Chapter 6
Aurora
She heard a soft knock at her door.
“Come in,” she called. She finished applying lip gloss before doing a quick check in the mirror.
The door didn’t open.
A flurry of unease rose in her stomach as she thought back to what Sue had said earlier about the positioning of this house and the danger that presented. But would someone hellbent on killing her really knock on the door?
She looked through the peephole to find Sue at the edge of the porch, hands in his pockets, looking out at the street.
She pulled open the door. “Did you not hear me?”
He turned to her. He wore a fitted black knit cardigan over a luxurious brown V-neck, paired with brown trousers and shoes.
With his hands resting casually in his pockets, combined with his posture, it gave him an effortless, self-assured vibe.
With his striking handsomeness, and adding in his menacing and rugged aura, he stood out.
It was the perfect outfit for what Nessa wanted.
“I did,” he answered simply.
“Right, well, I just need to spritz on a little perfume and I’m ready.”
She left the door open so he could continue to loiter without being cut off. This time he entered the house, clearly knowing that once the door was open, the blood ward was not in effect.
“Are you afraid to give blood or what?” she called, smirking as she created an air mist of fragrance before walking through.
He waited to answer until she was back in the room and had grabbed her handbag. “I didn’t know I was on the approved list.”
“A detail you assumed I’d forgotten?”
His eyebrows lifted incrementally. “Easier to just wait than find a way to draw blood and possibly still be left standing on the porch.”
She grabbed her phone from the coffee table. His eyes flicked to it, a question in their depths, although he didn’t voice it.
“What?” she asked, curious.
“You’re close with them. Ulric and Jasper.”
“Yeah. Very. I’ll admit to you, since you saw it in L.A.
, that they are my life raft. They’ve got my back.
I can let my hair down, and they’re always standing by in case I want to pull back in a hurry.
They’re always ready to leave if I say so, no matter what they’re doing.
Or they help facilitate shenanigans.” She shrugged.
“It’s freeing, being with them. They don’t judge me.
Ever. They don’t care about my background or my standing in the pack.
They tell me how pretty I am when I dress up without making it sexually charged, or how proud of me they are with each win.
They’re just…my buddies. They are very cool guys who want nothing more than friendship. It’s…special. They’re special.”
“I reckon you also guard their backs when the need calls for it.”
She grinned. “I have been known to put someone that treated them badly down hard. Friendship is give and take.”
“Indeed,” he growled, and she wondered which stories he’d heard. Ulric and Jasper were the ship captains of the S.S. Shenanigans. There was no telling what they’d get up to. It was a riot.
She followed him out of the house and closed the door, making sure it was latched properly. It had to be for the ward to work. She always made sure to check it.
A sleek gray Range Rover waited beside the curb with gleaming tires and shining rims.
She whistled. “Are we showing off our salary, Susan?”
He used to drive a brown Honda with chipping paint, something he picked up when he’d decided to stay, not caring what it looked like, just that it worked.
“Company car.” He circled around and opened the passenger door before walking to the driver’s side.
Being half feral and roaming the wilds hadn’t rubbed away his innate need to be a gentleman.
“We need to show well when the other packs come. There is no wealth in the shifter world like Ivy House wealth. Austin wants to make sure they know that. It’ll cut the legs out from under the generational packs that prop themselves up by their bank accounts.
Austin and Jessie will show they don’t need to play the game—they’ve already won it. It will shift focus to their goals.”
Aurora breathed in the new-car smell as she closed her door with a cush. Luxurious leather seats matched the leather on the dash. He pushed the button to start it. “Plush.”
“This will go off road if I need it.” He pulled away from the curb.
“And scratch the paint?”
The little twitch of his head said he knew it was a joke. His answer was serious, though. “If we’re besieged by mages, I don’t want to be dead in the water.”
“Truer words.”
He turned in the opposite direction as Ivy House. “We need to make a stop before dinner,” he explained.
The soft sounds of jazz played on the radio as he took a winding road toward a recently acquired farm.
Jessie and Austin planned to turn it into more housing.
Mimi had already gotten fast-track approval for a condo complex in another part of town and had broken ground a couple months ago.
She was not one to be stopped by red tape, making it known that she would not suffer bureaucratic bullshit when providing something the community needed.
People tended to just get out of Mimi’s way.
This area would be another opportunity for housing, though they weren’t yet sure what type that might be. Probably family homes available for purchase so magical people could start putting down roots. This place would not always be a military zone.
“If they don’t have their bank accounts to prop them up, they’ll find something else,” Aurora said as Sue pulled onto an offshoot dirt road. Dusk darkened the horizon.
“It’s the thing they reach for first. As they scramble, we’ll have moved on to things that really matter.
The smaller packs will rally, we think. Then, when the big, generational packs choose something else that makes them superior, we’ll cut that down, too.
They don’t have anything we can’t combat. We plan to prove it…and then move on.”
Menace infused his tone. She knew Uncle Auzzie would’ve delivered that speech the same way.
Probably had when they’d discussed it. They did not plan to give these alphas, sitting on inherited thrones, any leeway.
Anything they thought made them better than other packs would be thrown in their faces.
The convocation wasn’t about status, it was about protection and efficiency, and Uncle Auzzie was prepared to ram that message down their throats, his acceptance within their community be damned.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess you are taking me out here to kill me,” she said when Sue stopped beside a dying tree, split by a lightning storm at one point or another.
“How could I? You’ve proven you don’t stay down.” He pushed open his door.
“Am I following you?” she asked.
His posture seemed ambivalent, but when she got out to follow, she didn’t mistake the pride taking over. She wasn’t required to, but he applauded her for wanting to get involved.
As if I’d ever stay behind. She rolled her eyes. He clearly didn’t know her very well.
Two wolves in human form waited at the boundary line. They looked over when Sue and she emerged from the trees. A field stretched out behind them, then more trees, and finally the gradual incline of the land.
“Report,” Sue barked.
Rammi, the woman in charge of this section of the perimeter, turned to face them. “Magic.” She pointed at a spot about ten feet away. “A few hours old. Leading up to the boundary and then disappearing.”
Tingles worked up Aurora’s spine. They’d been waiting for this. Sebastian was working on combating this exact issue, working so much that he had to now be drugged to sleep by Mr. Tom.
Aurora started forward at the same moment Sue did, finding the scent. The tang of it made her nose crinkle.
“The magic smells powerful.” She followed it back to the boundary as he continued into the field after its root.
She stopped where it did, bending to check the tracks.
A woman, by the looks of it, short in stature, judging by the small, thin feet.
Soft-soled shoes. She’d probably be good at sneaking.
She’d stopped right here. Then the smell and tracks disappeared, a trick of the mind, Sebastian said.
The impression of the person would still make a mark on the earth, but the magic prevented the evidence from being noticed.
He had a revealing spell to counteract it, but it only worked to reveal potions with less power.
“You don’t see tracks or smell anything after this point?” Aurora asked the wolves. All scouts and boundary personnel were required to take the revealing potion.
“No. Nothing. Not even a hint,” Remmi said.
They had something stronger than Sebastian had made. He’d said they likely would.
She backtracked a little and then walked forward, stopping where the person did, and then continuing on that trajectory.
Someone very good would’ve immediately changed course, but that was someone trained without concealing spells.
Jump in a stream to erase your tracks and you had to be conscious where you emerged so they couldn’t pick up your trail again.
This person knew that wasn’t an issue. Hopefully.
She wound through the trees, avoiding rocks and bushes, as someone with soft-soled shoes might. She emerged into a little alcove to find tire tracks. They led toward the corner of the field, which was mostly flat, before meeting the main road.
She swore under her breath. Sue met her there, looking in the direction the tracks went.
“They have help,” she said without inflection.
He swore under his breath as well. He turned away for a moment, and she could read far more in his body language than he would probably like. Anger, unease, fear…and helplessness. He didn’t know how to combat this.
He’d be embarrassed to admit any of that. Alphas weren’t supposed to show that kind of defeat. But she knew the job. She was on the same page.