Page 17 of The Alpha and the Baker

Honestly, if some of the teenagers had their way, we’d be making a run twice a week for avocados, but there were strict rules about that.

Since the market was in human territory and a place for social events, part of our treaty with the fairies was that our pack could only go to the market on the first and last Sundays of the month, and Wednesdays in the middle two weeks of the month.

That way we wouldn’t run into any members of the Ramirez pack, our centuries-long rivals and occasional enemies, and cause a scene in front of humans.

“You wanna take the outdoor section, and I’ll take the indoor?” I asked once I found a parking spot, which was fairly difficult to do at five a.m. in the morning.

“Yeah, thanks,” Chris said, already hopping out of the truck.

I knew he hated the indoor part of the market because of how crowded it was, so I didn’t mind taking the hit.

While the scents were intense with so many people and things crammed into one long building, I could get through it just fine if I concentrated hard enough. “Meet you at the cheese stall?”

Despite the veritable feast we’d had just the day before, my stomach rumbled at the thought of farm-fresh cheese.

Although we did a lot of things on our land, cattle wasn’t one of them.

The poor things always seemed so stressed around us wolves, no matter how lovingly we treated them.

We couldn’t really blame animals for their natural instincts, so we chose not to keep them and instead just support other farmers who went to market.

Goats, however, didn’t give a single fuck, so we had lots of dairy from them, but sometimes cow cheese was just necessary. Like on taco night. Or with mac and cheese.

Chickens also didn’t care, but that wasn’t surprising considering they were mini-dinosaurs. Heavens knew that if they were human-sized, they would probably give us shifters a run for our money.

Thankfully, none of our roosters had the ability to be alphas, so we were safe.

I had to admit, I did get kind of lost in thought about a world where were-poultry was a thing, so I wasn’t really paying attention as I made my way through the building.

I managed to get everything off the communal list we kept on a grocery app, but it took me about fifteen minutes longer than usual.

Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but normally I wouldn’t walk out of the building to see Chris surrounded by four members of the Ramirez pack.

Shit.

While we weren’t mortal enemies anymore, it was only a couple of generations ago that we’d quite literally been at each other’s throats.

Land disputes. Mating issues. Not to mention the inherent racism of humans that favored our pack greatly.

I liked to think we’d come a long way since those days, but there was no denying that the reason my pack had so much land was due to a whole lot of swindling and unfair dealings that happened a hundred years earlier.

The Ramirez pack had immigrated up from Mexico centuries earlier, but only because they’d been pushed out by Europeans coming over and making life a living hell for the Native people there.

And the reason they’d come up to the Midwest was because the local tribe of their sister-nation of Arapaho had invited them up to join them.

For a while, they’d known peace together, but then Manifest Destiny, the Trail of Tears, and the kidnapping of many Native children eliminated nearly all of the Native American shifters, leaving only a dozen-and-a-half of the original Ramirez pack left.

They’d survived by getting jobs as “China men” to make the great railroad out west.

Needless to say, things had never been hunky-dory between us, but when the fairies suddenly swept in with their magic and legalese, our ancestors found themselves tricked into a peace that had a whole lot of stipulations.

Like the one dictating when we could occupy human spaces.

Apparently, it was supposed to be for the protection of all, and I kind of got that, but sometimes it felt a little too oppressive.

After all, we’d all grown a lot and become much more informed in the past couple of centuries.

“What’s going on here?” I asked as flatly as possible, trying to keep the subharmonics completely out of my voice. Difficult to do since my wolf was bristling, but he was willing to stand down and listen to me.

“Just having a bit of a chat,” Chris said, his expression much harder than his usual amiable grin. “Surprised to see each other, that’s all. Especially since this isn’t your day, is it, fellas?”

“No, it ain’t,” the biggest of them groused.

“Just wanted to support Daniella’s school fundraiser.

” The large—even for a shifter—man pointed to a table just across the way, where I saw a group of young girls all dressed in catholic school uniforms and selling what looked like baked goods and tea.

“We didn’t pick the day, and they wouldn’t move it.

Hard to explain given it’s a human school. ”

He wasn’t lying. I recognized the uniform from the other school for the gifted that Arietty had almost been placed in. However, she went to the one with more emphasis on technology, while the other school was more about the hard sciences.

“Which one’s Daniella?” I asked.

“Yellow ribbons in her pigtails,” another answered begrudgingly, which I appreciated. They could all decide to play hardball with me, but that would have made the situation much more difficult.

Scanning over the girls, I saw the yellow ribbons, as well as the gap-toothed smile as she happily handed a bag of cookies to an elderly couple.

She reminded me a lot of Genevive, who looked to be around the same age and had the same missing tooth, except with bright auburn hair instead of the chestnut brown curls Daniella had.

They were risking a lot to show support for one of their kids. I liked to think that if I was in the same situation, I’d do the same.

“Looks like she’s doing a good job,” I said, relaxing my posture. In response, the four echoed my body language. While I wasn’t their alpha, they all recognized that I was an alpha, and with that came a certain level of respect, even if they hated my pack.

“Of course, she is,” the biggest one said proudly. “She’s the top of her class and may even skip a grade next year.”

I grinned at that. Although the guy could probably rip my head off, he reminded me so much of Chris when he was bragging about his daughter.

“I believe it,” I said with a firm nod before putting my free hand on Chris’s shoulder. “Considering the occasion, I don’t think there’s any reason to draw attention to this. After all, it’s for a good cause, right?”

“Right,” two of the four agreed, although I could hear suspicion in their tones.

I couldn’t really call them out on that. Alpha Barris had started to go hard on pushing into their territory when he lost so much of our land to the fairies.

“Glad we’re in agreement. Now, if you don’t mind, me and my beta here are gonna finish our shopping right after we make our own donation.”

Chris’s eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. “We are?”

“We are.”

With one last nod to the tense group, I headed over to the table. We didn’t really need desserts—Lord knows we’d had enough goodies the day before—but a bag of cookies and a pie wouldn’t ruin any shifter’s waistline.

The girls were elated with my purchase, and Chris and I finished up the rest of our shopping as quickly as we could. We had to make three separate trips to the truck to put our stuff in the hatch, but once everything was said and done, I let out a long sigh of relief.

“You handled that pretty well back there,” Chris said once he was sure we were out of hearing. That was the downside of having enhanced hearing as shifters; our biggest rivals had it too.

“Did I?” I murmured, very much in my head about the whole thing. While I understood where the Ramirez pack was coming from, and I really didn’t want to incur the fairies’ wrath with a fight in a human area, it could be just as dangerous to appear too soft. Pack dynamics were complicated like that.

“Yeah, for a moment there I thought they were gonna do something, but now I think they were just trying to intimidate me into staying quiet. You know how they are.”

That piqued my curiosity. While I liked to think we’d come a long way, sometimes old biases were hard to overcome.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, hoping my friend wasn’t repeating old rhetoric.

“You know. Fiercely protective of their young. I’d never want to throw down with a Ramirez if they thought one of their pups was in danger, even one half my weight.”

I relaxed internally, reprimanding myself for being so on edge. “Yeah, they’ve done some incredible things to survive into the modern era. Not many old packs are so lucky.”

“Exactly.”

My phone buzzed with a text. I was all set to ignore it—even though we were at a red light—but Chris picked it up and made a surprised sound.

“It’s that baker lady!”