Page 92 of Tempting Fate

Again.

I suck in a breath and place my beer bottle firmly down on the table.

“Jamie will know,” Dax says. “You know he’ll work it out. He’s around enough mated pairs to see the signs.”

“He knows. I think he worked it out before I did,” I say. “He’s human. He’ll move on.”

“You’re being an arse.”

“I don’t know how else I’m supposed to be right now.”

Dax sighs. Flynn is suspiciously silent, just watching the two of us. I get the distinct impression he wants to leave, but also that he can’t bring himself to miss the conversation.

“Well, Millie’s leaning hard on her alpha, at least,” Dax says. “Have you spoken to your parents?”

I shake my head. Their pack is rural enough that they might take me—I was born there, after all—but I almost think I’d prefer somewhere new instead of going back there.

“I asked Kieran,” he says, and I look over at him with a frown.

“Dax…”

“You think I wouldn’t? I don’t want you to go. Not at all, but not like this.”

I swallow around a lump in my throat. Flynn ducks his head, staring at the floor now. “I… Thank you. But he can’t—he can’t help me. Fuck, he’s in enough shit anyway, and this all had nothing to do with him.”

“I know. They all—Sam argued for you too, you know. Says it’ll all blow over soon enough, but the alphas… I don’t know. They’re keeping me out of it, a bit.”

“Probably better that way.” I reach over and squeeze his arm. “Thank you, though. And thank Sam for me. That’s more than I deserve.”

Flynn makes an irritated sound in the back of his throat. “Fuck that,” he mutters.

“What?”

“Oh, come on. All the alphas are—” He glances around, then lowers his voice. Dax and I exchange amused glances. We all know the flats are soundproofed to high hell; can’t fit this many wolves in a block of them, otherwise. “So fucking old and out of touch. I know you shouldn’t have done that, but if Em hadn’t been streaming the entire fucking thing, it never would have mattered. If he’d taken it well, it would have been some cute story, and you know none of them would have cared.”

“But that’s not what happened.”

“Yeah, and they’re right.” Flynn flaps his hand. “The mages, witches, whatever. I’ve been checking every day, you know. There are a few people saying it’s real, still, but people will say any old shit is real on the internet. No one believes it.”

“Someone sent Em here, though,” I say. “They believe it.”

“Yeah, and instead of actually investigating that, they’re trying to work out where to put you and what to do with him—like they can do a fucking thing to an unaffiliated human; it’s like they’ve never even read the treaty—which is just ridiculous because doesn’t it seem suspicious that they got video that close of a lone wolf and he never noticed?”

I blink, stunned. Dax looks just as confused, but then I don’t know that he’s ever heard Flynn really unleash like that.

I have, just never— “You’ve read the treaty?”

He levels me with an incredulous look. “It applies to me. Of course I’ve read it.”

“You say that like you read the terms and conditions on everything you agree to,” I mutter.

Flynn nods, nonplussed. “Do you not?”

“Sam said that Felix has someone looking for whoever sent the email, but it just bounced around,” Dax says. “Said Felix was worried, though.”

“Why?”

“He doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t get the email, too.” When I frown, he shakes his head. “He’s big on social media. Does all this occult stuff from his shop.”