Alpha Queen (Claimed by Wolves #4) - Callie Rose Page 0,12

won couldn’t even take up all the fingers on one hand. I never let it bother me much. We didn’t have the greatest father-son relationship to begin with, which was why Malcolm and Archer’s relationship always seemed so alien to me. The silence was worth it. Has been worth it.

I can’t believe I’ve agreed to break it.

It comes as no great surprise to me that my dad’s managed to get himself a nice little shack on the outskirts of the village. The man is charm itself when he thinks it can get him what he wants. By the shack’s closeness to a small cabin, and the extension cord running power from the cabin to the one open window, I’m guessing he managed to convince the family that he deserved to sleep in their shed.

Sable raises an eyebrow at the tiny place. “Everyone in the village is crammed together like sardines or living out of leaky tents, but your dad got his own little house.”

“Being an arrogant ass can get you places,” I say. “Though it doesn’t win you friends.”

Tiny or not, it affords him privacy, and that’s a hot commodity in the village right now. A sneer tilts the corner of my lips up, and I brace myself for what comes next.

I almost let Sable knock on the door because I’m a fucking pussy, but at the last minute, my hand darts out and bangs against the uneven wood with a lot more force than necessary.

My heart’s doing some kind of wild dance, like it’s trying to run away. Too fucking late for that now.

The door opens.

My father appears, his shaggy brown hair shoved away from his face with a bandana. He looks like he always does—a smug smile on his face, a look of disdain like he thinks he’s better than everyone. But he’s shorter than me, and thinner. And if I’m being really fucking petty, my dick’s probably a lot bigger too.

He spares a glance for Sable, raking her with his dark brown eyes in a way that makes me want to claw them out of his head, before he finally looks at me. “Trystan.”

“Cooper,” I reply in a dead, disinterested voice.

“Surprised to see you darkening my doorstep.”

“Surprised to see that you have a fucking doorstep when Dolores Fisher is sleeping in a tent.” Dolores is just shy of ancient with bad hips and a hernia she likes to bring up every other sentence. But she’s a great lady, and an institution in the West Pack.

Unfortunately, Cooper doesn’t have an ounce of empathy in him.

“The woman survived two heart attacks. Nothing short of a gunshot wound to the head’s gonna nail her.” He leans a hip against the door and eyes me. “What do you want?”

“Can we come in?” I demand, a little impatiently. “We’re not here to admire the garden shed.”

Cooper’s shit-eating grin spreads wider, and he steps back, opening the door to let us pass into the dimly lit room. He looks at Sable like he wants to take her for a test drive, a flash of interest in his eyes. It takes all my willpower not to lay him out on the floor like the trash he is just for looking at her the wrong way.

The place is literally a garden shed—one room, walls lined with gardening tools, a small work bench stationed in one corner. Cooper has a cot set up with blankets and a threadbare pillow, and the electric cord is hooked to a hot plate.

Cooper flops onto the cot, kicking up his feet so that neither of us can sit beside him. Not that I want to anyway, but the cot is pretty much the only option unless I want to turn over a ceramic planter that looks like it would crumble under the slightest weight. I motion for Sable to perch on the work bench, then I stand beside her awkwardly, staring down at the man who gave me life.

“Why are you here?” Cooper asks, his eyes narrowing a little.

“Sable wanted to meet you,” I say shortly.

He swivels to smile at her, turning on the charm. “Enchanted. Sable, is it? So you’re mated to my boy?”

“Yes, sir.” Her voice is cool and gives nothing away. I’m dying to know what her first impression is. I’m dying to know if she thinks he’s just as much bluster and bullshit as I know he is.

I charge ahead before he can proposition her, because God fucking knows he will. “Also, after the pack meeting