Page 21 of Auditing the Alpha

“The pack dinner isn’t for a couple of hours,” he said when we broke apart. “Plenty of time to get you settled.” His eyes darkened. “And properly welcomed.”

I laughed, happiness bubbling up inside me. “My luggage can wait.”

It was fully dark by the time we made it to the main house, where the entire pack had gathered to welcome me. The atmosphere was festive—tables groaning with food, music playing, children running between adults with the boundless energy of young wolves.

Lucy approached as we entered, pulling me into a surprisingly strong hug. “Welcome home,” she said simply.

Home. The word resonated through me, unfamiliar but right.

The evening passed in a blur of introductions, food, and so much physical contact that my city-trained personal space boundaries completely surrendered. Pack members touched constantly—an arm around shoulders, a hand on my back, casual embraces from people I’d just met. Klaus stayed close, his pride evident as he introduced me to extended family members.

“So you’re really staying,” Theo said, cornering me by the dessert table. “Giving up the big city for our little wolf den.”

I nodded, sipping from a glass of surprisingly good local wine. “Seems that way.”

He studied me with those family-trademark amber eyes. “Because of Klaus?”

“Partially,” I admitted. “But also because… I don’t know. It feels right here.”

Theo’s face broke into a wide grin. “Pack recognizes pack,” he said cryptically, then clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stagger. “Welcome to the family, city boy.”

Later, as Klaus drove us back to the cabin, fatigue finally catching up with me, I found myself smiling at nothing in particular.

“Good day?” Klaus asked, reaching across the console to take my hand.

“Good day,” I confirmed. “Slightly overwhelming, but good.”

He squeezed my fingers gently. “It gets easier. The pack can be… a lot.”

“I like them,” I said, surprising myself with the truth of it. “They’re nothing like what I’m used to, but I like them.”

Klaus brought my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “They like you too. More importantly, they respect you.”

“Because I’m your mate?” The term still felt foreign on my tongue, but less so with each passing day.

“Because you accepted us—accepted me—without fear,” he corrected. “That earns respect in pack circles.”

Back at the cabin, we unloaded the essentials from my car and left the rest for morning. As I unpacked my toiletries in the bathroom, arranging them beside Klaus’s, the domesticity of the moment struck me.

I live with a werewolf now,I thought, meeting my own eyes in the mirror.This is my life.

And strangely, it didn’t feel wrong or strange anymore. It just felt like where I was supposed to be.

Chapter 11

The next week was a whirlwind of adjustments—setting up my home office, applying for a business license for my new accounting practice, learning the rhythms of pack life. Klaus was patient with my questions, my occasional moments of culture shock, my still-city-calibrated sensitivity to cold.

“Why do you smell anxious?” he asked one evening as we sat in front of the fireplace, his arm around me while I worked on my laptop.

I looked up in surprise. “Do I?”

He nuzzled against my neck, inhaling deeply. “Mmm. Not as bad as yesterday, but still there. What’s bothering you?”

I closed my laptop and leaned into his warmth. “Just… normal new business jitters, I guess. I’ve only secured three clients so far.”

“The pack businesses will all switch to you,” Klaus assured me. “That’s seven right there. And Martha’s been talking you up to every business owner in town.”

“Really?”