Chapter Fifteen #2
“Zombify,” he muttered, and shook his head.
“For me to do something like that, they’d have to be near me either physically or mentally, and I’m not sure they are.
Something’s going on with the pack right now—a separation, a line drawn between the loyalists and the rest. I felt it, and thought it was just me, but other wolves have mentioned it, too.
That they were just suddenly cut off from the alpha. ”
“He kicked them out of the pack?”
“Effectively. He’s severed the alpha bond.
They’re still technically in his pack but receive no benefit.
This means a lot of beta wolves will suffer.
They depend on the strength of the alpha to change and heal.
” He squeezed his hands into fists. “I’ve watched too many powerful shifters play political games with weaker shifters’ lives, and it enrages me.
Having alpha strength is like having enormous wealth—both are a gift, and gifts are meant to be shared. ”
“You’re a good guy, Ronan Williams. And you’re going to make an amazing leader.”
“Thanks. I never wanted this again, but sometimes we get what we need and not what we want.” He slid an arm around my shoulders. “FYI, the radio in your bedroom is set to KLXX and your comforter is turned down, waiting for you. Go get some rest.”
“That’s a big fat lie, Ronan, because you stormed straight into the house after me, and I know for a fact you didn’t go into my room.”
“Yet.”
I took his outstretched hand and let him lead me into the bedroom, where he closed the blinds, switched on the radio and turned down the bed sheets.
Exhaustion was evident in every line of his body and yet, here he was, taking care of me.
I didn’t say it aloud again, but he really was going to be a hell of an alpha leader.
He crawled in behind me as Jackson Browne sang “Somebody’s Baby”—whatever mage/psychic/empath was running that damn station wasn’t even pretending anymore, because it was way too early for the eighties hour—and held me tight against his body. He let out a sigh that held a world of worry.
“We’re going to find her,” I said.
He didn’t respond, just hummed along with the melody of the song, stroked my hair, and held me tight.
He was gone when I woke up.
I’d slept for a grand total of four hours, which left me feeling more tired than before I’d crawled into bed.
Going back to sleep wasn’t an option, so I dragged myself out of bed and slouched into the kitchen. The breakfast dishes had been washed and set in the drainer to dry.
The man was in the middle of the biggest challenge of his life, and he’d taken five minutes before leaving to clean up the kitchen. If I hadn’t been all in before, I sure as heck would be now.
The day was hot and humid enough to be annoying. My hair stuck to my face and got in the way of my work, so I braided it into one fat braid that trailed down my back, like I did before bed sometimes. When temps rose in the low desert, fashion took a back seat to expediency.
The boys and I spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon crafting healing charms for our allies.
We carefully handled each blood sample, even retaining what we could after the spells were complete—in case we needed to make more than one, goddess help us.
When all was said and done, we’d destroy the samples, but for now? Best to hold onto them.
Halfway through our preparations, I noticed Cecil wearing a pain charm on his head.
“Hungover?” I asked. “You’ve been hitting the booze more than usual. Something wrong?”
Cecil made a clicking sound that sounded like the verbal equivalent of a middle finger.
“Is it living with me that’s got you upset?”
He shook his head. A light dusting of pollen fell into his beard.
“Something else then.” When he said nothing, I asked, “You can’t drink your problems away. Please tell Fennel or me if you need us. We’re here for you.”
Fennel let out a soft, “Meow.”
He gave us both a stony look and went back to work.
Ida, Cecil, and Fennel accompanied me to drop the charms off. After expending so much magic, I was exhausted in mind and magic, and my body wasn’t feeling so great, either. Climbing behind the wheel of a car in my mental state would’ve been irresponsible.
We took the Mini because Ida enjoyed maneuvering the “snappy little car” around town now and then. Also, because it was easier to take on short trips—far easier than docking Ida’s ’85 LTD.
Now that car was a lesson in perseverance.
First, you had to spend half the rent budget on a tank of gas then you had to pilot it into town on roads not meant for a car with a front seat wide enough to accommodate a family of four.
Next, you had to wait for a parking space big enough and hope there was enough space on either side that you didn’t have to exit through the window like a race car driver.
The Mini went everywhere with ease. Sure, the steering wheel tried to wrestle you off the road if you went too far over the speed limit, but it was a better choice for our needs even if it was the shade of a radioactive pumpkin.
I dropped off the Melliza cousins’ heal charms first. It was a short and sweet visit that scored me lavender scones for everyone in the car.
“Should’ve grabbed a couple of cappuccinos, too,” Ida said, as she pulled back onto the road.
“I didn’t want to wait for Kiv to make them. We need to get these delivered. Floyd’s escalating things with Ronan, and I don’t want our people to be unprepared.”
“Right. Next time, we should call ahead so they’ll have our drinks ready.”
That was my bestie, intentionally missing the point for the sake of coffee. “Beau closes around six. It’ll be faster to deliver to him first and hit the other La Paloma residences on the way back to Smokethorn.”
“Good plan.” She hung a gasp-inducing left off a city street and pulled onto a farm road. She hit the gas until the car vibrated then eased up. “Who’s after Beau?”
“Ronan’s staff, Calvin and Jenny, and a couple of wolves Ronan asked me to make one for.”
“Wish I’d worn my Cannonball Run T-shirt,” Ida said. “The moment seems to call for a refined level of solemnity. Did I ever tell you about the time I met Dom DeLuise?”
“Yes. In an L.A. grocery store. You said if he hadn’t been desperately in love with his wife you would’ve jumped his bones in a hot second because he made you laugh so hard you couldn’t breathe— Ida, watch out for that combine.”
From behind us came the sound of a seatbelt snicking.
“You two should’ve been belted in way before now,” she yelled as she off-roaded her way around the enormous piece of farm machinery, kicking up a massive plume of silty dust.
I glanced over my shoulder. Fennel had belted both himself and the gnome into the passenger seat, since the car seat they normally used was full of charms. Cecil’s hat was tugged firmly over his nose and eyes, and Fennel’s ears were low and sideways.
“Sorry,” I mouthed.
We made it to La Paloma in record time. Beau was with a customer when I arrived, so I caught his eye and tucked the burlap-wrapped charm behind the counter. I nodded to a couple of people I knew who were milling around the store, sidestepped their attempts at conversation, and flew out the door.
One down.
“Ida, pedestrians have the right of way!” I gripped the dash with both hands.
“C’mon, Betty. I saw them, but the old guy with the cane was slow enough to pass,” she said.
“Could you please not mow down our senior-citizen population? Seems like a cruel reward for a life long-lived. Plus, you’re driving my car.”
Cecil chittered.
Fennel meowed.
“Good graves, all you guys do is complain,” Ida muttered. “I wasn’t even close that time.”
Calvin and Jenny were at the pub with most of the staff, so I got to kill two birds with that stone.
Ronan wasn’t there—I knew it the second I walked inside.
The man had a strength of presence that dominated a room.
He’d kept a lot of his alpha ability under wraps while he was playing the “good son of the alpha” game, but some things you can’t hide.
“The boss was here for a few minutes two hours ago, but we haven’t seen him since,” Karen Zurka, his assistant manager, informed me when I went in.
Karen was a hard-life sixty, her body wiry, her shoulders defensive, her close-cropped black hair drizzled with gray. The rat shifter was a petite, five-foot nothing, but I wouldn’t take her on without casting a protection spell first.
“He’s probably not happy about you all gathering here,” I said.
“Yeah. He warned us about what was coming and offered to buy us all plane tickets to someplace tropical.” Her eyes pinched until they were like tiny cracks in her dark brown face. “As if we’d abandon him.”
The staff grumbled their thoughts on that, all agreeing with Karen. They milled around the pub, some stacking chairs on tables, others sweeping and mopping.
Karen went back to taking photos of the pub’s liquor inventory. “They’ll attack here. No question about it. I’m just making sure the insurance has everything they need for when we file a claim for the losses.”
I wanted to disagree, but she was right. It was a given that Floyd would come for Ronan’s business and home. Surprising he hadn’t done it already. Protection spells helped, but they could only do so much if the witch wasn’t on site to feed it constant power.
She set a dusty bottle of rum that looked like it had been chiseled out of a treasure chest at the bottom of Davy Jones’s locker on the bar, slid her phone from her pocket, took a photo, and put the bottle back.
With the toe of her sneaker, she nudged a crate filled with booze-sized wooden boxes under the counter and pulled out another.
“Some of it I’m taking home for safekeeping. No sense in risking this case of The Glenlivet 21, for instance.”
“Can I help you?”
“Nah, but thanks. Alpha Lydia’s sending some rats over. They’ll knock it out quick. We’re an industrious group.”
“Can I do anything?” I shouldn’t have offered with Ida and the boys waiting in the car and charms to deliver, but I had to say something. They were all doing so much for Ronan, taking risks he’d die before asking them to take.
“Yeah, you can.”
“Anything,” I said.
She lowered her phone, looked me directly in the eye.
“Do whatever you have to do to make sure you take down that son-of-a-bastard alpha leader once and for all. There are a lot of us out here risking everything. Make no mistake, we’re doing it of our own accord, but by the gods, if that wolf isn’t a pile of ashes at the end of this, no one in this city will be safe.
Not a single paranormal. He and his wolves will kill us all. ”