Enforcing Boundaries

Chapter 1

Magnus

"Maggie!"

I jolted so hard my head banged into the side of the cabinet. "Eff!"

Meleri gave a decidedly unladylike snort as she came to stand near my legs. "You know, you're twenty-five now and a big, bad alpha. It's okay to actually swear."

"Funny," I said. "If I'm so grown up, you'd think I would have some control over what people call me." It didn't matter how many times I insisted she never call me Maggie again, she refused to have mercy on me. Big sister's prerogative and all that. I made a mistake when I showed her it bothered me the first time a kid from the pack called me Maggie and now, I was doomed. This was my albatross, the weight I would bear for the rest of my life... or until Meleri got bored and found a new way to taunt me. It was honestly a toss-up.

Meleri kicked at my foot and said, "Shouldn't you be done by now? It's just a little leak."

"What, do you think you could do it faster?" I asked, already pushing myself out from underneath the sink I'd been trying to repair for the past hour.

Meleri's dark eyes met mine. They were glimmering with amusement. "I couldn't fix it faster, but you're the alpha. Ask someone from the pack to do it. Fritz is handy."

"Fritz is busy with his actual job and his family. I don't want to abuse my position." Even after almost two years of living with the Tourmaline pack and being their alpha, I was still finding the line between exercising my power and abusing it.

"Please, he would be happy to help. Would it make you feel better if I called him instead? You can go to your cushy alpha office and hide away until the repair is done."

Mel had a knack for wrapping her kindness up in thorns, but I knew better than to let it bother me. "Would you? I'd really appreciate it."

Mel rolled her eyes but pulled out her phone without complaint. I rubbed my grimy, damp hands on my jeans – they were gross from my time spent laying on the bathroom floor anyway – and headed to my room to take a quick shower.

The Tourmaline pack was set up with a pack house for most of its members, but I had inherited the alpha's house. It was directly across from the pack house, separated by a large field where we held gatherings, barbeques, and field days. The house was beautiful, much nicer than I ever would have expected to get to live in, but I hated coming home at night.

It was a house for a family. There were five bedrooms and Mel and I only took up two of them. There was a living room, a rec room, and a basement set up as a game room. We really only needed one of those. And my bedroom was the worst of all. The bed was way too big, so it never felt truly cozy. All I could think of was all the space I wasn't taking up. There were two built-in dressers and two sinks in the en suite bathroom. All of it only emphasized that I was still alone.

I shouldn't complain. Mel was twenty-seven and still hadn't found her mate, either. She didn't seem particularly anxious about it, though. She didn't feel the lonely ache in her gut at night, didn't count every day that passed as another lost opportunity. Or if she did, she wasn't telling me about it.

And I... I was ready for a life partner. I wanted someone to share the burden of running a pack, to keep me company at night, to help fill the gulf of extra space in my bed. I wanted companionship and support, and I wanted to be able to give my own support and affection to someone else. Last summer, Mel and I took a week away from the pack to go on a road trip. We visited all the packs we could in that time, but nothing came of it. I was counting down the months until I could try again.

I was in and out of the shower in three minutes – the shower with two showerheads on opposite walls, both pointing in. The perfect shower to share and it, like everything else in this house, taunted me.