Page 43 of A Dash of Wolf

“Acceptable.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t make me regret it, Chief.” She walked past him, her heels clicking on the stone floor. At the door, she paused without turning around. “And for what it’s worth, you did well today. I see I was wrong about you. I shouldn’t have voted no when we interviewed you last month.”

Then she was gone.

Mason stood alone in the empty council chamber and thought about everything that had just happened. He looked at the table where five council members had just voted to protect a marsh full of tiny squids because a werewolf cop who’d been in town less than a week had asked them to. Okay, maybe he had pressured them into it, but he still felt good. Better than good. He felt like he’d finally done something that mattered...not because PADA ordered it or because the law demanded it, but because it was the right thing to do. Because a red-haired kitchen witch with mud on her hands and fire in her green eyes had shown him what it looked like to fight for something you believed in, even when it cost you.

Smiling, he headed for the exit, pulling out his phone to check the time. He’d spoken earlier to Thaddeus about Mrs. Abernathy’s community service, so all that was left was to head to the station to process her release.

His phone rang, and he frowned down at the screen. The name that flashed at him made his stomach clench. PADA Headquarters...Director Cortez’s direct line. The man in charge of the undercover division Mason had just retired from.

He answered. “This is Chief Wolfe.”

“Mason.” Director Cortez’s voice was familiar and friendly. “I hear you’ve been busy down there in—what’s the name of the town? Moonlight something?”

“Moonlight Bay, sir.”

“Right. Moonlight Bay.” A pause. “Listen, I’m not going to beat around the bush. We need you back. There’s a job. Big one, deep cover, the kind of operation you were born for. Six months, maybe eight. The target is someone you’ve tracked before. You know his patterns, his network, his blind spots. No one else on the team can do what you do, Mason.”

Mason frowned. A month ago—even six days ago—he might have said yes. The pull of it was still there, buried deep in his bones. The adrenaline. The purpose. The clean simplicity of a mission with a target and a timeline and no feelings to complicate it. The total opposite of what he was experiencing in Moonlight Bay.

“Double your previous pay,” Cortez went on. “Plus, full reinstatement if you want, after the job’s done.” Cortez paused. “You were the best I had, Mason. I don’t say that lightly.”

Mason stared through the window of the council chamber. He could see Tide Street and the fairy lights as they caught the morning sun. A woman pushing a baby stroller hurried past the window, and he couldn’t help but smile. She had a white bag in her hand. A bag from Adeline’s bakery, where a beautiful kitchen witch made daily sweets for citizens she cared about and embedded them with magical enhancements to help them through their day. “I appreciate the offer, Director. I mean that.” He paused. “But I’m going to have to pass.”

“You sure about that? Take a day. Think it over.”

“I don’t need a day.” Mason looked out onto Tide Street one more time. “I spent ten years with PADA, and I’m grateful for every one of them. But I’m done hiding behind missions and aliases and seedy motel rooms in cities I can’t remember the names of. I have a town now. I have people who need me—not the undercover version of me, but the real me.” He took a breath. “And now I need to go. I have someone I need to go apologize to. So with all due respect, sir, the answer is a firm no.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then Cortez chuckled. “She must be something, Wolfe.”

“She is.”

“Good luck, Wolfe. You know where to find us if you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

He disconnected and slid the phone into his pocket. His hands weren’t shaking. His heart wasn’t racing. He just felt...settled. Like something that had been loose inside him for a decade had finally clicked into place.

He pushed through the City Hall doors and stepped out onto the street. The morning air hit him as he turned toward the station. He had paperwork to file, a ninety-seven-year-old vandal to release, and a community service plan to finalize.

And then he was going home to shower and sleep. Because later today, he planned on telling Adeline Beaumont everything he’d just discovered about himself...and the town of Moonlight Bay.

19

“I’ve never been so happy to see the end of the day,” Adeline said to Princess Muffin Top as she walked to the front door to flip the sign to CLOSED. She’d already warded the archway between her shop and Emory’s so none of Emory’s customers would wander over. And even though it had been hard to do, she’d listened to Granny Edna’s advice and hadn’t made one thing in the kitchen. She figured she’d just come in early tomorrow and replenish her stock and see how her magic was doing then. “Now that I’ve thrown away all the bad baked goods, I think I’m going to walk down to the station and see how Mrs. Abernathy is doing.”

As if on cue, the front door swung open before Adeline could lock it, and Mrs. Abernathy bustled in wearing a fresh periwinkle blue cardigan and a huge grin.

“Mrs. Abernathy!” Adeline threw her arms around the older woman. “You’re out! When did they release you?”

“About an hour ago, dear.” Mrs. Abernathy patted Adeline’s back. “I would have come sooner, but I had to stop at Moonlight Bay Spice Company. I was out of cinnamon.” She ran her hands down her cardigan. “And then Coastal Threads was having a sale, and I picked up this lovely knitted thing for practically nothing! Usually I like to knit my own sweaters, but at the price I got this for, I couldn’t pass it up.”

Princess Muffin Top hopped down from her bed and sauntered over. “Well, look who survived the big house. Did you use the file I told you about? Please tell me you shanked the wolf on your way out.”

Mrs. Abernathy laughed. “He’s still alive, Princess Muffin Top. Don’t worry. In fact, I owe the chief a great deal.”

Adeline frowned. “What do you mean?”

Mrs. Abernathy clasped her hands together and beamed. “Chief Wolfe put in a good word for me this morning. The prosecuting attorney has agreed to community service.” She grinned. “In fact, Thaddeus and Chief Wolfe both suggested you and I team up and help restore the marsh and look after the squish-squids.”