Landon shook his head.
“I don’t see anything, but like... I mean, would a pack like that really leave a paper trail if they were on the move?”
I sighed. “Unlikely. But . . . thanks. This helps.”
At least we had some idea of what they might want. If I could throw money at this problem to make it go away?—
Well, it wasn’t quite that easy, after what Reeve had done to Cash.
“Would you mind keeping an eye out? If anything changes—” Seth started.
“I’ll let you know.”
By the time I made it back to my office, a heavy exhaustion settled over my shoulders. I should have checked in with Dakota, but looking at my phone, I didn’t have any messages from him.
Maybe they were still busy. I had to believe no news was good news, but a cowardly part of me didn’t want to find out if it weren’t.
I dropped into my office chair when my secretary, Briton, knocked on the door.
“Hey... do you want me to do something with this?” They hefted up a big basket stuffed with all kinds of goodies. I thought I smelled summer sausage in there, and wondered how much they’d judge me for unwrapping the whole thing and just gnawing on it until I felt better.
“The high fae sent it.” Briton plucked at the ribbon that’d tied the cellophane closed, and turned over a little card attached. “The card says congratulations. Maybe they heard you’d taken a mate?”
Or maybe they heard we had a witchwolf in the pack now and wanted to strike some kind of deal.
Either way, I wasn’t up for navigating fae rules, even for summer sausage.
I shook my head, tipping it toward a side table. “Just leave it over there for now. I’ll figure out if they need something?—”
Tomorrow.
Yeah, everything would be better tomorrow.
10
Dakota
The back of my neck kept itching, crawling, like there were ants on me, or someone was watching me from a distance, and it was freaking me the hell out. The feeling made it harder to pay attention to what Prudence was doing, but I tried my best to force my attention to where it belonged.
Healing. I needed to learn healing, so next time I could jump straight to that, instead of having to wait for someone else to help.
The werewolves kept coming and going, though, which wasn’t helping my attention. Every time someone walked into the room, I felt like I needed to be on guard for a second, until I figured out who it was. But it was always a pack member, because there was no one in the house who wasn’t pack, unless I was counting Prudence.
Since I trusted Prudence as much as my pack, I shouldn’t be so on edge.
The other wolves, I realized, were even worse off than I was. They were pacing in and out of the room because they had nothing else they could do, unlike me, trying to learn something.
Maia was leaning over the bed, inspecting Cash’s wounds, when her nostrils flared, and I finally realized the biggest issue:the scent of blood. We could all smell blood in what was supposed to be a safe place for the pack. It was unsettling on a primal level.
“Beasts,” the annoying voice from before reiterated. “Beasts rely on their sense of smell to tell them when they’re in danger. They can’t control themselves.”
I scrunched my nose in annoyance and looked around again, but there was no one else in the room, just me, Prudence, Maia, and the unconscious Cash. Surely he hadn’t said it.
There was a scoff at that. “Of course not. He’s just another beast, and a weak one at that.”
That seemed to come from right behind me, and when I spun around, there he was. I hadn’t heard him come in, or ever seen him before in my life, but he was definitely a member of my family. He was a beautiful Japanese man, probably in his twenties, but the beauty was marred by the sneer on his face as he looked down on Cash.
“What use is a beast who can’t even defend himself?”
