I shrugged. “We’re a loyal bunch. Now that the whole pack knows you’re a safe person and you deliver quality work, you won’t be able to get rid of us.”
“Maybe eventually I’ll get that, but right now…”
“It’s okay.” I pulled her close for another quick squeeze. One day, I’d be able to go more than five minutes without touching her when we were in close proximity of each other, but today was most certainly not that day. “You take as long as you need.”
“Thanks, Cas.”
“Of course.”
We separated, and I went to watch the front as she busied herself with some custard. It wasn’t quite seven in the morning, and the bakery had already been open for an hour. I definitely wasn’t a night owl, but I also didn’t get up at the ass-crack of dawn unless it was my day to drive to the market.
“Shit!” Felicia hissed quietly from the kitchen. I wouldn’t have heard her without my enhanced hearing, but concern still flashed through me, and I hurried to the back.
“Everything okay?”
“I don’t have enough dates for some of the stuff I was going to make today,” she muttered, chewing on her thumb. “It’s not a huge deal, but I was looking forward to making a play on devils on horseback with goat’s cheese.”
“Hey, I actually know a vendor at the public market that sells the best medjool dates. If you want, I can go grab a bunch.”
Cue the wide eyes. “You’d do?-“
“I promise I will never offer to do something if I’m not ready, willing, and able to do it with a happy spirit,” I said. I got the feeling that gentle repetition was the key to getting through to her.
“Okay. Right. I’ll get used to that, I swear.” She took a deep breath, then leveled me with what I was beginning to think of as her “business time” look. “Yes, would you please grab me those dates? I need at least two pounds.”
“I would be happy to. Anything you need me to do before I head out?”
She shook her head, then stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. I loved that she was just as eager to touch me as I was to have my hands on her at all times. “No, but thanks.”
“All right, I’m gonna head out. Be back in thirty minutes?”
“Perfect! I’ll get the batter started.”
I had no idea what devils on horseback were, but I liked dates and goat’s cheese. Felicia had yet to make anything unappealing, and I was excited to taste whatever she created.
Somehow, I made it out to my car without kissing, hugging, or otherwise getting all up into Felicia’s undercarriage. I whistled happily to myself as I headed to the market. Never in a million years had I thought I would date a human, but I had to admit, it was going incredible so far. Granted, we’d only been officially dating for a few hours, but whatever. If I couldn’t be ridiculously optimistic during the honeymoon phase, when could I?
Normally, I arrived at the market much earlier and got a good parking space. Now, though, I had to drive around the farthest parking lot for about fifteen minutes before finding a spot. I’d forgotten what it was like not to show up as soon as it opened. But even the annoyance of wasting gas by driving in circles couldn’t touch my happy mood as I parked and headed toward the market, reusable shopping bags in hand. I liked to pretend they were in my car because I was always prepared, but really, I’d bought about twenty of them when the state got rid of plastic and stashed them in the trunk only to forget about them until the last moment. Eventually, they’d all be gone, disseminated among other pack members, and then Chris would gather a whole bunch to put right back into my trunk.
He was a brilliant beta.
My mind drifted as I strolled through the covered pavilion that held the most coveted spots. The stall that sold the dates was toward the back. I went from thinking about getting Chris something thoughtful, just to show him how much I appreciated him, to wondering if our pack budget had enough extra money in it for me to send flowers to every mother once Mother’s Day rolled around. I’d been single for so long that I was quite out of touch with the going-rate for a bouquet. My mother had never really been one for flowers since she grew them in her garden, so I usually made donations to local pet shelters in her name, then took her out to dinner where she could look through a little booklet of all the animals the money had helped.
I was so lost in my thoughts, idly navigating around other shoppers, that I didn’t notice two people were deliberately standing in my way until I was practically punched in the face by their scent.
The Ramirez Pack.
I shook off my hazy, daydream state to see a couple of large, muscled shifters standing about two feet in front of me, their arms crossed and forcing everyone else to go around them.
Shit, it was their day at the market.
Irritation rose in me. Sure, I had been lenient when I’d run into them here on our day because of their little girl, but I had no guarantee that they would do the same for me. I was putting my pack in quite a precarious position if they chose to report us to the fairies.
Maybe I was wrong, but I had a strange feeling that the fairies had been keeping a sharper eye on my pack ever since my father took over and they stopped winning our land from Alpha Barris. It was infinitely weird to me. If the fairies wanted our land, they were powerful and connected enough to simply take it. Then again, their tricky contracts were a double-edged sword.
The magic that made them so insanely binding affected the fairies just as much as it affected shifters. At least if one learned to play by their rules, it was easier to stay out of trouble.
“What are you doing here?” one asked, irritation heavy in each syllable.
I supposed it had been too much to wish they would extend the same kindness and politeness I’d given them, but it was easy for me to take the high ground-so to speak-when my family was living on land that had been stolen from them ages ago. Sometimes, I wondered if we should give it back, but that would be to the detriment of my pack. We deserved a place to live too, and it wasn’t like we could just go live somewhere else. No, our contract with the fairies meant we were stuck where we were if we wanted protection from modern technology.
As much as I like to think that we were independent folk, we needed that protection.
“Apologies,” I said, allowing the slightest bit of alpha tone in my voice. Not enough to intimidate, but enough to let them know I was being serious. “I got my days mixed up. I only need a couple of pounds of dates-I’ll get in and out of your hair in just a minute.”
“Ain’t that just like a gringo,” the other groused, and the hatred in his tone matched that in his eyes. “Ain’t enough that you guys are always given the center of the meat, you gotta come gobble up every little thing that isn’t yours, too.”
“Look, it was an honest mistake,” I said, keeping my tone flat. Not exactly easy to do since my wolf was beginning to bristle. He didn’t care that the Ramirezes were in the right, and that I was breaking the rules by being here.
Part of me wished we could just duke it out. That if we could fight like in the old day, we could put tension between our two packs to rest and move forward. But the fairies discouraged physical fighting between us. And fighting in view of humans was a good way to be banished entirely. Then, my whole pack would be scattered in the wind.
I had never witnessed it myself, but I’d heard horror stories of fairies cursing contract-breakers. Some stories said the contract-breakers could never speak to another pack member again, others said they were blinded to members of their own pack, and others said they would burst into flame if they ever tried to touch another shifter. That was magic I didn’t want to mess with, and I was sure the Ramirezes wouldn’t want that either
Then again, perhaps the best way for them to get their land back was by getting me and my pack in trouble. Had I just unknowingly gotten my people in hot water?
Again?
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