Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 3: Conference Call

"Hey, Reggie!" an all too familiar voice caught his attention. He turned to see his old friend waving him down.

It was a nice day at the pack house. Everyone was running around doing all kinds of stuff. A good majority of the pack were gone to work or the like. Then there were always the kids who were too young to go to school. Everyone kept an eye out for each other when it came to that.

And what was he doing? Running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Hey, Ana," he walked up to her. "What's up?"

Ana was one of the gardeners they had in the pack. With the population only going up, their farms had to grow to keep up with their needs. They already had two head chefs now: one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Chef Aldi trained both Nick and Alan for the positions. Now he was retired and loved telling Reggie all of his old kitchen stories when he had the time.

"How goes being the errand boy?" she smirked at him. She was always one to tease. As much as she was annoying, it was one of the things that always made him miss home whenever he left on a trip.

"Shut it Mud Cake," he smiled back at her. "Before I tell your mate that you're flirting with me."

"Like he'd believe that!" she laughed. She was the first out of the three of them to find her mate. Of course, omegas always have it easy when it comes to that.

"I think I can be pretty convincing," he said.

"He isn't the jealous type, thank you very much!" she said. "And, even if he was, he better not be considering I'm carrying his baby!"

"Ah, yes," he said. "The true way to tie someone down." He loved making her laugh, because she had a dumb one. She was a snorter. Thankfully, her mate thought it was cute. He was glad because he would have personally punched him if he told her that he didn't like it. Him and Eric worked too hard trying to get her to stop being so insecure of her laugh.

"Pfft!" she laughed again. "Just wait until you find your mate, Reggie. I doubt you'll mind getting tied down to her as soon as you see her."

"I think I'm better off being celibate," he told her.

"Oh, come on, Reggie," she assured. "You're only nineteen. Just because you went to a few parties and came back to us empty handed doesn't mean you aren't ever going to find your mate."

He shook his head. A part of him never wanted to find his mate. He wanted to be Alpha, of course, and that required having a Luna, but he wasn't so sure about actually having one.

He wasn't sure how his parents would react.

Or anyone, for that matter.

"I gotta go," he told her. "I gotta make sure that Charlie actually eats his lunch."

"He's been so busy lately," Ana said. "I'm honestly glad you've been staying home to help out. Eric's been busy trying to get Jane used to pack life, and Alpha Max has been up to his elbows in work."

"It's just a bunch of paperwork," he told her. He had been taught how to do it a while ago so that he could give them a helping hand. Him and Eric used to have a schedule for who they would help out and when. But that was before Jane came into the picture.

He was still upset that he wasn't there when her small group of rogues came to ask to be a part of their pack. His parents had planned for him to go to a party with another pack in hopes of finding his mate. They had been doing that a lot lately.

He was so sick of traveling.

He never told anyone that he didn't want to find his mate. He just tried his best to be friendly with the packs he visited and prayed to the Moon Goddess that he wouldn't find his mate there. He had time before Max and Charlie retired before the pack really considered who was going to be their next leader. He still had time before then to enjoy himself a little.