Page 92 of The Wolf Queen’s Curse

“Not necessary,” Julius says quickly. “Though I do appreciate the, er, offer.”

“Same,” Rufus rumbles. “Appreciated, ladies, but we’re here on business.”

“Business is hard work,” the light-haired one says. “You’ll need a rest, and I know exactly—”

“Enough,” Jesse growls. “Off with you. Now.”

Once they’re gone, Doyle sighs. “I could use your advice on that as well. When I was first trying to woo young wolves, I found they really appreciated having ladies in the house.”

“Shockingly,” Julius murmurs.

Doyle grins. “Yep, it’s a real incentive, especially to the fellows who join from the Caledonians and have never lived with women. Hamish is very particular about how his wolves see to their…” He glances at Ann and me. “Their, um, needs. It’s a reward, and if they don’t earn it, they don’t get it. So having women here really helps, but I made the mistake of letting them choose the gals and…” He throws up his hands. “What can I say. They’re hot-blooded werewolves. All they care about is that the ladies are young and pretty and raring to go, as you could see.”

Ann rises and heads to the tea tray, and I realize we’re expected to pour. I join her. Just as Bishop can’t complain about the girls touching him, I can’t complain about being expected to serve tea. We’re on our best behavior.

“Anyway,” Doyle says. “Ignore the gals. If they give you trouble, come to me. We can talk about how to make better hiring choices later. First, let’s have our coffee, and you can tell me what happened with Silas.”

THIRTY-TWO

When Bishop and Julius finish the story, Doyle just sits there, looking like someone clubbed him over the head. I glance at Jesse, but he’s fully occupied in pouring himself another cup of coffee.

“I … Shit, this is embarrassing,” Doyle says. “I don’t understand half of what you said. I get the part about the Alpha challenge. We had the same thing in the American Pack. I’ve never heard of it being to the death, but from what William said about Silas, I can see that. He must have been sure he’d win.”

Bishop had glossed over details. All the Cambrians need to know is that Bishop issued a proper challenge and won in a fair fight and the Pack almost unanimously supported his ascension, which means the challenge wasn’t a case of an ambitious pup betraying his Alpha and mentor.

Doyle continues, “It’s the rest that…” He turns to Jesse, who only carries his coffee back to his seat. “I don’t know how much you all understand about the American Pack, but they stay away from other supernaturals. Since I got here, I’ve learned about half-demons, because that’s what the fellas brought us from the brothels, and I still don’t quite understand everything about them, if I’m being honest. I’ve heard of witches, but I know nothing about them. And I have no idea what a cabal is.”

“A secret society,” Jesse says, taking a bite of a biscuit. “That’s what the word means.”

Doyle hooks his thumb Jesse’s way. “This one reads dictionaries for fun.”

“We aren’t overly familiar with cabals either,” Julius says. “They do have them in America, but they’re mostly European, as this one is.”

“The one Mrs. Daniels’s granny runs.”

“Cordelia, please,” I say. “Yes. Cabals are usually run by sorcerers—male spellcasters—but my grandmother has her own, which seems to be based in Belgium, though I believe she’s English, given her accent.”

“We’re still uncovering details,” Bishop says. “What we know is that Cordelia’s grandmother brought a force of seventy-five supernaturals, which was enough to overwhelm our Pack, coming so soon after the Alpha challenge. We expect Beryl Levine has retreated temporarily, but we don’t expect she’ll let us return to rebuild.”

“Which is why we’ve come to you,” Julius says. “We need temporary reinforcements. We don’t ask lightly, and we don’t expect your wolves to drop everything and rush to our aid. But we would like to negotiate an alliance that would see your Pack helping us in return for whatever we might do for you.”

“Well, I like the sound of that. I could sure use friends over here. But why come to me? The Caledonian Pack is more than twice our size.”

“We’ve approached them,” Bishop says carefully. “Because of their size and their historical links with the Albion Pack.”

“Well, if you’ve got them, you don’t want us. Believe me, Hamish will never work alongside me.”

“We don’t have them,” Bishop says. “Hamish set too high a price.”

Doyle frowns. “He wouldn’t ask for money. He’s got plenty, the old miser, lives in luxury while his wolves work their asses off to fill his coffers. So what…”

Doyle stops and barks a laugh. “He wanted you to get rid of me, didn’t he.” He looks over at Jesse. “Can you believe it? That scheming old bastard.” He turns to Bishop. “That’s it, right? He asked you to run me out of the country.”

“He asked me to perform a task, and that seemed a poor way to start my Alphahood.”

“Hell, yeah. You start with that shit, you’ll never be allowed to stop. All right then. I’m going to need a helluva lot more details, but let’s say I’m willing to consider it. Now, I know you English do business a little different, but back home, we like to get the measure of a man before we fall in with him. I’m going to suggest we keep talking and get to know one another. You’ll be my guests here tonight, and then we’ll see how things go.”

We talk until dinner is brought in, and then we keep talking, mostly about differences between the Albion and American Packs. Thankfully, all that talking means Doyle and Jesse don’t notice how little we eat. We’d filled up on the cheese and bread and smoked meat the girls brought with tea, which means we get to skip the stew that’s served for the meal, and from the smell, that’s a wise choice. I also mentally thank Ann for warning us and convincing us to bring a food hamper for later.