Adrien's Mate

Sarah's Son

Adrien

He is thinking about it.

In the silence that follows my stupid proposition, Seth Radke is grunting and moving stuff around him which I can hear through the phone and I can’t believe my ears. And I am sure he’s considering my words, like what the hell?

Goddess, I can’t believe he is actually thinking about it!

I slide a hand through my hair in frustration but then remind myself to take a deep breath and calm down. I let my eyes roam through the new facade of the Redwind werewolves’s pack house. It flickers in the sun with its new shiny windows and its hot new paint. A state of the art if you ask me, which is only normal as I am the architect behind it. It’s everything but finished but the remodelled building finally starts to look like more than walls and armature. It usually brings me pride and joy to know I made the design, I helped it get created and be as magnificent as it is. Yes, I am that good. And yet, here I am, letting a stranger get to me.

It’s just some random guy on the phone, there is no point to get this irritated over him or the fact that he can’t see reason. But damn it, I don’t like his smug tone and I hate that he simply refuses to listen to me. Old me would say it’s because he is a werewolf, therefore he is not subjectable to reason, but I am really trying not to be this judgemental about his kind anymore. Plus, deep down I know it’s a him problem, not a problem with his people in general.

Closing my eyes, I let the air out of my lungs.

“Damn, lover boy, how much do you offer?” Radke’s rough voice finally grumbles through the receiver and annoyance stirs in my stomach again.

Lysander, my wolf, he doesn’t seem so convinced in our immediate dislike of him. On the contrary. He kind of enjoys that deep timbre which only makes me want to roll my eyes even further into my scull.

Anyway, I am irritated to say it mildly.

I don’t have time to deal with this rogue’s s*hit.

Maybe I should have checked his record which my guy dropped on my desk a few days ago before I called him but I was really eager to talk to Sarah’s only son the second I found his contacts. We are friends, me and Sarah, as strangely as it sounds, and I want her to be calm in her last days. Not to worry about a thing in the world. My stomach churns at the thought of her illness and how quickly it eats away at her. I hate the fact I don’t know how much time she’s got left and that there is no other way for me to help her through it than bring her son to her.

Ever since we met two years ago when Veronica Valentine took down Jango Moretti and became the alpha of the Redwind lycans and werewolves, uniting the two packs, I have been helping her and the werewolf beta to change things here for the better. Which is a lot of work because this place stinks. Jango Moretti and his goons did not care about the people or how they lived. They took everything from them and ruled them though fear and misery.

Things are much better now. Veronica is a good alpha even if an unconventional one. She runs the two packs from the Valentine mansion and against all odds the three of us turned out to be a really good team: me as her Lycan beta; Luca, the only son of Jango Moretti, and her werewolf beta; and her - the girl who united us all. We distribute the work among each other based on where our individual skills are most needed. Meaning I get to come to the werewolves’ compound and monitor the renovation of the pack house.

That’s how I met Sarah last year and we kind of clicked. I was making some plans for the new werewolf pack house one day, taking measurements and all, and she was just there, looking longingly at the picture of the new building. She looked so lost and alone at that moment, this sweet omega lady with the big sad eyes and the even bigger heart.

We hit it off immediately. She did not mind my uptight persona, like most people do, while I really liked her cooking skills and the stories she had about werewolves from the times before Jango when people around here had easier, simpler lives.

In a strange twisted way she kind of reminds me of my own mother. Even though their social status is completely different, even though if my mom ever saw me being friend with a werewolf omega, she’d disown me, their fate is more or less the same. Single moms, unruly kids, the alpha breathing in their necks. Both of them finding comfort at the bottom of the bottle.

Unlike my mom though, Sarah got clean and tried to turn her life upside down for her kid even though she never had hope she’d see him again. For comparison, mine is on a drug s***h alcohol trip with husband number… well, I have no idea which number.

It’s all very posh and proper and just the little bit of scandalous, exactly the way Antoinette Valentine likes it. I haven’t heard from her in more than two years. And don’t get me started on my grandmother Genevieve. Compared to them, Sarah is like a fresh breeze on a hot summer night. She’s precious and kind, and she’s been through enough in life already. She deserves to spend her remaining days in peace with herself.

So, don’t blame me if I am getting a little protective over the woman and how that damn said son of hers talks about her. To a point I get why he’s pissed. She was not the best mom to him over the years with her addiction but… to ask for money in order to come see his own mom for one last time?

Thank the goddess I did not run right up to her and tell her I found her son after months of looking, because the asshole is insufferable.

“Well?” I prompt, rolling my eyes with irritation. I can’t believe I am doing this but I remind myself to stay calm because I am doing this for Sarah, not for him. I have seen the love and regret in her eyes every time she talks about her Seth. And he’s all she talks about these days. What a pretty boy he was. How small he was for his age. How much he hated the cold but she had to chase him away in the middle of winter. On and on, and on. Sometimes I feel like I know this kid better than myself. Not the man he grew into, obviously.

Radke only grumbles in the receiver making my insides clench. Does this man even know how to speak to people without growling and grunting and whatnot?

“How much do you want?” I prompt, my own words coming out of my mouth like a snarl. Unlike him however, I do it intentionally because I am evil like this.

I know it is not exactly fair play, but I sensed how he held his breath a few times as I spoke the last few minutes. We don’t know each other, we’ve never met but I think this Seth likes the way I sound. And, as Luca already said on a few too many occasions, I am a man slut, and I am shameless about it. I may not swing towards guys but I don’t mind using everything I have in my arsenal when my eyes are set on the target. He wants to play with me? Alright, let’s play, lover boy.

“That desperate, huh?” He giggles in the receiver and that damn voice of his sends shivers down my spine. What the hell?

“Yeah. You name it, baby, and you’ve got it.” I go on with his little game, wondering whether I overdid it.

“Is your royal a*ss on the menu too?” Radke counters and I want to punch him right now.

Immediately my face goes red at his words. I hate that about me. The only thing I hate about myself actually - that I blush too often. It’s not even because I am shy or insecure. It’s uncontrollable even if the girls find it cute. I think it is anything but. I am the beta of the Redwind Lycans for f*uck’s sake. It may be hereditary but I have strong blood in my veins and I am also really, really good at what I do but that blush can ruin everything in seconds. Usually, I am really good at controlling my emotions to the point people think I am stiff as that statue in the witch’s lands.

“Look,” I sigh and wait to talk until I breathe a long gulp of air in, a stupid attempt to calm my boiling blood. “Enough of this. Just send me your bank details, I will wire you the money. If it is not enough, I will wire more, just drag your ass here before it is too late.”

“Nope,” he says too fast for my liking and the irritation only grows. No one interrupts me when I speak and no one defies my orders. Who does he think he is, the alpha? The shifter king himself?

I am startled and have no idea what to say for the longest time. At this point I am not just angry because he is letting Sarah’s hopes down, I am mad because I know he’s playing with me and I let him for some reason.

“No?” I repeat like a fool, my blood literally boiling in my veins. How I manage to stat clam is beyond my comprehension. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to. Don’t call me again, lover boy.”

He hangs up. Just like this. I stare at my phone unable to believe this guy is for real.