I grinned at that and followed her to the parking area where the pack members who didn’t live locally parked their cars. Truthfully, almost everyone in our pack lived on the ancestral lands we had left, but almost didn’t mean all by any means. There were some who chose to live in the city, a few who chose to live a county or two over, and several who had married into other packs but still liked to visit a couple of times a year. Hence the whole reunion.
“Ah, there’s her van. Oh, but I don’t see her.”
I followed Penny’s finger where she was pointing to the lot, and sure enough, there was indeed a modest delivery van there. “I’ll go see if she’s inside it,” I offered. “Thanks for showing me where she parked.”
“No problem. For what it’s worth, she was a real sweetheart. It’s not often we have humans here, but she’s really lovely. And if the cakes taste as good as they look, maybe we’ll just have to hire her again.”
“If Auntie Letitia would allow it,” I joked. “Don’t want to interfere with her territory.”
“Are you kidding me? I bet that poor woman wants a break. Goodness knows she’s been doing the baking for ages.”
“You think so?” I’d never thought about that. Auntie Letitia was so adamant about carrying on tradition and passing down her knowledge that I’d assumed she loved baking for all of our events, especially now that she had her own growing crew. But maybe, just like Beverly and Jeb had handed the responsibility to her, she wanted to step down, too.
Huh, I suddenly had a lot more to think about.
But that could wait until after I paid the baker, maybe flirted a little, then got back to the festivities. I was sure there was less than ten minutes until it was time to start digging in, and if I lollygagged much longer, all the deviled eggs would be gone.
I loved deviled eggs. Not as much as smoked meat, but it was pretty high up there. As long as they didn’t have relish in them, of course. I’d been made fun of plenty in my life for being a picky eater, but I absolutely hated relish. Loved pickles, though, so go figure on that one.
“Felicia?” I called, rounding the back of the van as Penny hurried off, no doubt to wrangle her husband and twin teens to get in line for their first plates. But there was no answer, and frankly, her scent had faded just enough to tell me that she hadn’t been around in the past few minutes.
Huh, perhaps she’d gone to the bathroom? After all, it was a bit of a drive to my place. Would it be creepy for me to just wander over to the porta potties we’d rented and plopped at the far end of the field for those who didn’t want to haul ass all the way inside?
Maybe, but I was going to do it anyway.
Except she wasn’t there, which was probably a good thing, but it did leave me confused. Where on earth could she be? I knew she hadn’t left because her van was here, but if she wasn’t by the cakes or bathrooms, where else would she go? And more importantly, considering that my pack didn’t know we had a human walking among us, what had she seen?
That thought had me turning on my heel and heading back toward the tent. Maybe someone had seen where she’d gone. Hopefully, she was chatting to people who knew she was human.
The thing was, I was pretty sure that most of the adults would be able to tell that she was a human and not a part of the pack. But there were so many kids around that I was truly concerned one of them might accidentally let something slip. Or even worse, shift right in front of her.
I was about halfway to the tent when a familiar voice called out to me.
“Caaaaas, can I have help tying my shoes?”
I paused and took a breath to see none other than little Bobby himself standing maybe a dozen or so feet away from me. “Not right now, Bobby.”
“But I can’t remember what I do once I gots the bunny ears! That’s all.”
“Just five minutes and I’ll be right back.”
“Okies. I’ll wait!”
I was relieved and thought for a fleeting moment that was that, but I should have known better because Bobby took off at breakneck speed only to trip over his untied shoes and fell flat on his face.
Shit.
“You okay there, little man?” I asked calmly as I quickly strode over to him. If there was one thing I’d learned about kids, it was that they were fairly indestructible, and often they only cried after tumbles as a reaction to adults freaking out.
Bobby slowly righted himself and sniffed, his chin quivering as he very clearly tried to pretend he was all right. Oh dear, that wasn’t good. “I’m okie.”
“Here, buddy, let me tie your shoe for you. We’ll get a Band-Aid on your battle wounds, okay? Then you can tell everyone how tough you are.”
Unfortunately, I could scent his blood in the air, meaning he definitely got a scrape. I couldn’t see anything yet, though, meaning that wherever it was, it wasn’t grievous. But it did make me wish that kids had the same healing abilities as us grown shifters did.
“Okie.”
As I approached, I saw blood beading up from a scrape on his knee, and his palm definitely had an abrasion from a rock. Definitely not the worst, but certainly not comfy. Instantly, I was swamped with guilt for putting him off, but I really was worried about accidentally exposing the existence of our kind to a random human woman. But I wasn’t going to rush the kid, so I tied his shoes for him-again-then picked him up with his permission and took him to the main house-my mother’s house-and dropped him off with an aunt there to tend to him, making sure to remark how incredibly brave and cool he was.
With that handled, I went back to the tent, walking in a way that hopefully told people that it was not the time to ask me for random tasks. But sure enough, once I got there, Felicia wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
What, did she turn invisible? I could swear I smelled the faintest hint of her pomegranate shampoo, but every time I saw someone with dark hair, they’d turn around to be someone else.
“Hey, has anyone seen the baker woman?” I asked as I approached a group of older folks sitting around one of the tables closer to the spread and idly chit-chatting.
“Baker woman?” Gammy McCallister asked, and honestly, I was surprised she heard me. We shifters tended to live long lives because of our ability to heal, but Gammy was exceptionally old at a hundred-and-twenty-three. She was half-blind, mostly deaf, but still as sharp as a whip. As long as it didn’t involve those aforementioned senses.
“Yeah, she’s about yea tall,” I said, gesturing before remembering belatedly that she couldn’t see my hand. “Black hair. Brought the cakes in.”
“Weren’t we just talking to her?” Claudia said, looking up from the crossword she’d been working on.
“You mean Melodie?” Gammy half-shouted back. “She was just telling me about how she made the cakes!”
Melodie? As far as I knew, Melodie had gone back to her parents’ home to cool off and was now playing frisbee with some of the other kids before food time, so I highly doubted she was hanging out with the elders.
“Why do you think you were talking to Melodie, Gammy?” I asked slowly, making sure to enunciate.
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