Page 15 of The Alpha and the Baker
Mrs. Parker also loved sweet tea with a vengeance and made several different varieties from her garden that she was also quite proud of. So, maybe the drinks table?
It was the best lead I had, so I headed there. It was just a couple of dozen feet from where I’d spoken to Gammy McCallister, but I had been so focused on getting to the bathroom that I hadn’t even glanced in that direction. Were I in my wolf form, I could have easily tracked her scent despite all the other intense aromas around, but I couldn’t exactly transform into a giant wolf without her getting alittlesuspicious. As an alpha, I was larger than the average wolf shifter, and the average wolf shifter wasfarlarger than the average wolf.
As I strode over to the drinks table, I was relieved when I saw a woman with glossy black hair standing next to Mrs. Parker at the table. Already I could pick up on slight hints of pomegranate, and hope flooded me.
“Felicia!” I called, a bit breathless as I jogged up to her. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“There you are!” she drawled, beaming at me like I was someone important to her. I was a bit taken aback by the exuberance of her greeting until my eyes landed on the cup in her hand.
Punch.
Mrs. Parker had given her punch.
Punch that was made by shifters,forshifters.
“I was told you needed my signature?” I said, hoping against all hope that she hadn’t taken a sip yet. But when she blinked slowly at me and swayed, I realized I was a touch too late.
“Yup! I sure do! By the way, this isdelicious!”
“I’m sure it is,” I said with an awkward laugh before glaring at Mrs. Parker. “But it’s a bit strong, and you’ve got a long drive back home, so let’s get you something else, okay? Ushumansgotta take care of ourselves!”
At that, Mrs. Parker’s eyes widened, and I seriously wanted to facepalm. Somehow, in the matter of an hour, I’d had a human hang around unsupervised all over our celebration area and then get drunk off punch that was very muchnotmeant for her.
“Wait, this has alcohol in it?” she exclaimed, handing it over to me. “Oh man, I gotta be sober to get home.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, chuckling softly as I shooed Mrs. Parker away. I’d give her a stern talking-to later, but I couldn’t exactly fault her for not realizing what was going on. There were somany shifter scents, food smells, and everything else going on that it was hard to tell whether someone was human, especially since all the young ones running around smelled the same. And I had to recognize that although I had a running mental list of every single person in our pack, a lot of the others didn’t. There were far too many of us for that. It wasentirely possible that Mrs. Parker saw Gammy talking to Felicia like she would to Melodie and just assumed everything was copacetic.
God, what a mess.
“Here, how about one of these juices?” I asked, reaching over to the kid’s drink table and pulling a little plastic barrel out of a bucket of ice. I expected her to object and insist that she was an adult, but instead she gasped and took it in both hands as if it were something precious.
“Oh my god, I haven’t seen one of these in forever!”
“Well, it’s all yours.” I couldn’t stop myself from grinning at her enthusiasm. “Come on, let’s go have a seat, shall we? I’m sure Gammy would love to continue your conversation while I sign whatever I need to.”
“Sure!” Without warning, she looped her arm through mine, having already poked a hole through the silver foil on top of the barrel with her finger. “Lead the way!”
My brain almost went offline for a moment as it registered so many things all at once. The heat from her body where it was pressed against mine, the strong muscle of her forearms and biceps, the soft swell of her hips. And then there was her scent again, even more overpowering than before. I wanted to drown in it.
What was going on? I hadn’t been so drawn to a scent in ages, and certainly never to a human. But it was like I was inexplicably drawn to Felicia in a way that I couldn’t quite describe.
Strange.
But I did manage to get myself moving before there was toolong of a pause, and a few moments later, Felicia was sitting beside Gammy again.
“Ah, you found her,” the older woman said, clapping her hands together. “It appears that we’ve had a bit of amisunderstanding, young lady. I thought you were my great-grandniece who helps my niece bake the cakes.”
“Oh!” Felicia said, smiling broadly before laughing. “No, I’m just a baker.” She swallowed a big swig of her juice. “And I am tipsy!”
“Tipsy?”
“Elizabeth had Felicia here sample the punch,” I said with plenty of weight to my voice.
“Oooooooh.” The sound came from the entire group of four elders, and it would have been comical if I wasn’t worried about the situation as a whole. I couldn’t send Felicia home by herself in such a state—she said herself that she wasn’t safe to drive. So that meant I would have to drive her home, then run back here. I could only hope Felicia didn’t ask too many questions.
I would do it, obviously, because someone had to, and it made sense to be me. But I also was going to miss the very event I’d been working so hard on all day, and frankly, been looking forward to. Sure, perhaps I didn’t have a mate to share it with, or children, but that didn’t mean I didn’t cherish the times of celebration Ididget with my family.
“All right, you guys enjoy each other’s company for a bit,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed. “I’m going to go make some arrangements, then I’ll drive Felicia home.”
