Page 12 of Wolf Duty

Karim groaned. “I won’t hear the reading voice with all these people talking,” he argued, gesturing toward the rest of the room, where the background noise of conversations swelled as the crowd grew restless and grumbly. Her brother had dyslexia and the listening to a synced voice while he read helped him decipher the letters.

She fished out his headphones and held them up, one eyebrow quirked.

Karim rolled his eyes and sighed loudly, but put them on and plugged the cord into the e-reader.

A commotion in the back of the room announced Bay’s arrival.Finally.

Sonya turned around and watched him stride up the aisle. The pack members threw unfriendly, some outright hostile, looks his way. If he noticed them, he didn’t show it. His blue-gray eyes sought hers, and as their gazes met, a deep calm filled her.

“Hey,” he said as he reached her.

She glanced at the folder he was carrying. “Did you find a solution?”

He leaned down and quietly spoke right next to her ear. “Do you trust me?”

She shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

He flashed a wicked grin, grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of her seat. Electricity ignited her nerve endings, just like when he’d touched her in the kitchen. But this time, heat also flooded her body and pooled low in her abdomen. What was it about this man? Why did she react so powerfully to his touch?

From Bay’s quick inhale, she knew he’d felt it too.

“Now that you’ve finally arrived,” Dale said from the dais, “maybe we can start the proceedings that you called.”

“Absolutely.” Keeping her hand in his, Bay stepped up onto the dais.

She had no choice but to follow. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Karim take off his headphones. E-reader forgotten in his lap, he focused on her and Bay. So much for keeping him out of grown-up business and getting at least part of his lesson done. She’d been homeschooling him ever since he’d been oldenough for kindergarten. She didn’t mind, since it was the only way she used her hard-earned teaching degree. But her college instructors had not covered how to keep her brother’s butt in the chair to do his lessons. Or how to keep him from shifting into a wolf when he grew bored.

Bay tugged on her hand, and she turned around to face Dale and the elders. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he told them. “I had to use the motel’s ancient printer for the legal forms. It had a bad day.”

Sonya stared at the folder in his hand. Had he found a way to circumvent pack law and give her guardianship?

“What legal forms?” Dale growled.

Bay’s eyes flashed as he focused on the pack alpha. “The ones that give Sonya guardianship of Karim without having to mate with a Sunbeam wolf.” He opened the folder he was carrying and placed a sheaf of papers in front of each person sitting behind the table.

The noise from the crowd escalated. From what Sonya could make out, Dale had not shared his plan of her mating with a pack member. And it was apparently not a popular idea.

She glanced at Mandy. What would she say when she found out Dale considered himself the top candidate? The woman watched her boyfriend with a frown on her face.

“Silence,” Dale roared, and he must have put some alpha compulsion behind the command. The air felt heavy and clammy, but the crowd quieted down. “The law is clear,” Dale said. “Only a pack member can raise a shifter pup. Sonya is not related by blood or mated to any of the Sunbeam wolves. Therefore, she’s not pack. She can’t take the place of a parent.”

A cry from the front row made Sonya turn around. Karim had jumped off his chair and torn off his shirt. She took a step toward him, but he quickly shed his pants, underwear, socks, and boots. Running down the aisle, he shifted in record time and disappeared through the open door in the back before her lips formed the wordstop.

Bay stared at the entry through which the wolf pup had disappeared. “That’s one determined little dude. I’ve not seen a young wolf shift that fast before.”

“You could have been gentler,” Mandy chided Dale. “Karim’s father just died. Finding out he’s about to lose his sister as well is devastating.”

“Not my problem,” Dale stated, staring at Bay. “Sonya knows what her options are.”

Bay’s fists clenched, and he took a step toward the alpha. Sonya grabbed his arm and pulled him back. A brawl wasn’t a solution. She felt his muscles relax under her touch. He shot her a look she couldn’t interpret. Grateful, but also confused?

One of the elders, whose name Sonya hadn’t learned, cleared his throat. “It’s been a while since I practiced law, but these documents seem in order.”

Dale looked away from Bay. “What are you talking about?” he sneered at the elder.

Mandy and the other elder flinched, but the man who’d spoken sat still, meeting Dale’s gaze. He tapped a finger on the stack of papers in front of him. “I’m talking about this guardianship document that the out-of-pack wolf presented.”

Dale opened his mouth, but Mandy held up a hand and he swallowed whatever he’d been about to say. “Please, honored elder and learned attorney, share with the pack what the papers state,” she said.

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