“I’ve got plenty of time.” Aeric grinned and wriggled his eyebrows. “No one has any IT problems in the Pack right now except for Rio. He says the internet at his house is out or something. But he can wait!”
Aeric served as the Pack’s official IT guy for all businesses and homes, so he worked all hours of the day—including the middle of the night on occasion.
Aeric’s grin turned into a smirk. “I think I’ll go visit my ladyfriend before I drop by his house.”
“Your what?” Teresa asked.
Wyatt and I simultaneously grimaced.
“Bro,” Wyatt said. “Not cool.”
“We’ve told you that you have to stop calling Shania that,” I said. “It makes you sound like you’re both in your nineties.”
“Why?” Aeric asked. “People use that phrase in Canada all the time.”
“You should honor your home country of course, but when it comes to this issue my answer remains: no,” Wyatt said.
“For Shania’s sake,” I added.
“Hey…guys?” Teresa scooted closer to me and peered back at the forest behind us.
I turned around, frowning when I saw Amos Fletching and sixteen hunters emerge from the shadows.
I could have sworn there were only fourteen of them at the start…
Amos led the group, swaggering into the meadow with a smirk as he adjusted his bush hat so sinister shadows fell across his face.
Two hunters trailed directly behind him—two younger hunters I’d seen with him before. They shared the dark eyes and hair features of their hunter family, but they were in their early twenties and about ten years younger than everyone else.
The rest of the hunters stayed a little farther back, but were easily within hearing distance.
Amos had his eyes set on us, and all hopes that he was merely passing through evaporated as he strolled straight up to us.
“Wolves. Humans. Hunter,” he greeted.
“Amos.” I jutted my chin at his entourage. “Called up more of your family, I see?”
“The investigation is a bigger issue than I was prepared for.” Amos’s laugh was gritty like rust. “I decided more backup was necessary.”
“I see.” I flicked my eyes to his two shadows. “And you two are?”
“Ahh, yes. These are my nephew and niece, Radcliff and Scarlett.”
Radcliff slightly inclined his head while Scarlett gave me a small but genuine smile.
“You two are cousins?” I guessed.
“Siblings,” Scarlett said.
“Ahh, yes. I suppose you’re keeping it all in the family.” I glanced again at the hunters standing farther back.
“What brings you to the lodge today?” Aeric asked. His goofy smile that typically made people drop their guard around him was slapped on his face.
“We’ve just made a report to the Regional Committee of Magic and were told to inform Alpha Greyson.” Amos pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his pants.
He smirked at us, expecting some kind of reaction.
What, does he want us to congratulate him for doing his job?
Wyatt casually watched Young Jack and Forrest—who had slowed down their playing considerably, and I was certain it was only partially because they were running out of anger to fuel them—then glanced at me, raising his eyebrows.
I sucked in a deep breath of air, then put on the polite smile I used at the welcome center. “We are so glad to hear you’ve gotten traction on this very important and vital case. I’m sure Alpha Greyson will be happy to hear your report.” I gestured to the lodge, but in truth I didn’t know if he was there at the moment or not—I didn’t have my binder with his schedule on me.
But what Amos doesn’t know, won’t hurt him!
“Aren’t you at all curious what we’ve uncovered?” Amos asked.
Aeric scratched the back of his neck. “Alpha Greyson will tell us,” he said with a confidence that was hard to refute. “We’ll wait for him.”
Amos rolled his eyes. “Typical power-cowering werewolf.” He glanced at Amelia and Teresa with a scornful eye—most likely unimpressed with their humanity—then his eyes landed on me. “What about you, Hunter Sabre? Are you curious?”
“No,” I lied with my welcome center smile. “Sorry, you seem to think we’d be more interested in this issue than we are.”
Amos smirked. “You should be more interested. What we found is going to have grave repercussions for you wolves. But first, a little history lesson.” He took a few swaggering steps away, ignoring the nervous looks Radcliff and Scarlett swapped.