Pack and Coven (4 page)

Oh, hell, that didn't matter. “Sandie doesn't know about this appointment. Kinda like I didn't know she had grandkids. Ask her to check on my cats tomorrow, would you? Right now, I have to run. Nice meeting you.”

Harry dismissed her, but she just stood there, waving her twigs.

“Bye,” he tried again.

“Harry,” she finally said, “I don't know how else to say this. I gather you have a little pack problem and I'm here to help you solve it.”

June's heart beat so fast and hard she feared Harry would hear it. What she was doing was dicey, and her coven hadn't exactly approved it. Her coven wouldn't have approved anything that tossed one of their members into pack politics. But she'd realized, when the idea of losing him struck her like a pie in the face, she had to try anyway. And she had to do it immediately.

She wouldn't let him be forced into the Millington pack. That wasn't fair to anyone, much less Harry. He was perfect the way he was.

Nearly perfect. He had kind of a potty mouth.

“A problem?” His bushy brows arched. “I wouldn't call it that. It's this woman who wants me to come to a party. I RSVP'd no.”

“A pack bond ceremony, to be exact.” June let the cedar fall to her side. She couldn't purify his property and hide their tracks while tiptoeing around her kind's sacred covenant about keeping shifters in the dark. “I understand why the alpha wants you—” Did she ever! “—but most indies don't make good packers.”

“Ububobu whu?” Harry stuttered.

“I can help you, but you have to swear on your pelt you'll never tell anybody what I did.”

Quicker than she thought possible, considering he wasn't pack, Harry invaded her personal space, grabbed her shoulders again and pinned her against her car.

“What do you know?”

She could barely make out the words through his growl. His whiskey-colored eyes sparked pale blue with the onset of the shift. His tousled hair glinted blue-black in the sun. Oh Goddess, his scent was wild and musky, his hands strong. Being this close to him when he was riled was much more erotic than she'd expected.

She always had to be careful about getting close to Harry. His senses were keen, and some of her secrets had to remain secret.

Like the fact he'd been right the first time he'd called her name. Well, not right—her real name was June—but she'd been wearing her Sandie camouflage for years. She'd considered keeping it after the encounter in the tea room, but it took too much power to maintain. She needed all the magic she could squeeze out of herself to help Harry, so all she'd kept was a minimum facade of humanity.

“I know enough,” she told him. Summoning a spike of power, she channeled it into the cedar and poked his stomach. He jumped back with a yelp as if he'd been stung, which technically he had.

“What the hell was that?” He jerked up his shirt to check, and she nearly whistled. Shifters were physically fit in two-legged form, yeah, but his abs were especially delicious. With her libido dampener forfeit like her Sandie mask, all that black, silky hair on his chest, trailing down his midriff, weakened her knees.

“Sorry. Cedar has sharp needles.” If she came out of this with Harry ignorant about magic, her coven might not go completely off on her. They'd still be furious, but the covenant would be intact and so would Harry.

Now she just needed to stuff an angry werewolf into a tiny car and transport him to safety before she ran out of juice—and before anybody figured out what she was doing.

He circled her, prowling, his brows lowered. She had no fear he'd hurt her but kept her front to him anyway.

“So you know about shifters,” he said.

“I do.”

“What are you?”

“A person who knows?”

“How many humans know?”

Good, he assumed she was human. “Not many. And we're not about to broadcast it.”

“Sandie?”

She shrugged.

He continued to stalk around her, making her a little dizzy. “What do you think you can do to help me?”

“I can help you hide.” Covens used magic to shield themselves from shifters' senses, and she hoped to employ a variation of the spell on him. Or, more precisely, her car. They'd be safe inside while she fashioned a stronger disguise geared to Harry's alpha chemistry. Afterward they'd toddle off while the pack dashed around like chickens missing their heads.

Easy peasy.

While she'd rather hide him in her house, people might check there. And she didn't hate the idea of a road trip with Harry.

“I already have a plan,” he growled.

That didn't surprise her. Harry was no cream puff. But neither was Bianca. “They cut the fuel lines on all your cars.”

“They what?” He ran to the garage and checked under a gray sports car, a minivan. “Son of a…gun. Even my truck?”

“And the motorcycle.” Indies had been forced into packs before. Millington wasn't one of the worst offenders, but they'd know how to handle a wolf like Harry.

“What about the—”

“They got the loaner too. They're not as dumb as you think,” she couldn't resist chiding. Independence was all well and good, but a wolf had to be mindful. If he'd made himself less tempting, Bianca wouldn't be so hot to add him to the pack. Harry should have behaved antisocially. Disguised himself so he didn't seem powerful.

And virile. And sexy.

Wow.
Right. Without the libido dampener, it was going to be a bigger struggle than usual to keep her hands to herself.

“They're dumb if they think—” he began, but stopped himself. “Tell me your plan.”

“I fed your cats, packed your shaving kit and gathered everything we need.” She hoped. “We should hurry. They could be here any minute.”

He faced her, hands on his hips. “Did you wash my dishes and vacuum?”

“Your house didn't really need it,” she joked.

He didn't smile. Being threatened with a life sentence in Bianca's pack would put anyone in a bad mood.

June shifted her weight to the other foot. “I'll drive, okay?”

“I'm not riding in that…thing.”

“Don't be silly. They'll never notice you in this car. It's the perfect disguise.” And the only car small enough to extend her test spell around, but she couldn't tell him that.

“It won't even pull twenty up some of these mountains. If you know about shifters, you know they can outrun that.”

“They won't be chasing us, so it won't matter.”

“How did you get here so fast?”

“I live close by.”

“Why have I never met you before?”

“I don't…get out much.” She kept her answers as truthful as possible. Some shifters could smell dishonesty, and he was skirting the edge of her secrets. If he realized she was Sandie, it would be impossible to hide the existence of magic from him.

“Is that so?”

“We need to get going.” It would take time and energy to cast the car's disguise spell. She hadn't tried to mask a wolf before. Too bad she'd burned through a lot of her magic reserves earlier today.

If she'd known she'd be going on the lam with Harry, she'd never have cheated on her gardening or prepared a batch of healing salve, both of which involved a sizeable magical outlay.

If she'd known she'd be going on the lam with Harry, she'd have worn more practical clothing than her pink shirtwaist.

At the same time, she didn't hate the fact she looked pretty the first time she officially met him.

Stop that. Bad June. Not going to happen.

“So Sandie knows about me? About…all of this?” he asked again. “Why didn't she tell me? I thought we were friends.”

“Can we discuss this on the road?” Tentatively, she reached out her gloved hand and tugged him. He wouldn't budge. She hated to use magic when she needed it to cloak the car, but his stubbornness was putting them in danger. She rustled in her bag, pulled out some dried lavender and crushed it in her fist.

He sniffed. “Lavender?”

“It won't hurt you.” She funneled a tweak of power through it and flicked the scraps on his bare arm.

He whuffed out a sigh as the magic calmed him. Lavender didn't work that well on humans, but on shifters it was marvelous. “Why did you do that?”

“It's good luck before traveling.” Well, it was good for her if the werewolf in her car wasn't fuming. “Plus, it smells nice.”

“Are you saying I stink?” His lips quirked in a welcome twitch of humor. Excellent, the spell must have worked. “Is that a species-ist comment?”

“Of course not. You smell fine.” In fact he smelled meltingly masculine.

And there she went again, getting sidetracked by his sexiness. Poopy doop, maybe she shouldn't have dropped so many of her customary barriers. She ought to save a teeny bit of power and cast that libido dampener before he noticed she had a thing for him.

The deep thrum of powerful motors on the highway reached the garage, and they both stiffened.

“Quick, Harry, get in the car.” If it was the pack, she barely had time to cast the spell before the motorcycles reached his garage. She had her components organized in the passenger's seat.

“I'm driving.”

Dang it, he was supposed to be compliant! June pried him away from the driver's side. “It's my car. I'm driving.”

“This may get tricky,” Harry argued. “I'm driving.”

Not the time for his alpha gene to kick in. She plucked a piece of lavender off her dress and flicked it at him.

“Hurry up,” she urged with a touch of magic. He nodded and stepped away from the car. Thank Goddess.

“Going somewhere, Harry?”

Bianca, completely nude and surrounded by wolves like some ancient deity, stepped out from behind the garage.

Blast.
June had bespelled the female alpha to be true to what she'd told Harry and not show up until three. Must have been bum parsley if Bianca had already shaken the compulsion. Magic was wonderful, but limited when it came to harming or controlling others. Now how was she going to get Harry out of this?

“Been skinny dipping, Bianca?” He averted his gaze from the statuesque woman. June didn't.

Bianca stroked the head of a wolf, a pale beauty who was likely female due to its smaller size. “I thought you'd be more interested in our party if I showed you what you'd be missing. I hear you have an eye for the ladies.”

Harry grunted. “The nice ones.”

“Who's your friend?” Bianca ruffled the ears of the wolf, who pressed against its alpha in obvious affection.

“Nobody,” he answered.

Bianca's eyes glinted as she inspected June and June inspected her. Bianca made no move to cover herself.

Well. This was awkward.

“I'm June,” she said. “Gosh, you're a very…genuine person, aren't you?”

“You could say that,” Bianca agreed.

Bianca was pack. Alpha. Her senses would be stronger than Harry's, as would the shifters on four legs. June shoved her gloved hand into her purse, slipped off the latex and dug a fingernail into the special talc in her compact. Channeling power through the herbs that augmented the talc, she increased her I'm-a-human glamour.

Beside her, Harry rubbed his temples, likely feeling discomfort as the relaxation spells warred with fight-or-flight.

“Are these your dogs or are you a dog walker?” June asked Bianca. She had to be close to people in order to affect them. Approaching Bianca was problematic, but the important thing was getting Harry out of here.

“They aren't dogs. They're wolves.” Bianca regarded her with a frown, head cocked to one side. The chopper contingent of Bianca's dishonor guard seemed to be idling halfway down Harry's long driveway, blocking anyone from coming or going.

Well, burn the bread and spoil the milk.
June would have to brute force their way out of this. And first, she had to touch Bianca.

In her natural form, June's blond hair and youthful appearance often caused people to assume she wasn't intelligent. Her talc spell included rosemary to encourage this impression, and she hoped Bianca would fall for it. She hated improvising spells almost as much as she hated eating at fast-food restaurants.

She smiled, fluttering her eyelashes. “Can I pet your wolf dogs?”

“They're not safe.”

Not true. They were safe as long as they thought she was oblivious. Shifters were canny about protecting their secret. The pack would have come in human form if they'd known Harry wasn't alone. Acting like barbarians, yes, but two-legged barbarians—in clothing.

She had to give Bianca props for bluffing through this.

“You must be from that nudist colony on the Hartsell River. In town you're supposed to put on clothes.” June giggled as she felt around in her purse for the lavender. Hopefully there'd be enough. If she could find her cayenne mix, it would help, but she'd lost the pesky vial days ago. One of the disadvantages to overstuffing a supply kit. “I have one of those fold-up raincoats you can put on.”

“How civilized of you,” Bianca said. “June's very civilized, Harry. I hope you weren't planning on inviting her to our party. She won't like it.”

June reached the edge of the milling wolves and hoped her talc spell would hold. It wasn't strong enough to fool a shifter who touched her for long—hence the rubber gloves. When wolf fur brushed her legs, her nylons decreased the skin contact.

“Nice doggies,” she said.

One of the wolves growled.

Her fingers encountered something crinkly. The lavender. She squeezed a few leaves with her power and stroked the growling wolf with her other hand, sending peace and harmony through it. Her bare skin increased the purity of the charm. The wolf plopped down and panted.

“Good doggy.”

“I said don't touch them,” Bianca instructed, somewhat amused. “They bite.”

“I'm sure they don't.” June crouched down with a fistful of lavender and spelled it, her magic welling like an underground spring. In a singsong voice, she said, “They're good doggies. Aren't they? Yes, they are. Good boy. Good girl.”

She caressed each wolf with a touch of lavender magic. None shied away, which meant they weren't agitated. Several snuffled her. She spelled them before they had a chance to sort through the complexities of her scent.