Blue Collar Alpha

He's Not that Into You

Priscilla

Jack’s mother pushes the flowers toward me, and I just stare at them.

“Kenna and I picked them from our field,” A woman with brown hair and a toddler on her hip steps towards me. She holds a hand toward me, “I’m Emily, Jack’s sister, and this is my daughter Kenna.”

“You picked some weeds for me?” I ask her, and she frowns.

“They aren’t weeds,” Elizabeth pushes the flowers into my arms and huffs. She gives Jack a look before stepping back towards another woman who looks about the same age.

A man walks toward Jack with a little boy at his side. The boy reminds me of Oscar. “I’m Ray, beta s***h this guy’s best friend and brother-in-law,” He bumps Jack with a grin. He is sort of handsome with dark brown hair and greenish eyes. But he is wearing dirty clothes and smells like s**t.

“Hi,” I mutter.

“And this is Jayden,” He introduces the little boy.

Jayden holds up a toy car with a grin, and I can’t help but smile back.

Jack puts his arm around me, and I have to pretend it doesn’t affect me. “And that is Ray’s mother, Karlena,” He points to the woman beside his mother. He shifts his arm to Isaac, “You already met Isaac. That is his mate, Lauren, and their daughter Kaitlyn. Then Isaac’s dad, Steven.” He continues.

I tune out while he introduces a bunch of people I don’t care to know.

“Come, I’ll show you around,” Jack tries getting me to move.

“I’ll take those,” Emily takes the flowers from me. “We are setting everything up in the barn,” She grins.

I cringe at the thought of eating in a barn.

“We use part of the barn as a party area,” Jack explains. “It’s completely separate from the animals.”

Jack leads me to the barn. The smell of the animals is making me ill, and I want to vomit on his shoes.

“Are you guys done milking and feeding for the day?” Jack asks two identical men.

“Yeah, we just finished right before you showed up,” One of them responds and smiles at me. “I’m Ken Harrison.”

I nod with a wry smile.

“And I’m Ben Harrison,” The identical one says.

“How do I tell you apart?” I attempt to joke.

“You don’t,” Jack snorts. “Just yell Ben or Ken, and they’ll both come running.”

“That’s not fair, Alpha,” Ken or Ben responds.

Jack laughs and leads me into the barn. There are goats and cows in pens. “We raise goats for milk and meat,” He says, and I wrinkle my nose. “Don’t knock it. Goat meat is delicious and quite healthy.” He leads me towards the cows, “And we raise the cows for milk. We also have chickens, turkeys, and ducks.”

As I am looking around, I feel something tug at my pants. I yelp as I look down to see a goat trying to eat my pants. It is white with big floppy brown ears.

“Oh, that’s Betsy,” Jack pets the goat and clicks his tongue. The goat turns its attention to Jack and nibbles on his shirt. “She is our old granny goat.” The goat makes a noise and follows us as we walk into another part of the barn.

There are chairs and tables set up with cheap decorations all over. “This is it?” I ask as I smell turkey cooking. I try not to gag.

“Yeah,” Jack grins.

Several women rush around, setting up food on a plastic table with a cheap tablecloth. Emily is among them.

“Is your sister helping the omegas?” I scoff.

“Well, yeah,” Jack leads me towards them. “Everyone helps here. We really don’t adhere to ranks.”

An older woman is beside Emily directing her to place a few items on the table. She turns to me with a grin. “Hello, Priscilla,” the woman greets me.

“Hi,” I mumble.

“We went all out for our new Luna,” the woman winks at Jack. “Turkey with all of the fixings and salads along with desserts.”

“You didn’t butcher that old tom, did you, Gertie?” Jack laughs.

The woman lightly smacks his stomach, “No,” She laughs.

I can’t believe how informal they are. It reminds me of how Caleb’s mate acted toward the omegas. Of course, she was one of them.

“Anyways, I hope you like it here, Priscilla,” Gertie leans towards me. “We are small but tight. We take care of each other,” Gertie says while reaching up to rub her thumb on Jack’s cheek. “You had some gunk on your cheek, Jackie.”

Jack laughs, “Thanks Gertie,” He laughs. “Gertie is like a second or third mom to me. She was the head omega back when we were Jupiter Moon. I tried to get her to retire, but she insists on still working.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, Jack,” Gertie jokes. “Emily put the sodas over there,” She shouts at Jack’s sister. “Excuse me,” She says and walks away.

Jack leads me around the room and then out of the barn. “These are our fields. We grow corn for our animals and other farms around us. We have tried soy and alfalfa in previous years-”

I tune out while he babbles about stuff I don’t care about, “I’m tired, Jack.”

“Oh, sorry, honey,” He sighs. “Let’s go back to the house. Mom said your room is ready.”

“My room?” I ask.

“Well, we didn’t know if you wanted your own room at first or not,” He says awkwardly. “But if you want to be in my room-“

“No, my own room is great,” I blurt out, and Sapphire whines in my head.

Jack frowns slightly, “Okay.”

We walk silently towards the old house. It looks like a typical farmhouse I have seen on TV, only a little bigger. I can’t believe they call this a packhouse. I wonder why they are so poor. Most other wolf packs have bigger and better houses.

We walk into the house, and it’s decorated how I expected, old-fashioned and musty smelling. I wrinkle my nose as Jack points out the living room. The twins are sitting on an old sectional brown couch watching TV.

“Hey, boss,” One of them greets us. He has his dirty shoes propped on a coffee table.

Jack slaps his shoulder, “Benjamin, get your feet off the coffee table before my mother sees.”

Benjamin complies with a huff, “My feet hurt, Jack.”

“You know my mother hates feet on the table, Ben,” Jack chuckles.

“I am waiting for Valerie to get home with the kids,” the other one says to Jack while eyeing me. “Valerie is a teacher in town.”

I shrug.

“Okay,” Jack laughs. “Just keep your boots off the table.” He nods to the stairs, “Up here,” He starts up the stairs, and I follow. “This house is about a hundred and fifty years old. It was rundown when we first bought it.”

‘It’s still a dump,’ I snort to myself.

Jack glances back at me but says nothing. We stop on the second floor. “This is Emily and Ray’s floor,” He points out, then continues up the stairs. We get to the top floor, and he leads me down a narrow hallway with broken floorboards. He opens one door, “This is my room,” He smiles and waggles his eyebrows.

I poke my head in. The room seems crowded, with a queen-sized bed and two dressers. Various family photos are on the wall, along with several rock band posters. Jack moves down the hall, “That’s Mom’s room, and then,” He opens a door across from his mother’s room. “We usually use this for a guest room, like when my Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary visit.”

We step into the room, and it’s tiny compared to my room at home. It is even smaller than my closet. My bags are sitting in a corner, stacked up beside a small bed with a quilted bedspread. There is a dresser and what I think is the bathroom. I open it, and it’s a tiny closet.

“You have to share the bathroom with Mom,” He points out.

I take a deep breath as I look around. A couple of old pictures of horses and barns hang on the wall.

“I know it’s not what you are used to,” He frowns. “But we aren’t Diamond Lake.”

“It’s fine,” I hiss through gritted teeth.

“Anyways, I have to go take care of a few things. I’ll be back later. You are free to watch TV in my room if you don’t feel like going downstairs,” He grins.

I stand staring at the horse pictures trying to keep it together. “I just need some time, Jack.”

He touches my arm, “Okay,” He brushes a strand of hair from my face and kisses my cheek. “I’ll see you later,” He says and walks out of the room, leaving the door open.

My cheek tingles, and I place my hand where he kissed me while listening to his boots thump against the floorboards. I take a deep breath, pull my phone out of my pocket and sit in a huff on the bed. I look to see if Jasper has messaged me, but he hasn’t, so I dial his number. It rings a couple of times before going straight to voicemail.

“What the hell, Jasper?” I nearly yell. “Anyways, I’m in Hope Springs. I will send you the address. Please come get me,” I plead and hang up. I open Maps and send him the directions and hope he sees it. I set my phone on the end table and stood up to find the bathroom. Two doors down, I step into a hole in the wall with a toilet and bathtub. I have never seen a smaller bathroom. I huff while doing my business. “This is bullshit,” I mutter.

‘It’s not that bad,’ Sapphire finally speaks up.

“It’s a f*****g dump,” I yell out loud and step out of the bathroom. I yelp when Elizabeth suddenly appears in front of me.

She stares me down, “I need to use the bathroom.”

I move out of her way and return to my little room. I flop on the bed and pick up my phone. There is no response from Jasper, and I whine in frustration. “Please don’t leave me here, Jasper,” I whimper into the bedspread.

‘He is not your mate,’ Sapphire reminds me.

‘He will be when I reject Jack,’ I snarl at her.

‘I will never accept Jasper,’ My wolf growls. ‘You will be on your own.’

‘So?’ I snort. ‘You are a pain in the ass anyways.’

Sapphire makes a low growling noise and retreats to her corner of my mind.

I stare at my phone, waiting for Jasper to respond to me. I send him a few texts and scream with frustration when he doesn’t respond. “What the hell?” I cry and bury my face in the bed and sob.

‘Maybe he’s not that into you,’ Sapphire suggests, and I want to punch her.

I watch a few t****k videos before dozing off. A knock on the door wakes me up.

“Priscilla?” Emily steps into the room. She is wearing a cheap dress she probably got at Walmart.

“What?”

“Oh, the party is ready. Mom sent me to come get you,” She grins.

I sigh, “Do I have to?” I mutter.

“Well, we went through a lot of trouble,” She responds.

“Fine, tell them I’ll be there soon,” I grumble and push myself off the bed. Emily nods and walks out. I pick up my suitcases, dump them on the bed, and rummage through my clothes, looking for something to wear. After finding something, I go into the bathroom to shower and fix my hair and makeup. I shove Elizabeth’s old lady crap off the counter and fill it with my stuff.

An hour later, I am standing in front of the mirror in the hall, looking at my work. I am wearing a rose-colored cocktail dress that stops just above my knees. It is low cut in the front, showing off my chest and new tan. I left my hair cascading down my shoulders.

“You look beautiful,” Jack’s voice makes me jump.

I turn to him.

“We are waiting for you,” He steps towards me. He is wearing a tight pair of black jeans, a black button-up cowboy shirt with a white pattern, and a black cowboy hat on his head. I hate to admit that he looks hot.

“I had to get ready,” I shrug like it’s nothing.

“Well, you look beautiful,” He repeats and holds out his arm.

“You already said that,” I smirk. I hear my phone chiming as it’s sitting in my room on the end table. I am tempted to answer it, but Jack’s smile forces me to ignore it. Sparks spread through my body as I take his arm and let him lead me down the hall.

Jack stops on the second floor as we descend the stairs. He glances at me and says nothing but growls.

I shudder as he pulls me down the stairs.

We get outside, and a familiar limo sits in front while several members of Jack’s pack surround it.

Jasper steps out of the limo wearing a very expensive Armani suit. He grins at me, and I am not as affected by him as I used to be.

Jack steps in front of me, “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my land?” He growls.

Jasper smirks and looks Jack up and down before looking down, “I am here to rescue Priscilla from this dump of a pack.”