Norm sidled up to Smokey, laughing. “Fooled ya!”
Frowning, Smokey tore his gaze from Theo, glaring at Norm. “You tricked me?”
“Did it work?”
“Fucker!” Smokey muttered under his breath.
“Hey…look at it as a reward for doing a great job with the boys.”
Smokey paused for a moment, then grinned. “I did do a great job, didn’t I?”
“I couldn’t have done better,” Norm said, giving Smokey’s ass a slap before heading over to Theo.
“Hey!” Smokey yelled, trotting after Norm. “Did anyone ever tell you payback’s a bitch?”
Swirling around Norm smirked at Smokey. “Oh yeah? Bring it on, Golden Sun! I’ll be waiting.”
Shaking his head, Smokey chuckled to himself, thinking about all the pranks he’d pulled on Ghost and Glenn. And now he had a mate who liked to play also—life couldn’t be more perfect than that.
~/~/~/~/~
Hanging up after Heath explained what he’d found out about Rudy, Reeve paused for a moment, trying to keep his anger under control. But his animal was having none of it. Rage surged through Reeve and, unable to remain sitting, he rose so abruptly his chair fell over. Clenching his fists, he could feel his body vibrating with the need to kill, anticipating the taste of his enemies’ blood on his tongue. Only then would his animal be mollified.
Finally forcing his body to move, Reeve walked woodenly over to the window, staring out at the Silver Point pack members lining up for food. Any one of them could be plotting to kill his mate, just so that motherfucker, Rudy, could claim the right to be the pack’s Alpha. Turning away, he closed his eyes, realizing everything had just turned to shit and he was further than ever from being able to claim his mate.
Cursing, Reeve’s rage finally exploded with the violence his animal demanded. Punching the wall, he did it again and again, wanting and needing pain to distract himself from facing the new dilemma that had suddenly complicated his life. Finally, with blood trickling down his throbbing hand, he stopped, staring at a large hole he’d left in the wall. Sighing, he picked up his chair and sat down. It was just another thing he had to add to his fix-it list, but for the time being, the damage to the wall would remain, reminding him not to take anything for granted concerning Josiah or Rudy.
Disregarding his first instinct to hunt down and kill Rudy, Reeve opened his computer and started writing out new orders for his men. No one could leave, not until he was certain they were not an ally of either Josiah or Rudy. And that would mean he’d need more resources to conduct interrogations, starting withthe Silver Point’s enforcers. But that wasn’t the only problem. Drafting an email to his boss, he explained the situation and then asked for more funds to help feed the pack’s children and their parents.
After sending it, Reeve leaned back in his chair, knowing the Council wasn’t going to be happy with what was in his email, but corruption ran deep in Silver Point Pack—far deeper than he’d been led to believe when he first accepted the job. His boss had assured him it would be a piece of cake since the Council didn’t believe Jackson’s complaint. But it soon became evident they’d got it wrong. After months of investigation—and Willow’s sworn statement validating the other eyewitness’ account of the massacre—Reeve was ordered to arrest Josiah and Rudy.
That job was supposed to be easy since the Council was now satisfied Josiah was guilty of the crimes Jackson had accused him of. Rubbing his chin, Reeve thought about how wrong the Council had been about the “routine” arrest; everything began to unravel from the moment he arrived and found Josiah missing. From there, it had gone from bad to worse; the only good thing about it being the discovery of his mate. But the recent news from Heath had cast a shadow on even that.
Pensive, Reeve held his injured hand up, turning it slightly as he watched it heal. It was a blessing that it was impossible to cause any real harm to his body and he owed that to his extraordinary animal. Taking one last look, he dropped his now scar-free hand, returning his attention to sorting out the problems of the Silver Point Pack.
~/~/~/~/~
While Theo was setting out the food for their picnic, Smokey helped Norm capture and dress the three wolf pups. It wasmuch easier this time but he still was only able to dress Jake while Norm handled the other two. Once everyone was seated, Theo started handing out sandwiches, starting with Daniel—which promptly caught Smokey’s attention. It appeared his mate already knew who was Alpha of the puppy pack even if he hadn’t admitted it.
Smokey’s nose twitched at the scent of roast beef. Unwrapping a sandwich Theo handed him, he was delighted to find it made just the way he liked it. Eagerly biting into it, he couldn’t help moaning with pleasure as the taste of the rare roast beef flooded his mouth.
Chuckling, Norm looked over at Smokey. “Does that moan mean it gave you an…”
Afraid of how Norm was going to finish his comment, Smokey quickly interrupted him. “Giving a compliment to the chef…that’s all.”
Raising his eyebrow, Norm smirked at his mate’s red cheeks, before answering, “I was only going to say ‘an out-of-body experience,’ cause every time I eat Theo’s cooking, it does that to me.”
Smokey grunted at Norm’s bullshit but didn’t answer, instead returning to his delicious sandwich. After downing two more, he carefully licked each of his fingers to ferret out every remaining taste of beef. Looking over at Theo, he grinned. “That’s the best surprise ever!”
“I’m glad you enjoyed them,” Theo said, smiling, as he passed a cookie to Galen.
Taking his dragon cookie, Galen asked, “Can I go now?”
“Me, too!” Eamon yelled jumping up and down, clutching his bear cookie.
Theo looked around, before pointing to a huge tree that had fallen not too far from where they were. It would make a perfect jungle gym for the kids to climb on. “Yes, but you guys can’t go further than that tree,” he said, before handing out the rest of the cookies. “Andnoshifting.”
Smiling, Theo watched the kids for a few moments as they ran to the tree, before turning back to his mate. “That wasn’t your surprise.” Digging down through the food remaining in the basket, Theo pulled out a plastic container and passed it to Smokey. “Here…Dakota found the recipe and Sofia helped me make them.”
