Reflected (Silver Series) (6 page)

Silver reached for one of Edmond’s toys, a black-and-white spotted cow, but he growled at her and grabbed it first. He put it in his mouth so he could push himself up with both hands and run away. Silver caught the back of his shirt before he got more than a few steps. “Manners, Edmond!” She turned him around and spread one of his hands open. “When we’re in human, we use our hands, not our mouths.”

Edmond whined, apologetic, and spat the cow into his hand. He offered it out. He was far too young to have a wild self yet, but she could see hints of it behind his eyes, a flicker like a silhouette crossing the dawn horizon between trees. As he grew, year by year, that flicker became more pronounced.

Silver didn’t accept the cow yet. “Use your human words.”

“Sorry, Alpha.” Edmond hung his head.

Silver picked up the cow by the least damp part, set it on its feet beside her, and walked it over to him. For this lesson, it would have been better if she could have divided the cow into parts and given Edmond one, but she’d make do. “Thank you, Edmond. Even though an alpha always gets the first share of the kill, it’s her job to make sure every member of the pack gets at least a little bit of the rest. That’s part of being an alpha. You can have all of this one.”

Edmond left the cow and trundled over to watch the adults talking and laughing together near the entrance to the den, shedding extra clothing before leaving for the hunt. “I wanna go. It’s not fair. I’m
always
in human.”

“So am I,” Silver pointed out. Unfair, as the child said. But seen from a child’s perspective, it was also simple fact, easier to bear somehow. “Forever. At least the Lady will call your wild self when you’re older.”

Edmond considered her for a moment and then threw his arms around her neck in a hug. Silver laughed in surprise, cupped her good arm around his back, and breathed in his scent. She knew what she was doing with this cub, at least.

Then it was time to go. Silver handed Edmond over to Susan, who would be staying with all of the children too young to have their wild selves yet, and slipped outside with the rest of the pack. Everyone’s scent was wound tight with anticipation, shift so very close in the full, and Silver avoided Dare. Touching him, feeling that anticipation in his muscles rather than just smelling it, would call to her own impossible-to-fulfill impulse to shift. She could hurt herself if she gave in to that, so she avoided Dare, and he let her. He understood why, and she’d make it up to him after the hunt when he’d run off the energy.

Out at their hunting lands, Dare lingered with his tame self dominant as the others piled up their clothes and dashed off into the trees on four feet. He gestured for Tom to remain when the young man would have done the same. “Hey! You know better than that. Shifting’s good for you, but you don’t need to be running.”

Tom lifted his head high with annoyance, but Dare tipped his head to Silver, and Tom relaxed. Silver suppressed a smile. She didn’t mind looking lonely as an excuse to keep a young pack member sensible. She held out her hand, palm down, and Tom padded over and ruffled his own ears with it.

“See you soon,” Dare said. He switched to his wild self with joyous relief and pounded after the others. Silver knelt and scratched all around in Tom’s ruff until he looked ready to fall over from enjoyment. A breeze ruffled up her hair as well as his, carrying the crispness of the growing green that surrounded them. Evergreens young and old, generous underbrush, and a stretch of grass at their feet where they flattened the plants traveling in and out. Rather than chasing individual scents, squirrel or crow or many other animals, Silver let the whole fill her up with a scent quietness. They’d be back among the humans soon enough, with layer upon layer of smells, pleasant and unpleasant.

She listened with half her attention to the soft noises of stalking and pursuit that reached her now and then, waiting for the louder burst of activity that would mean the prey was caught and everyone was circling back to divide it with both their alphas.

Instead, a different sound assaulted her ears. Silver knew the particular note of it, though she couldn’t quite touch the knowledge. It meant someone was calling out for her mate. Tom pulled away from her, eager. Silver sighed. “I’m sure he’s heard it himself, but yes. Go get him. At a moderate pace.”

Silver stayed with the strident noise, until the pack trotted out of the trees, Tom curving around to join the general group on the opposite side from Felicia. Dare carried a raccoon in his mouth, and he dropped it at her feet. Silver bent, smoothed an unmatted section of its ring-circled tail, then straightened again. That’s all she wanted of it when she was held to this form. Dare tore off a mouthful and then left the kill to John and the rest of the pack as he came to see who was calling.

The noise finally ceased as Dare switched wild self for tame, but he picked it up anyway, absently wiping blood from the corner of his mouth with the side of his thumb. As he had perhaps predicted, the noise began again. Someone was very determined to speak to him.

“Alaska,” Dare greeted, and his scent grew surprised. Silver had a sense of the other side of the conversation, but it made her head hurt to listen to people who weren’t there. Dare could tell her about it afterward.

Frustration flooded Dare’s scent, and his wild self laid its ears flat. He nodded once. “Yes, all right. I’ll come and help. No strings attached.” He snorted. “Yeah, well, next time don’t let it get this far—or happen in the first place.” He didn’t bother with a good-bye.

Silver slipped to his side, eyebrows raised in question. He gave her a thin smile. “We should discuss this at home. Get Susan in on it. John!” He raised his voice and the beta trotted over and began his shift as Dare spoke to the rest of the pack. “We’ve got to go back early and take care of something, but the rest of you can stay and run. Oh, and Tom. You should come with us.” He said it lightly, as if it was another excuse to keep Tom from exertion, but Silver flicked him a sideways glance. She guessed he actually wanted Tom for something. Interesting.

The rest of the pack drifted back into the trees, hiding their curiosity better than Felicia, who lingered, perhaps hoping for an invitation of her own. Dare ignored her, and she finally slipped off with the rest.

When they arrived home, Susan met them at the door with Edmond at her heels, worry clear. “You’re back early. What happened?”

John kissed her forehead, hand on the side of her neck to reassure, though he knew no more about this business than Silver did, yet. “Dare got a call from Alaska.”

Susan pulled back to look at them all properly. “Why would any Were be calling during a full moon? I’d have thought they’d be too anxious to be on four feet to bother with long conversations.”

“For Alaska, I suppose the full’s the only time his pack would be in human long enough for any kind of conversation.” John shrugged, then settled a comfortable arm across his wife’s back. “They do everything backwards like that.”

Tom laughed and slipped over to prop up a wall at the back, to listen but not join the decision making.

Dare drew a deep breath and grimaced. Down to business. Silver slipped her hand around his, and he nodded in thanks before he explained. “One of the Alaska pack fathered a child with a human, but they were too busy running around in wolf in the wilderness to even realize it. So now he’s a year old, and they need someone who can act like a normal human to sweet-talk the mother out of custody. They’re worried enough they’re willing to accept my word we won’t try to pull the pack under Roanoke’s authority.” The irony in his tone matched Silver’s own at that thought: as if they wanted to have to deal with all the stubbornly independent troublemakers rather than letting them sort themselves out and band together out of the way.

“Is that all they want him to do? Just talk?” Death sat down and flicked an ear.

Silver suspected a similar thought must have occurred to everyone, because wild selves’ ears swiveled to Susan, even though she hadn’t said anything yet. They should have known better. Silver knew Susan was too practical to object based on her own emotions toward her husband and child.

Edmond was holding on to Susan’s leg, confused, and she petted his head. “If everyone’s expecting that I’m going to demand you let her in on the secret, I’m not stupid. It depends on the person.” She flicked a quick smile over at her husband. “No killing, though.” She held up a hand that she wasn’t done when Dare raised his eyebrows at her. “With modern methods for investigating murders, you’d create more problems than you’d solve. Lady above, give me some credit.”

Dare nodded once, conditionally accepting a beta’s advice. “Too bad,” Death murmured. Silver gritted her teeth, certain his next dart would strike straight at the core of what was currently making her stomach twist into knots. She would never have cubs, not with the poison in her blood, and this man did not care enough about his to even know he existed.

“Some prey is too easy,” Death said and stood again, drawing a wisp of shadow with him. “And you haven’t figured out the good part yet.”

“Actually getting out to meet the pack will probably mean a lot of travel in wolf,” Dare said, tone too careful. Silver shoved away thoughts of cubs to look up at him. Lady damn it, he was right. Unfair once more, but better she support the inevitable in front of others, even others as sympathetic as those gathered here, rather than railing against it. It would turn out the same in the end, but one path would leave her with more authority.

“I’ll stay here,” she said, even voiced. “Watch over things at home.” Dare kissed the top of her head. In his scent and in the grip of his hand on her neck, she felt a promise that there would be time for her to rail against the unfairness in private before he left. Thank the Lady for understanding mates.

“And I have a job for you,” Dare told Tom, who had been looking decidedly confused as to why he was here. “Help Silver with anything she needs. I know you have your day job, but—”

“I can help cover those times,” Susan spoke up. “I mean, I know it’s a status thing, to have a low-ranked assistant rather than needing a high-ranked Were to do everything for you, but—”

Silver cut Susan off with a growl and crossed her arms, using her good to hold the bad up. “I don’t need
that
much help. It will be fine.” She’d have protested the need for an assistant at all, but that was another of the inevitabilities she’d decided not to fight. They seemed to be piling up tonight.

“As a human, you’ve never quite been in the hierarchy anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Dare said with a shrug.

John coughed. “We could make Felicia earn her keep. She doesn’t have a job.”

“Alternately, we could put two badgers in a sack and shake them up.” Death dropped his jaw in a canine grin. “One would be in no danger of boredom with that either.”

Silver gave a little hiccup from swallowing her laugh. It was rude, but she wanted to be helped by Felicia about as much as she wanted to be in the bag with Death’s badgers.

Dare snorted. “Silver’s going to have to deal with her enough as it is.”

Silver set her hand on her mate’s elbow. “And you’ll have Alaska to deal with. You should have another with you, for safety and for status.” She looked at her cousin. “Don’t you know some of the Alaskans, from your time as alpha?”

John shrugged. “For a given value of ‘know.’ I’ve had drinks with a couple. They come down here to stock up on gear sometimes.” He edged closer to his wife, scent turning uneasy. “But we can’t both go. That would leave you without muscle.”

Susan punched him in the arm. “Except for all the other pack fighters, dumbass. Besides, do you really think Silver and I can’t take care of ourselves?”

Silver laughed at Susan’s reaction, but her cousin did have a partial point. She and Susan could take care of themselves, but visible muscle made things simpler sometimes. “We’ll get Pierce to rearrange his time working so he can glower in the background for any official meetings. With him and the others, we will be fine.” Dare hadn’t voiced his thoughts on the subject, but his muscles relaxed under her fingertips at that.

Tom bounced on his toes. “And I’ll help!” Silver had to smile, because Tom certainly had the enthusiasm and protective instinct, but not the strength and experience. There was no need to make him feel bad about it, though. He had his value as her assistant.

“Everyone can help.” Dare smiled at Tom too, then tipped his head meaningfully away. The young man scooped up Edmond and took himself off deeper into the den.

When he was gone, Dare allowed himself a frown, and concern crept into the undertones of his scent. “It’s not a physical attack that I’m worried about, anyway. There’s going to be no real way to hide from all the sub-packs the fact that I’m going to be out of communication range for an extended period. I know the older, more traditional sub-alphas still listen to me better than you, Silver. You might want to keep in regular contact with them, remind them that you’re watching.”

“Watching like a hawk.” Silver grimaced. She’d definitely do it, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed dealing with those yapping purse dogs. “I’m sure they’d love the opportunity to extend their own sub-territory boundaries.”

Dare chuckled. “Like you won’t notice because it’s far away. Exactly.” His laugh slipped back into a frown. “And then there’s my daughter. If I’d known I was going to get called away, I never would have confronted her and flushed that prey so early.” He hesitated, scent twisting with the sour taint of old emotional wounds. “Do you think she really would go back to Spain…?”

Silver clasped her mate’s hand, firmly. “No. She made her choice to stay with you. Right now, she’s a child looking for her adult place in the pack. She’s being a little sulky, that’s all.”

Dare jerked a nod and then his attention sharpened, apparently with a new thought. “Speaking of Spain—you’ll probably want keep track of any new Were who show up in outlying packs while we’re away. My absence would make an excellent opportunity for Madrid to slip someone in to gather information.”