Page 13 of Witch

“Ask me again next week, when I’m off leave,” Kana replied, hoping that would work.

“What, and give you time to prepare some secret spell that will trick me into thinking you have a bit of power? I don’t think so.”

Mika let out a yowl, showing off his fangs, and then turned so he could stare the hunter down.

“You think your trained rat is going to change my mind? I bet your real familiar is a cockroach.”

Several snickers sounded nearby. Kana didn’t know how to end this, but if Mika was stepping in, then he had told Sora, and Sora would go get help.

As if summoned, Sora came dashing out the door. He planted himself at Kana’s feet and let out his own yowl.

“Two?” someone whispered off to Kana’s right. “That can’t be possible.”

Ary strode into view next. “I’m sure Kana would be happy to provide you with a training session,” he said as he reached the front lawn. “But it will have to wait until next week when Kana returns to work.”

“A training session against a witch would be good for us,” Marge added as she, Charlie, Ember, and Diana joined Ary. “Since we’re apparently lacking discipline. You lot are lucky Kana’s friendly. Try this with the vampire Stan mentioned, and you’ll go back home in a body bag.” She glared at the assembled hunters. “I’m sure you all have somewhere else you’re supposed to be right now.”

Hunters vanished even faster than they had appeared, scuttling off to wherever they were actually supposed to be at the moment. The hunter who had confronted Kana glared at him one more time before slinking off as well.

Ary shook his head in disappointment but turned to Ember and Diana a moment later. “Sorry about that. Anyway, shift change is at six today, so if you could have your people here by four? That will give us enough time to make introductions and give them a debriefing. I’ll get the rest of the week’s schedule to you by this evening as well.”

“Will do,” Ember replied.

Diana nodded in agreement before turning and walking down the drive.

“Ready to go?” Ember asked Kana as Ary, Charlie, and Marge headed back into the house.

“Yeah. If I stay here, those hunters may come back. Who do you have in mind for the surveillance and strike teams?” They followed Diana down the drive, but at the gate she walked across the street while Kana and Ember turned right to head to the werewolf house.

“I’m going to assign each of my betas to a team and let them choose who they think would fit best. Although, I’m going to work with the surveillance team that stays nearby so I can be on hand for any pack issues, and I’m going to ask Shannon if he’s interested in taking at least one shift at night.” They reached the gate, which slid open when they approached and then shut immediately after they were inside. “I also have to invest in some holy water, apparently, and I need to ask Shannon if that will bother him.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” Kana said.

Ember grinned his usual grin at Kana. “Since I’m going to be away from the pack house more than usual as I set things up this week, and since you’re not working, it would be helpful if you could hang out in the public areas so anyone with any issues can come ask you,” he said.

Kana could do that. “I’m going to get a cup of tea in the mess hall, then,” he said. “I’ll see you tonight at some point?” They walked inside the front doors and stopped in the foyer.

“I’ll make sure of that, even if it probably won’t be as fun as last night.” Ember’s grin took on an edge to it that made Kana wish they could sneak off for a few minutes for some privacy, but now definitely wasn’t the time. Unfortunately.

Kana took control of himself so he didn’t do anything untoward in public. “See you then.”

They kissed, a quick peck on the lips that was far less than Kana would have wanted, but was entirely appropriate for being out in public. Then Ember turned right to head deeper into the house to go find his betas, and Kana went left to get himself a cup of tea before going to be the alpha’s mate for a few hours.

Chapter Seven

“UGH,” MARC GROANED as he collapsed into the seat next to Kana. He slumped and rested his forehead against the table.

“Long day?” Kana asked. A glance at the clock showed it was quarter to five, so Marc had just gotten back from school.

Over the last few days of Kana spending most of his time in the mess hall, one of the public sitting rooms, or walking around the grounds, a number of wolves had gotten up the courage to come speak with him about things they felt were too minor to mention to Ember. Kana had handled more marriage disputes, disagreements, and awkward questions than he could count, but somehow Marc coming to find Kana after school every day never got boring.

“We had to do show and tell today,” Marc said into the table, his voice muffled slightly. “When it was my turn, the kids started chanting ‘show your tail’ instead of ‘show and tell.’”

“Didn’t your teacher stop them?” Kana asked, appalled.

Marc laughed, but he sounded like his choices were either laugh or cry. “She tried, but it’s a class of thirty kids and she couldn’t do much. I finally growled and told them to shut up.”

Oh dear. Kana could guess where this was going, if Marc had used his alpha-level powers to force the kids to behave.

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