Page 73 of Rhett

“Aren’t you going to eat one?”

“No, I bought it for you. I’m not a big sweet fan.”

“I am. Sweets are my jam.” I opened the parcel, revealing a small slice of honeycomb covered with powdered sugar. “I can eat the whole honeycomb, including the honey and waxy cells surrounding it?”

“Yup. Biting into a fresh piece of raw honeycomb is a special experience.”

I tore off a piece, and the flavor burst into my mouth. “It’s a little bit sweeter than plain old honey. It reminds me of one of those wax-bottle candies, but instead of juice, there’s honey inside.”

“Exactly,” Rhett said before dipping his head and planting his gorgeous lips on mine. I moaned when he nibbled my bottom lip.

Someone cleared his or her throat loudly. We broke apart, glancing over to see a short plump woman with gray hair pulled into a tight bun, wearing a bubblegum-colored sweater set paired with jeans. She stood by our table, staring at me with her lips curled up into a sneer.

“Hello, Sheriff Ward,” the woman cooed, angling her body in a position that clearly said she was deliberately snubbing me. “Nice festival, ain’t it?”

“Gertrude, I don’t take kindly to you ignoring Nova.” His nostrils flared. “So please move on.”

Gertrude clutched her pearls. “You don’t have to be so rude, Sheriff.”

Rhett shook his head, the look on his face something close to disgust. “Neither do you.”

She tapped her foot. “You can’t talk to me like that. I’m a member of the council.”

“Which means nothing, especially since you’re not the town alpha.”

“Yet,” she purred.

“Never.” He drained his cup of lemonade. “Have a nice evening, you hear.”

I burst out laughing when Gertrude nearly tripped in her haste to get away from us.

“What’s her deal?” I asked. “Besides her obvious dislike of me.”

“Gertrude is a member of the town council, just like Bonnie is.”

“And the council rules the town?”

“Not exactly.” He glanced at the last piece of my meat. “You going to eat that?”

“Nope. Help yourself.”

He popped the bite into his mouth. “Anyway, back to what I was saying. There are nine members on the council, and each are highly respected leaders of their kind. Your grandmother, Bonnie. Isabella, who is a dragon-shifter. Shane is the alpha of the honey badgers. Gertrude is the leader of the ferret-shifters. Freya is the head of the witch coven. The brothers—Wilder and Hugo—are wolf-shifters. Atticus is the leader of the vampire coven. And last but not least, Quinn, the alpha of the Bane pack. The council are advisers to the town alpha, and two of them—Gertrude and Shane—are full-blood snobs.”

“So Gertrude has issues with me because I’m a hybrid?”

“Most likely, but I’d pay her no never mind. She’s just a bitter woman who has issues with everyone and everything in this town.”

Over the loudspeaker, a woman said, “Come on over, folks. It’s time for the slippery pig contest.”

“A slippery pig contest?” I laughed. “I have to see this.”

“Let’s go.” He cleaned off our table and grabbed my hand, guiding us over to a large pen filled with pig muck and pigs whose skin was completely oiled up. So trying to catch a pig didn’t seem like an easy task for man, woman, or beast.

All the contestants, including Nyx and Imani, were lined up outside the stall. Quinn was standing at the side of the pen with a huge grin on his face.

Nyx called out to me, “Hey, Nova. You participating?”

I shook my head. “Hell no. I’m just here for the entertainment.”