Charmed Wolf

the will to do so when someone within the pack was still affiliated with the fae.
Instead, I pulled upon alpha arrogance. “Good guess. While you’re at it, send Consort paperwork to...?”
I raised my eyebrows and Rune rattled off an email address. Willa’s nostrils flared, but she bowed her head over her cell phone and entered the recited data. Then she pocketed the device and bit out a reply.
“I will complete these tasks immediately, Alpha.” Air whispered between us, then she was gone.
Now I had something else to fix—the nose I’d set out of joint with my actions. First, though, three moderately irate dominants waited. The lights of pack central blazed through the forest before us. Duty called, and yet...
Willa might be momentarily appeased by alpha growls, but Kale wouldn’t be. I fell down into a crouch so I was peering up at him rather than towering above him. “I need to apologize to you, Kale.”
Unfortunately, the kid cut me off before I could elaborate. “I was so mad at you today.”
“Of course you were.” My eyes fell to the leaf litter. I’d blown it. The sweet non-pack bond between us had shattered.
“But it wasn’t real.” Then the kid was kneeling and hugging me. Never mind that he was human with entirely different views on nakedness and modesty. Never mind that he’d turned far less touchy-feely during the last year.
“Not real?” I murmured.
His head shook against my shoulder. His words were muffled when he continued. “I was kneeling down, sniffing a flower, then it felt like a cloud fell on my head. I was furious...but that feeling wasn’t really me.”
Rather than answering, I breathed him in. Soap and child. Love and innocence. Okay, maybe I got the point of inhaling scent off the top of children’s heads.
“Thank you, Kale,” I told him finally. Then, trying to focus on the bigger issue even though our reunion felt like the biggest thing possible, “Was there glitter on the flower?”
Kale shrugged. “I don’t remember.”
His voice quavered, and I wanted more than anything to stay there. Or, rather, to take Kale to the kitchen and turn up the music and dance while baking his favorite out-of-a-box brownies. We’d throw in bonus chocolate chips and sing along even if we didn’t know the words.
But duty called. So I pushed Kale back far enough so I could make out his eyes. “Will you forgive me again if I send you away with Butch now so he can keep you safe?”
The kid nodded, spine straight. “Only if you promise to tell me everything later.”
“It’s a deal.”
And while we shook on the entirely un-fae-like bargain, I gazed over Kale’s head to ask Rune a silent question. Would he care for this child, even though I was leaving to speak with the Samhain Shifters?
Rune nodded. His hand fell to Kale’s shoulder, not restraint but protection. His loyalties, it appeared, remained with me and mine.
FIVE MINUTES LATER, I stopped just outside a doorway just like I had when watching Natalie perched amid her luggage. Also like then, the scene inside was so intense my presence wasn’t noticed at first.
The location, of course, was different. The antechamber outside the holding cells. And the emotion I witnessed wasn’t sadness but rather anger morphing into joy.
“Tank, calm down.” The unfamiliar woman—she had to be Athena—grabbed the scarred male’s wrists. “I’m fine. It was an honest misunderstanding.”
Tank’s dominance stunk up the room. His muscles flexed with the need to rip and tear something. But he didn’t. Instead, his forward momentum slowed and gentled. He bent forward until their foreheads touched.
Watching from the outside, something strange twisted in my belly. This was what I was setting aside in order to be Alpha. This perfect communion that turned an out-of-control wolf into a man wrapping his arms around his beloved.
“You’re not hurt?” he rumbled.
“I’m really fine.” Athena looked more than fine. She looked smug to have this shifter encasing her in his strength.
Smug and...aroused. The scent rolling off them had all the heat and sweetness of a bakery. I leaned closer, nostrils flaring, then Ryder broke the moment with his usual lack of tact.
“Nooky’s like candy,” he observed far more loudly than was really necessary. “If you don’t have enough for everybody, best keep it in your pocket.”
Tank growled. Athena laughed. And, remembering my priorities, I cleared my throat and stepped forward to join the dominants who had invaded my pack.
“I already apologized to Lupe,” I told them, ignoring the way hairs raised along the back of my neck as their attention focused on me, “but I would like to add my personal regrets to Athena. I gave permission for you to be here. You shouldn’t have ended up in a cell and it won’t happen again.”
“You’re right, it won’t happen again.” Lupe was the one who pressed into my personal space, six inches closer than she should have come if she respected my status as pack leader. “You will also abide by Samhain Shifters’ right to hunt fae wherever we please.”
Her teeth were sharp. I’d apparently stepped over a line I didn’t know existed. Once I got a spare moment, I’d read up more on Samhain Shifters. But, shortly, the issue would be moot.
“My pack is dealing with the fae problem tonight,” I countered, holding my ground with an effort. “A force fire is being built. We’ll cleanse the glitter, cleanse the kidnapped child, cleanse every member of my pack.”
“A force fire.” Lupe’s brow wrinkled. “Never heard of it. This is a solution Butch suggested?”
“Something like that.” Turning to Athena, I continued. “My understanding is that you can tell if there are glamoured fae among us. Were you given sufficient time to complete your analysis?”
The non-dominant shook her head as best she could while pressed up against Tank’s chest. “It’s not quite that simple. If I meet everyone and stick around, I can tell if someone changes. But I can’t just pick fae out of a lineup.”
Well, that was unhelpful.
I only realized I’d made