Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,84

group of friends might strain it. Especially if Theo and Nikolai are together. Jealousy can tear apart a beta group, Gabby. It's why we don't date."

"Not putting those rules on my betas," she told him. "I mean, I like that you guys are with my mom and all, but it's not fair. Betas are people too. Who they love doesn't change anything about how they help me."

"Until you decide that you want to add another guy to your little harem," Pax teased. "I give you a few more years before you start thinking that way. And Sam? You can tell your alpha no. You might have to stand your ground, but that's part of our job too. We're the sounding board, and being yes-men helps no one."

"I'm actually pretty good at that," Sam assured him.

I watched the whole thing, kinda impressed with how easily those guys were teaching Gabby to be a fair alpha to her pack. I had a feeling Ian was a little more blunt about it, but they'd clearly made their point. I also thought Gabby was right. Her betas were people - kids, actually. They wanted to fall in love, change the world, and help their friends. I couldn't wrap my mind around any of that being a problem.

But after breakfast, the girls headed back upstairs. Then a little more giggling happened. While I was stuck keeping an eye on them, I decided to get a little house cleaning done, but there was just one problem. The guys had been over enough that I really had nothing left to do. I put the last load of laundry on to wash - the stuff I'd been wearing to my wolf lessons - and accepted that having five boyfriends might be a lot nicer than I'd expected.

It was early afternoon when Gabby came bounding downstairs with a grin on her face. "Hey, Mom? Do you mind being the hookup spot for my friends?"

I had to do a double take. "What?!"

That made Samantha laugh, proving she was on her way down as well. "Olivia and Theo are coming over. Theo wants to see Nik. Gabby wants to make sure everything's still good, and then Roman and Xander are coming over."

"And Xander wants to take Olivia out to do something today," Gabby continued. "So, that means Theo's kinda on his own, and he said he doesn't really feel comfortable with staying at Heather's alone, so I said he could come here. Which was when Nik said he'd show up. I just figured that the guys want to, you know, have some time to get to know each other better."

Yep, that was not covered in Parenting 101. Nor in my recent Raising a Wolf course. I was pretty sure that it fell under something more closely called Having an Alpha Daughter, and I needed to call in Ashley for a little backup. But at the same time, I already knew my answer. It was the only one that made sense.

"Sure, Gabby. Your friends can hang out. Just, if the boys are going to be upstairs, keep the door open, ok?"

"They aren't into me, Mom," she groaned.

"I mostly meant because they're into each other," I reminded her. "And that means your friends need to keep it a little PG in this house, young lady. This is not, no matter how funny you think it is, the local 'hookup' spot."

"Keep the shifting outside," Trent said. Then he looked at me. "You need a little backup if the teen pack is showing up?"

"No, I'm fine," I assured him. "I have a feeling that all of you have more to do than constantly cleaning my house."

Pax made his way over and claimed the spot on the other side of me. "Just looking for excuses to stay longer." Then his head tilted. "Gabby, your friends are here!"

The strange thing was that I heard the car too. It sounded kinda sad, and didn't exactly run smoothly, so I figured that had to be Theo's. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and the girls scrambled to get it. On the other side were Theo and Olivia. She all but pushed the shy boy inside. A few minutes later, Nikolai showed up. Thankfully, the whole group moved out back.

"Hey," Trent said the moment we were finally alone. "I have a question for you."

"Ok?" I asked, just as another car pulled up in front of my house. This one, however, I knew. "Hang on. That's