Blossom hopped over to me and I narrowed my eyes. Did she really think I would do something as ridiculous as burn down the house?
I mean, I’d considered it, but decided to try curse-breaking first. Arson could follow if this didn’t do the trick.
To get started, I lifted the small metal lid off the burner with my teeth. I knocked the bag over and about half landed inside the metal container. Good enough.
Now…how to turn the stove on? While cats were superior to humans in all ways, there was the rare moment when opposable thumbs would come in handy.
Alas, I would manage.
“Listen, Felix, I don’t know what you’re doing, but this is not your house…I don’t think. Let’s just go back to the festival.”
I placed both paws on the stovetop’s knob. It clicked, but no flame erupted.
“What the fuck? You’re going to burn down the kitchen.”
Eh, that could be repaired.
“Or singe your hair.”
Huh. He had a point. Fire safety was very important.
Wilder muttered something under his breath and picked up the esfand burner. “Is this incense or something? And you want to burn it?”
Finally he got it. Took him long enough.
“I must be going crazy.” The firefighter alpha turned the knob, and this time the flame caught. Excellent. I grabbed the wooden handle again and held it over the flame. Before long, the smell of burnt popcorn wrinkled my nose. Maybe the idea was that whatever dark spirits lurked in the house would be put off by the smell so they’d leave.
Now I just needed to make sure all of the rooms were purified. I hopped off the counter and carried the burner through each room. Blossom and Wilder followed me throughout the house until we returned to the living room.
I sniffed. Something felt different in the air, although only time would tell if it had truly worked.
Wilder muttered something as he snagged the burner and ushered us out of the house. It was good for alphas to feel useful every once in a while. Maybe that’s why Blossom had brought him along. Clever little apprentice.
Wilder closed the door to the Beaufort House behind us and I stretched luxuriously on the front porch. Blossom gave a little squeak and I rubbed my face against her head. I needed to groom her ears and then it was nap time.
There was an extra pep in my step as we headed back to Main Street. The sun was shining, the air had finally warmed, and my girls were happy.
Three down. One to go.
80
King
The festival was winding down,and I couldn’t keep my eyes off my girl. The omegas were sprawled across a large quilt, oblivious to the flurry of activity around them as Stanley directed the volunteers on the proper event teardown procedure.
I shifted my weight, feeling antsy. I had a surprise for my pack, but we couldn’t go until Wilder returned. He’d wandered off somewhere a little while ago and wasn’t answering my texts.
“It’s pretty much impossible to stop them once they get going,” Lars said, nodding at the omegas as he joined me at the edge of the field.
I grinned as Lucy did a spot-on impression of Stanley waving his clipboard in the air. “Lucy said they’re having a movie night at the lighthouse this Friday?”
Lars lifted his chin. “Just a heads-up—movie night often ends with them scheming up some sort of prank against us.”
Somehow that wasn’t hard to imagine. I didn’t mind harmless pranks as long as my little brat knew it would earn her a post-movie-night spanking.
“To comply with their no-boys-allowed rule, we usually meet up with Logan, Rome, and James for dinner.” Lars rubbed the back of his neck. “You, Wilder, and Leo would be welcome to join us. If you wanted to.”
My breath caught, but I tamped down my excitement. I needed to play this cool. “Have you decided to spare us from Easton’s pig farming revenge?”
