Beta: Cade (completed)

7

I was sure Cade could hear my heart pounding in my chest as I approached him. I had no idea why I was nervous. I had been around him plenty. Still, I hadn't had an actual conversation with him that didn't end in a massive fight.

The short walk to Cade felt like a million miles. He kept his watchful eyes on me as I stopped in front of him. I had been so concerned with actually approaching him that I hadn't thought of what I was going to say to him.

"Yes?" He asked when I didn't say anything.

"Just came over to say hi."

"Hi?" He questioned suspiciously.

"Something wrong with that?"

"What are you doing, Tessa?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to be civil. Is that really too much ask?"

He watched me for a moment as if he was trying to decide what my motives were.

"Did Christian put you up to this?"

My temper threatened to spill over, but I kept it in check as much as I could. I was determined to be an adult about this shitty situation even if he wanted to ignore it.

"Believe it or not, I do want to be able to talk to you."

He glanced around the room for a moment; my guess was looking for Becca. "How was your shopping trip?"

I was surprised he was going along with my civil conversation, but I wasn't going to question it.

"It was fun. I like your family."

He nodded. "They seem to like you a lot. I'm surprised they don't know your entire life story yet."

I cocked my head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"They pry. Especially Hannah."

A light smile fell on my lips. "She's been really respectful of my privacy. She doesn't have many physical boundaries though."

A small, barely visible ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. "Not at all. She's always been extremely comfortable."

"So, who are all these people?" I asked as I glanced around the room.

"All high ranking pack members. Zac and my dad were the Alpha and Beta. Brent over there was the gamma," he motioned towards a dark, burly man talking to Titus. "The rest are their families."

"What is a gamma?" I asked. I knew the basics of werewolf hierarchy, but I didn't know it in detail. I had never been around a pack so I wasn't exactly sure how it worked.

"Third in command."

I nodded. "So who's the current gamma?"

"Zac's daughter, Hope."

"So, if Zac was the former Alpha, shouldn't Hope have been Alpha?"

"That's usually what happens, but she didn't want it. She wanted to be involved, but running a pack is a lot of pressure she didn't want."

I nodded. "I could see that. Do you do anything else besides co-running the pack?"

"I own a few bars in town and a couple restaurants in the human city."

"I went to the human city once."

"You did?"

"It was too loud."

He let a laugh escape, completely catching me off guard, but I wasn't going to question it.

"It's not my favorite place to be either," he agreed. "Did you eat dinner?"