Page 11 of The Wolfing Hour
“Did you expect him to stay hidden away in your house forever?”
“I was hoping for longer than one day. He’s not even home from last night’s shift.”
“Could he have stayed in his apartment? Until you two shacked up, he lived there full-time. All his stuff is there.”
“Shacked up?” I probably should have taken offense but couldn’t muster any. “Actually, that’s not a bad way to describe it. Impolite, but then I’ve always toed the line between propriety and truth.”
“Me, too.” She bit into her Danish. “Staying at the apartment makes sense if he’s meeting with his ex-packmates.”
She was right, and I knew he’d been strategizing with a small group of higher-ranking alphas who supported him.
“With Floyd gone,” Ida continued, “it’s the perfect time for him to get the pack on his side.”
“I know. I’m just worried. Ronan’s a good guy. Floyd is a lying, cheating scumbag. They don’t fight the same way.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think your wolf could go low if he needed to.”
He’d done it before, when his old pack murdered his stepfather. Ronan was good and kind, but he was also the most powerful wolf shifter I’d ever met. I needed to release the idea that he couldn’t take care of himself.
Why is that so damn difficult?
Because you love him, dummy.
And if I loved Ronan, I had to stop trying to control the danger spinning around him like a cyclone. Wasn’t that the whole reason I’d laid into him after he kept his location from me to “protect me” from his father? If I wanted openness, I had to give it, too. It didn’t work otherwise.
“He needs to do this his way.” Ida’s gaze softened. “Listen, I understand. Loving someone enough to get out of their way isn’t easy—especially to a natural-born protector like you.”
I was getting tired of her being right, so I decided to change the subject. “Hey, thanks for helping Fennel cleanse Violeta’s room last night when I was out of it. Cecil destroyed the remains of the melted monitor, so she shouldn’t have any issues.”
“You’re welcome. I offered to replace it in case the girl needs it for school, but Maria told me she’s giving her a new laptop for her birthday next month. She’ll make out okay.” One brow shot up. “You know, Maria’s very grateful to us for helping out. Get this … the woman almostsmiledwhen we were leaving last night.”
“What?” I gripped my chest as if I were in the throes of a heart attack.
“That could’ve been because we were going away,” she said. “Hard to know for sure. Maria’s kind of a closed book.”
The mandrake in the tiny clay pot let out a whistling sigh as she sunned herself in the front window—black BB eyes closed, delicate leaves unfurled.
“Want me to take Meredith to the garden room to hang out in the rosemary this morning?” I asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind. I’m playing tennis with Gladys at the senior center in La Paloma at nine, so I’ll pick her up after.”
“You two be careful. Anyone connected to Ronan and me is walking around with a target on their back.”
Ida winked. “Don’t you worry. This old necromancer’s still got moves.”
True. Still, I couldn’t help worrying. Ida was important to me, and Floyd knew that. Everyone in town did.
Instead of harping on the subject, I thanked her for breakfast, scooped up Meredith’s pot, and headed for my happy place.
From the outside, the garden room appeared to be a cozy shed with thrifted windows and interesting architectural ornaments for walls. Inside, time bent at odd angles, creatingspace in unfathomable ways. Long story short, even if we filled the garden room with a million plants, we’d never run out of room.
However, I’d eventually have to get one of those motorized carts for Cecil, and I shuddered to think what the gnome would do if he ever got a set of wheels.
The mandrake scowled at me the entire way over.
“Dial down the disdain a notch, Meredith.” I lifted the tiny plant up to my face. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even know Ida. You could at leastpretendto be grateful.”
The plant huffed then flung loose soil at my face.
