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Linella said, “You know what? I’d very much like you to be here, too. I always hoped you’d come to stay at some point, but you built a lovely life for yourself in the other realm. Whatever you both end up choosing for your home, I’m positive it will be the right place.”
Rich came into the kitchen. “I hope you move to Wilde Creek. Then you won’t be opening portals into my yard and scaring my patients.”
“I only did that once,” Kismet said, sticking out her tongue. She didn’t point out that she’dalsoscared a male at the alphas’ home, too. She’d be more careful where she opened portals in the future, especially if theydidstay in Wilde Creek.
Ren’s phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and read the screen. “I hate to eat and run, but Acksel needs me.” He pushed out the chair and stood. “Do you want me to drop you off or come back for you?”
“I can portal home when I’m done visiting,” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just part of the fun of being second-in-command.” He bent and kissed her, said goodbye to her family, and left.
When the front door closed, her mother said, “Well, he’s great! I’m so happy for you. You seriously look like you’re glowing from the inside out!”
Kismet laughed. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I don’t suppose…” she said, her voice trailing off.
“Suppose what?”
“Did you mate Ren according to the ways of my people or your father’s?”
“Ugh, barf,” Noah said.
“Mom, really? What are you talking about?”
She hummed softly, her ocean-blue eyes twinkling. “The fae secure their matings with special oil. Matings that begin with the anointing oil are considered especially lucky. Do you know why?”
Kismet remembered saying that exact thing to Ren before they began. “I don’t know, I just always assumed that the oil was special.”
“It’s special all right,” Linella said. “It prepares the female’s body for pregnancy.”
“I…what?” Kismet was tempted to rub her ears to find out if she’d heard wrong.
“Is that a real thing?” Rich asked. “Fae have oil that encourages pregnancy?”
“It’s a very real thing,” Linella said, “but only for female fae. A male fae who mated with a female of another species wouldn’t have that reaction, but for a female fae, oh yes, definitely.”
“I think we figured out why you’re glowing,” Noah said. “And if I didn’t already say it,gross.”
CHAPTERNINE
Stef Garner stared at her cell phone, waiting for a return call from the Wilde Creek alpha. She absently rubbed the scar on her upper arm, given to her by the Dorlan alpha, Isaiah, when she’d been forced out. The scar was months’ old, but it still bothered her. She was sure it was just her subconscious making her aware of it, since her shifting nature had allowed it to scar over quickly, and the pain had been sharp but brief. Still…she hated it and hated Isaiah, too
She and her mate, Boyd, had been planning to pull a coup on Isaiah for months. The only problem was his asshole son, Damien, who would fight just as hard to take over once Isaiah was gone, and he had alotmore cronies on his side than she and Boyd had. Her whole life she’d wanted to be alpha female, and Boyd had promised her the position when she mated him at age twenty. He’d sat on his ass and twiddled his thumbs, making plans but not actually accomplishing anything. Then, miracle of miracles, Damien got in deep with a human female and their bastard child, and it caused a war between Wilde Creek and Dorlan. Damien had died during the pack battle, and she and Boyd had known the time to strike was right afterward, when Isaiah was grieving.
Except that wily bastard hadn’t really grieved at all. Or if he did, he hadn’t shown it publicly. He’d seemed to know that someone was out for his position, and he’d met them in a mini battle of their own. Boyd and his brother Rod hadn’t survived. Her mate had died at her feet, beaten terribly, bleeding profusely, and cursing Isaiah with his very last breath.
Isaiah could have killed those who came against him, but instead he exiled them, giving them a slash on their arm as a sign to other wolves that they weren’t to be trusted. They’d also been told if they stepped foot in Dorlan again, they’d be killed on sight.
She could have been content to start over, but she wanted revenge on Isaiah for killing her mate. The Dorlan pack should have been hers to lead. She knew what she needed to do to take Dorlan from Isaiah—find a strong male to lead at her side as alpha male and fill out her tiny pack with males who would fight against Isaiah. There were exiled wolves all over, and she was sure some of them would join her ranks.
For now, she only had her cousin, Tanner, and six others who had backed her and Boyd’s bid for alphaship. She wasn’t about to mate any of the males in her pack, and she’d remembered one of her fuck pals from Wilde Creek, Ren Corbin. She’d lived in Wilde Creek with her parents until they’d decided it was time to move back to her father’s home pack in Dorlan. She’d hooked up with Boyd, and she’d never looked back. Dorlan had been home to her, even when her parents died several years earlier. Now that her dream of being alpha female was on the way to coming true, she knew she needed to get a male to stand by her, but one that wasn’tsuchan alpha male that he’d butt heads with her about her being the true leader.
She thought Ren might be that male. Judging how he’d been in high school, she thought he was just the sort of male she could wrap around her finger and control. He’d be the alpha male of the pack, the face of power, but she’d be the ruler behind the scenes, using sex to control him.
Males were so simple, really. Flash a little pussy and watch them roll over.
Since their exile, she and her pack had been living in a pay-by-the-week motel in a shithole town halfway between Dorlan and Wilde Creek called Payler. There were no shifters in Payler, so she’d claimed it for her pack and they’d taken over the motel as their home territory, while they put out the word that they were recruiting members. It was monstrously unfair that males could lead on their own, but females couldn’t. Damn pack hierarchy. Without an alpha male at her side, she was simply an omega with a superiority complex, and eventually the others would overthrow her, just as she’d planned to do with Isaiah.
