Page 45 of Witchwolf

It got... complicated. There was no way not to take advantage—hell, no way not to get maneuvered into playing favorites, or at least appearing to. And while most of my pack might give me a pass on that one, no, it was easier to keep things separate, leave no one wondering where they stood.

Easier to settle for one-off encounters than risk complications like the situation I was currently in.

I sighed, shaking the tension out of my shoulders. Yeah, most alphas might not tolerate getting questioned, but I was never going to be like that.

Well, not on purpose.

“He came into Howl the night before he started here.”

Kent’s brows shot up.

A new flash of shame shot through me to see the direction of his thoughts and how they’d mirrored my own doubt. That hadn’t been fair of me, and it wasn’t fair of Kent now.

“Pure coincidence,” I insisted. “He was looking to blow off steam. He didn’t know who I was until?—”

“Until that first meeting? Shit. No wonder you both looked like you were gonna explode.” Kent snorted.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

No reason to tell Kent I’d Awakened him, that Dakota hadn’t even known who and what he was before he’d fallen into my bed. Yeah, it might get out in the office, but not because of me.

“Seems like you trust him, though, sending him off with Igarashi.”

“You brought her up here. I’m not trying to keep her away from anyone.” That’d just stir up trouble. If Igarashi wanted a look at our structure, fine. I wasn’t hiding anything.

Some packs took advantage of everyone’s labor, but those packs didn’t tend to have companies with magic trading options.

Kent shrugged. “I just mean, he’s awfully new to be showing her around.”

He... wasn’t wrong. I wanted Dakota at my side, trusted him with Igarashi and with Crescent as a whole. Why was that?

Well, for my wolf, it was simple. He was ours.

I could rely as much on him as he could rely on me.

But was I being naive? Even when I pressed myself to consider the possibility, I couldn’t help but immediately dismiss it. I trusted Dakota. He wouldn’t betray our pack.

We’d hired him specifically for this role—to liaise with Igarashi.

“He’ll do fine. He’s better at being frank with the Igarashi company than I am.”

Kent pursed his lips, lifted a brow. “If you’re sure.” He sucked in his cheeks. “Don’t know how I feel about letting her have free rein of the place though.”

I sank into my office chair. “We need this contract if we’re going to open up new markets. I’m not going to treat her like an outsider when we’re going to have to rely on each other moving forward.”

Kent hooked his thumbs in his pockets and shrugged. “Whatever,alpha. Let her stick those tiny little hands in all our confidential info.”

He kicked his foot out and turned to go, but came up short when Seth towered in the door to my office.

Seth was enormous, bigger than me. And if he had wanted to be in charge, we might’ve had problems. But he’d been my best friend since before we’d left the old pack, had my back at every turn.

In those early years, when I lamented how I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing and he’d make a better alpha, Seth had snorted, elbowed me, and assured me I knew as well as anybody ever did.

He wasn’t much for big speeches, but he was steadfast and loyal.

Now, he took care of security for all of Crescent.

And when he smiled at Kent, his teeth flashing and the light reflecting off his dark brown skin, IfeltKent flinch at the presence of a larger man.

---