by Stormie Kent
Until he heard the giggles.
Nic and Leila pulled away from each other at the same time and turned to the porch railing. Five pair of eyes peered at them through the wooden slats.
“We have spies.” Leila’s voice was pitched dramatically low.
“Short spies.”
The giggling started again.
Leila put her forefinger against her chin. “You want to know what we do with spies where I’m from?”
He held in a smile. “No, what?”
“We tickle them!” She ran down the steps, and the kids screamed and ran, laughing as they went.
Nic followed slowly. Leila grabbed up a little girl named Shay and cradled her as she tickled her with her other hand. The girl wiggled and laughed in Leila’s arms, and Nic knew if there was any part of his heart that hadn’t belonged to his mate, she’d just snatched it. The other children milled around her, jumping up and down and demanding to be next.
She put Shay down, picked up another child, and tickled him too. Kids started coming out of the woodwork, and Nic was scared for a moment she would be swallowed up.
He walked over to the ever-growing crowd of kids. “You know what we do with spies around here?”
All the kids froze at his stern tone.
Nic picked up Jake’s nephew. “This!” He tossed him in the air and caught him to the boy’s squeal of delight.
The kids went wild, and Nic growled and chased them around the Yard. The smaller ones hid behind Leila, including a cutie of about three who sort of clawed his way up her clothes until she picked him up and held him on her hip. The next time Nic glanced at Leila, she had two toddlers, one in each arm, and she was watching him. The look in her eyes made him stand taller and puff his chest out. He smiled at her, and she grinned.
He couldn’t help strolling over to her and hugging her, kids and all. He kissed her, and the giggling started all over again. He waggled his eyebrows at her and went back to chasing kids around the Yard for a bit longer. Finally he called a halt. He had to use his strictest voice to cut through the chorus of disappointment. Mothers appeared from the sidelines and gathered their children. It seemed they hadn’t wanted to interfere, but it was lunchtime.
He took Leila by the hand and walked back to the house. Going inside, he sat on the sofa and dragged her down onto his lap. It felt amazing to have his arms around her.
Leila kissed his cheek. “Can we go out to lunch? I want to get your partner a gift for his new baby.”
He happily cuddled her closer. “Sure, we can do that. Hank and Amy should be just about ready for visitors. It will be our job as the alpha pair to visit newborn pack members.”
“Nic, how can you continue being a detective and the alpha? I’ve seen the schedule Jake brought over. Your time seems to belong to the pack.”
Nic didn’t really want to face the change. His time did belong to the pack. He was now the new CEO of all the pack-run businesses and members would need access to him at all hours. His old career was as good as gone.
At the moment, he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. If they had succeeded in leaving the area, he would have needed to leave the force as well. He had enjoyed being a detective, but he knew the pack needed him now. He hadn’t realized just how many able-bodied wolves they had lost because of human mates.
Nic rested his face against Leila’s neck. Her scent soothed him. This was why it wasn’t right for the packs to separate mates. He would literally kill to keep Leila and to keep her safe. How many other wolves felt the same way? All banishment and separation had done was cripple the pack and sow discord and resentment in the families left behind.
Nic would do anything for his mate, including finding and killing a sorcerer. “Findor Stevens still has to be investigated.” He didn’t want her anywhere near the sorcerer. “You should stay with my mother.”
“We barely escaped together the last time. We both need to do this.”
“I couldn’t take it if you were hurt again.”
Her soft hands framed his face. She seemed to search his eyes for a moment. “We are a team, Nic. Where you go, I go. “
“I need to know you’re safe.” This was too important to let her have her way.
“I will be safe with you. This guy is a sorcerer. He manipulates magic. I can help when we find him. You don’t know enough about using magic yet.”
“Leila.” What could he say to make her understand?
“Let me put it to you like this.” Her voice was so sweet he immediately went on alert. “To leave me behind, you’ll have to bind me or knock me out. Neither of which I would advise. You could trick me and go alone, yet I doubt very much if that is the type of precedent you want to set for our relationship. We all know what’s good for the witch is good for the wolf.” She caressed him under his chin with her index finger.
She’d challenged him so sweetly, and his wolf’s amusement irritated the man in him. His wolf just thought she was the most wonderful thing he’d ever met, and he wanted to bat at her and invite her to play. Nic tried to remind the wolf that their mate was in danger, but she’d utterly charmed his animal. The wolf admired her strength. He remembered how she’d taken down Lewis, and Manuel’s mate.
“Wear something you can move in if we get in a tight spot.” He would simply have to be extra vigilant. Nothing could happen to her. He wouldn’t allow it.
Her smile almost blinded him. Her kiss was quick before she bounded from his lap and headed to their room. “Isn’t it fortunate I bought a super-witch outfit at the mall?”
He shook his head as he stared after her.
* * * *
Leila’s super-witch outfit was distracting. It kept Nic’s focus completely on her all through lunch at a small Italian restaurant near the mall. Her black shirt was a vamped-up version of an old sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off. The material was soft, thin, and molded to her breasts in a very nice way. She wore the shirt so one shoulder was bare, showcasing the electric-blue bra strap she had on underneath. Her black jeans hugged her body so well he almost felt jealous. No heels graced her feet today, only a pair of sleek black high-top leather sneakers.
“Thank goodness there is a breeze today, or I would burn up in all this black.” She pushed a pair of sunglasses on her nose. “I’m dressed to break in to or out of Stevens’s home.”
His eye twitched. “That isn’t funny.”
“Wasn’t meant to be. He needs to be caught, Nic.”
She’d lost her friend and almost lost her life. Understandably, she wanted this guy captured. He admired her strength. He just wished it weren’t necessary. His cell phone rang, and answering it kept him from saying something stupid.
“Alpha, we have a situation.” Devin’s voice sounded more confused than worried. “There are over twenty shifters here at the pack border. Some have family in the pack, but more than half don’t.”
“Hostile?”
“No, Alpha. But some of them smell…different.”
Nic gazed across the table at Leila. Did Devin mean how Leila smelled like wolf but slightly different? Her brown eyes were wide in her face. “We’ll be there in twenty. Call Jake in. Stay watchful, not aggressive.”
He tossed money on the table and stood as he hung up. Leila didn’t miss a beat, gathering her shopping bags and the gift she’d purchased for his partner’s pup.
“It feels a bit funny eavesdropping on your conversation like that. I wonder what they want.”
“The benefits of shifter hearing. I don’t know why we have so many uninvited visitors. Your debut as a cat burglar will have to wait until another time.”
She cut her eyes at him, and his wolf grinned. “I just said I was ready if I had to break in, not that I was going to.”
Nic pulled her to his side, and she immediately relaxed into him. They made good time back to pack lands. There was a line of empty cars along the road. As they got closer, he could see a group of silent people standing in front of Jake, Devin, and the
guard at their back. He had to admit they looked impressive. Manuel had never been slack on discipline.
Nic pulled up slowly and cut the engine.
“There are children, Nic.”
He could see them. He could also see they were unnaturally still and quiet. “Let me do the talking, Leila.”
She made a noncommittal noise.
“Leila.”
In reply she opened her door. He growled low in his throat. He exited the vehicle and rounded it quickly. He anchored her to his side by placing an arm around her waist.
He surveyed the crowd and then turned to Jake. “What’s happening here?”
Jake’s expression didn’t change. “These are all prospective petitioners to Coldwell Pack membership, Alpha.”
Nic kept his expression neutral, but it was a near thing. He squeezed his arm around Leila as she began to fidget. He glanced at the petitioners. There were a few humans sprinkled in the group. Directly in the front was a grim-faced male shifter. His posture gave the impression of him being more dominant than the others. He wasn’t challenging, but Nic knew he would be dangerous if his group was threatened.
Slowly, Nic allowed his natural dominance to seep out. He usually caged it, but he didn’t know these people. Leila exhaled forcefully next to him, and one of her claws scraped his back. He’d forgotten how strongly her wolf reacted to his alpha aura.
Nic stared at the dominant shifter with the somber expression. “What’s your name?”
“Michael, Alpha.”
“What brings you here, Michael?”
The man’s jaw tightened for a moment. He glanced up but didn’t quite meet Nic’s eyes. Good. “We heard shifters mated to nonshifters or shifters who were different might not be immediately turned away in Coldwell.”
Nic hadn’t been alpha for seventy-two hours yet. “Where are you from?”
“Savannah. There are shifters, families here from as far away as Austin.”
Damn. They must have thrown their lives and families in the car and driven here as soon as they heard he wouldn’t turn away nonshifter mates. The children were the worst. Their fear was learned. Shifter children should feel safe around dominants, not cowed. These children looked as if they expected to be kicked. Nic automatically looked down at Leila as he felt her face turn up to him. Everything she wanted was in her eyes. It wasn’t safe to guarantee her he could keep them all, but he wouldn’t turn them away today.
He wasn’t surprised when he felt his mother come to his other side. A crowd had formed behind the pack soldiers, and he’d scented his mother before he’d seen her.
“This is my mate and my mother. Families and unmated females may follow them. Unmated males will follow my third.” Devin stepped forward. “The Coldwell Pack has an application process like any other. If you meet the requirements and pass the interview and background checks, we will welcome you.”
Nic glanced at Leila, who was even now helping a young mother with two small children. His mother would guide her as they tried to find placement for all the applicants. They had some empty cabins, and if necessary, they could ask for volunteers from the pack to act as hosts.
The petitioners were led toward the center of pack lands, where the houses surrounded the Yard. Nic waited until they were out of earshot before turning to Jake. His second was the only person left on the road.
“I suppose you think I should have turned them away.”
Jake stared off into the trees. “We know when shifters mate with humans, the pups are born shifters. It always seemed to me that shoving out human mates weakened the future martial force of a pack.”
Nic sighed. “I didn’t know it was that bad out there.” He’d assumed they’d been absorbed into another pack or learned to make it in human society.
Jake was quiet for a moment. “Did you see the pups?”
Yeah. “We may have to purchase more land.”
“If we continue to grow by more than twenty shifters each time, you’ll be alpha of the biggest pack in North America by the end of the year. I’ll look into the land. We’ll need to change the design of the homes and defenses.”
“We’ll have to be extra vigilant with training. Every man and woman has to be prepared for attack. After I catch this crazy, I’ll quit the force and be here full-time.”
“Very good, Alpha.”
* * * *
Leila wrapped her arms around Ana Lobo as they stood in the center of the Yard going over the temporary living arrangements for the petitioners. She kissed Ana’s cheek. The older woman looked down at her, startled pleasure clear on her face.
“What was that for?”
“I would have never made it through the last few hours without you.” Leila hadn’t known enough about the pack or the protocol to safely house all the membership applicants.
Nic had come through the chaos of placing scared but hopeful families with pack members and told her he needed to head to the precinct. She hadn’t let him go until he’d promised not to head after Findor Stevens without her. He was so protective, but something inside her warned her he needed her help to defeat the sorcerer.
Just as something warned her she was being watched, and not by anyone who wished her well. Tingling along her spine pulled her attention from talking with one of Ana’s friends, and she automatically sniffed the air. Wolf weirdness aside, she didn’t smell the sorcerer’s scent she’d noticed at her apartment after it had been trashed.
The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood up.
Taking a moment to reach for the wolf inside her, she didn’t argue as her wolf confirmed the impression.
“Leila?”
She turned back to Ana and her friend Harriet. Harriet was overjoyed to have her son and his pregnant mate home.
Ana said, “What do you think about a potluck tonight until we can get everyone to the grocery tomorrow?”
“That seems like a great idea.” Leila didn’t even blink when Ana asked her to inform Nic of the time. It seemed they wouldn’t eat in a large gathering like the one they planned without him. There were so many shifter traditions she needed to learn.
Leaving the planning in Ana’s hands, Leila went back to the alpha residence to make some calls. Her first call was to her uncle.
“Leila, I haven’t received any responses from the other men’s historians.”
Probably because they all felt they had something to hide. “Uncle Kofi, what set the sorcerers apart? How were they eventually classified as sorcerers in the first place?”
“Oh, it’s usually never just one thing. By the time rogue wizards and witches are categorized as a sorcerer or sorceress, they have already broken many of the rules, either publicly or in private. That’s usually tough to prove unless you stumble upon their workroom where they sacrifice and perform forbidden magic. There is always a magical stench. An imprint, if you will, left behind in that place, of the most concentrated evil.”
“So in theory, any number of witches and wizards could be practicing forbidden magic, and we wouldn’t know unless we stumbled upon the place they worked the magic or they began to act out publicly in malicious ways?” She couldn’t imagine the reprehensible behaviors the Council’s current attitude let slide.
“Yes.”
“What about Kano, Lewis, and Stevens? How were they discovered?”
Uncle Kofi sighed. “Evidence was found to suggest they had each sacrificed a magical being to gain its power.”
Shock held her immobile for a moment. “What was the punishment?”
“They were removed from the Council roster and ostracized.”
“That’s it?” They’d left monsters to roam free and unattended.
“I’m afraid so.”
“Oh, Uncle Kofi.”
“I know, Leila. I know.”
Leila wandered onto the back porch after hanging up with her uncle. She’d planned to get some work done on a design for Barclay, Inc. Unfortunately, her concentration was shot to hell. How
many beings had died while the Council had stood idly by and allowed it to happen?
She took a seat on the porch swing and used one foot to push it back and forth as she stared off into the woods. Nic was so right about the Council. They had a responsibility to police their people. Who was going to do it for them? The humans? They were overrun with their own criminals.
Amber caught her attention in the trees. Eyes, wolf eyes. She didn’t stop the swing, but her wolf pushed close to the surface. She was getting used to the new wildness inside her.
Her voyeur could have been out for a walk and simply happened to see her sitting on the porch. She wouldn’t put money on it. Someone was watching her again, and they didn’t mean her well; the wolf inside her was sure of it. So she had at least one wolf who was an enemy. A wolf who’d decided she was threatening enough to be under surveillance. Why?
She couldn’t pick up a scent over all the other new smells she’d had to get used to as a shifter. The eyes disappeared, but Leila wasn’t foolish enough to think they’d left. She just kept pushing herself on the swing. She wouldn’t walk into the woods like a dumb-ass. There could be more than one wolf out there. She also wouldn’t run. This was her mate’s porch, and she had every right to be there. Screw ’em.
She made herself sit there ten more minutes. Then she gave her watcher a salute and smile before she went back into the house.
Chapter Nine
Leila allowed her surroundings to calm her. Lowen Park was quiet in the early morning hours. Leila walked in a diamond formation with Nic in the lead and Jake behind her. Devin guarded her on the right, and Rico, Nic’s fourth, protected her to the left. The pavilion she’d reserved was near the lake and not the children’s playgrounds or sports fields. It was so quiet they could almost have been alone in the world.
She’d tried to express to the men, loudly, that she didn’t need the extravagant escort against her people. She’d been largely ignored as she stared into four pairs of hard eyes. It had taken Ana to explain that they were essentially going to meet the enemy, and she would be protected and shown full honor as an alpha female. And if a witch or wizard were to make a move against them, she could be shielded and quickly taken to safety.
