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Oyo scurried for cover, disappearing behind the refrigerator. Gunner growled in frustration then pulled me in the opposite direction even as he barked orders at his most trusted underlings, who had braved his wrath by remaining in my disaster zone of a living room.
“Allen, I want to know why no one smelled or saw a stray kitsune walking into clan central under her own power. Tank, check the perimeter and figure out where she came in.”
His gaze slid across me so fiercely that I found words tumbling out of my mouth before I could consider whether they helped or hurt matters. “Gunner, I didn’t invite...” I started, his sudden burst of alpha highhandedness making me wish my fingers were wrapped around a sword hilt rather than stuck in his crushing handhold.
“Edward, the pack needs reassurance,” Gunner continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Think of a solution now.” Then, as the last few werewolves waiting in the living room scattered, he turned to face me at last. “Yes, Mai, I know you didn’t invite her.” The statement seemed to absolve me of all wrongdoing, but his harsh tone didn’t quite match his words.
And even though I knew Gunner was on edge from the recent risk to me and Kira, annoyance nonetheless flared at being treated like a toddler’s doll. Because every time the alpha turned one way, I was dragged along behind him. Then he’d swivel in the opposite direction and give me a severe case of whiplash.
“I’m not...” I started, not quite sure what I wasn’t. But this time the high-handed alpha hushed me with a finger to my lips even as he yanked out his phone and tapped rapidly at the screen.
“Brother, what a surprise.” The call went through after only one ring, Ransom’s voice so saccharine that it made my teeth ache. Or maybe that was just my fox incisors pushing their way through human dentition and gums in an effort to get out.
Either way, I wished I could see the elder Atwood’s face through the cell phone. Had he answered so quickly because he’d sent Oyo to disrupt clan central? Or had he simply been at loose ends and thought baiting his brother might be a good way to fill an otherwise quiet night?
If I’d been the one in charge, I would have danced around the matter in an effort to tempt Ransom into dropping private information. But Gunner wasn’t human enough for small talk, at the moment. Instead, he merely demanded, “Who did you tell?”
The words were a mistake—all three of us understood that as soon as they were uttered. And the smugness in Ransom’s silence spurred me to take matters into my own hands in an effort at damage control.
“Ransom, thank you for accepting our call,” I interjected, pressing my face closer to the phone and half expecting Gunner to yank the device away from me even as I spoke. But he didn’t. Instead, he closed his eyes then swiped one huge palm across his face as if to remove overwhelming frustration. And when his sienna eyes blinked back open, they were full of both apology and praise.
Taking that as my cue to continue, I offered Ransom a sliver of information, hoping he’d give us something back in exchange. “A strange fox shifter showed up here this evening, which has your brother understandably excited. What he meant to ask was—do you have any idea how a kitsune might have heard this would be a safe place to hide?”
That conundrum had been roiling through my head ever since Oyo appeared on top of my refrigerator. After all, Gunner had kept my and Kira’s identity so closely under wraps that only our pack and Ransom’s should have known there were any kitsunes still living. So how had a stray fox shifter known to sneak into my home?
But apparently Oyo wasn’t the biggest issue for the pair of siblings. Instead, Ransom’s reply was clearly aimed not at me but rather at his brother.
“Who did I tell about you harboring illegal kitsunes? Is that what you meant to ask me?” Then, without waiting for confirmation: “No one yet, brother. But just imagine what might happen if I did.”
***
“I SHOULDN’T HAVE TOLD him about Oyo.”
I was kicking myself for playing right into Ransom’s hands. But—despite the cell phone shattered on the ground and the strong scent of fur hovering around us—Gunner was back in control of himself and didn’t appear to blame me.
No, it was his brother who served as the focus of the pack leader’s ire. “He was lying,” Gunner grumbled as he paced back and forth through the living room, crunching shattered glass and crockery beneath his boots.
“Maybe not,” I interjected from my spot perched atop the arm of a blue, plush sofa. “Maybe I just gave Ransom an opening to threaten you. I’d be more certain he was responsible if you hadn’t been the one to call him first.”
Unfortunately, rational cause and effect clearly weren’t working yet inside my favorite alpha’s noggin. Because he kept walking and talking as if he hadn’t heard my words at all. “If Ransom is spreading the word that you and your sister are under my protection,” he growled, “then everyone knows he and I are no longer an unbeatable alliance. Our pack didn’t have to fend off vultures when our father died because Ransom and I were united in our defense of clan central. But with only me on the job...we should start expecting visits from neighboring packs.”
“Visits?” That didn’t sound horrible. But from Gunner’s tone, I had a feeling these neighbors weren’t the welcome-wagon sort of werewolves. Sure enough, he shook his head as he continued pacing. Then, abruptly, he pulled me to my feet and brushed one absurdly gentle hand across the top of my head.
“Please be a little more careful of your own skin,” he murmured, warm breath brushing over my forehead. His voice was still gravelly, but the please made up for all of his former heavy-handedness, warming locations lower down than my heart.
“I will,” I promised, leaning into his broad body. But before I made contact, before I could turn that opening into a moment of shared pleasure...Gunner had set me back down on my sofa arm and disappeared out the door.
Unfortunately, the larger problem didn’t disappear along with him. Instead, once my libidinous haze lifted, I clearly heard Kira slamming around in the kitchen. Oyo was silent but presumably still hiding. And my phone beeped to herald the arrival of an incoming text.
Cringing at the appearance of a number I’d never seen before but that I suspected corresponded to Gunner’s brother, I swiped a reluctant finger to open the message up.
“I grant you free passage to and from Kelleys Island if you’d like to come and talk about it.”
And wasn’t that just going to float Gunner’s boat?