I pursed my lips. From the way my wolf was nudging me, she had already made her decision. I blew out a sigh, knowing full well I would probably regret this.
“Yeah, I’m in.”
Bo wagged his tail excitedly. Gavin almost fell out of his chair and accidentally set fire to his suit as he recovered his balance.
Didi ignored the dragon newt, her expression satisfied. “Good. First thing we need to do is tell your alpha. The Hawthornes have maintained neutrality with the witch covens for generations. If we’re going to poke this particular hornet’s nest, Samuel needs to know.”
I grimaced. Samuel was going to love this. “And if he says no?”
“Then we do it anyway and apologize later.” Didi gathered the last of her folders. “But I doubt he’ll say no. Not once he sees what I’ve found.”
She rose and strode off toward her own desk, leaving me surrounded by the lingering scent of old paper and foreboding, a dragon newt who was desperately trying to put out flames and failing miserably, and a dog who was clearly enjoying thethought of me potentially being hexed at some point in the near future.
“Just once, I’d like to have a boring week,” I said to no one in particular.
6
A BREWING PROBLEM
Samuel’s officedoor was closed when we arrived, which was never a good sign.
Didi rapped her knuckles against the wood with the self-assurance of a witch who had turned more powerful beings than an alpha werewolf into amphibians.
“Samuel. We need to talk.”
There was a pause which radiated instant wariness.
“Come in.”
Didi, Gavin, Bo, and I filed inside in that order.
Gavin had been dragged along against his will by Didi, who’d insisted he be part of the investigative team since there was going to be a delay in him looking into the potential brownie poisoning situation. The dragon newt had done his best to protest but had rapidly wilted in the face of the witch’s hard stare.
Samuel was behind his desk, surrounded by paperwork and looking like he’d already had a long day despite it being barely ten in the morning. His coffeecup was half empty, which meant he was on at least his second serving of cream-and-four-sugars.
His gaze as it swept over our group said he recognized an ambush when he saw one.
“This looks serious,” my alpha said carefully.
“It is.” Didi dropped her stack of folders onto his desk with a thump that made Gavin flinch. “We have a problem.”
Samuel’s eyes met mine across the room. The mate bond hummed between us, carrying his concern and a thread of what felt like resignation.
What did you get yourself into now?his expression seemed to ask.
You’re about to find out, mine replied.
Didi launched into her explanation. She laid out everything she’d told me—the transfer documents, the stale magical signatures, the shutdown clinics, and the impossibility of three powerful witches just stopping using their magic on the exact same day.
Samuel listened without interrupting, his expression growing darker with each new detail.
“So you’re telling me,” he said when Didi finished, “that you believe the Lincoln sisters didn’t go on vacation voluntarily? That somebody might have orchestrated their disappearance and created a paper trail to cover it up?”
“Yes.” Didi crossed her arms. “And I want to investigate.”
“With my luna.”
The possessive way he said the worddid things to my pulse that was probably illegal in ten states and had my wolf sitting up and panting.
