Page 26 of Wolf Duty

Justice leaned back in his seat. “Ulf hasn’t told me shit about anything. Other than your debriefing when you got back from Idaho and Nora’s reports via phone on the aftermath cleanup, I know nothing.”

Bay sighed, and then retold the story about how he’d had to ask Karim to read the note for him.

“You told me that already,” Justice said.

“Yeah, but I figured you thought I was too upset or couldn’t read the handwriting or something. The truth is I can’t read worth of shit. The letters always jump all over the place.”

Justice waved a hand in the air. “I’ve always known you had a reading problem. I mean you read nothing given to you on paper. You scurry away to your secret lair. What you do in there, I don’t know, but when you come out, you know the informationbetter than most so I figured you had a way of dealing with your limitations. I had guessed it could be dyslexia, but unless it caused problems with you doing your job, I wasn’t going to address it.”

Bay froze in shock. “You knew?” He thought he’d been so clever hiding his disability from the pack and all along they knew how dumb he was. “But why didn’t you say something when it made me fuck up the fraud case?”

Justice frowned. “Mate, you didn’t fuck up that case.”

“I ended up in the wrong part of town because I didn’t check the navigation system. And after I got attacked and lost the fight, I almost blew up Bolt’s case.”

“Okay, I give you that you did almost fuck up when you forced Arek and Laney to square things with Regie so she didn’t out the pack to the public. But now we know she wouldn’t have done that anyway. Plus, if you want to put a positive spin on things, you might have sped up things for her and Bolt to finally get together.” He paused and leaned forward. “As for the navigation error, the naming convention of the avenues and streets in San Francisco is fucking bonkers. Many people get confused by that. Plus, that fucker Lloyd had put a tracker on your car and fiddled with the engine. No matter where you ended up when it broke down, he and the guy posing as a mechanic would have found you.”

Stunned, Bay leaned back in his chair. Justice had known about his dyslexia all along. And he didn’t view Bay as a major fuckup. “But if you don’t think I’m an idiot, then why did you punish me by sending me as nothing but muscle to Idaho?”

“I never said I don’t think you’re an idiot and that statement just proves that you might be a bigger one than I thought.” Justice blew out a breath. “I didn’t send you to Idaho as a punishment. Retrieving the first one naturally born wolf pup in forever, negotiating custody of him, and doing it while not drawing attention from the other alphas is not punishment. And not a job we’d give to someone who doesn’t have the smarts to pull it off.” He smiled. “Now, granted, I didn’t think you’d be so committed to the mission that you’d marry the pup’s sister, but here we are.” Bay’s wolf bristled and the accusation that they’d married their True Mate out of anything but love. He growled deep in Bay’s chest. Justice laughed. “Steady on, mate. It was a joke.” He turned serious again. “Besides, if you could read as well as others, you might have focused on the words of Dale’s note at first and delayed figuring out who it was from by scent.”

Bay’s head spun with all this new information. “If you know I’m dyslexic and you don’t think I fucked up my last two jobs, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh, that.” Justice gestured toward something on his desk. “I got this as a Yule gift for the pup. Do you think he’ll like it?” Suddenly, the alpha’s lieutenant looked uncertain. “I mean, I figured most of the others will give him electronic gadgets and shit. So I went old school.” Bay leaned forward to study the item on the desk. The label on the plastic bag covering a pile of black material said it was a giant dragon kite with a twenty-one-foot wingspan. “The beach below the Pack House can get really windy. I figured it would be a great place to fly a kite.” Justice’s voice trailed off.

Bay smiled. He could imagine how much fun Karim would have flying a giant dragon on the beach. And judging by its size, he’d need a few pack members to help him get it up in the air. Andthose wolves would have a field day frolicking on the beach with the pup. “He’ll love it,” he told Justice.

When he steppedout of the shower in their suite, Sonya waited for him with a worried look on her face.

“What’s wrong,” he asked, worry eating away in his chest. Did she not enjoy living in such close proximity to the other wolves? “I know these last few days have been hectic, and if you don’t want to live in the Pack House we can find our own place.”

Sonya shook her head. “I love your pack. Well, I love the people I’ve met so far. There are a lot of them.”

Bay crossed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. He’d never get used to how right it felt. “They’re your pack now, too. And Karim’s.”

He felt her nodding against his chest. “They’ve gone out of their way to welcome us. And I feel safer than I have in a long time.”

“Then what is it?” He pulled back and used a finger to smooth the frown lines on her forehead.

“Karim and I got you a Yule gift, but we’re not sure if you’ll like it. As a matter of fact, you might hate it.”

“I won’t hate anything that you give me.”

“Don’t be so sure. Just in case, we want to give it to you before the party so that if you get angry, it won’t be in front of everyone.”

Bay frowned. What was this mysterious gift? Either way, he wouldn’t get angry with them. Nobody’s given him a Yule gift in a long time. The pack didn’t bother with them, other than between True Mates. Before he could answer, Karim shouted from the other side of the door. “What did he say? Can we give it to him now?”

Sonya smiled. “He’s both worried and excited about giving it to you.”

“Let me throw on some clothes and I’ll be right with you.”

Sonya nodded and left the bedroom to go into their living room. When Bay joined her, he saw that she and Karim had set up a small pine tree in the corner and decorated it with shiny baubles and lights. “This is amazing,” he said.

Karim stood by the tree that was only as tall as him. A nervous smile lit up his smile as he pulled out a wrapped package from under the tree. “Open it.” Bay took the rectangular item and sat down on the coach. He shook the gift in his hand, but the rattle told him nothing except that it was probably not Legos or a puzzle. “And there’s also this.” Karim shoved another package at him, this one cube-shaped.

“Karim, let him open the gifts on his own time,” Sonya said.

“But he’s taking forever.”

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