The cubs had been delighted to move in with Naomi and Baldwin, because Naomi loved to cook and read them stories, and Baldwin was teaching them all how to carve wood and shoot bows and arrows. They even put up with Dakota coming over every day to do their schoolwork with them, and Miles had agreed to open the school back up next week if there were no new attacks.
Dakota was staying with Miles, but they’d agreed to take it day by day. The only fly in the ointment was the need to tell Miles the truth about her identity, but for now Dakota felt like she was living in paradise, and she didn’t want to spoil it.
Bryant elbowed Anthea in the ribs. “Your weird friend is back. Why is she back?”
“Greetings,” Dakota said. “And thank you. And by the way, it took me a few days to figure it out, but I know what you guys did. I am totally on to you.”
Anthea and Bryant glanced at each other. “You never told me the she-wolf was crazy,” Bryant said.
“You guys set up the whole running away thing with Sarah, to force me and Miles to get back together. Sarah was never even alone. Anthea was with her the whole time.”
“Sarah told you that, did she?” Anthea said, and spat out a mouthful of wax.
“Of course not,” Dakota scoffed. “Sarah’s not the type to confess her misdeeds. It’s just obvious. Bryant refusing to help me search and then throwing us all out so I’d have to go to Miles for help? Anthea conveniently being gone at the same time that Sarah ran off?”
“Maybe I just refused to help you search because I’m an asshole,” Bryant suggested. “Ask around. You’ll find out that’s the general consensus.”
“He is,” Anthea assured her. “Huge asshole. None huger. Known him all my life.”
“And furthermore,” Dakota continued, ignoring their objections, “Sarah would never run away and leave her younger brother and sisters. Also, they were all way too calm about the whole thing. If she’d really abandoned them like that, they would have been freaking out. They were in on it too. So thank you.”
She thrust the basket of muffins at them.
“Here’s some assorted fresh-baked muffins as a thank you.”
Anthea and Bryant glanced at the basket. They glanced at her. They looked at the basket again.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Naomi baked them!” Dakota said in exasperation.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Anthea cried, grabbing at the basket at the same time that Bryant said “Cool! Muffins!” and shoved his hand into the basket, grabbing two of them.
“Yeah, yeah, Naomi’s the domestic goddess,” Dakota said, rolling her eyes.
She looked over at the truck, where Miles had been hanging out the window, and saw that he was laughing his ass off, the bastard.
“Are you laughing at me?” she yelled. He didn’t bother to answer, just threw back his head and howled.
“Naomi is thinking of opening a bakery in town, you’ll be happy to hear,” she added. “And no, I won’t be helping her cook.”
Anthea gave her a thumbs up and smiled, her mouth full of muffin.
“Good plan,” she said, and a piece of muffin fell out of her mouth onto her lap.
“Just for that, I’m telling everyone that you guys are super nice and a couple of big softies who love hugs,” Dakota said loftily, and turned to go.
“She knows if she does that I’ll make her pelt into a rug, right?” Bryant said to his sister as Dakota walked away.
* * * * *
A few more days passed, and everything stayed peaceful. A new bus full of shifters pulled into town…and didn’t even bother to stop, just headed straight into the eastern territory. Apparently the troublemakers had been warned, and they knew better than to try anything.
One evening, after Dakota had helped the kids do their homework, she was walking back to her cabin when Jefferson walked up to her and handed her a note. It was from Macy.
I need to talk to you tonight, the note said. I think David is cheating on me. Can you come meet me at the bar now?
She felt a bolt of fury shoot through her. She knew what it felt like to be cheated on. Which skanky wench would do that to Macy? Macy might be small in shifter form, but she was pretty fierce. Maybe one of the new arrivals?
It didn’t matter. She would not let her friend be treated like that. “Son of a bitch,” she hissed. “I will skin him alive.”
“Everything okay?” Jefferson asked.
“Is Miles here? I need a ride into town.”
“He’s still working on the job site. I can give you a ride if you want.”
She didn’t want to interrupt Miles; he was helping to build a cabin for a family who’d arrived a few weeks ago.