Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

I’ll deal with that later.

“Lydia,” I say as I come stand beside her while she’s quietly watching the crowd. “I know you can sense something isn’t right too. Please don’t tell me it’s all fine because I can tell that it’s not.”

I keep my voice low, but I still draw a few glances from the closest members of Remus’ pack.

“I won’t tell you that,” she says, keeping her face trained forward even as her eyes flicker over to me, betraying her. “Because I’m afraid you’re right.”

“What is it?” I ask anxiously. “Can you tell what Remus and his pack are thinking?”

“No,” she says. “Unfortunately my abilities don’t work on command quite like that. But I can still sense that he’s up to something. So is the girl that was promised to Rory. I can feel her malevolence from here.”

I follow Lydia’s glance toward the girl, who stands across the garden, staring back at us with a poisonous look.

“What do we do?”

Even as I ask it, the girl across the field bares her teeth at me in a poor impression of a smile. It’s not even a proper grimace.

Lydia’s response is surprising.

“Nothing.”

“But—” I start, only to be immediately cut off for a moment as Vivian and her parents come up to offer their congratulations. It isn’t until they’ve stepped aside again that Lydia continues on.

“Until Romulus can see it too and until the boys are able to sense the danger, it won’t do any good to argue the point,” she says, her voice lowering even further so that she has to lean in close to my ear for me to hear. “Romulus is blinded by his love for his brother. Even after all that Remus has done to him, Romulus still wishes to mend that bridge. The boys will be influenced by their father’s emotions until they are able to sense otherwise. There’s nothing to do now except to watch and wait. The truth will reveal itself in time. It always does.”

As always, Lydia is as wise as I’m impatient.

I know that she’s right and even though it bugs me to just let Remus and his group of mongrels get away with whatever they have planned, there isn’t much to do about it at the moment. Besides, I’ve just gotten married and started my turning ceremony. I should be celebrating.

The next time Lydia turns to me, her eyes are shining. She takes each of my hands in one of hers and slowly, one at a time, kisses them softly.

“I’ve always wanted a daughter,” she says, softly. Though she’s still quiet, none of the uncertainty of before is present in her voice any longer. “And I couldn’t ask for a better one. Let me deal with this. You have a new life to begin. Whatever Remus’ plans, don’t let him rob you of this joy.”

With Lydia looking at me the way she is, there’s no choice but to agree.

I go back to the boys and signal to them that I am ready to go inside.

“Come on,” I say, so only they can hear. “Let’s leave these wolves to themselves.”

They flock around me as we walk toward the house, my eyes shifting over to them in a way that makes their faces burn red.

“Just so we’re clear,” I say, pausing for a moment before sweeping into the house ahead of them. “I get to say who lies with me first; I’m your mate, not your pet.”

Rory bursts out laughing and the other two soon join him.

“What’s so funny?” I ask, turning back as they catch up to me again.

“If anyone should be considered a pet, it should be us,” Kaleb says, still snorting with laughter. “We’re the canines after all.”

I laugh too. “True, but I’ll soon be one too.”

After the laughing subsides, Rory takes on a more serious tone. “Of course you’ll always decide which of us will be with you at any given time, we were just having one of those jealous moments you were talking about.”

“Sure,” I say. “Well, good.” I summon up my courage to tell them what I want now. “Because I want you, and I want you now.”

As I have from the moment I met them.

When all of this first began.