But now I was the Alpha. And, after a moment, Willa bowed her head then ushered away the rest of our pack mates.
Which left me alone with the Samhain Shifters. Slowly, the sounds of crickets rose back around us. Slowly, I forced my head sideways to bare my neck.
Total submission on Whelan land wasn’t the gesture of an Alpha, but I was prepared to do whatever it took to protect my pack mates. Keeping my voice low, I spoke the words that matched my bodily show of weakness.
“I humbly apologize for the misunderstanding. Athena will be released immediately. Caitlyn will lead you there.”
Because the teenager had circled back around to wait in the shadows. At the sound of her name, she stepped out, appearing bolder than I would have been at her age when facing down so many dominant wolves.
She even had the gumption to remind me of the point I’d forgotten. “I can’t open the holding cell without the code.”
A secret that only Willa and I were privy to. A code that unlocked not only the holding cells but everyone’s personal quarters and our emergency arsenal as well.
And...I trusted Caitlyn with that secret. So I recited numbers silently even as I eyed the Samhain Shifters. Tank appeared placated, Ryder was smirking, but Lupe’s face remained stony.
“You and I have matters to discuss,” the leader of the Samhain Shifters observed.
“And we will,” I promised. “As soon as I check on the safety of my pack mates.” And made sure Kale was okay. And set a force fire into motion.
For a long moment, the air turned electric between us. Then Lupe turned on her heel and stalked off.
Chapter 21
I caught up with Rune and Kale halfway between where I’d left them and the mansion. I’d been concerned that a twelve-year-old human would be scarred by being charmed and kidnapped then taken halfway to Faery. Instead, Kale appeared to be as engrossed as his mother often got as he read off his cell phone.
“Force fire,” Kale noted as Rune grabbed a branch and twisted it out of the way to prevent the end from slapping them both in the face, “is started by friction.”
“That sounds simple,” I said, stepping out to join them. Less simple was the way Kale’s gaze skittered away from mine. Less simple was the fact that Rune was a Samhain Shifter and my pack had recently engaged in a battle with his comrades.
The latter cocked his head, and it was almost as if he understood what I was thinking. “I know they’re here and I trust you,” he murmured before adding: “The force fire isn’t as simple as it sounds. Kale’s picture shows a fifteen-foot tree trunk carved to a point and upended, twisted back and forth by half a dozen men.”
A gruff female voice wound toward us out of the darkness. “Don’t tell me. You want me to set that up also.”
The air turned electric. Rune placed himself between Kale and Willa as the latter stepped forward at her usual locomotive’s pace. Soft human hairs raised along the back of Rune’s neck as his fingers fell to his sword.
The protective instinct was unnecessary but unsurprising. After all, my temporary Beta wasn’t just being her usual terse self. This time, she was furious.
And for very good reason. Within the last few hours, I’d failed to inform her about Athena, had sent her away while dealing with the fall-out from that oversight, and now I was spending time with non-pack-mates rather than handling what she must think was the more pressing danger to the pack.
Still, I had no time to hash out our differences. Nor the will to do so when someone within the pack was still affiliated with the fae.
Instead, I pulled upon alpha arrogance. “Good guess. While you’re at it, send Consort paperwork to...?”
I raised my eyebrows and Rune rattled off an email address. Willa’s nostrils flared, but she bowed her head over her cell phone and entered the recited data. Then she pocketed the device and bit out a reply.
“I will complete these tasks immediately, Alpha.” Air whispered between us, then she was gone.
Now I had something else to fix—the nose I’d set out of joint with my actions. First, though, three moderately irate dominants waited. The lights of pack central blazed through the forest before us. Duty called, and yet...
Willa might be momentarily appeased by alpha growls, but Kale wouldn’t be. I fell down into a crouch so I was peering up at him rather than towering above him. “I need to apologize to you, Kale.”
Unfortunately, the kid cut me off before I could elaborate. “I was so mad at you today.”
“Of course you were.” My eyes fell to the leaf litter. I’d blown it. The sweet non-pack bond between us had shattered.
“But it wasn’t real.” Then the kid was kneeling and hugging me. Never mind that he was human with entirely different views on nakedness and modesty. Never mind that he’d turned far less touchy-feely during the last year.
“Not real?” I murmured.
His head shook against my shoulder. His words were muffled when he continued. “I was kneeling down, sniffing a flower, then it felt like a cloud fell on my head. I was furious...but that feeling wasn’t really me.”
Rather than answering, I breathed him in. Soap and child. Love and innocence. Okay, maybe I got the point of inhaling scent off the top of children’s heads.
“Thank you, Kale,” I told him finally. Then, trying to focus on the bigger issue even though our reunion felt like the biggest thing possible, “Was there glitter on the flower?”
Kale shrugged. “I don’t remember.”
His voice quavered, and I wanted more than anything to stay there. Or, rather, to take Kale to the kitchen and turn up the music and dance while baking his favorite out-of-a-box brownies. We’d throw in bonus chocolate chips and sing along even if we didn’t know the words.
But duty called. So I pushed Kale back far enough so I could make out his eyes. “Will you forgive me again if I send you away with Butch now so he can keep you safe?”
The kid nodded, spine straight. “Only if you promise to tell me everything later.”
“It’s a deal.”
And while we shook on the entirely un-fae-like bargain, I gazed over Kale’s head to ask Rune a silent question. Would he care for this child, even though I was leaving to speak with the Samhain Shifters?
Rune nodded. His hand fell to Kale’s shoulder, not restraint but protection. His loyalties, it appeared, remained with me and mine.
FIVE MINUTES LATER, I stopped just outside a doorway just like I had when watching Natalie perched amid her luggage. Also like then, the scene inside was so intense my presence wasn’t noticed at first.
The location, of course, was different. The antechamber outside the holding cells. And the emotion I witnessed wasn’t sadness but rather anger morphing into joy.
“Tank, calm down.” The unfamiliar woman—she had to be Athena—grabbed the scarred male’s wrists. “I’m fine. It was an honest misunderstanding.”
Tank’s dominance stunk up the room. His muscles flexed with the need to rip and tear something. But he didn’t. Instead, his forward momentum slowed and gentled. He bent forward until their foreheads touched.
Watching from the outside, something strange twisted in my belly. This was what I was setting aside in order to be Alpha. This perfect communion that turned an out-of-control wolf into a man wrapping his arms around his beloved.
“You’re not hurt?” he rumbled.
“I’m really fine.” Athena looked more than fine. She looked smug to have this shifter encasing her in his strength.
Smug and...aroused. The scent rolling off them had all the heat and sweetness of a bakery. I leaned closer, nostrils flaring, then Ryder broke the moment with his usual lack of tact.
“Nooky’s like candy,” he observed far more loudly than was really necessary. “If you don’t have enough for everybody, best keep it in your pocket.”
Tank growled. Athena laughed. And, remembering my priorities, I cleared my throat and stepped forward to join the dominants who had invaded my
pack.
“I already apologized to Lupe,” I told them, ignoring the way hairs raised along the back of my neck as their attention focused on me, “but I would like to add my personal regrets to Athena. I gave permission for you to be here. You shouldn’t have ended up in a cell and it won’t happen again.”
“You’re right, it won’t happen again.” Lupe was the one who pressed into my personal space, six inches closer than she should have come if she respected my status as pack leader. “You will also abide by Samhain Shifters’ right to hunt fae wherever we please.”
Her teeth were sharp. I’d apparently stepped over a line I didn’t know existed. Once I got a spare moment, I’d read up more on Samhain Shifters. But, shortly, the issue would be moot.
“My pack is dealing with the fae problem tonight,” I countered, holding my ground with an effort. “A force fire is being built. We’ll cleanse the glitter, cleanse the kidnapped child, cleanse every member of my pack.”
“A force fire.” Lupe’s brow wrinkled. “Never heard of it. This is a solution Butch suggested?”
“Something like that.” Turning to Athena, I continued. “My understanding is that you can tell if there are glamoured fae among us. Were you given sufficient time to complete your analysis?”
The non-dominant shook her head as best she could while pressed up against Tank’s chest. “It’s not quite that simple. If I meet everyone and stick around, I can tell if someone changes. But I can’t just pick fae out of a lineup.”
Well, that was unhelpful.
I only realized I’d made the complaint aloud when Tank growled: “It’s the best you’re getting.”
“I didn’t mean to suggest....” I started, but Lupe spoke over us both.
“We’ll break up into shifts,” she decided. “Ryder and I will take night watch then we’ll reconvene in the morning. Tank, you and Athena....”
“No,” I interrupted.
“No?” Lupe’s dominance fell over me like a weighted blanket. For a second, I couldn’t even breathe.
But even though the Guardian’s strength wasn’t there to be called upon, I was now an Alpha surrounded by her clan. I could pull from wolves in close proximity, taking just enough from each pack mate so my shoulders were able to straighten back up.
“No,” I repeated. “You’re not patrolling here tonight. As I said, we’re fixing the problem with a force fire. Tomorrow, you may come back and reassess.”
Lupe’s nostrils flared. She didn’t like me and I didn’t like her either. If this turned into a pissing contest, I wasn’t sure who would win.
But, for now, we had a common purpose. Rid the Whelan clan of fae. After a moment, Lupe nodded jerkily.
“Until tomorrow then.”
Chapter 22
It took an hour to get the force fire burning. A pair of thick ropes swiveled the upright tree trunk back and forth, like a giant version of rubbing two sticks together combined with a synchronized tug-of-war. The process was complicated and fiddly...and my pack mates fell upon it with pure joy. Long before the first smoke spiraled upward, laughter and ribbing warmed the clearing. I itched to try my hand.
Instead, I drifted around the periphery, spreading praise lightly. As with baking powder, too much would make the cake bitter. Just the right amount uplifted spirits and caused the entire pack to rise.
I drifted...then, then when the moment felt just right, I thrust the fragment of Faery into the fire. What had been subtly pretty in my hand ignited like a Fourth of July sparkler when it hit the smoldering logs. The combination spat more colors than I’d thought existed, and the pack’s awe at the resulting beauty was nothing compared to my relief that the force fire appeared to work.
Not everyone was enjoying themselves, however. Midway through my second pass, I noted Kale standing alone in the shadows. He was leaning against a tree trunk, trying once again for manly insouciance and failing miserably. I took a step forward to drag him into the revelry and Rune beat me to the punch.
“Stomachache?”
Kale straightened so fast he nearly fell over. “I was trying to look cool. Like your brother.”
It was obvious to me that there was no love lost between Rune and Erskine, but Rune didn’t remark upon that. Instead he suggested, “Perhaps it would be better to look cool like yourself?”
“I can’t.” Kale dragged one hand through his hair, raising spikes up higher. “I don’t have it.”
“Don’t have what?”
“A Y chromosome.”
I sucked in a breath, unable to believe that Kale had just come out to this man he’d known for fewer than twenty-four hours. After all, the kid still didn’t trust his best friends from school with the truth of his identity.
If Rune said the wrong thing, I’d tear his guts out. Tear them out and shove them back down his gullet along with a flaming torch from the bonfire....
“Do you think a Y chromosome is what makes a man?” Rune answered as easily as if Kale hadn’t revealed his deepest secret. “When you apologized to Tara and accepted her apology, that was being a man. Figuring out who you are and how you relate to the people around you is manly behavior. Leaning isn’t on the curriculum.”
The pack was carting glitter out of the storage room now. Clear vials filled with sparkles that turned the clearing into a galaxy of starlight as they met the force-fire’s glow.
Despite the beauty and the importance of the endeavor, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Rune and Kale. Neither was my pack mate, so why did this moment make my chest so joyously tight?
“Now,” Rune continued, “if you also want to look like my playboy brother, this is how you do it. Lean against the tree but keep your chin up. Bend one knee and rest your foot on the trunk behind you. Imagine you’re unbelievably bored.”
“Like this?” Kale’s posture was better but still ungainly. Colt-like.
“Impeccable.”
And the boy’s spine loosened. Suddenly he did look like a playboy, albeit a youthful one.
I swallowed down a mouthful of persimmon and turned back to face my clan.
“CAITLYN,” I CALLED, voice intentionally louder than it needed to be. Because sweetness, unfortunately, wasn’t the role of the Alpha. Doling out punishment was.
Punishment necessary for the good of the pack, even when it was undeserved.
Caitlyn scampered forward with puppy-like enthusiasm. She’d done exactly what I asked of her. She expected praise.
Instead, once she was close enough, I reached out and slapped her across the face.
“Alpha.” Caitlyn’s voice choked. Her neck tilted sideways, offering instant submission. I growled rather than accepting. Waited for every ounce of pleasure to deflate out of her body.
Only once the girl’s honest reaction had proven to the clan that she was no longer in my good graces did I mitigate the sting. Resting one hand on her shoulder, I sent soothing energy toward her at the same time I communicated along the pack bond. “You did well, Caitlyn. But I need you to remain my secret weapon.”
The fact that I could have warned her sat between us. No wonder she peered at me sideways. “I understand, Alpha.”
“Do you?”
Her scent grew determined. “Yes, Alpha. I’ll be like a shiv in an underwire bra.”
“You’re not old enough to need an underwire.” Now I was the one barely managing to keep my face straight.
“I’m old enough to be your shiv though.”
All around us, glitter reflected firelight off cheeks and irises. It seemed impossible to imagine that there was danger within my pack.
But the fae influence had not yet been eradicated. “I need you to watch again tonight,” I told her. “Every member of our clan should leap over the fire at least once. If anyone doesn’t, tell me.”
I itched to take her hand and drag her with me as I turned toward the fire. But I was Alpha—above and apart.
So I ran alone. Leapt alone. Alone felt the flames lick my calves, not qui
te hot enough to burn. Alone, howled joy at the jump.
Then, turning, to face my pack, I spurred them onward. “Who’s next?”
If the Alpha leapt, everyone wanted to leap. Some jumped lupine, some human. Those waiting formed a ring around the fire, curling in and out among the vials of glitter like a dragon slithering through its hoard.
This would cleanse my pack and the glitter. I could feel the force fire’s power. I smiled.
Then my old nurse was in front of me, gnarled but not so much that she couldn’t bear her chosen burden. Natalie’s baby was nearly invisible inside copious swaddling, but I knew exactly what was being held out to me when the old woman demanded: “Time for you to take Hazel across.”
SHE WAS RIGHT—THE BABY needed to cross the flames for her own safety. I wasn’t about to be the one to carry her, however.
I gulped. “Kale...”
“...Is dancing with his age mates. If I’m not much mistaken, Tiffany has a tiny crush.”
Turning to follow my nurse’s finger, I saw that she was right. Kale no longer lingered at the periphery. Instead, the leaning lesson must have worked because he was surrounded by a flock of tweens. It wasn’t fair to force him to be a big brother now.
And while I considered Kale, my nurse struck. The baby landed in my arms with a thud. I had to grab the child or she would have fallen. No wonder she immediately started to cry.
“What are you...?”
The nurse didn’t answer because she was no longer human. Her robe fell off easily as she shifted, then she was loping toward the bonfire. In lupine form, she’d have no trouble making the leap.
Unfortunately, in lupine form she couldn’t jiggle the baby back to silence. In fact, after touching back down, she joined the line of shifters dancing amid the glitter rather than turning back to collect her charge. I pinged her, requesting assistance, but my pleas were resoundingly ignored.
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