40. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Sides heaving, we trotted back happily to the mansion. The lone wolves' camp fell silent as we padded through it. ‘The Queen!' one of the girls cried excitedly – Ava or Abigail. How they'd recognised me in wolf form was beyond me.

A toddler was tottering around near her, a boy. As we came closer he looked at us, his eyes wide. ‘Wolfie! I love it!' He threw his arms around Esme's neck and she nuzzled him gently in return.

‘Soft.' He stroked us with doughy hands. ‘Climb.' He tried to get his chubby leg over our back. Chuckling in our head, Esme lowered herself so he could throw his leg over her back. He held the tufty fur on her neck as she carefully stood up. The little boy giggled and the infectious sound filled the air as we gently moved around the camp in a small circle. We came to a stop in front of his obviously horrified mother .

‘Oh my God,' she said, eyes wide. ‘I am so sorry, alpha. He meant no disrespect.' The scent of her fear was sharp and acrid, and something twisted in our gut.

The woman grabbed her son off of our back and instinctively twisted her body so that she would receive any punishment we doled out. Rage filled us. What had these wolves experienced to fear their alpha so badly? All this wrongness must be ended; pack was family.

Carefully, so as not to scare her, Esme gently nuzzled the mother too. When she slowly untwisted her body and unscrewed her eyes, Esme licked her arm. Slowly the scent of fear started to dissipate; it was still present but less overwhelming. But though the fear was fading, jangled nerves were still there in every line of the woman's tense body.

Let's shift back, I urged Esme.

Yes , she agreed sombrely.

I shifted and, when I was back on two legs, I smiled at the woman. With human eyes I could see her soft brown hair and her scared green eyes. ‘Hello,' I said. ‘I'm Lucy. And who is this little charmer?'

‘My son is called Reid, Your Majesty.' She gave an awkward curtsy.

‘There's no need to curtsy to me,' I said mildly. ‘Not when there are no outsiders to see it,' I amended. ‘ And especially not when I'm in the buff.' I winked and a small smile appeared on her face.

‘Wolfie!' Reid said to me, holding out his arms and kicking his little legs to come to me.

I smiled. ‘I don't think your mama is comfortable with me having hugs with you yet. Another day, little man.' I tickled him under his arms and he gave more peals of laughter. A sudden sharp longing took me off guard; the true surprise was that it wasn't my longing but Esme's.

You want a pup? I asked.

Do you not?

I blinked. Is this why you've been pushing the mating bond with Greg so much?

She sighed. Are you still angry about that? I do not understand why.

Because you are forcing me to marry before I am ready! And worse, you are forcing Greg, too.

She snorted . Greg moves at glacial speed. I am assisting him – and you, also! Once you are mated, Greg could not challenge you.

He would never challenge me!

Nothing is certain in this life but death, she said grimly. If he were to challenge us, he would win, not because he is better or stronger but because we would hesitate .

Some days, it is hard to share my skin with you, I grumped but then I relented. Is it because you want pups?

Yes, she finally admitted. I want our pups very much.

I fell silent but gave her a hug. The conversation had certainly given me food for thought: how could I bang on about equality and not give equal weight to my wolf's wants as to my own?

I smiled at the mother. ‘And what is your name?'

‘Nova, my Queen.'

‘What a beautiful name!'

From behind me, my brother moaned dramatically. ‘Oh my God,' Ben groaned. ‘My eyes! My poor eyes! Luce, put some clothes on!'

‘You're a wolf now, you have to get used to nudity,' I called back. I excused myself from Nova and Reid to go to my brother.

‘Sure – but not your nudity,' he groused. He took off his apron, chucked it to me and I pulled it on. Although the apron gave some modicum of cover, the reality was that my arse was hanging out.

‘Prude,' I teased. The shift had made me hungry so I sat delicately on a prickly bale of straw next to Finley and wolfed down a few burgers.

‘That was exactly what I needed,' I told him and beamed. ‘Just so you know, Ares seems to have adopted the baby unicorn we brought in earlier, so you'll need to increase Ares' food drops.'

Finley nodded. ‘Okay.' He looked at the masses around us, ‘Again,' he muttered under his breath.

‘We have more than enough money,' I murmured. ‘Don't skimp on food.' An army moved on its stomach and so did a werewolf pack.

‘Here.' Nova came over with Reid on her hip and some colourful fabric in her hand. She passed it to me: it was a summer cover-up dress. I pulled off the apron and pulled it on. ‘This is a great idea,' I enthused. ‘So much prettier than black tracksuits.'

‘Takes up less space in a bag, too. Though it really only works as it gets warmer. We still need the trackies in winter.'

‘I bet.' I grinned. ‘Ugly tracksuits have their time and place, and that is in the depths of winter.'

‘Which is all the time in the UK,' she joked. ‘Though it's unseasonably warm this April.'

‘Climate change is doing its thing.' I twirled then fixed my brother with a mocking look. ‘Is this better, Ben?'

‘One hundred percent,' he confirmed.

I turned back to Nova. ‘Thank you. I'll see it is laundered and brought back to you. '

She smiled. ‘Not at all. It is a gift, my Queen.' She bobbed another curtsy then she and Reid swayed off together.

‘You're good with them,' Ben said softly, his tone surprised. ‘You're a good Queen.'

I gave a wry smile. ‘I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.'

He grinned. ‘So what's new?' His smile faded. ‘I mean it. You're good at this, Lucy.'

‘Thanks. And how are you and Ro—Rohan getting on?' I remembered at the last minute to use the new name we'd given to Roan.

‘Well, thank you. He's great.' Ben kept his voice down and shot a look at Noah.

‘How is he adjusting?' I asked, also keeping my voice low.

‘Okay, but I feel so bad. I already can't imagine not shifting, not having Rohan with me – it's bizarre how quickly he has become integral to me. I can't imagine having him taken away and given to someone else. I think I'd be mad with jealousy.'

I shook my head. ‘Noah thought he was dead. Lost forever. To have him back … it's a gift. Please share it with him, if you ca n.'

Ben looked at me wonderingly, ‘When did you get so wise, Lucy Caboosy?'

I gave him a wry smile. ‘I think it was around about the time that I nearly died.'

Ben nodded sombrely. ‘Nothing like a brush with death to give you an injection of perspective.' His brush with death was no doubt still fresh in his mind.

‘You're not wrong,' I agreed. ‘And on that note, how are you doing?'

He grimaced. ‘I'm okay. I put in for some emergency leave from my employer, which they granted, but I need to decide what I'm going to do long term.' He paused. ‘I'd like to be helpful to the pack if I can, but I don't want you scratching around to find me work – and nor would I like to be bored.'

‘Ben, we had two people die on our lands last week. Nothing about pack life is boring.'

‘I heard about that. Are you any closer to tracking down Larsden's killer?'

It was my turn to grimace. ‘I'm pretty sure I've connected the dots. Now I just need a confession.'

His eyebrows rose. ‘You going to do a Poirot- style accusation?'

‘No. I don't want to humiliate the killer. I don't even really want to punish them. I need their side of events, but the clues are all pointing one way.'

‘Which way?'

I answered grimly, ‘That Larsden was a total asshole.'