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“Alpha.” “Alpha.” “Where are you, Alpha?”
A cascade of pack pings struck me as the unicorn turned to gallop back into the forest. His tail sparkled, as if the Guardian had imbued it with cleansed glitter. Perhaps that’s why I wanted nothing more than to leave my duties behind and follow him into the wood.
Instead, I turned toward the factory and broke into a run.
Because the number of pings suggested I’d been gone longer than intended. So did the tone of the message from the teenager I’d put in charge of Rune.
“Butch wants to speak with you.” I got the distinct impression she’d said this at least a dozen times previously because she sounded bored. Her gaze skimmed over her watch.
One o’clock? Branches slapped and sticks stabbed as I picked up the pace, but the real pain came from the realization that I’d left my pack alone for multiple hours. The factory workers would be fine, but we didn’t usually have uninvited guests to deal with. What might Rune have gotten up to while sniffing around pack central for four times as long as I’d intended to allow?
And did my extended absence mean he’d leave as soon as I arrived? I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye.
That was irrelevant. “Coming your way,” I answered his minder, stopping only momentarily to stuff my feet into shoes. I could already smell Rune’s persimmon, which meant he was close....
They were all close, the gaggle of teenagers having settled not far from where I’d ditched my footwear. I clambered up the bank into their midst, expecting to be mobbed. Instead, Rune was the first to greet me.
“Tara.”
His gaze made me self-conscious as I pushed unruly curls behind my ears. It took a force of will to focus on my duties.
“Butch,” I started.
Before I could say more than his name, however, Rune turned to his teenage entourage. “Your Alpha needs to eat.”
“Yes, sir.” One peeled away, as if Rune’s mild suggestion had been an order.
And that slapped me fully back into the present. Youngsters shouldn’t obey a stranger. They were protecting the pack from him, not acting as his honor guard.
An issue that could be dealt with later. For now, I addressed the remaining teenagers as a unit. “You may return to your game now.”
I must have frowned, because ears pinned even in human form. “Yes, Alpha.” “Sorry, Alpha.” Their mumbled apologies flowed backwards as they scattered like leaves before a wind.
Rune, meanwhile, remained rooted like a sycamore. Still and silent.
“Well?” I demanded when he raised one eyebrow and waited. “What did you find?”
He shook his head, as if brushing aside something irrelevant. And when he spoke he was all business.
“No additional information. But your pack was very careful to keep me at a distance from anything I could work with. I need unfettered access and I need the assistance of the rest of the Samhain Shifters in order to solve this problem.”
He wanted to bring more dangerous strangers into Whelan territory? I snorted out my disbelief. “Oh? How many of these Samhain Shifters are dominant wolves like you?”
Rune’s lips pursed ever so slightly, as if he’d hoped to sidestep that part of the discussion. “All,” he admitted, “except one.”
I started shaking my head but cut off my response as a teenager raced toward us with an overloaded ham sandwich in one extended hand. “Alpha,” he said, thrusting food at me, “Willa said to check your cell phone immediately.”
Yet another reminder that there was far more to my life than a handsome stranger and his fae obsession. I juggled my lunch and my phone, my stomach growling complaint as I nearly dropped the former.
Then Rune was there, saving the sandwich without being asked. His fingers grazed my fingers in the process.
And the hunger in my belly rebounded. Only this time it wasn’t hunger for food.
This time, I was barely able to force focus. I am Alpha, I reminded myself. The spark of attraction between me and Rune was irrelevant.
What was relevant was Willa’s wording. From her, immediately meant disaster. So I skipped over the other thirty-odd messages that had piled up on my phone while I was incommunicado and went straight to hers.
The text was time-stamped only two minutes ago. So my extended stay with the Guardian wasn’t responsible for whatever had gone wrong.
Still, the message’s contents got my heart racing. “Kale wasn’t present for pickup at the school.”
***
“WILLA,” I SAID AS SOON as the call connected. I was already heading toward my car, but I needed more details.
“Alpha.” Her terseness matched mine. “I have further information. A child on the playground was questioned and reported Kale chose to walk home. Presumably, given the ten miles between here and the school, that means to his mother’s house. I can send...”
“No,” I cut in even as I picked up speed. “I’m the one he’s angry with. I need to be the one who tracks him down.”
“Alpha. The human child is not your priority. The pack needs you to remain focused on the transition and....”
“The pack will be perfectly fine in your capable hands for another hour.”
Call ended, the sandwich reappeared in my free hand. My brow furrowed as I watched Rune pull on thin leather gloves, all without falling behind my speed walk.
We’d reached the parking lot by this point, and Rune stepped between me and the beeline I’d been making toward my car. He was herding me, I realized a moment later. As if I was a deer to be cut out of the group before the pack pulled the weakest prey to the ground.
I planted my feet. “What are you doing?”
Rune stepped around me to open the passenger door of a shiny silver convertible. “Driving. Get in.”
“You’re not coming with me.”
“Oh?” He raised one eyebrow. “Do you want to waste time tracking down another babysitter to make sure I don’t do my job properly?”
He had a point. Still.... “We’ll take my car.”
“If I drive,” he countered, “you can eat.”
I snorted.
“And catch up on whatever your Beta thinks is so important you can’t leave your desk for an hour.”
Well, Rune had a point there. I got in.
***
I ATE AS I DEALT WITH text messages, but it was hard to focus with Rune a scant two feet away. At least with the convertible’s top down, his persimmon scent was whipped out behind us...and still I found myself leaning closer as if trying to catch another whiff.
“Take this exit,” I told Rune the third time I straightened. The seatbelt cut into me funny, I decided. That’s why I kept listing to the left.
Lying to myself made me cranky, so before I could stop myself I added: “What part of charming teenagers is allowed by your promise not to harm my pack?”
In response, Rune took his eyes off the road for a long moment, assessing me. Only when I opened my mouth to chastise him for not watching where he was going did he start facing forward once again.
“All I did was speak with them.” His voice was quiet, even. His face was expressionless, as if I hadn’t snapped at him and he wasn’t taking me to task far too politely. “They’re not a blob of amorphous teenagers. Each one has a name.”
“I know their names.” To prove my point, I rattled off the full dozen, interspersed with driving directions.
Rune made a small sound deep in his throat when it was clear I’d finished. “I misspoke. It’s not their names you’re missing. They have hopes. Dreams. At that age, the most seductive need is knowing you are heard.”
Something about his tone of voice suggested Rune hadn’t been heard, at that age and perhaps not at several others either. Still, his insinuation that I didn’t understand our pack’s youth jabbed me like an acorn cap beneath my butt.
“I’m well aware of their wishes,” I countered. “The tallest girl, for example, has chosen to live apart from the others. Our youth move into their own wing when they shift for the first time, but it isn’t a mandatory transition. Each does so at their own pace and Caitlyn still dens in her parents’ suite.”
“Because she’s shy?” Rune suggested.
Now I was the one snorting, and much less elegantly than he had. “Not likely. Caitlyn is planning ahead. I’ll give birth this year and my son or daughter will need a Beta a few decades thereafter. It’s a gamble on her part since Betas have to be the opposite sex of the Alpha. But a clever move nonetheless.”
Rune slowed at a speed bump, and despite myself I flared my nostrils in search of another hint of persimmon. Instead, the mustier undertones of his signature scent predominated.
“You’re saying you approve of Caitlyn’s choice to separate herself from her age mates.”
“Park here,” I ordered. Then, unable to leave the issue alone, I nodded. “Leaders should remain above and apart.”
“That sounds very lonely,” Rune murmured.
But I didn’t answer. Instead, I was out of the car, marching up the cobblestone walk.