Chapter 5: King

Garrett

This was not at all how I had expected my day to go.

When my father called me two days ago and told me about a young woman with Alpha blood running through her veins, I knew that she was for me. This opportunity was for me.

Upon arriving at her and seeing how beautiful she was, that only confirmed it for me. Hell, I’d even been excited to see my brothers - I’d assumed that they'd come to congratulate me and make amends.

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t miss them, didn’t miss the relationship that we used to have with one another but not even an hour together and we were fighting again.

I loved my brothers but they were infuriating especially Liam. He and I had never had an amazing relationship or anything - we were just too different. He was so reserved and uptight that I always felt nervous around him and he constantly reminded Damien and me that he was the one with the millions of dollars at his disposal.

I wasn’t poor but I was a working-class man. I was in construction and development which meant that while the pay was pretty good, it was back-breaking work. If it wasn’t for my Alpha blood, my body would have given out on me long ago.

I had enough to pay my bills and I could afford a few small luxuries, a weekend trip with my friends here and there but that was where it ended. When I had gotten drunk on one of these aforementioned trips, stumbled into a casino, and gambled away a few thousand dollars that I didn’t have, Liam had been my first call.

He paid the entire thing off in five minutes without any questions and even offered to send me some extra cash to get through until my next paycheck.

That was the thing about Liam. Generous and compassionate with his money until you pissed him off and he reminded you of all the times that he had bailed you out. But even knowing what I did about him, it had been a real dick move to mention Damien’s tattoo parlor.

Damien had always been passionate, artistic, or sensitive as our mother liked to call it. He had never been interested in sports, work or even pack life as he was always off on his own reading or drawing something.

I knew that as difficult as Liam and I could be, at least Dad had some common ground with us both. I was a blue-collar guy just like him and excelled at every sport I’d ever played, Liam was a brilliant businessman and could find a solution to nearly every problem placed in front of him.

My Dad didn’t know a thing about art or music. He thought tattoos were a waste of money. Damien had never expressed interest in anything other than tattooing people and it was all he could ever talk about.

He’d used to ramble about it to Liam and me for as long as we could bear, down to every excruciating detail. So for his twenty-first birthday, five years ago Liam had bought the space for the parlor and paid me to renovate the inside of it just the way Damien had always spoken about.

I don’t know if I had ever seen either of my brothers so happy before the moment that Liam handed Damien the keys.

That had really been the last time that the three of us had been a united front, the last time that things had been good between us.

“Here,” Liam said, tossing me a pack of ice from the freezer. Damien had one pressed to his torn lip as we stood around in the kitchen in uncomfortable silence.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, catching it and pressing it to my face. My skin was hot to the touch. I was glad for our Alpha blood, it would see our wounds completely healed in a few minutes but it didn’t stop the discomfort of our wounds now.

Despite the fight from earlier, I still wanted to talk to them. As irritating as they were, they were my brothers and I’d missed them. I wanted to know how they’d been these past few years.

We only saw each other during the Winter Solstice and spent most of it avoiding one another. I wanted to know what was going on in their lives, what they did in their free time, where they lived, all of it.

Dad entered the house, stepping over the smashed door on the ground. “Well, way to make an impression on the lady,” he laughed. He came into the kitchen and took a moment to hug each of us.

I loved my father. He was tough man but even so, he went out of his way to be affectionate with us.

“Li,” he said, ruffling my brother’s perfect hair. “How’ve you been? Still working hard?”

“I have been fine. Work has been fine.” Liam replied.

“That’s my boy,” Dad said, patting his back. “Call your mother. She misses you. We both do but-you know how she gets.”

“Yeah. I will.”

He grabbed Damien next. “Dame. How’s the tattooing?”

“Still good,” Damien managed with his busted lip.

“Good, good.” Dad said, patting his shoulder.

Dad grinned as he pulled me into a hug next. “Hey, kid. Anything new since we last talked?” I tried to ignore the glare that I felt from Damien and the eye roll that I caught in the corner of my eye from Liam.

I shook my head. “Not really. Just work.” My Dad patted my cheek before he pulled away and took a deep breath.

“So. You all ready to hear the deal?” When we all nodded, he continued, “Ivy is going to choose one of you three as her mate. I didn’t tell you that the others would be coming because I didn’t want to deal with the drama.

I don’t know what happened between you boys those few years ago but now you’re here and there’s nothing to do be done about it.”

“What?” I asked, shocked that our father was actually saying this to us. To me. “She has to..choose? You mean you didn’t have one of us in mind as her mate?”

My father leveled a look at me. “It’s not my choice to make. It’s her’s.”

“Because she’s got Alpha blood, you mean?” Liam asked.

“Yup, that’d be why. I was hoping to get here a little earlier and ease everyone into this but, well. Moon Goddess works in mysterious ways and it turns out there’s not much to mediate.”

“So, you’re really not going to have her mate with one of us?” I asked, still trying to wrap my mind around all of this. My father had always spoken about how I was his first choice to lead the pack once he passed, and how he envisioned great things for me in this world.

So when he’d called and told me about this girl, I thought that she and this new pack might be a part of this greatness. Not that I’d have to fight for it.

“What’s the matter, Gar? Anxious that you’ll have to actually work for something in the pack?” Damien sneered.

“Hey!” Dad barked, crossing the room in three long strides and standing before Damien. Liam and I stepped away to avoid whatever was about to happen.

“None of that, knock that shit off right now! You three are not going to argue and tear each other down like that around her and embarrass our family. You understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Damien replied, looking away from our father.

“What about you two?” he demanded, eyes still fixed on Damien.

“Yes, sir,” Liam and I replied in unison.

Our father softened and ruffled Damien’s hair affectionately, he then turned away and headed for the door. “Whelp, that’s all she wrote for me. I’m gonna head back, I know your mother is anxiously waiting to hear all about it.”

“You’re leaving?” I asked.

“Of course. I’ve got my own pack to run after all,” Dad said with a smile and a wave over his shoulder. “Love you, boys. Make me proud!”

I heard him wish Ivy good luck before the door to the car opened and closed, the engine kicked to life and he was gone as quickly as he’d come. I stared at the space our father had just occupied and then at my brothers.

This was going to destroy what fragments of a relationship we had, I just knew it.

Could I really sacrifice the men I’d spent my entire life with for power, in the pursuit of honoring our family?

Awkwardly, Ivy entered through the door looking as though she wanted nothing more than to run in the other direction. With the light finally hitting her, I could get actually get a good look at her.

Goddess, she really was beautiful. Her red hair was tumbling a bit out of its braid and even though she was wearing a hoodie, I could see the outline of her curves. I loved a woman with a soft, voluptuous form and Ivy fit the bill to a tee.

Being mated to a woman that looked like her was not something that I would ever complain about, she just needed to choose me. No! I shook the thought from my head. She would choose me.

“So..Uhm. I guess we should formally introduce ourselves?” she offered. Liam scoffed at this, crossing his arms over his chest. Impatient as ever. She ignored him.

“I’m Ivy.”

“Garrett,” I offered with a smile that I hoped was charming.

“Damien,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Ivy.”

“Liam,” he sighed.

“Okay. Well, it looks like we’re all going to be roommates for a while so we should probably figure out sleeping situations,” Ivy said. “I haven’t really gotten the chance to look at anything here.”

“It’s a five-bedroom, three bathroom, and one-half bathroom,” Liam stated.

I didn’t want to live here with my brothers, I didn’t want to compete for the affection of this woman. I’d never had to compete with anyone for anything and the idea of it was an embarrassment.

Our family was better than this. I was better than this. “Listen, Ivy,” I began. “Why don’t we just skip all of these formalities and you just send my brothers packing? I mean, they can obviously stay the night since it’s late but tomorrow morning they can-”

“No,” she said simply.

“No?” I blanched.

“No,” she repeated. “The Council and your father, want me to make a choice between the three of you as to who my mate should be and how who will lead the pack with me.”

Without another word, she turned on her heel and trudged through the living room and upstairs.

When my brothers and I didn’t immediately follow her, she called back down. “Well, are you coming up with me or would you all rather just sleep on the couch?”

Liam, Damien, and I looked at each other before padding up the stairs after her. I took note of the house, it was in relatively decent shape but I knew that there was going to be quite a bit of work to do preparing it for a shifter family to live in.

I made a mental note to officially assess the home in the morning as well as fix the door that lay in the small foyer.

The stairs creaked unhappily under our weight and I made another mental note to handle those as well. At the top of the stairs, there were three bedrooms with three bathrooms between them, the third of which was without a shower, meaning that the two of us would share a shower.

Down the hallway, at the very end of it sat another bedroom, the master.

Ivy strode toward it and swung the door open before turning back to us. “Since I’m the only woman here, I’m going to take the biggest room. You guys are welcome to fight it out for the other rooms. Since you love to argue so much.”

I raised a brow. Ivy, the smallest of us was going to take the biggest room. She seemed to read the disbelief on my face and the little minx smirked at me.

“Don’t worry, whoever I end up choosing as a mate is more than welcome to share this room with me. Goodnight, boys!” she said before closing the door behind her.

I think I liked Ivy Lynnd and maybe winning her over would be more fun than I thought.

“Oh, it’s on,” Damien said turning to myself and Liam. “I say the game begins starting tomorrow, what do you both say?”

“Absolutely,” Liam chimed.

“May the best wolf win,” I added. I sure as hell intended to.