“That goes double for you.” I hesitated before withdrawing. “Send Goldie to me?”
The kid was tough, and she would want to pitch in, but I couldn’t rest until I set eyes on her myself.
“That can be arranged.” His warm smile coiled heat low in my belly. “I’ll check in soon.”
As we entered the house, a wave of awareness spread through the crowd as word trickled out. Parents gathered with their kids near the obstacle course under the watchful eyes of enforcers who fanned out in search of the stranger.
Afraid to let my mind wander, I focused on dumping the food and pouring out the drinks.
I was about to start tossing the fridge and freezer, just in case, when light footsteps pattered toward me with an urgency that had me setting down my trash bag. Goldie stepped up beside me, sawing her teeth over her already ragged bottom lip.
“The grownups are saying someone put something bad in the food and that the kids might get sick.” Her chin wobbled. “If that happens, the parents won’t let their kids come back, Ana. They’ll blame me if they get hurt, and I?—”
“This isn’t your fault.” I peeled off my gloves and propped my bag against the wall. “We don’t know for sure that anything happened, but we’re being careful. Just in case.” As soon as my legs were clear, she threw herself against them and held on untilmy toes tingled from lack of circulation. “No one is going to blame you, and if they try, Rían will fix it.”
“What if they don’t listen?” She crushed her eyes shut against tears. “What if…?”
“Then I’ll shift and bite them,” Sloane volunteered. “How about that?”
“Then they’ll worry their kids will get bitten if they come over.” A hiccup caught in her throat. “What do I do, Ana? I want them to like me.” She sniffled. “I don’t have a mom and a dad, but I have you and Rían. I wanted the other kids to see that I’m like them now. Then they might like me more.”
Her scribbled plans hadn’t been pay-to-play after all. Just play. Like any normal kid.
“It’s going to be okay.” I bent down to embrace her. “I promise.”
Moisture soaked into my jeans where she pressed her tears into the fabric, and I made up my mind right then and there I would do anything to put a smile back on her face. Tonight’s festivities had been ruined, but I would salvage this for her. Somehow.
“You can help me take attendance.” Fayne bustled into the kitchen with a sharp glance at the bags of wasted food. “There’s a greater risk of contamination in here than out there.” She rubbed Goldie’s back. “You would be doing me a big favor.”
“All right.”
Her sigh said it all, that she knew she was being ushered awayfor her own good, but she went.
How many times had I been told that growing up? Too many. I hated the phrase with a passion. Even when the words weren’t spoken, I heard them ring out loud and clear. So did she. We had that in common.
But Fayne was right that Goldie was safer outside than in. Had she touched a surface contaminated with dragonsbane, shewould have ended up in the emergency clinic alongside Becca. If we were lucky. Had it been ingested, she might not recover.
With so many other species in attendance, I wasn’t sure how soon to expect a reaction, or how severe it might be. The children were the biggest concern, but everyone had proven vulnerable to some extent. It was terrifying, and that fear motivated me as I pulled on fresh gloves and got back to cleaning.
Whether we found the stranger or not, I had big plans for tomorrow, and Rían wasn’t going to like them.
five
Rían didn’t come home.Neither did Goldie. Sloane and I had their house all to ourselves.
We took showers, washed our clothes, and I cooked dinner while she found us a movie.
Rían texted to let us know that no one tested positive for dragonsbane, but that was all I got from him.
No doubt he got swept up in work, which meant Goldie would stay over with Fayne.
Our night in a nutshell was boring, which spoke to how much my life had changed in the last few weeks. When I still lived in the house my fake aunt left me, having Sloane as a guest had been a real treat. Silence had been my only companion for so long, I reveled in sharing space with another person.
Pathetic as it made me, I had strained my ears more than once to hear her breathing where she slumped over my feet at the end of the couch. That was it. Proof I wasn’t alone.
And, okay, I might have also just plain missed Rían.
Duty to clan came first. I knew that. I respected that. I told myself I had been uniquely prepared for that. I had been raised as an alpha’s daughter. I was used to late nights, long weekends,and closed doors. But I was learning the issue was that I hadn’t been invested then.
