Chapter Text
Pip rubbed her aching eyes and leaned back in the office chair that in all honesty was far too large for her. The laptop in front of her chimed softly and she flicked her eyes to the screen.
“Who said you could use my office, Lady Hunter?” came a deep, rich, amused voice from the doorway.
“Your office chair is more comfortable than mine,” she said, without taking her eyes from the laptop screen. She clicked on the button labeled “results.”
Greyson was beside her a second later, moving softly, and planting a kiss on her white hair. “Well done,” he said, looking at the laptop. “I had a feeling you would be good with numbers.”
She smiled smugly at him. “I have gotten a perfect score on every quiz in my accounting class."
“I seem to recall you missing a question on your last quiz,” he said, smirking.
“Nope. Doesn’t count. The teacher threw that question out. So my record is unblemished.”
Grabbing her hands, Greyson tugged his wife to her feet so that he could put his arms around her. “It’s a technicality. You still missed a question.”
“Shut up. You’re just jealous because I finally found something I’m better at than the golden boy Alpha Greyson.”
He grinned before lowering his face and kissing her. She sighed happily and returned the kiss until a cleared throat broke them apart. Greyson’s Beta, Hector, and his wife, Ember, stood in the doorway. “Forgive us for interrupting,” Hector said.
Pip shrugged. “It’s Greyson’s fault for not closing the door.”
Greyson goosed her but spoke to the newcomer. “What’s up, Hector?”
“I came to give Philippa the newest information from the Pre-Dominant.”
Greyson turned his golden gaze on Pip who still leaned into his chest. “You haven’t given Harka your email address yet?”
“Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much extra work she would try to give me if she had a direct line to me?” Pip shuddered. “No way.” She glowered up at him. “And don’t you give it to her, either.”
Ember laughed. “Didn’t you know? Two days ago somebody leaked Pip’s phone number, and she had ten text messages from the Pre-Dominant before she could get to the cell phone store.”
Greyson chuckled. “So, that’s why you changed your number. I thought maybe you’d just broken a phone. That reminds me, Hector, I’ll need a new phone.”
Pip raised an eyebrow. “You took two extra phones with you on this trip to Magiford. You were only gone two days. That means you went through more than a phone a day!”
“And?” Greyson said.
Pip shook her head. “Next time I see Queen Leila I’m going to ask if there’s a way to spell your stupid phone so it won’t break.”
“That’s not a bad idea, Pip. It may save the Pack a lot of money in the long run,” Hector said approvingly.
Pip pushed out of Greyson’s grasp and asked, “Sorry, Hector, what did Harka say?”
“She wants to know if she can add a few extra participants to the experiment.”
Pip chewed her lip. “I thought we were going to keep this first attempt very small.”
“Apparently, she asked a dozen of her top wolves to put out feelers for those who might be interested in joining their Pack, but to keep it relatively quiet. So far, they’ve had an overwhelming response.”
“How overwhelming?” Greyson asked.
“Forty-two applicants so far.”
Pip dropped into the office chair. “Forty-two? I can’t do forty-two. I don’t even know that I can do one!”
“Your magic is getting stronger, Pip,” Hector said. “On our last Pack run, you had a full two dozen humans running with us, besides yourself and the other hunters.”
Greyson sat on the edge of the desk and stroked her cheek. “I know you can do it. After what happened with Cedar, few people have any doubt that you can add to Harka’s pack. But, truthfully, I’m concerned about the emotional toll this could have on you.”
Pip closed her eyes, and the mate bond rubbed against her consciousness like a purring kitten. She smiled wryly. Greyson had quickly learned how to use the bond to calm her fretting. “I know. I’m terrified of failing. What if I can’t help, and people die?”
Ember shook her head. “I’m more concerned that you will succeed. Your success may be your undoing. The Pre-Dominant thinks that as more alphas see Alpha Greyson as their leader, your Wolf’s Kiss powers will apply to their packs too.
“If she’s right, soon every pack in the state—perhaps in the whole Midwest—will be after you constantly to help them add to their packs. We have already seen how desperate these other alphas can be. I’m afraid you’ll never be safe—or be left alone—again.”
“Ember, we’ve talked about this,” Pip said patiently. “I cannot hoard my magic and refuse to help the other Packs. Werewolves are dying out. If I can find a way to make things better, don’t I owe it to the wolves to try?”
“You don’t owe those Packs anything,” Greyson growled.
“As a Wolf’s Kiss, I think I do.”
“I still say it’s a bad idea, Pip,” Ember said, her eyes conveying her worry.
“Look, you’re worrying unnecessarily. First, unless the other Pack sees themselves as subordinate to Greyson, I won’t be able to help them at all. And if they see themselves as subordinate to Greyson, they certainly won’t attack his mate.
“Second, Greyson’s made me promise to stay in the new apartment in the loft of the lodge when he’s in Magiford overnight, and no one’s going to attack me with wolves coming and going all day and night. It would be suicide,” Pip said, continuing her rant.
“And it goes without saying that if Greyson is with me, any attackers will not survive the day. I swear I’m safer than Queen Leila, and she has Chase as a bodyguard, and an assassin for a husband!”
Hector chuckled a little. “I think she has you beaten on that point, Ember.”
The older woman made a noise in her throat. “And when she gets enough requests to choke an elephant? What then?”
Pip shrugged. “I’m going to help Harka. The rest of it will have to be figured out as we go.”
Greyson, who had been strangely silent during the exchange, searched her face and prodded at the bond for a long moment. “Okay. Let’s do it. But any time you meet with another Pack, I’m going with you—and we’ll probably take Scarlett and Radcliff as well,” he said, referring to the brother and sister hunter pair who had joined the Northern Lakes Pack and were fiercely loyal to Hunter Sabre as their leader.
“Fair enough,” Pip said before turning her attention back to Hector. “How many does Harka want to include?”
“Half a dozen.”
Pip chewed on her lip.
Greyson turned around far enough to see his Beta. “What is the success rate for changing wolves in Harka’s Pack?”
“Over the last decade, the survival rate has hovered between twenty-five and thirty percent, with only about one percent of successful changes,” Hector supplied.
“Six seems like a lot,” Pip said, her earlier bravado having faded.
“It’s completely up to you,” Greyson said. “You can keep it to just one if you want or two or forty-two. This isn’t my decision. Whatever you want, we’ll make it happen.”
“All right. Six. But absolutely no more than that on this first try. Have Harka pick the six she would allow to try even without me. We’re not getting fancy on this first attempt.”
“Very well, Pip. I’ll inform her,” Hector said.
“Thank you, Hector,” Greyson said.
With a slight bow to their Alpha, both Hector and Ember left the room.
Pip gazed balefully at her mate. “I hope this isn’t a mistake.”
Greyson took her hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. “It’s not a mistake; it's an experiment. A small experiment. No one will fault you if it doesn’t work.”
Except me, she thought at him through the bond. He tugged her to her feet and hugged her.