Heartsong (Green Creek 3)

He didn’t look as happy about this one. “Okay.”

I hugged him close, and he giggled as he pressed his nose against my neck and inhaled. “And I promise to work on the blue thing. Thanks for telling me. I’m glad I have someone like you watching my back.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he whispered. “Alpha said you were sick and in bed and that’s why we haven’t seen you in a few days, even when it was the full moon. I thought wolves didn’t get sick.”

My hands shook. A few days. A few days. But that would mean—“Why aren’t you in school?”

He laughed. “It’s Saturday, silly. I don’t have to go to school on Saturdays.”

“Of course not,” I said, and my skin was buzzing. “No one goes to school on Saturdays.”

He broke away from me as a group of boys on the other side of the house called his name. “Bye, Robbie!” he called over his shoulder as he ran off to his friends.

I stayed behind the house for a long time.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” Michelle said, sounding irritable. She pressed a button on her keyboard, and the computer chimed. “It never does what I want it to do, and it needs to update every five seconds.”

“Maybe not that much.”

“It seems like it.”

“It doesn’t help that you’re banging on it.”

She sighed. “Sometimes hitting things makes me feel better.”

“Be that as it may, I don’t know if electronics respond to physical violence. You can’t Alpha your way through a Windows update.”

She shoved back from the desk, her chair bumping against the bookcase. It rattled quietly as she stood. “Just… can you fix it, please? I don’t have time to deal with it, and you understand these things better than I ever will. There’s a pack coming in next week, and I don’t want to have to spend my time worrying about this.”

“Anything big?” I asked. Normally I’d keep my mouth shut, but I was her second by her own words, and I felt a little braver than normal.

She eyed me for a moment before shaking her head. “No. Passing through and want to pay their respects.” She stood from her chair, motioning for me to take it. “I have to go to a meeting in town. Can you take care of this by the time I get back?”

“Do I need to be involved?”

“I don’t believe so. I want Ezra to check the wards around Caswell. Make sure they’re intact. Can’t be too careful these days. All manner of things can try and sneak through.”

I thought they were being paranoid, but so long as I didn’t have to walk with Ezra as he fucked around with the wards, it was fine with me. It was long and boring, and listening to Ezra mutter at invisible walls did not make for an enjoyable afternoon. “I’ll take care of it. It’ll be done by the time you get back. You work too hard. Especially since it’s Saturday.”

She didn’t flinch. Instead she looked relieved. “Thank you. You’re a lifesaver.” She headed for the door as I sat down in her chair. She looked back at me as she put her hand on the doorknob. “Let yourself out after you’ve finished. And Robbie?”

I looked up at her over the monitor. “Yeah?”

She looked like she was going to say something, but instead she shook her head. “Nothing. Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

She was gone before I could respond.

I felt warm from my Alpha’s praise. It was a little thing, but it felt like a fire burning in my chest. It almost made me want to tell her I seemed to have misplaced a few days here and there, and had she possibly seen where I’d put them?

I shook my head.

I sounded like such a cub.

“All right,” I muttered as I cracked my knuckles. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”

She had spyware.

And adware.