“It was worth a shot.”
Flint left his truck and phone at the fire station. Not that he was planning on ending up at Emma’s, but anytime he faced the bridge, his wolf tugged at him. He was going to have to get things under control because the last things he needed were commitment and a witch.
He jogged down Main Street past the old school. When he came to the school parking lot, he slowed. A black sedan was in the lot, one he hadn’t seen before. He stopped and stared. But there wasn’t anyone in the car. He’d been keeping a watch on the place even before he’d met Emma. Like most of the town, he’d been a little curious about what was going on with the place where he’d spent so much time as a child.
There were two expensive cars that came once a week at most: a flashy green Range Rover and a quietly conservative black Mercedes. Also, a red clunker sat next to the bear shifter’s blue truck every day, which he’d confirmed was Emma’s. Occasionally, a bright pink Mini Cooper would show up. But never a dark sedan, so mundane that it screamed up to no good.
Flint cut through the woods to the building. The sedan was empty, and as he jogged around the backside of the building, he picked up a scent he didn’t recognize. A human male. But he couldn’t figure out much more than that. He jogged around the back past the door, glancing into the dark windows around the side where Emma’s office was, in old Mr. Thompson’s classroom. The windows were closed and the room was dark too. When he finished his loop back to the parking lot, the sedan was gone. Flint frowned at the empty lot.
He shrugged it off. Probably an investor who’d missed out on the sale wondering what was going on in the building. Flint jogged down the road to the edge of the pack lands and left his clothes at the bins on the property edge. His shift was fast enough to be painful. Bones snapped into place, and fur sprouted over his skin. If Reagan hadn’t told him of the ass that was coming, he wouldn’t have any control of his wolf trotting over the bridge and up the hill. He cut through the woods and meandered up the pack road to the field where those coming from off the compound would park.
He chuffed and faced the music, trotting off to the tailgate of a large white truck where his cousin and alpha were sitting with his youngest brother and others, waiting for everyone to show up.
Spencer held his little son on his lap. Their alpha hadn’t shifted and still had on his Larsen Construction T-shirt and ripped jeans. His mate, Lauren, stood a few steps over, talking to Reagan. Spencer’s forehead scrunched. He nodded to the other pack members Spencer talked to, and most of them looked at Flint and moved away.
Spencer handed Ashton off to Duncan, the alpha’s youngest brother. “Shift,” Spencer ordered Flint in a low rumble. And while Flint’s own father had been the pack alpha before his murder and Flint himself considered himself more alpha than not . . . another shift ripped through Flint and he crouched before his cousin.
Before Duncan could move away with his nephew, Spencer shook his head at him and he stopped.
Flint stood, his lips pursed. “Spencer.”
“I’m glad you’re joining us.” Spencer cocked his head down the hill at Ross. “Before I move on to the other topic, I want to tell you I don’t really want Ross running with us. But I also don’t want a war with the eastern half of the state.”
“Exactly.” Flint knew the next topic.
“You going to explain your actions yesterday? You planning on challenging me?” His dark eyebrows shot up.
“What? Fuck no.” Flint laughed.
Spencer didn’t laugh.
“Right, listen. I get that your house is right next to my mother’s. I was . . . I was behaving like a cub. It was stupid and I should have called you this morning. I apologize, alpha.” Flint inclined his head. What he’d done was disrespectful to more than his mother, and he should have thought it through.
“Accepted, once you apologize to Lara as well.”
Flint took a shallow breath. He didn’t know how to respond. In a way, his mother had become closer to his cousins over the years. In hindsight, she was continuing her job of taking care of the oracle by looking after her children. But that wasn’t his cousin’s fault.
“I’ll do that tomorrow.” Flint’s eyes trailed up the hill to the roof of the house, almost visible.
Spencer nodded. “And where were you today?”
Flint ran his hand down his face. This wasn’t the first time in the last six months he’d considered moving away from Hundsburg, where everyone knew everything about everyone. Hell, he couldn’t have a date without alerting the whole town. Maybe he should announce it to the entire pack right now? How would that go over, just shouting out, I almost screwed Emma Davis, the hot redhead working at the old school. No, that wouldn’t happen. “I had a date.”
Spencer laughed.
Ashton reached out for Flint. He took him from Duncan. “Where’s your little one?” Duncan had a little cub too with his mate, Aurora.
“Up at the house. Aurora’s keeping her in tonight. Her mother’s visiting. I’m going to really take the opportunity and run hard.”
“That sounds like a challenge.” Flint smiled at his cousin. Duncan was a few years older than him.
“Perhaps it is, cousin.”
“You’re so grown up, Ashton. Are you going to run with your uncle Duncan?”
The little boy giggled. “Noo, he too big for me.” Ashton poked himself in the chest.
Flint tossed Ashton up and down. Many years from now, the two-year-old he was bouncing would be his alpha. And so far, that sat okay with both him and his wolf.
“Look how fast I can shift,” Ashton said as Flint tossed him in the air. On the way down, Flint grasped at the fur of the little cub and caught him safely, but not before his mother was at their side. He lowered Ashton to the grass next to him.
“Ashton, you can’t do that. Flint was expecting to catch you in skin, not fur.” Lauren’s blonde hair was piled high on top of her head. She had on a thick scarf and a woolen coat.
Ashton’s enormous eyes looked up at his mother, his pointed ears flat against his head. He dropped his head to his paws, and a low whine pitched out of him.
“I’m glad you’re sorry. But you need to be safe too.” Lauren said. “It’s good to see you, Flint. It’s been too long.”
Flint nodded. “It’s good to see you too.” Lauren had mated Spencer right after his powers had come unbound. And it wasn’t long after that when Flint moved to his cabin on the other side of town. To him, Spencer’s mate, Lauren, was a virtual stranger.
Snow floated down, a slow steady pace to start with as the pack milled around greeting each other, some in skin, some in fur, as the snow picked up its intensity. It wouldn’t accumulate too much. This time of year would find it melted soon, even if it did.
“I’d love to have you to the house for dinner,” said Lauren.
“Thanks, I’m not sure of my work schedule, but I’ll let you know.” Which was total bull. Anyone who knew him well enough was aware that for the last ten years, he’d had the same schedule. Off Saturday to Tuesday for three weeks and then he worked straight through the weekend in his fourth week. It hadn’t varied in ten years, and he didn’t expect it to ever vary as long as Chief Ledger was the chief.
His aunt Jodi came over. Unlike Spencer’s mother or his, she wasn’t a witch but a wolf shifter by birth. “Timothy and I would love to have Ashton join us. Most of the other young are going to run with us, too.” She looked between Lauren and Spencer.
