Page 42 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

“I love you,” I said, trying not to think about those imaginary pups I could see a little too clearly. Maybe one day. Certainly not now.

“I love you, too,” Ven said before kissing me softly. I sank into that gentle affection, not a single wall between us. I didn’t know what the future held for us or if I would ever find the missing members of my pack, even if we took down the last two warlock brothers, but at least I knew that no matter what happened, Ven would always be by my side.

What more could an alpha ask for?

10

VANESSA

“So, as we approach this estate, I want to remind you that the original family who owned it go all the way back to the very first settlers that came to America.”

I nodded along, idly unzipping and rezipping my fanny pack as I listened. Honestly, it was kind of hard to catch what our tour guide was saying over the rumble of the bus engine. I couldn’t help but wonder if all the shifters around me were having an easier or worse time than I was. It wasn’t like I could ask though, because that risked potentially exposing our little ruse, which would be a damn shame considering how much work we’d put into it.

“As we arrive through the gates to the estate, I want to remind all of you to be respectful. We are guests at a culturally significant site. Remember, hands to yourself, and anything you bring in with you, you bring out with you.”

I had to hand it to Alicia, she really knew how to act. Gone was the taciturn, often scowling woman who always looked like she had something incredibly important to do. Instead, she was replaced by a khaki-wearing, pigtail-boasting tour guide with a megaphone and a serious can-do attitude. I was beginning towonder if she was less of a mercenary and more of a spy. I could definitely learn a thing or two from her.

“Ah, here we are!” She clapped joyfully as the bus pulled into the outer courtyard. The doors in the back and front opened, and all the passengers streamed out.

We were quite the colorful crew. This time, I wasn’t a caterer or a gardener. Instead, I and everyone else on the bus, sans Alicia, were playing tourists—the really,reallyannoying kind.

I hadn’t been part of the planning, but if I had, I knew I would have been delighted at the camp of it all. When everything had been explained to me, my only worry was that someone might recognize me, considering how often I popped up. Especially since I didn’t know if anything from Alric’s mansion had been recorded. Chiga had assured me it wouldn’t be a problem as he had plenty of disguises and supplies to make me fairly nondescript. That was how I’d ended up with platinum blonde hair tied up in a red bandana, and blue contacts.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing here? You gotta get out!”

I did my best to ignore the several security guards rushing toward us. One of their cars raced from the inner part of the estate. Alicia had called in a few favors and employed eagle shifters to scout ahead to get any useful information about the McMansion where the remaining brothers were holed up.

“Ma’am!” the closest security guard continued. He looked like the one in charge. “Ma’am, you can’t be here. This is a private residence.”

“Private residence?” Alicia practically shrieked, and man, I had to hand it to her, she was convincing. “Excuse you, I have been running this tour for nearly a decade, and this is a historical site I am showing to my guests as an ambassador of America.”

I did my best not to stare, although the whole situation was quite amusing—dangerous, but amusing. To my left, a couple of security guards were trying to stop Chris and Ricky from takingphotos, but the two were replying in what sounded like maybeDinèand Spanish.

“You need to get back on your bus and get out of here!”

“Ah,no ingles.Sooorrry.”

I never thought breaking out into laughter would be a risk of our plan, but I definitely had to swallow that reaction down. Then it was my turn as a guard approached me and took away the Polaroid camera I had been brandishing.

“Stop that. You need to leave.”

“Uh…” I didn’t know much Spanish, not enough to be convincing, and I’d only just started becoming familiar with Native American tongues since becoming embroiled in the shifter community, so it wasn’t like I could mimic that, either.

Well, it looked I was going with the broken French I had picked up from watching so much Canadian TV when I was younger. At least the pain of all of them ending on terrible cliffhangers had turned out to be for a reason.

“Je ne parle pas anglaise! Je ne comprend pas?” My accent was probably atrocious, but I was willing to bank that, like so many Americans, most of the security guards would not have the language skills to call me out on it.

“You. Go. Now.”

Did he really think that would work? All around me, our group of truly annoying passengers was spouting off, making a confusing hail of languages. Some of them were rapidly cursing the staff out in Aleut, and I was pretty sure Miranda was having a fake panic attack in Salishan. From the corner of my eye, I saw two shifters rapidly signing to one of the security guards trying to corral them. From the emphatic movement of their fingers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were telling the man how close they were to throwing hands.

It truly was a mess, and a glorious one at that. When the car I’d seen earlier screeched to a stop, it was difficult not to feelparticularly satisfied. I reckoned we’d managed to draw ten of their security to us, but if possible, I wanted a bit more. Really, at least twenty was the sweet spot I was looking for.

So, in the effort of making a scene, I tried to grab my Polaroid camera from the security guard.

“Donnez moi! C’est n’est par pour toi!”

I jumped for it, trying to snatch the device out of the much larger man’s hand, and if I just so happened to accidentally get his earpiece instead… Well, wasn’t that bad luck for him?

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