I looked down at the little female that had been all but tossed at me. Her hair was in a single, slightly fuzzy braid and she looked up at me with large brown eyes, that were set in a dainty face. In fact as I looked her over she was all together dainty and delicate looking, like a stiff breeze would blow her over if she didn't set her footing properly. She blinked, her colour almost grey and I tilted my head slightly. Her skin was dark, like a honeyed oak and I felt an eyebrow raise. Someone had definitely stepped outside of the pack to sire her. All the pack members were as white as driven snow.

The shouting caught my attention and I leaned against the door frame, narrowing my eyes as I watched a blond haired male square up against an aging male who looked similar enough that I knew they were related. "How could you! She is a member of this family!" The younger male shouted it out and I blinked again. A headache was forming with the hangover I felt at the base of my skull. The shouting and snarling that was going on was not helping that.

The older male growled low and deep, "She is-"

"She's family! You don't do that to family!" The words bellowed out of the younger male and I glanced back at the small female before gesturing slightly in confusion. I didn't know what the fuck was going on and it seemed to be centered around her but either she didn't see me or was simply pretending she didn't.

The older male snarled, his face red, "I am the Protector of thi-"

"Give me twenty minutes and you won't be anything but a bloodied fucking mess!" The younger male actually seemed to get ready to take a round out of the older male and given how upset he looked, I would have put my money on him.

"The fuck is going on?" I said it low as I gestured to the little female and she swallowed hard, her lithe hand coming up and grasping the collar of her shirt, twisting her fingers into it so tightly her knuckles turned white as she opened and closed her mouth. She seemed to be attempting to tell me but the words were failing her. Not that I blamed her, she seemed a timid sort and I hadn't ever seen her around so I guessed she was more than sheltered and didn't talk to strange males ever.

"Enough!" Stenton grabbed the younger male and pinned him down, ignoring the snarls and growls that erupted. His dominance shoved outwards hard and I half wanted to tell him to let it happen. Clearly a fight was brewing and him pinning the younger male was just delaying the inevitable. "I said enough!" He snarled the words out, heavy growls escaping him before the younger male stopped and submitted. Stenton shoved him down harder before he got off him.

"Go home! This is not your business and not your place." The words were a low hiss of agitation and the young male threw a rather murderous look at the older male as he pulled himself to his feet and stalked off. "And you need to control your heir, William. You should not require my intervention to get him to back down." Stenton's words were like a whip that the older male flinched under. I gave a small ahh at them. Father and son, that made sense.

"I was too lenient with him about the half-breed. I see I should have curbed that a long time ago." His words were snapped out and he threw such a harsh glare at the little female that she visibly flinched, her shoulders pulling forwards as if trying to protect herself from them. It made my mouth twitch as I watched it. I was done with the entire group of them.

"As amusing as this has been. If all of you could fuck off, that would be great." I pushed off of the door frame and stood as steady as my pounding head allowed me.

"I agree." Stenton nodded his head and gestured sharply with his hand. "Leave him be." I watched as the Beta and the older male and Alpha Stenton start to walk off.

I glanced down at the female and frowned slightly. She made no motion to move, instead seemed nearly ready to choke herself with the grip she had on her collar. She stood so stock still I had to look more intently just to make sure she was breathing. "That means you too. You can get off my porch and head off." I wasn't low enough to curse at a female even with the headache coming full force in its pounding.

She jolted at my words but didn't move towards the stairs like I thought she would. She just tightened her grip on her collar, twisted it tighter and taking a sharp inhale. "She stays, Brochan." Stenton's voice was sharp and I snapped my gaze to look at him.

"Excuse me?" It came out clipped and the male stared back at me, his chin up and his back straight. He wouldn't be as stupid as to dump a female off on my doorstep like that.

"As you have thrown tantrum after tantrum and refuse to let the omegas come in and work to keep you and your whelp in good health. I had to take certain measures." His voice was clipped, a sharp edge to it that demanded he be obeyed and that set my wolf's hackles rising. We didn't ask for this.

"The fuck you did." It burst out of me and I was aware the little female flinched slightly, her shoulders pulling forward even more and that made my mood blacken further. I was in no good mind to have anyone outside of Maeve under my protection, let alone a female that looked like she would break if I looked at her wrong. I don't know what the fuck he was thinking.

"Watch your tone, Brochan. I have granted you leniency but it's been two months and it's getting pathetic." He pointed at me and I resisted the urge to bare my teeth and snap at him like my wolf was doing inside my head. "That is Minnie, William's half-breed. She's useless to the pack and a continual thorn in her father's side. As you refuse to let the omegas do the job I have ordered, I took measures. She is yours to do with what you will, as she is functionally useless and from less than... optimal breeding stock, I don't care how you treat her, neither does her father. But you will have her under the protection of your house and you will allow her to take on the duties of said house." The orders bristled me. I didn't want anyone in my fucking house, let alone another female. Especially not one who would break if I breathed on her.

I shook my head hard, "Fuck that-"

"If you do not, Brochan. I will take your female whelp and I will give her to another to raise. So I suggest you hold your tongue." His words were cold like ice and I snapped my teeth together, my muscles bunching and bulging underneath my skin with my wolf's rage. He was ordering us around, playing in my life, thinking he could be master of my house. I was the master of my house and I was the only one who had a say in who was allowed under the protection of my roof. The little female had none and would get none.

I watched as he turned and walked away and it took all I had to not shift and tear off after him to teach him how much I appreciated him over stepping his bounds in my home. I let out a heavy curse and the little female flinched heavily underneath it. I stared at her, my eyes narrowing. A fucking burden, another mouth to feed, and a pseudo replacement for the vibrant female I lost. Another order to get over it. He probably expected me to fuck the little thing.

The Alpha was fucking delusional if he thought I would play into that bullshit. "I do not want you here. I do not want you in my house. You are nothing to me." I hissed the words at her and she flinched under them, her other hand gripping her skirt tightly, her knuckles going white. "Understood?" I didn't want her there and my head pounded but there was a whisper of something that urged me to be softer as she flinched under each word. A whisper that told me it was just as hard on her as it was on me, that she had just lost her home.

I ignored it as I whirled around and slammed the door behind me. I didn't want the female there and I didn't care what the Alpha said. She was not to be under my protection, I didn't give two shits that her protector tossed her at me and said I could do with her what I wished. None of that mattered because I did not want her.

A faint tugging in my stomach told me to go easy on her, to sit her down and explain but I shoved it away. I didn't care. She was unwanted and I was not going to keep that from her. What her protector did or didn't do meant nothing to me. I didn't care what anyone said, I didn't care what traditions said. Her protector could drop her off on my doorstep every single day but that didn't mean I would open my door to her. Not when I knew what would be expected of me with her.

I wouldn't have her under my protection, I wouldn't have her stepping into the role my female had one stood proud in. I wouldn't keep her. No amount of barking from Alpha Stenton would force me to do it. That little whisper of a tug on my belly told me to be softer, to give a little bit, to let the little female know I was grieving, that I was not a kind male for her to be dropped off on.

I shoved it away again as I stalked further into the dark house. I hadn't wanted the Omegas around, I had kicked them out, forced them to leave. I never would have thought Stenton would find a full female to drop on me. Th thought made my mouth curl up. What shit smear of a protector would drop a female off like that? An act like that let me know he thought of her as worthless. She was to me, I didn't know her nor did I care, but her father should hold her in a bit more esteem than that. Even a token of resistance on a protector's part was given on the most troubling of females

Dropped at me feet like a mangled rabbit.

Worthless.

I rubbed at my face hard and just stood, covering my face, trying hard to ignore the pounding in my head and the small tugging on my stomach that whispered to me to be gentle, to be soft, to be nice. I wasn't any of that. It died when Chrissie died. I had no want to bring it back for anything but my dead female and my daughter. She could sit out there all night if she wished, I didn't care.

The tugging grew worse and I rubbed harder at my face as it told me to feel for the poor little female dumped on my doorstep as worthless. Her life was in my hands, it said, you don't need to make a poor life worse. I did my best to ignore it and ignore the pounding in my head that was getting so much worse. I turned and sank down on the couch.

Stenton was insane. I couldn't take care of a female and with the looks of the one standing outside on my step, she would need care. I wasn't that type of male. I was barely that type before Chrissie had died and I lamented that constantly after she had passed. Everything good about me died the day my female did and it was pure insanity to set a female at my feet and demand I take her underneath the protection of a roof cracked with mourning.

My wolf bared his teeth. He didn't like it anymore than I did but he had the added aspect of feeling responsible for the poor slip of a female. I could rationalize it. He couldn't. He saw her worth, saw the responsibility, and concluded that it wasn't fucking worth it for the value she would bring.

"Not worth the damn headache." I muttered it into my hands, rubbing at my face again, feeling the long stubble scratching against my palms. It wasn't.

It really fucking wasn't.