“Do you need help?” Ivy asks her.
“That would be great, hon. Thanks.”
“Wait, you sell your baked goods?” Evan asks. We’ve both noticed the endless cookies, crescents, and other delicious treats rolling through the kitchen, but I didn’t realize she made them for profit.
Ivy beams at her mom. “Mom has contracts with three shifter restaurants. It’s why she gets up so early. She likes to bake while the rest of us are still sleeping.”
“It’s the only way I can guarantee you’ll stay out of them,” Jasmine teases.
“And what do you do?” I ask Rowen.
“Design websites. Nothing too exciting.”
Jasmine pipes in immediately. “Hey, don’t say it like that. You bring in a lot of money for us, and you know we appreciate it.”
“Yeah. Whatever.” He snags a biscuit from the plate and waves at us before heading upstairs. “See you later.”
I watch him go, feeling a pang of sympathy for the guy. Pack life definitely comes with a lot of sacrifice. A constant need to put the whole over your own needs. But it makes me wonder, what would Rowen do otherwise? What’s his dream?
“What does everyone else do?” Evan asks.
“Neal runs a finance company. Taren divides her time between helping me and raising Aster. Ivy is a waitress. Red, as I’m sure you can guess, is a healer. And Sage and Grant co-own a handyman business. Forest helps with that sometimes too.”
“That’s awesome, though,” Evan says. “I’ve wondered. I mean, with a place this size, you probably all pitch in to pay the bills.”
Forest takes a sip of his drink. “It’s the shifter way.”
“You haven’t been missing work because of us, have you?” I ask.
A few people look away, and Neal clears his throat. “Some of us are… choosing to stay closer to home for now.”
Forest agrees. “But don’t worry. We’re a healthy pack, Jericho. We’ve worked hard to build this place. We’ll be okay.”
Will they though? Will they truly be okay if they keep skipping work to do extra patrols? And the only reason they have to do them is because of me. Sure, they can say it’s because they lost Sasha, but everyone knowsI’mthe one Foxx wants. And Foxx knows I’m here now, so it’s only a matter of time before he comes back.
Anger ripples through me. Foxx can’t take all this away from them. I won’t have it. He can’t ruin their lives just like he ruined mine.
I bump Evan’s leg. “I’ll meet you outside.”
On the field, I suck in a breath of the cold air, letting it clear my mind. Looking down, I ignite a ball of fire between my fingers, rolling it as if it were a marble. The process is almost as easy as breathing now, something I hardly need to think about. But controlling the size is still a challenge. Most of the time the fireballs are barely larger than this. I’ve only been able to produce something closer to a baseball twice.
But Evan keeps reminding me, with good aim, even something as small as a marble can kill a vampire.
Reaching into the bucket of empty beer and soda cans, I grab a few and walk to the edge of the clearing to line them up. Then I return to my regular starting point and take aim. With one clear swing, I knock over the first can but miss the second. Cursing, I try again and miss that one too.
What’s blocking me? Why can’t I do better? I need tofocus.
Literally everything has come to this. My gift. It’s the reason Foxx has been chasing me, why he’s been trying to get me in his coven. Hewants to use me… make mekillothers, just like Rip, Breck, and all the others have done.
He’s proven how far he’s willing to go for it by bringing Evelyn into it.
The front door opens and Evan walks out, followed by Grant. The older beta takes a seat on the porch swing with a mug of coffee in one hand.
Evan heads toward the van, saying in a raised voice, “I’m going to grab my coat.” He must have forgotten I can hear him.
As he walks to the van, something catches my eye in the distance. A shadow in the trees, but it’s gone just as quickly as it appeared.
My heart jumps to my throat. Is it Foxx? Is he here?
