Page 29 of Moonlight's Mate
The doctor looked horrified and intrigued at the same time. “Another online search?”
She nodded. “There seemed to be some question whether it’s a good idea.”
Beck coughed. “I was hoping to have asafeplace for Doc Nally here.” When the doctor bristled a bit, Beck gave him a look. “A fairy-free place.”
Nally sank back onto the chair he’d just left and looked down at his scuffed hands. “Not running sounds wonderful.”
“I’ll take the spores. I have an old iron safe at the bar where we can lock it up until…” Beck trailed off since he wasn’t entirely sure what came after.
Nally handed over the satchel with another sigh. “I pass the onus to you.”
Merrilee shook her head. “You still have knowledge we need. You stay behind these protections until we’re sure the fae understand they can’t have what’s ours.”
The doctor sat a little straighter, nodding. At the brighter spark in the wolf-kind’s tired eyes, Beck was torn between a smile and a nip of jealousy. With just a few words, Merrilee gave the loner new energy and made him hers.
The first part was fine, but after that…
Beck shouldered the bag of ’shroom spores and gestured Merrilee out through the kitchen, Claudia following.
“Poor little man,” she murmured. “He’s tuckered out. I’ll get him fed and put to bed.” She pulled open the door for them. “You send Orson back to me, and I’ll have some iron bullets ready for him.”
Beck remembered to duck beneath the horseshoes on the way out. “Hopefully it won’t come to that.”
“But if it does, thank you,” Merrilee added.
Claudia stood in the doorway a moment, staring out at the night. “I always knew there was more to the world than I was seeing. I just… For some reason, it’s been a while since I remembered to look.” She shifted her gaze to them. “So thankyou.”
As they drove away from the barn with the scrap pipe loaded into the trunk, Beck pulled the vial from the satchel. “Seems so innocuous.” He slanted a glance at Merrilee. “But I suppose even a little thing can change everything.”
She tilted her head. “I suppose.”
“A mushroom spore, a roadside bomb, an iron bullet,” he mused. “You.”
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I don’t think I appreciate the comparison.”
“Change isn’t always bad.”
“It’s the bombs, bullets and toadstools part.”
“They brought us together.”
“Us? Let’s just get through the next couple of nights alive, okay?” Her expression was hard in the dashboard light, but her tone was pleading.
“I don’t think just living is enough for me anymore.”
“What are you—?”
“That’s all I wanted while I was overseas, but now… My uncle talked about you when he’d call me. Did you know that?”
She shook her head wordlessly.
“He said you were a fine Alpha, done your grandmother proud. He knew I’d be Alpha if I came home, and he wanted me to know about you.”
“When,” she murmured. “Notifyou came home, when.”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t a sure thing. Nothing is. I could only do my best.”
“And that’s always been…”
