Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Cole agreed about the peculiarity of the wolves’ scent and the magic he had sensed. He had authorized more patrols, and now the pack was on alert for trouble.
But the next day, it was still bothering Reece.
He was sitting in the kitchen and clutching a coffee mug so tightly in his hands that it might shatter as he stared out the back window onto the forest behind the property.
The pair of swiveling bucket chairs were a hot commodity in the kitchen, and he’d grabbed them both with one leg stretched out to rest on the chair opposite him. The chair was soft, but Reece was a big man and took up every inch of the space available.
The kitchen was big enough for two dozen people to squeeze in, and they had squeezed in even more from time to time. There were fifty adult members of the pack and then enough children to go along with them, which made the Southern Basin the largest of the small packs in Hobson.
There was a giant table at the center of the kitchen where twenty people could sit, though usually wolves came in twos and threes.
There was evidence of life in here with dirty dishes that should have been cleaned sitting on the counter and in the sink, which Reece guessed meant that both of the dishwashers were full and no one had bothered to unload them yet.
Ah, the joy of communal living.
At least six pack members had the duty to load and unload the dishwasher whenever it was needed, and yet somehow Reece found himself doing it at least once a week. He was objecting to taking on that extra task on principle.
Nico walked in, and Reece flicked his fingers in a greeting. Elise followed right after him.
Of course she did. When wasn’t she there these days?
He had to suppress a growl. Reece didn’t hate her exactly. She had saved Cole’s life when she had every reason to do him harm. But it didn’t mean that he enjoyed having her at the pack house.
The witch wore an oversized gray t-shirt, doubtless one of Nico’s. If the man thought he was being sneaky with his territorial claims, he was sorely mistaken. Her hair was held back in a swaying ponytail that a part of Reece wanted to flick. Nico wore a matching gray top, but probably by accident.
The couple wasn’t quite nauseating enough to match their everyday outfits.
The happy couple chatted as they went to the fridge and pretended that Reece wasn’t there.
Ah, wonderful. Young love.
Nico crowded in behind his mate as she grabbed something out of the fridge, and she giggled and told him to stop. If this lasted much longer, Reece would need to run for cover. Or possibly vomit.
Elise had been at the pack more this week than usual.
Though Reece didn’t like her, he couldn’t help but be curious about why. He’d heard a few whispers that there was some kind of drama going on with her own coven, but he hadn’t been able to find out more without seeming interested, which he refused to do.
He expected that Nico and his girl would take their food and leave, or sit at the stools by the counter, or even take up places at the table.
Instead, Nico shoved his leg off the chair so Elise could sit, and then dragged a chair from the table for himself.
As if there wasn’t an entire kitchen where they could have had some semblance of privacy.
But Reece wasn’t an idiot.
He had scented magic on the property, and he had a bona fide witch sitting right in front of him.
Cole hadn’t explicitly told him to ask Elise, and he didn’t know if Cole planned to use her as a resource. It was a precarious situation. The Southern Basin pack and Elise’s coven were not allies.
He’d never heard of a witch coven and a werewolf pack being allied in that way. They had a truce, and plenty of packs and covens had truces. But that didn’t mean that they would offer assistance to each other without a price.
But Elise was right there, and Nico was a fellow beta. It wouldn’t hurt to mention the issue. He knew Elise wouldn’t use the information against them. Because of her relationship with Nico, she didn’t want any harm coming to the pack.
“Is everything all right?” Nico asked him between sips of his coffee.
“Did Cole talk to you?” he asked. There would be a meeting of the betas later to go over the new patrols and share what he had sensed last night, but Cole had to sleep sometime, and it was fairly early in the morning, so news might not have gotten around yet.
Nico pursed his lips. “Should Cole have talked to me about something?”
Elise was drinking her coffee and looking out the window as if she wasn’t paying attention to every word they said. Reece wasn’t sure if he appreciated the illusion of privacy or if it made him grit his teeth more.
“Interlopers last night,” he said. “I ran into two of them and chased them off, but—”
“But what?” Nico prompted.
“I smelled magic afterwards. It was… slimy,” he said. “Not at all like Elise’s. And the source of it was more aggressive than—” He cut himself off.
Werewolves didn’t talk about the sources of magic. The scent, sure, but everything else was guesswork. And he had a witch in front of him. He didn’t need to do guesswork of his own.
Elise had turned to look at him, her blue eyes wide. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and gave him an assessing look. “Magic?”
He nodded.
“Are you sure?” She sounded doubtful, which made his inner wolf bare its fangs at her. Reece had to clamp down on the instinct to mirror the action with his human teeth. Nico wouldn’t take kindly to that, and they didn’t need to brawl in the kitchen.
“I know what magic smells like,” he said, “and it was definitely there. I was on the eastern part of the territory near the cottages. The wolves ran after we fought, then the scent bloomed, and then it dissipated.”
“And they disappeared after that?” Elise asked. Despite her attempt to stay detached, she looked interested now.
“I didn’t see them again. Are you suggesting they might have teleported?” To Reece, it sounded ridiculous, but there were witches out there with powers beyond imagination. Teleportation would be child's play to them.
Elise scrunched up her face and then shook her head.
“No, probably not.” She thought for several moments.
“Austin LaSalle bought magic on the black market, so if this was some other pack trying to gain information about you guys or something, there’s no reason they couldn’t have done the same thing.
But you would want to talk to somebody who has aggressive magic or knows how to make protective charms. Delainey would be better at that than I am.
I can ask her if you want. She could come out and take a look. ”
“We don’t need Delainey,” Reece snapped.
Nico gave him a questioning look, and Reece ignored it. They didn’t need another meddling witch causing trouble.
Especially considering how much upheaval Elise had caused, and her powers were all based in healing and helping. She was the forgiving sort. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they called a witch who knew how to fight back and liked to do it.
His wolf bristled under his skin at his denial, but his wolf didn’t get a say because his wolf couldn’t speak English. Reece pushed whatever instincts were begging him to find out more about Delainey’s magic aside.
He looked at Nico. “This is pack business,” he said.
Elise heaved a sigh and stood. She gave Nico a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll let you two boys talk,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to interfere.”
“You don’t have to go,” Nico reached out and trailed his hand down her arm, as if he could keep her from leaving for just another second.
Elise glanced at Reece and then back at her boyfriend. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Reece didn’t contradict her. And Nico didn’t insist she stay.
“What did Cole say about these wolves?” Nico asked once Elise was gone.
“More patrols,” said Reece. “We’ve got to be on our guard.”
“You think things are heating up?” Nico asked.
Reece shrugged. “Looks like that’s a possibility.”
Nico stared out at the forest, but his expression was inscrutable.
Words tumbled out of Reece’s mouth without his permission. “So how’s it going with you and the witch?” He wasn’t going to pull the question back now that it was out there.
Nico’s lips pulled into a grin that made something ache deep in Reece. He couldn’t remember the last time something had made him smile like Nico was smiling.
“It’s going good,” Nico said. “Really good, actually.”
The way he said it was simple, like it wasn’t complicated, like the entire world wasn’t against them. And a part of Reece kind of hated him for that.
“I’m moving out of the pack house,” Nico said.
The floor dropped out from under Reece’s chair. He set his empty coffee mug down with more force than was necessary. “What? Where? When?”
Nico finally shifted from the kitchen table chair to the bucket seat opposite Reece so neither of them was twisted awkwardly to talk.
“I’m moving into one of the cottages on the territory at the end of the week.
It’ll be nice to have a little bit more privacy, you know?
Things are better here with Elise than they were when we first started going out, but it’s still awkward, and I think she would be more comfortable staying over if it was the two of us, you know? ”
His friend was setting up a little wolf-witch love nest on pack land.
Great.
“She’s not moving in with you.” It wasn’t a question. Cole had made it clear that while Elise was allowed to stay temporarily, she wasn’t moving in. The same rule had been set for Nico. But it had been months now, and rules had a way of changing.
Nico shrugged. “No, and she doesn’t want to. She’s got a job in the city and her EMT training, but… we need a place that’s for us, you get that, right?”
Grudgingly, Reece could accept that. If he had a partner—and he wasn’t thinking about anyone in particular—he might want a little privacy as well.
It could be good to live in a pack that was as family-like as the Southern Basin, with all the care and concern that came with it, but eyes had a way of being a bit prying.
“We’re holding an unpacking/housewarming party next week,” Nico said. “All the betas and Cole are invited, and Elise wants the coven to come. Kind of a get-to-know-you thing since this is…” He trailed off.
Reece hated the idea with every fiber of his being. The last place he wanted to be was at a party that was half populated by witches. But Nico had a hopeful look in his eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” Reece said. He was going to hate every second of it.