Page 35 of The Alpha and the Baker
There were a few yips of agreement, but mostly I was met with the sound of more panting and our many paws across the ground. I didn’t mind. Shifter-speak sometimes took a while toget the hang of. Besides, I understood if the younger ones were caught up with everything around us—the scent of earth and pine in the air; the shift in the wind between the dying gasps of winter; the first full breaths of a robust spring; the sound of nocturnal insects just beginning to wake up and make their various sounds, while the natural foliage of the woods sighed gently in the wake of the evening breeze.
It was a symphony, a celebration of all that was, and all that could be with the promise of a new season. It was the exact reason that I could never quite wrap my head around shifters who lived in the city. Even with all the conveniences, I would never want to give up being able to run free, to have the wind in my hair and the light of the stars glancing down my back.
Time began to slip away, as it often did when our inner wolves were at the helm, and I let myself enjoy the time with the youngsters, gently correcting when needed, and trying to insert lessons at natural points in the run so it wouldn’t seem like they were being lectured. I hadn’t been an adult for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like to be droned at by someone whose attitude came across like they knew everything better than those younger than them. And I supposed I must have let myself get a little bit carried away in the fun of it all, because one moment I had the full group as we played in the stream, jumping back and forth, splashing in it, running over a log that crossed the banks, but the next, I realized that we were short three wolf heads.
Shit!
As an alpha, I most certainly couldn’t misplace three of the next generation. But also, a cold realization hit me. One of the missing was none other than Arietty.
Had I just lost my best friend’s kid?
I couldn’t panic. It was just as likely that they were a few feet away chasing a rabbit. I inhaled deeply, scenting the air for theirscents. Sure enough, the soft, almost warm smell of a deer was a bit further back, with a trio of familiar scents going after it.
Whew, all right.
Now the question was, what did I do with the four young wolves who hadn’t split off? Did I let them follow me, possibly slowing me down, or did I send them home and risk them possibly getting lost?
Neither option seemed all that great.
“All right, listen up!” I said with all the firmness I could muster and a good chunk of alpha voice as well. Four heads jerked in my direction, their ears at full alert and their tails pointed toward the sky. “All of you need to stay here. You can play all you want and take a nap by the log if you need to rest. But you don’t leave. And if you sense danger, you howl for all you’re worth!”
There were a couple of whimpers and one sharp yip of agreement, then I was off, chasing after the scents of the missing trio. They were more than likely fine and caught up in the thrill that came from a good hunt, but this was Arietty’s first time out as a wolf with me, so I couldn’t help but be nervous. It was my job to protect them, to keep them safe, and currently, I was failing.
It wasn’t like there were that many threats to them. We didn’t have any apex predators in our area since our scents discouraged them from coming too far into our territory. Despite how shitty Alpha Barris had been, we also hadn’t had a rogue wolf around here in about four generations. It was pretty impressive considering how much human tech had exacerbated what we called theferal wilds.
“Arietty!” I called at full volume, a tricky thing to do in shifter-speak.“James! Declan!”
No answer, but their scents were getting stronger.
Feral wilds was a term we used for a specific phenomenon where shifters lost the ability to understand the difference between the waking world and their dreams, or their separate sides. They might try to hunt and kill a deer in their naked human form, or scroll social media while a wolf. It ranged from a disability to an all-out dangerous disease akin to rabies. As far as we knew, there was no cure. I’d only ever met someone suffering from it once, a young bear shifter the Velka coven was taking care of. She’d been a sweetheart, but completely incapable of living on her own. Especially when she thought she was in a bear form and would just relieve herself wherever she was, even if it was the middle of a living room.
That was actually how Layla ended up meeting her future wife, funnily enough. She’d studied psychology and ended up volunteering at their healing house to help shifters in need. Definitely a better love story than the one we would have had.
“If you can hear me, you need to come to my voice!”
As much as I was trying to stay calm, my nerves increased as I noticed we were growing closer to the city. While the three were small enough that they wouldn’t cause a city-wide panic if they were spotted, they still looked like a trio of very large, feral dogs on the prowl.
This wasn’t my first time herding youngsters, but it was rocketing toward being the most stressful. And that feeling only intensified as we drew closer, and closer, andcloserto the city.
Crap, they were definitely in the park, weren’t they?
I cursed internally and ran faster, about to use the full effect of my alpha voice as I exited the tree line of the woods and could see the edge of the city just ahead. We were on the side that only had about maybe five minutes of suburbia, unlike the northern and eastern sides, where the subdivisions sprawled for at least fifteen minutes.
Shit, shit, shit. I needed to find them, andfast.Their scents were so strong that I knew they could only be a bit farther ahead of me, but the scent of the deer was completely gone. If they weren’t chasing that, whatwerethey doing? Shifters tended to naturally avoid cities because the smell of gasoline and tar were enough to give us a headache if we weren’t used to it.
My one solace was that there wasn’t a single hint of stress in the scents they were leaving behind. Happiness, excitement, a little bit of surprise, yes, but not a negative drop to be found. They were definitely in for a scolding, but at least I didn’t have to worry about them being terrified out of their minds because they accidentally ran into a hunter or got scared by a semi-truck.
Then I finally heard it as I reached the edge of the park I’d become more and more familiar with as of late: the happybuumf!of a young wolf who was pleased with themselves. I turned sharply in that direction and set off into an all-out sprint, grateful for the cover of night.
I was nearly caught up with them when a different familiar scent hit my nose, one of warm bread and pomegranate.
No, there wasnoway!
I couldn’t believe it, but as I bounded through the playground and tore toward the same bush I’d used for cover twice now, I saw two of the young wolves sitting in the grass, watching idly as Arietty—of course, it was Arietty—trotted right up to a jogger.
A jogger that turned out to be Felicia. What were the chances? If I were conspiracy-minded, I would have thought the whole thing was a setup, but there was no way the young wolf could have known where Felicia lived.
“Oh, hey there!” I heard the baker practically coo as she slowed to a stop. Although my color vision wasn’t nearly as good in my wolf form, I could tell she looked stunning in a black-and-green runner’s outfit that reminded me of a villainous cartoon character from my younger years. Maybe my impression thatshe wasn’t that into cardio wasn’t as accurate as I had thought. “I recognize you, don’t I? You’re, uh… uh…”
