August had never been the bleeding heart type, but it was hard for him to sit and watch Sam. He hadn’t expected his offer for lunch to practically shut his brain down, or at least that was what it looked like from his side of things. Questions were starting to rise in his mind regarding Sam’s former pack. How exactly had they raised him if he couldn’t even order a meal for himself? He knew little to nothing about them, but he was certain that he and their Alpha would have no common ground when it came to leading a pack. His smile at Sam’s reaction would have been a lot bigger if it weren’t for the other man’s actions directly following. “I believe you.” August made the statement with all the sincerity he could muster. He didn’t have to be an expert on behavior to realize that if Sam felt so much shame at blurting something out, there was no way he could handle hurting someone else – not one of the Summers pack. The last of his defenses went down, which hadn’t really been that high in the first place, and August began to consider what it would mean to invite Sam to join the pack. It certainly would do him some good to see a pack that operated just as much like a family than anything else.
“Are you here for good, or were you just curious about my family and their issue with yours?” Truth be told, August wasn’t entirely sure how to handle someone like Sam. Everyone in his family was loud and dominant; now that he thought about it, he couldn’t think of a single person in his life who even came close to being described as the “quiet” type. From their interaction so far, he could tell that his normal behavior was not going to be completely acceptable with Sam. Had he been anything other than a wolf, one that seemed to be looking for help, August would have been done with him; even future pack members deserved his unyielding loyalty. “Were you aware that there are other were packs in town?” The Normandin pack was the first that came to mind. They were a perfectly fine pack, though that was mostly speculation on his part. They hadn’t had much interaction between them, at least not since he had become Alpha; he didn’t think it was likely to happen in the near future either, considering that they traveled in different circles. “I just wanted you to know you have options, if staying was what you had in mind.”