Pack and Coven

by Jody Wallace

  Chapter Twenty

  After helping Bianca with a revised ceremony that instated Susan as the second alpha, June and Harry accepted a ride from Annette back to Millington. Or, June accepted it on their behalf. Harry was form stuck and cross about it, growling at everyone but her.

  “I think that went well,” Annette said as the minivan trundled up a steep grade. “The poppy in June’s spell should fuzz their memories enough that they think they came up with the bright idea to boost Susan themselves. They’ll think Harry’s indie friends rescued him, but they’ll have a little trouble remembering faces and scent markers. It works out great.”

  “Should we talk about details in front of the dog?” Vern protested from the back.

  Harry gruffed at him, and June wished she could too. Vern was not only a coven elder but a region elder; he just didn’t behave like one.

  “He already knows everything,” she reminded them. She and Harry rode in the middle seat, his big, hairy body pressed against her like a winter coat. “Sorry to talk about you like you’re not here, Harry.”

  His skin twitched, the lupine equivalent of a shrug.

  “Whatever.” Vern clicked the buckle on his seat belt repeatedly. “As you say, he is sitting right here. We’ll talk about this when he’s not.”

  “There’s no need to talk because we’re not going to erase him.” June poured some alpha into the announcement. It didn’t seem fair to force her and Harry back to status quo—her as Sandie, Harry as her friend.

  Nothing but friends.

  There weren’t enough libido-dampening spells in the world to counteract her love for him now that she’d taken the final step. If she and Harry ended up on the lam, their progress was going to be hindered by the fact that, between the two of them, they owned no functional vehicles.

  No one responded to June’s assertion for a long, awkward moment. Vern continued to snick his seat belt, and Harry growled irritably, but he’d been doing that so much they ignored him.

  Pete changed the subject to distract them from the growing tension. “I didn’t know you could do that with lavender and parsley. Convince people to do things they wouldn’t normally do.”

  “We can’t. June can.” Annette patted her husband on the shoulder. “I wonder if it’s connected to her being an alpha? She’s always been stronger than the rest of us.”

  Vern’s seat belt rat-a-tat halted. “Not stronger than me.”

  “I didn’t force them to do it. They were willing to take the risk.”

  “Sure they were.” He laughed. “They thought you were crazy when you suggested it. You mind whammied them into submission.”

  June shook her head. “I gave them the confidence it would work and lowered everyone’s resistance to change. Bianca told me a willing heart helps a ceremony succeed.”

  “That’s touchy-feely B.S. I have a theory.”

  “About what I did?” June asked sharply. Usually she took Vern’s competitiveness in stride, but right now she wanted to lavender and parsley him. Unlike the mountain laurel she’d used on Gavin, the confidence spell hadn’t rebounded, which indicated it wasn’t harmful.

  “No, about you in general.” Vern leaned on the seatback between June and Harry. “If you’re strong because you’re alpha, I bet the alpha gene makes you resistant. How can I find out if I’m an alpha?”

  “Great,” Annette grumbled. “Casanova thinks he’s going to get himself a shifter girlfriend.”

  “You live as long as I have,” he said, “you’ll try anything once.”

  Harry sniffed Vern in the head and sneezed.

  “Bark three times if I’m da man,” Vern said to him. “Do you think Bianca and Susan would be interested in a hottie sandwich?”

  Harry snapped at Vern, and the witch slung himself back into his seat. “Does he bite?”

  “Yes,” June said.

  “Does he have rabies?”

  “Vernon, would you act your age?” Annette snapped. “You’re worse than a teenager fighting the change.”

  They finally reached the main road in Cranberry Jetty. The other coven members had departed before them, so they were the only ones on the highway at this hour. They would all go home for some much-needed sleep except for Pete, who had to conclude the investigation into Sandie’s disappearance before his comrades on the force discovered anything revealing. June would stay hidden until she could muster the strength for her Sandie disguise.

  Unless she didn’t need it anymore. She was considering sending Sandie to a retirement community in Florida—a time-honored choice for coven members ready to be young again—and starting her second pass-through as June Travis, Sandie’s granddaughter.

  And girlfriend of local mechanic Harry Smith.

  Assuming he was interested in something that serious. The past several days had been so hectic, there had been no discussion of what would happen when they returned to their real lives.

  A knot formed in her stomach. Harry might not be interested. She’d never known him to date anybody longer than a couple months. As if sensing her worries, he snuffled her neck, his whiskers tickling her skin.

  Pete swiveled in his seat, his arm around the headrest. “The thing with Gavin isn’t going to cause a pack war, is it? The ugliness that went down in the 1970s is not something I’d care to repeat.”

  The covens did what they could to neutralize violence in their home territories; the worst incidents had been in urban areas as shifters adjusted to modern society and cramped quarters. Packs had become so thick on the ground up north that territories overlapped—part of the inevitable modernization of shifter social structure. So were a rise in the number of indies and a rise in the number of covens who interacted with indies, along with the complications that created.

  “I don’t see why they’d go to war over this,” June said. “Gavin challenged. He lost. It’s a risk any candidate takes. There’s more danger in how the packs will react to the fact Millington’s anchors are both female.”

  “Millington has two mommies,” Vern said with a snicker. “You think they’d have figured it out already. Eh, they’re sexist bastards, the lot of them.”

  What June had suggested wasn’t radical—for witches. The shifter community had only just begun to consider that alphas didn’t have to be married. They had to be savvy leaders and sound foundations for the pack’s bonding magic. Two male or female alphas was as logical as a male-female combination for that purpose.

  “When Harry can vocalize,” she said, “I’m sure he’ll shed more light on the subject. Won’t it be convenient to have our own trustworthy shifter consultant?”

  Harry settled into the seat and laid his head in her lap. She stifled a yawn. The treetops had begun to bleed red with dawn.

  “I’m not against Harry keeping some of his memories, necessarily.” Pete braced his hands on the dashboard as the minivan sped into Millington’s valley. “The other covens won’t like it.”

  “They won’t like anything that happened here the past several days.” June yawned again, followed by Harry. “Most of all they won’t like the fact we seem to have created the first ever coven alpha.”

  Since a pack bond was magical, the coven had used the pack’s herbs to augment the linking spell on themselves, funneling their energies into Harry to sustain him through the confrontation. It was based partly on their group work when they pre-charged spell components and partly on the pack’s ritual.

  And it was wholly experimental, hence the unexpected results.

  “We think it will wear off,” Pete said gruffly. “Nobody realized the depth of Harry’s connection to us until yesterday. But it did give us the idea for the spell.”

  “The way indies flock to covens, I’m surprised this has never come up,” June said. Witches had always known indies were drawn to them because of the shifter desire for a network, but had never experimented with the relationship beyond how to avoid the sex.

  At least, none of the covens had publicized any exper
iments.

  “He wasn’t functionally our anchor until the spell,” Annette said. “The coven voted in favor of it, knowing there could be consequences. You’re not the only one who’s fond of Harry.”

  “All the more reason for him to retain his memories. If he keeps the power, do you really want him to forget what we are and what he can do?” June patted his side, her fingers twined in his fur. “He’ll realize something is up immediately. His strength and senses are enhanced, and he’ll have undue influence over others. Including us.”

  He’d have more influence over her too, but she no longer cared. He wouldn’t hurt her or push her. Not if he knew the truth.

  “If he’s here to stay, packs need two alphas to balance that undue influence,” Vern said. “I should be the other one.”

  “Goddess save us,” Annette muttered. Bars of glaring sunlight slanted across the blacktop as they reached Millington. She slowed the minivan when they approached the turnoff for Harry’s driveway.

  Harry hopped up and barked in Annette’s ear.

  She flinched, jerking the vehicle halfway off the road. “If you would change your hairy butt back, we wouldn’t have communication issues. We don’t care if you’re naked.”

  Vern coughed in the back of the van. “Speak for yourself.”

  “I think…” June’s cheeks heated. “I think he wants to come home with me.”

  Harry sat back and panted.

  “I suppose he can’t let himself into his house.” Pete cracked his window. “How long will he be in wolf form?”

  “I’m not sure.” If being form stuck was like being drained of magic, it could be as long as a day.

  Vern snickered. “He needs a doggie door.”

  Harry growled. June patted him and wished they could drop Vern off somewhere. When a witch put on a young face after decades in an old one, sometimes they got to feeling their oats.

  Again.

  She certainly felt liberated in her natural face, one of the reasons she’d like to keep it. Fewer daily spells. More…fun. She wouldn’t start at eighteen, like Vern, but witches could begin and end their pass-throughs wherever it was logistically convenient for them and the fake identifications the coven in D.C. fashioned.

  “That’s not why he’s going to June’s house.” Annette met her gaze in the mirror with a thoughtful expression. “Is this a good idea, Junie?”

  Annette might mean, if the coven planned to erase Harry’s memories, spending more time with him would only increase June’s heartbreak. And she might be concerned about something else. Well, Harry already knew about witch genetics, and June was pretty sure she and Harry had had enough sex to certify her resistance.

  “Is there a rule against it?” She wouldn’t be so crass as to mention details, but they were all adults here.

  “We’re breaking so many other rules, it hardly matters,” Annette said with a sigh.

  “There’s no rule against it.” Pete waved to the cop car parked on the corner in town. “There’s no rule against it in other circumstances, either. It’s just not recommended.”

  At June’s house, June and Harry hopped out of the vehicle. He padded onto the porch and waited by the screen door, but she stayed behind to lean in Annette’s window.

  Witches didn’t have to belong to covens, the same as shifters didn’t have to belong to packs. It was just that most preferred it. Since it wasn’t as deep a commitment as being in a pack, coven membership was easier to try on for size.

  The Millington coven was perfectly June’s size, but if they erased Harry’s memories, she wouldn’t be able to handle being near him, unable to love him. Any future intimate relationship between them would never work because he’d sense her genetics, starting the cycle all over again. There was simply no precedent for a witch-and-werewolf relationship that didn’t involve the witch turning tail. Literally.

  Like Millington’s double-female alphas, she wanted to set a new precedent with Harry.

  “I want you to know,” she said, “if you decide to erase him, I’m leaving.”

  Annette’s face crumpled. “You would leave us for him?”

  “I would.” If June could act before the coven did, she’d ask him to come with her, but a life on the run was nowhere near as appealing as a life in Millington with Harry. “He’s not a risk. He’ll never join a pack, so the compulsion of a pack bond is a nonissue.”

  Pete leaned across Annette to speak. “Nothing is decided.”

  June had as much of a vote as anyone in her coven, but she was one voice. The rest might not go for the Harry experiment, no matter his accidental status as their alpha. “I just thought I should warn you.”

  “You’re blackmailing us,” Annette said in a testy voice. “Your strength is half the reason we’ve been able to specialize in pre-charged components. Before you we had nothing going for us but ginseng.”

  June shrugged. Coven specialization wasn’t her concern right now. “Will you let me know when the board is going to meet so we can argue our case?”

  “There’s no reason to postpone. Everyone knows what’s going on,” Pete said. “Let’s set the table for later today. Five-fifteen at the tea room?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  It would have to do. Now she needed to prepare a speech for the coven meeting that would knock everyone’s conventional socks off.

  If the Millington pack could buck tradition, so could its coven.

  A large weight bounced on the end of June’s bed, waking her from the light slumber she’d fallen into after a bleary trip to the restroom. Aches and pains had stiffened her limbs during her rest. The bright blast of light when she opened her eyes stabbed her in the brain. She threw the blankets over her head and groaned.

  “Harry,” she warned, “I told you I draw the line at a wolf in the bed.”

  “That’s too bad.” The weight shifted above her, pinning her under the blankets. “Have I mentioned your couch sucks?”

  He wriggled the covers past her chin. While she was relieved to see his human face peering down at her, she couldn’t drag her arms free to rub her eyes. “If you shed all over my new sofa, there’s a lint roller in the second drawer in the kitchen.”

  “Werewolves don’t really shed, thank you very much.” He kissed her nose, his bare shoulders flexing. “How long are you going to sleep? I’m starving.”

  “Are you serious?” She bumped her knees, jouncing him in the behind. He had on boxers, nothing else. “You’ve been in my house a million times and suddenly you can’t feed yourself lunch?”

  “Dinner,” he corrected cheerfully. “It’s five in the afternoon.”

  “What?” June tried to sit up but he was too heavy. “Harry, get up, quit fooling around. We have to go. The coven is scheduled to meet at five-fifteen. We haven’t discussed anything. Planned what to say. This is a disaster.”

  “Yesterday was the disaster.” He propped himself on his elbows and adjusted his lower half atop her more comfortably. “Today is tomorrow.”

  Her stomach lurched. She’d slept for thirty hours? It could happen when a witch overextended herself, but what terrible timing! “Oh my gosh, they already met? Why didn’t you wake me? I didn’t have a chance to get my speech ready and talk to them and—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “I took care of it.”

  “You?” She stopped wriggling to gaze at him in amazement.

  “Don’t look so surprised.” His golden-brown eyes twinkled. “I can be pretty convincing when I put my mind to it.”

  A pack alpha wouldn’t hesitate to mold the reactions of people around him. Douglas Householder, who’d seemed like a nice guy, had done it to two car crash victims merely because they wanted to wait for the cops and he didn’t agree.

  The coven wouldn’t respond like a pack afterward, though. They wouldn’t take it in stride, part and parcel of the pack experience. They would neutralize anyone who tried to steer them quicker than a cat would pounce on a bug.

  Sur
ely Harry hadn’t pulled a stunt like that.

  “Don’t tell me,” June said, “that you pressured them as an alpha.”

  He grinned, dimples creasing his cheeks. “Okay, I won’t tell you that.”

  She loved his dimples, loved the way he smiled at her when he was being naughty. Loved the way he was smiling down at her, loved that he was in her bed, loved how her body was responding even though they needed to have an important discussion about their future.

  Loved him.

  None of which addressed the matter at hand.

  “But did you?” she asked. “Did you lean on them through the bond?”

  “Relax.” He inched the blankets down until her neck and chest were free. “There was no need.”

  “Why not?” He clearly had his memories, but that wasn’t the whole story. What had happened?

  “I don’t think they had any intention of erasing my memories. They wanted to intimidate me.” He kissed her temple, her cheek and her lips. “I have to subject myself to humiliating magical experiments, though. And I’m not allowed to order anybody around.”

  “What does this mean?” She didn’t add “for us” because it seemed presumptuous.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “Should we talk about it?” They’d been friends for years, but they’d only been like this a few days. Sure, she’d told him she loved him when she thought they might never see each other again, but he hadn’t said it back.

  He didn’t say it now, either. Instead of answering, he kissed her, his tongue as sweet as pie and ice cream. June responded with enthusiasm, though she’d rather affirm their relationship verbally than physically.

  First, anyway. The physical part could come soon after.

  He nuzzled her throat, his lips on the pulse. His tongue flicked out to taste her, and June squirmed beneath him.

  She meant to distract him, but her movement rubbed their hips together in a way that left no doubt in her mind where his thoughts had strayed. If they’d strayed. He might have intended to have sex with her from the moment he’d woken her up.