Page 104 of The Alpha and the Baker
Ever since Aiyana’s quinceañera, I’d either been preparing for the bake-off, searching everything I could about fairies online, or casually asking what questions I could about them from elders without arousing suspicion.
I’d learned awholelot, but there was always the risk that something I’d picked up online was actually incorrect and my entire scheme would come tumbling down.
“Fine,” the man in the sharp, black suit said. His dark hair was slicked back like some sort of Wall Street shark from the eighties. “You’ve issued your challenge, now declare your prize.”
Now this was actually one of the hardest parts. What I was about to ask wasbig, and it was perfectly possible for them to turn me down. Then we’d be at square zero.
No, I had to make the challenge appealing enough for them tohaveto accept it.
Which meant I had to make it look like I was going to lose.
“My prize is that I want you to release the restrictions on the Ramirez and McCallister packs that keeps them from being able to interact with each other. I also want you to release them from the bonds to their land and allow them to negotiate their own border.”
“That’s quite the tall?—”
“AndI want you to make reparations to the Ramirez pack with regard to the land you’ve stolen from them and the injustices upon their people. Those will require you to directly negotiate with them, but an agreement must be reached within the next five years.”
Silence. Dead silence. The fairies stared at me like I was insane, and who knew, perhaps I was. After all, I was challenging extremely powerful being based on things I’d learned after scrolling through message boards and the like. I was well acquainted with the phrase “don’t believe everything you read on the internet,”but I had chosen to ignore it.
“What could you possibly offer that we would possibly agree to such a preposterous request?”
That was the thing about fairies. They could all just say no, and that would be that. I’d have to pick a different prize. Except they were intensely curious by nature and no doubt wanted to know what the insane human thought she had that could be worth uniting the packs that they had purposely kept separate for centuries.
“I offer you two things. The first, is my name.”
The man scoffed, and a couple of the fairies with him chuckled in a way that would have them perfectly cast for a Mean Girls revival. “A human name is hardly worth?—”
Apparently, I was throwing caution to the wind, because I interrupted him yetagain.“No, you misunderstand. Not just my given name. If I lose, I will give you myfullname. And as thelast daughter of my family line, you will have the entire legacy of every single person born in my bloodline. A vast history of memories and time, all yours.”
“You can’t!” Cas said as he touched my arm.
I looked away from the fairies for the first time since I’d made my presence known and patted his hand twice. “It’s okay,” I murmured, gazing into those beautiful green eyes of his and patting his arm. “Trust me.”
He wanted to argue with me, I could tell it as easily as blinking, but after the internal struggle had played across his face, he nodded and took a step back.
I wasn’t going to forget that. If we managed to get out of the situation, I would always cherish that he’d gone out on a limb for me both times I’d asked him to. That wasn’t something every couple could say.
Then again, I didn’t know how many couples had to deal with generational pack rivalries and megalomaniacal fairies cosplaying as the Wolf on Wall Street.
“Intriguing…” the fairy murmured, rubbing his chin like an old-timey villain. I figured that some habits die hard. “You mentioned a second offer?”
“Yes, my second offer is that my challenge is one that you surely can’t lose.”
That had yet another look of shock crossing their elfin, pointy features, and I took satisfaction in that.
“We ask that you clarify.”
“I may not know much about your world, but I have heard and read many times that your people are renowned for sweets. That even the entire art of baking can be contributed to knowledge you shared with humans over the millennia.”
“That is true.”
“Right. Then let’s stick with the theme of the day then, shall we? I challenge you to a bake-off.”
“A… bake-off?”
“Yup, one round, winner takes all. I bake one thing, and every single one of you that wants to enter bakes something. If a single one of you wins, I lose. The only way I succeed in this challenge is if I beat every single one of you.”
“And who will judge this? Surely not these…wolves. We cannot trust them to be unbiased.”
