Page 13 of The Alpha and the Baker
“There you are! I’ve been running all over trying to find you. That baker lady says she needs you to sign something so she can head out.”
I hadn’t missed her? Well, wasn’t that a lovely surprise?
“She did? Where is she?”
“She wasn’t by the dessert table?” At forty-two years old, Penny was only twelve years older than me, but she had been one of my babysitters when I was younger. I never really needed one, as I was fairly well-behaved—or too well-behaved, as Chris put it—but my mother liked that Penny got me out of the houseto play instead of training or studying to take over from my father.
“No, I just came from there.”
“Huh. Maybe she’s at her van? Here, I’ll walk you to it. Getting my steps in today, that’s for sure.”
I grinned at that and followed her to the parking area where the pack members who didn’t live locally parked their cars. Truthfully, almost everyone in our pack lived on the ancestral lands we had left, butalmostdidn’t meanallby any means. There were some who chose to live in the city, a few who chose to live a county or two over, and several who had married into other packs but still liked to visit a couple of times a year. Hence the wholereunion.
“Ah, there’s her van. Oh, but I don’t see her.”
I followed Penny’s finger where she was pointing to the lot, and sure enough, there was indeed a modest delivery van there. “I’ll go see if she’s inside it,” I offered. “Thanks for showing me where she parked.”
“No problem. For what it’s worth, she was a real sweetheart. It’s not often we have humans here, but she’s really lovely. And if the cakes taste as good as they look, maybe we’ll just have to hire her again.”
“If Auntie Letitia would allow it,” I joked. “Don’t want to interfere with her territory.”
“Are you kidding me? I bet that poor woman wants a break. Goodness knows she’s been doing the baking for ages.”
“You think so?” I’d never thought about that. Auntie Letitia was so adamant about carrying on tradition and passing down her knowledge that I’d assumed she loved baking for all of our events, especially now that she had her own growing crew. But maybe, just like Beverly and Jeb had handed the responsibility to her, she wanted to step down, too.
Huh, I suddenly had a lot more to think about.
But that could wait until after I paid the baker, maybe flirted a little, then got back to the festivities. I was sure there was less than ten minutes until it was time to start digging in, and if I lollygagged much longer, all the deviled eggs would be gone.
I loved deviled eggs. Not as much as smoked meat, but it was pretty high up there. As long as they didn’t have relish in them, of course. I’d been made fun of plenty in my life for being a picky eater, but I absolutelyhatedrelish. Loved pickles, though, so go figure on that one.
“Felicia?” I called, rounding the back of the van as Penny hurried off, no doubt to wrangle her husband and twin teens to get in line for their first plates. But there was no answer, and frankly, her scent had faded just enough to tell me that she hadn’t been around in the past few minutes.
Huh, perhaps she’d gone to the bathroom? After all, it was a bit of a drive to my place. Would it be creepy for me to just wander over to the porta potties we’d rented and plopped at the far end of the field for those who didn’t want to haul ass all the way inside?
Maybe, but I was going to do it anyway.
Except she wasn’t there, which was probably a good thing, but it did leave me confused. Where on earth could she be? I knew she hadn’t left because her van was here, but if she wasn’t by the cakes or bathrooms, where else would she go? And more importantly, considering that my pack didn’t know we had a human walking among us,what had she seen?
That thought had me turning on my heel and heading back toward the tent. Maybe someone had seen where she’d gone. Hopefully, she was chatting to people who knew she was human.
The thing was, I was pretty sure that most of the adults would be able to tell that she was a human and not a part of the pack. But there were so many kids around that I was trulyconcerned one of them might accidentally let something slip. Or even worse, shift right in front of her.
I was about halfway to the tent when a familiar voice called out to me.
“Caaaaas, can I have help tying my shoes?”
I paused and took a breath to see none other than little Bobby himself standing maybe a dozen or so feet away from me. “Not right now, Bobby.”
“But I can’t remember what I do once I gots the bunny ears! That’s all.”
“Just five minutes and I’ll be right back.”
“Okies. I’ll wait!”
I was relieved and thought for a fleeting moment that was that, but I should have known better because Bobby took off at breakneck speed only to trip over his untied shoes and fell flat on his face.
Shit.
