Page 105 of The Alpha and the Baker
“That’s simple, we, the contestants will judge. I’m sure that I can trust your word to be completely impartial.”
“Of course. We fairies do not need to rely on trickery to win.” Historically, that wasveryfalse, but I wasn’t about to call them out to their face. “We accept your terms.”
“Fantastic,” I said, grinning wide even though it felt like my heart was about to beat right out of my chest and ricochet itself all the way to space. “Write up the contract, and then we’ll get down to business.”
“We will need a few minutes to hammer out the… finer terms.”
“Take as long as you need,” I said somewhat flippantly. “I’m going to reconvene with my friends.”
“Do as you wish.”
“I plan to.”
If the fairies thought anything of my snark, they didn’t say so, but that didn’t stop me from trembling as I stepped into Cas’s arms.
“What are you doing, sweetheart?” he whispered, one arm wrapping firmly around my back while his other hand cupped my cheek. God, the touch was affirming and anchoring in ways I didn’t know I needed, pulling me back from the ledge of anxiety I’d been sliding toward. So far, everything was going exactly according to plan, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified. I was playing with fire times about a billion and was acutely aware of it.
“Saving all our skins,” I said firmly.
He held me like that for a while, until I felt my heartbeat calm down. It was only once my breathing returned to normal that I felt another, much smaller hand on my back.
“What are you planning, child?”
I recognized the voice ofAbuelitaRamirez before I even turned fully around, and it was hard not to smile at her words. They were full of concern, but I was pretty sure I picked up some pride in there too.
“Hopefully something to fix all of this.” I didn’t like to be purposefully vague, but I had to. I didn’t want the fairies to overhear anything too juicy or useful.
“I knew I had a feeling about you. You’re really something else, aren’t you,mija?”
“I certainly hope I am.”
Sal arrived a beat later and escorted his grandmother back to her seat, only for him to return almost immediately. “You know that fairies don’t play fair, right?”
“Of course they don’t,” I hissed. I wished I knew whether the fae could hear just as sharply as shifters did, but try as I might to find that information online, I’d come up empty. And now it felt like it was too late to ask with them present.
“And yet you’re going to sign a contract anyway?” I nodded, and Sal let out a frustrated sound. “You have to understand that this is insane.”
“Yeah. It is. But I think it’s worth it.”
“Please, let us all read the contract with you,” Cas asked, the first thing he’d spoken since we’d embraced.
“Of course. We have to make sure they don’t slip anything unscrupulous in.”
He heaved the softest sigh of relief, and I rested my head against his chest. The secrecy and pressure had built up insideme over two weeks, so I was glad the cat was out of the bag now. No more hiding.
Only baking.
“The contract is complete.”
The same woman as before turned her phone toward us, and sure enough, another ridiculously long scroll of paper unrolled from the bottom.
“You, the human…” she trailed off, looking at me expectantly.
“Nice try, I’ll give you my name if you win.”
The fairy gave me a slight smirk. Yeah, they were just as tricky as I’d been warned. “Of course. You, the human baker, have challenged each of us fairies to your custom of a bake-off. One round, which shall be judged by the participants. Should you win, both packs will be released from the stipulations of their own contracts but still afforded protection from the modern age with our magic. When you lose, you shall willingly offer up your entire name, swearing over the last of your family line and all that came before it. There will no longer be a you, be a history of you, or anyone you’d ever loved.”
“ShouldI lose.”
