Scout: Reckless Desires (Norseton Wolves Book 7) (12 page)

“Or, you know. You could talk to my missus, if that makes you more comfortable. There’s not really a hierarchy around here. I may be the guy in charge of the wolves, technically, but I leave you all to do what you want, for the most part.”

Why is he telling me this?

“So, if you
need
anything or need help with something…” He gave a slow nod, likely for dramatic emphasis. “Let a guy know. I’m not psychic like some of you kids.”

“I’m not psychic.”

He wagged his finger at her and started toward the rightward path. “I said
some
of you. Your shtick seems to be abnormally accelerated healing, and I’d say that’s weird enough. Gods, woman. You shouldn’t even be walking right now.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” she called after him.

“Must be true, then.”

He disappeared between two buildings, and Petra stood, staring at nothing for a minute longer, just trying to get her wits about her.

She needed some time to adapt to the way the Norseton pack operated, but she wasn’t going to let fear get in the way of finally belonging someplace. She and Arnold didn’t have to hide anymore, or
run
.

“I hope that bastard isn’t running.”

She gritted her teeth and trekked to the front door of the mansion. She’d started muttering to herself again about Arnold by the time she stepped into the lobby. There was a wolf at the security desk. She didn’t know him, but she
knew
he was a wolf, and one that felt like an alpha.

Need to get used to that, too.

He waved her forward. “Looking for someone? Mrs. Carbone, or one of the girls?”

“Um, no.” Petra sidled up to the desk and leaned her elbows onto the top. “Who are you?”

“Darius.”

She shook the hand he held out.

His grip was strong, but not punishing. Most male wolves would have been eager to show off their power, both physically and psychically, but Darius didn’t seem so hung up on it. She read his energy as carefully controlled—like an extra belly he kept tucked into a girdle. The fact that he tried at all to rein the energy in earned him a few Kool-Aid points from her.

“Petra,” she said, releasing his hand and noting the wedding band on the other. Most of the wolves were married, supposedly. She found the fact that they wore the jewelry at all to be both odd and stunning. None of the wolves she’d ever encountered before ending up in Norseton wore rings. Rings tended to get lost during a shapeshift, and they’d all figured, “Why bother?”

Petra happened to like the tradition. Rings always said to her,
I’m not ashamed to show that I’m taken.

I wonder if the Viking would wear one
.

She snorted at herself and rolled her eyes. Getting a ring on him was the least of her concerns.

Darius leaned back in his seat and swiveled it from side to side for a few beats. “You all right?”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” she said. “I’m feeling a little silly right now. Lots of ridiculous junk cluttering my head.”

“Sounds like a typical wolf to me.”

“I don’t know anything about typical. Listen, no one’s expecting me, but I was wondering if Lora’s here and could talk to me. I figured if I’m gonna stick around, I should have a job. I’ve never had a steady job before. Arnold and me were always moving around too much. Longest jobs we had were doing seasonal farm work. Slept in the truck more often than not to save what little bit of money we had. Not sure why I’m telling you my life story, but anyway.”

His grin was soft as he reached for the phone on the desk. “I know a little something about living on the road.” He stabbed in the extension to the phone. “It’s an okay life if that’s what you want, but I think most wolves need homes.
Territories
. You know?”

She nodded, because she did know. She was going to carve out a little piece of Norseton for herself, whether Arnold showed his stupid butt up or not, and whether or not that freaking Viking decided to be nice.

An icy chill darted down her spine, radiated through her torso, and seized up her heart for a few sluggish beats.

She used to believe herself when she said she didn’t care if people liked her or if they wanted to move on, but Paul was different somehow. He was unbelievably frustrating, but he was hers. She just didn’t know what to do with him. She’d had no tutor for her predicament. None of the wolves would have understood, anyway.

“Do you have a moment to come down?” Darius said into the phone. “I’ve got a pack member here who wants to talk to you about some work. I’d send her to Nixon, but I don’t think she’s cut out for security.”

“Nope,” Petra muttered.

Darius had barely hung up the phone before a woman stuck her head around the corner. She wore her black hair in a sleek bun, and her black mascara was perfectly winged out from her dark almond eyes. Exquisitely put together. Petra was already impressed.

She tapped her Bluetooth earpiece and motioned Petra toward her.

“Oh.” Petra stepped through the metal detector and waved goodbye to Darius. “You don’t look like much of a Viking,” Petra said to the lady.

Lora had started them down a broad hallway quickly, giving Petra very little time to determine the purpose of each room, or if they were occupied.

“No. I’m not Afótama,” Lora said. “I was adopted as a child from foster care. I have no idea who my birth parents are, only that they were probably
mestizo
.”

“You don’t feel—”

“What? Isolated? Too unique for my own good?” Lora chuckled and started them up a dim staircase that had been behind a door marked
PRIVATE
.

“Yeah. Those things.”

“Nah. I was very young when I was adopted and honestly, for the longest time, I didn’t know any better. The place is a lot less homogenous now than it was twenty-five years ago, though.”

“You don’t have a problem with outsiders, then.”

Lora opened the door at the top of the stairs and motioned for Petra to go through. “No. Of course, we have to be careful of who we welcome into our community, for reasons you may be able to guess. Our biggest concerns are about people who’d expose the Afótama for their weirdness—
not
people who don’t fit the Viking shade card.”

“You’ve got enemies?”

“Yes.” Lora herded her into a roomy office and gestured toward the sofa. “Some enemies live right here in the community, and others are elsewhere and yet to be exposed. That’s part of the wolfpack’s job—helping us figure out who those people are and keeping our leaders safe.”

“I see.”

“So.” Lora leaned her khaki-covered rear end against the front of her desk and braced her hands against the edge. “You’re looking for work?”

“Well, I thought maybe you’d heard of something. I don’t really know what I have the skills to do, but I figured you’d be able to put two and two together better than I could. The folks in the pack were telling me, though, that you have a hard time recruiting folks for jobs here, and I wondered if that was something I could help you with.”

Lora raised her chin and tapped it. “Have you done any recruiting?”

“No, but if recruiting folks—teachers and
doctors
and whatnot—is complicated by the fact that you need folks to be a little weird or at least aware of the fact that folks like me exist, you can’t just send them an email and feel them out. You’ve gotta vet those folks in person and from a distance for a while. Maybe do some networking in witch covens until you find folks who have the skills you’re looking for.”

Lora gave Petra an assessing nod. “That’d be a good way to go about it. Tell me more.”

“I—”

“Lora, did my brother—oh,
hello
.” Queen Tess, who’d poked her head into the room, stepped the rest of the way in and smiled at Petra.

Then her smile fell away and her brow furrowed.

Oh, hell.

Petra’s stomach lurched. She was suddenly the center of attention, and for no good reason that she could discern.

“Paul,” she said, pointing to Petra.

Petra said nothing. Didn’t know
what
to say.

“
Paul
. I’m gonna kick his ass.”

“What’d he do?” Nadia called from somewhere nearby.

“More like what
didn’t
he do,” the queen called over her shoulder.

Nadia stepped into the room a moment later adjusting her gun holster and scanning each woman in turn before her gaze fell on Petra.

“What?” Petra asked.

“You can feel that, right?” Queen Tess asked her cousin.

Nadia squinted at Petra and nodded slowly. “Uh-huh. I think so. Not quite melded or something. Touch her and see if that makes a difference.”

“What are you talking about?” Petra hated feeling so damned out of the loop, and she got a sinking suspicion the ladies weren’t talking about mundane things.

“Give her your hand,” Lora said. “Touch makes what they do easier.”

Petra obediently, for once, held out her hand.

Queen Tess squeezed her fingers ever so briefly, and then furrowed her brow. “It’s not done. Should have been stronger than that,” she said over her shoulder.

“Please tell me what you’re talking about.”

“Jeez.” The queen raked a hand through her mounds of dark curls and then let her lips sputter. Didn’t seem a very royal thing to do, but apparently nothing in Norseton was as expected.

I need to stop assuming that things will be.

“Me and a couple other folks in my close family are somewhat uniquely equipped to discern degrees of relationships,” the queen said. “Whenever someone takes a partner, our web—wait. Do you know about our web?”

“In vague terms.”

“Okay, good. Well, the connections on the web shift. I don’t know everyone in the clan intimately well, but Paul is connected to people I frequently associate with. I know what the web around him is supposed to look like.”

“It’s not right?”

“Not quite, which is why I’m annoyed. He didn’t do what he needed to do.”

“What was he supposed to do?”

The queen gave her head a slight shake. “That’s different for every couple. But when we commit to our partners, we merge with them in a way, so there should be a blur on the web where you are.”

“I’d be overlapping him.”

Nadia snapped her fingers and leaned against the desk beside Lora. “That’s exactly right. Right now, you’re kinda just hovering around him, and I don’t think that’s supposed to happen, even if you are a werewolf.”

“He’s my mate. I’m supposed to be overlapping him.”

The queen paced for a few beats and nodded. “Yeah. That’s why I’m a little annoyed right now. He’s holding out for some reason, and I can’t speculate on why. I can’t think of a single person in this clan who’d run from a gods-blessed match.”

“So he
is
running.” Petra’s heart did that painful stutter it did earlier when she’d tried to peel herself off of Paul. She put her hand over her chest. Suddenly, she wanted to barf.

“Hey.” Queen Tess gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know what he’s doing. I could certainly have a talk with him, but he’s never been the kind of man who’d be so easily cowed into doing things. He’s unflappable in that doctor sort of way.”

“Do you think he doesn’t want me?”

“I’m not trying to get into his head, Petra. I have a hard enough time sorting out where all the tiny disturbances in the web are coming from and helping my grandmother troubleshoot them. For instance, right now, there’s some weird buzz on the fringes of the web, and I need to go out to Nevada to see if someone in my chieftain’s network has gotten him or herself into trouble.” She looked at Lora. “Can you find our pilot and tell him I’m headed toward the airport with Nadia? He’s got to get his flight plan recorded.”

Lora gave an acknowledging nod. “Of course. Should I let your chieftains know you’re heading out?”

Queen Tess snorted. “They’ll figure out my absence quickly enough once I’m out of the general area. I can do this faster if they don’t go with me.”

“You still need to take a guard. You know how they are.”

“I know exactly how they are. That’s why I was looking for Jody. If he’s not around, see if there’s a flexible wolf working today.”

She started moving backward toward the door, pointing to Petra as she went. “My advice,” she said. “Don’t let him play hard to get.”

“That is the exact opposite of what my mother might have told me. She told me to never chase a man who didn’t want to be caught.”

“But Paul is Afótama. Our men are used to us taking the lead on certain things. I know you’re new around here, but there’s no good reason to let the potential of the relationship dangle open indefinitely. You want to get settled in, and you’re going to be disquieted until you get him under control.”

So that’s what that feeling is. Huh.

“You make him sound like a confused bull who’s strayed from his pen,” Petra mused.

Nadia snorted. “That sounds like the typical Afótama male.” She gave Petra’s shoulder a squeeze as she passed, and a quelling warmth passed through Petra. The same sort of comfort she’d felt when Queen Tess had touched her.

“What is that?”

“Just connections forming. I can’t put myself into your shoes, but I think what you’re sensing is your network growing. You’re becoming more a part of the community. People will wave and tell you hello, and you’ll think you know them, even if you haven’t met them before.”

“Oh.”

Belonging felt nice.

“I’d like that,” she admitted quietly. “Better than what I’m used to. Never knowing anybody, and always being afraid folks are gonna tell my secrets and get me into trouble.”

“You’ve still got plenty of chances to get in trouble here,” Lora said. “Just different kinds than you’re used to, probably.” She handed Petra a business card and then waved her away. “Go deal with your Viking. Give me a call when you want to schedule a meeting about the job. I’ll be around.”

“Thanks.” Petra tucked the card into the pocket of her jeans and gave a terse nod. “I will, too.”

Come what may, she wasn’t going to let Paul wreck her chance to belong someplace.

Maybe she’d never get another mate, but she could have a happy, comfortable life in Norseton, with friends and other
wolves
who knew what their existence was like. Wolves who were strong and kind, and who wanted to make decent futures for themselves.