I warned him.

He growled yet again.

“Fine. Keep growling and I’ll restrict your licking privileges. We both know you don’t want that.”

The wolf glared at me for a moment, and then let out a huff and a whine.

Then he licked my thigh.

“I didn’t think so.” I scratched his head, and the two of us headed up the stairs. “I just had an argument with a wolf,” I muttered as I walked. “Think I’m actually losing my mother-freakin’ mind this time.”

The wolf licked my leg again, oh-so-helpfully.

I found a pair of old leggings that had been worn so many times they were no longer tight to my skin, and tugged them on. Glancing at the wolf for permission, I waited for his nod before heading down the stairs again.

And yeah, I was starting to really hate those damned stairs.

Who had decided a house would be better-off cut in half with freakin’ stairs dividing it? Who the hell wanted to walk up and down stairs every day?

I left my shoes where they were and tugged the front door open, glancing both ways. The nights were still a bit cold, since it was springtime, but I ignored the chill in the air and considered my options.

Eiry’s house was two doors to my right—but if I went to her, I’d have to talk to her and Fred.

And they were so sickeningly in-love that they were probably having naked time at this point in the evening. My nose wrinkled at the thought of interrupting that.

Anton had said his house was to my right, between mine and Eiry’s. He was nice, but definitely pretty enthusiastic. I grimaced at the thought of all that enthusiasm, and the chatter that I’d definitely have to survive while we hauled shit up the stairs.

To my left, I knew, was Daryl’s place. He was much quieter than Anton; I couldn’t recall him saying anything up until he introduced himself.

Not having to chat much definitely sounded the best, so I headed to my left, not bothering to shut the door behind me. Hopefully, I’d be back in less than two minutes.

I crossed the grassy yard between our houses, my toes growing icy as the damp grass tickled my feet. When I stepped up onto Daryl’s porch, I rapped my fist against the door three times.

To be honest, I kind of hoped the guy wouldn’t answer.

Of course, the door swung open less than a minute later. A shirtless, sleepy-looking Daryl stood in the doorway.

I took a step back, panic rising in my chest.

What the hell was I supposed to do with a hot, shirtless skyscraper?

“Leidy?” He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

Ricco let out a furious snarl, stepping between me and his buddy.

Daryl’s gaze dipped to the wolf. “Shit. One second.”

The door closed, and the wolf’s snarls cut off. He looked pissed though, as he stepped back beside me.

My heart was still pounding rapidly, awkwardness and stress raging.

Why the hell was I afraid of him? A hot guy was just a person, same as the rest of us. I did not understand my anxiety, but still couldn’t get the shit to leave me alone.

When the door opened again, wolf-Ricco stepped in front of me, his body between mine and Daryl’s. I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to keep me away from the other guy or was responding to my anxiety, but I was glad anyway.

“Hey, Leidy. Sorry about that. Anton’s usually the only one who knocks this late.” His expression was a bit sheepish. “What’s up?”

“Ricco has this massive stack of furniture that needs to be built, and I’m not buff enough to haul it up the stairs myself,” I admitted. “I was hoping you could come help me carry it up, but obviously you were just sleeping, so I can just go…” I bit my lip, awkwardly taking another step back.

“I’m already up, might as well help.” He shot me a quick, small smile.

Ricco growled at him.

I glanced down at the wolf, grimacing. “Sorry, I don’t know what his problem is. He didn’t growl at all until I tried to leave the house without pants on.”

Daryl chuckled, stepping out on the porch and shutting the door behind himself. “No need to apologize. His problem is that he’s a wolf.”

I shot him a confused frown as we started walking back to Ricco’s place, the wolf standing between us at all times and growling at Daryl whenever he got anywhere near me.

“They’re possessive. Well, we’re possessive. In general, werewolves as a whole are. If you tried to hug Jason, Astrid would have to fight the urge to claw your eyes out. The other day, Astrid threw something at Fred, and Eiry snarled at her even though they were all in human form.”

I snorted. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” Daryl wore an expression that was somewhere between a grin and a grimace.

A grin mace, I guess.

“Since Ricco’s hunting you right now, he’ll be really possessive. If you’d knocked on my door without pants on, he’d probably have attacked me, and Ricco’s one of the most laid-back guys in the pack.”

My eyebrows shot upward. “Damn.”

I did like the sound of being mated to one of the most laid-back guys in the pack, though. Laid-back, I could dig.

“Yeah. It’s a shits how if you’re coming from the human world, but it’s just life around here. Eiry and Astrid don’t have any hard feelings toward each other after their possessiveness dies down, and neither do us guys. We expect it; it’s natural.”

“Not for me.” We reached my porch, and I gestured Daryl in first, just so wolf-Ricco didn’t flip out about Daryl seeing my ass when I walked in before him.

I followed Daryl inside, feeling much more comfortable with the guy than I’d expected to.

“Damn. You fixed this place up fast,” Daryl whistled, his gaze sweeping the house.

“Eh, it really wasn’t that dirty to begin with. The dishes were really out of hand, but other than that, most of it was fine. The papers were assignments from his students, I think, and the clothes were mostly clean.”

“I wondered about that. I saw him hauling a couple of rolls of carpet in the other day,” he remarked.

“You think he changed his own carpet?” My eyebrows shot upward. “Why?

“Ricco’s pretty handy. His dad fixes and renovates houses for a living, so Ricco and his brother learned to do almost everything when it comes to that kind of thing. He mentioned that the nesting instincts have been driving him crazy, and it’s not hard to believe that changing the carpet out might have been part of it.”

My nose wrinkled as I closed the door behind us. “Nesting? Like a bird?”

“More like a pregnant lady.” Daryl flashed me a small grin, and we both ignored wolf-Ricco’s growl. I did scratch the poor guy behind his ears though, to make up for ignoring him.

“What?”

“When pregnant ladies are near their due dates, they get the urge to get their house ready for their baby. Werewolves have the same urge, but for their mate. That’s why everyone was pretty surprised to see Ricco’s place in such bad shape.”

“I guess that explains the tampons,” I told the wolf, who snorted and then nodded.

“Yep,” Daryl agreed. “Is this the furniture?” He gestured to the stack of boxes, remaining near the entryway until I nodded and waved him toward it.

“Go ahead. I can go ask Anton for help if it’s too heavy.”

“We’ll see,” Daryl grabbed the first box without a problem. “Which room do you want this in?”

The one on top was a nightstand; from what I’d seen when I checked it out, there were two identical full sets of furniture.

“Either one. Half the stuff will go in Ricco’s, half will go in mine,” I explained.

Daryl shot me a frown as he headed toward the stairs. “Ricco bought two separate sets of furniture?”