Page 30 of Trick Knot Treat

Naval yards? I don’t even know what a naval yard is…leave it alone, Jace. Pick your battles. First job, get her help. By the looks, I need paramedics, but perhaps there’s family.

“Ah, Mrs Turnpike, do you have any children? Sisters? Brothers? Anyone who can come stay with you?”

“Certainly not! We’re in lice quarantine now, thanks to you, buddy!” She draws herself up and almost shakes with outrage. “You!” She snarls with emphasis, “ruined my day!”

“Right. Right. Well, let me go and call the officials to make sure we are following proper procedures so we don’t spread the lice to Sunshine Cove.”

“You do that. I’ll make us a nice cup of tea.”

She turns and walks back into her house.

I give myself three seconds before I walk back to my car and radio in.

“I need someone to send the paramedics to do a welfare check on Mrs Turnpike.”

There’s laughter on the line, and then Betty agrees to ring an ambulance for me. I lean against my car and wait impatiently.

I’m not sure about this week. The Halloween pack-making event. Clint revealing he’s leaving. I haven’t even had any time to think about it yet, but no. Just no. Then the surprise that is Khione.

Having this batty old lady assault me is just icing in a cruel and unusual cake.

The paramedics rock up, two volunteers who carefully coax Mary Turnpike into the back of their ambulance and take her away.

I glance around and notice the cat.

“Ah, fuck.”

It takes me an hour to get a carry cage from the neighbours and catch the little bastard. Every time I got close, he legged it and flopped onto his side five feet away and kicked his chin.

Stupid little goblin.

I glance at the passenger seat of my cruiser. He’s watching the world go by as if this is the most exciting thing to happen all week. He truly is a king among cats.

I’m kind of jealous of his confidence in life, to be honest.

“You are not staying with me, but I know a guy.”

The cat chirps.

“I don’t know him well, but I do know him, and he hasn’t been able to turn an animal away yet.”

Unless, of course, you believe that story about the echidna, and I’m not sure that I do. Fox is an animal magnet and an animal lover with a bleeding heart that I will be able to manipulate into this last-minute babysitting job.

My hands are tied; I am far too busy, and does Spectre even like cats?

Oh, where did that thought come from?

When I think about Zaire, I want to lick my lips and touch myself in ways I shouldn’t. He’s the kind of alpha that I would quietly stand in the shadows and watch, appreciating his beauty as he walked on past. If I hadn’t been so deeply in the feels for Clint, I might have gathered up my courage and tried to speak with him. He’s just so big and intimidating. So grumpy. That surliness appeals to me; it’s like tinder.

But Khione is like every damn dream of a beta I’ve ever had. Confident, cute, so sexy it almost hurts to look at her. I could see a life with her. Unlike with Felix.

I rub my forehead and glance at the cat.

“He’s mine. I can feel it. We’re scent matches, but, my god, he’s so far above me he may as well be a god. Felix Sol is smart and talented, and he wouldn’t waste a single moment on an alpha like me. I know because I’ve been trying to talk to him for the last ten years. The omega just pretends he doesn’t hear me and walks off. Felix is a fantasy. And definitely not for me.”

The cat meows, long and loud, then vomits a hairball that smells suspiciously like fish. I wind the window down and gag. By the time I park the car in front of Pack Blizzard’s house, I am more queasy than I’ve ever been in my life, and I am officially and forever sworn off becoming a cat guardian.

I grab the carrier and walk up to the front door, hoping someone is home. To my absolute relief, the second I knock, like magic, the door opens, and Fox appears, smiling with a joy that I envy.