Page 78 of Big Bad Wolf

“Well, we do have the same brown eyes and neither of us can carry a tune, so I suppose you could say that.”

Maybe he was wrong.

Gert looked up with a grin. “I’m just messing with you,” she said with a laugh. “We’re the same.” She winked.

Rafe blew out a sigh. “Okay, so you know about … me?”

“I know plenty about you,” she said. “And your brothers and your late father.”

He winced. Nymphs trafficked in gossip. Rafe shuddered to think what this woman had heard about him and his pack over the years.

“Don’t worry.” She patted his hand on the counter. “It’s not all bad. If it was, we wouldn’t let you anywhere near our Ruby.”

Rafe bit down on a smile. Ruby really didn’t realize how much this town had claimed her as their own. She may still feel like an outsider, but the folks of Maple Hollow were ready to throw down for her.

Rafe liked that.

He cleared his throat. “Right. Okay, good.” He ran a hand through his hair as Gert watched him fidget.

“Spit it out, kid,” she said with no venom behind her words.

“You said you sensed something wasn’t right. What is it?”

Gert shrugged. “Probably something to do with that Highlander sniffing around here.”

“You’ve seen him.”

“Him and his friends.”

“Shit.”

“They need to go. We don’t need any more trouble than what we’ve already got.”

Rafe bristled. “The County pack never bothers you.”

“Anymore.” She raised a challenging brow and Rafe couldn’t argue. He knew there’d been plenty of confrontations between the pack and the locals in the past. It had only been in the last few decades that the pack had mostly retreated, for their own safety, not as any kind of favor to the humans.

“Anymore,” he agreed. “But I don’t know what they’re doing here.”

Her brows rose again to her silver hairline. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh Rafe, I think you know perfectly well why they’re here. They want to get their paws on a seer.”

Fuck. He knew it, but it still tore his heart out every time he heard it.

“What am I supposed to do about it?”

Gert laughed, shaking her head. “You’re the wolf here. You tell me.”

He growled in frustration, and Gert leaned over the counter. “It seems to me,” she said, “that wolves belong in packs. You’re not going to get much done on your own.”

“I don’t have a pack anymore.”

Gert rolled her lips together like she was disappointed in him. “If you really want to protect that girl, you’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I’m doing everything I can for Lena.”

“I’m not talking about Lena.”

Gert held his gaze, not allowing any space for his bullshit. “They’re both seers, Rafe. They’re both in danger. And you can pretend all you want that you don’t see what Ruby is to you, but I can see it, no clairvoyance necessary.”