Page 35 of The Alpha and the Baker

“What are you doing here?” Cas asked, his tone neutral as he stopped about fifteen feet from me. My mood sank when I saw how rough he looked. His hair was a mess, and faint dark circles ringed his eyes.

“I’m returning your car,” I said, because hey, it was the truth, and it also was easy to say. I wasn’t quite sure how to broach, well, everything else .

“Uh, thanks?”

Oh boy, this was awkward. It was so awkward. But I wasn’t about to let a little anxiety defeat me, so I cleared my throat and decided to just go for it. Being confident and ambitious had gotten me this far in life. All I could do was hope it would see me through now.

“Could we take a walk?”

“A walk?” He said it like I was speaking a foreign language, but there wasn’t any hate in his tone. Not even any unfriendliness. If anything, he sounded scared.

I hated that I had frightened him, but I got it.

“Yeah. I think we have a lot to talk about.”

He didn’t say anything, and I wondered if he could hear how hard my heart was beating. The man he had been talking to jogged toward us, and I saw he was indeed Arietty’s owner.

Wait. Not owner. Brother? Father? Jeez, I really did have a lot of little questions once all the big questions were over.

“Thanks for returning the car,” he said, all smiles like I was an old friend. His attitude was so different from Cas’s that it practically gave me whiplash, and that feeling only grew when he winked at me. “I’ll go park this at your cabin, Cas, so you two can take that walk.”

I frowned. How did he know about that? Then I remembered reading that shapeshifters had enhanced senses that corresponded with whatever animal they were. Definitely something I needed to keep in mind for future conversations.

Should there be any future conversations, that is.

“You don’t have to—” Cas started, but the man had already plucked the keys from my hand and jumped into the car. “All right.”

I waited until his friend pulled away before I gave Cas what I hoped was a soothing smile, but it likely came off more nervous than anything else.

“I come in peace, if you were worried,” I said after a few beats of silence.

I was aiming for a little bit of levity to break the tension, but the miserable expression on Cas’s features told me the joke didn’t quite land.

“I was worried.”

“I am sorry, Cas. I really am. If I knew that springing my hypothesis on you would scare you, I would have been more cautious. I’m sorry I didn’t think more on it, and I hope you can forgive me.”

He stared at me for what felt like several long years before letting out a tiny huff of a dry laugh. “I suppose it’s not exactly fair to expect you to be cautious when trying to figure out if someone can transform into a dangerous animal at will. I just... How ?”

“How did I figure it out?”

He nodded, and I felt a bit of triumph at that. “Yeah.”

“You’re saying it’s true? You really are a werewolf.

” I grinned at him unrepentantly. My mind had been a messy scramble of things ever since he’d rushed out of my apartment, so it was nice to have solid ground under my feet.

Even if that solid ground was pretty impossible. “We prefer the term ‘shifters’.”

Shifters? Now that I thought about it, I had seen that verbiage at least a couple of times in all my scrolling.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so elated, but I couldn’t help the positive feelings that were running through me.

One, Cas was talking to me, which really was a victory unto itself.

Two, I got the distinct impression I was putting to bed some very intense worries he’d had.

I felt terribly guilty for stressing him out, but also relieved that he seemed to understand how insane the circumstances were.

I schooled my face into a friendly expression and nodded down the path. “Care to explain that while we walk?”

He visibly relaxed at that. This clearly was a rough patch, but it was looking like we were going to get through it—whatever that meant.

“Yeah, I can do that.” We got a few steps before he stopped, and I froze mid-step, worried I had done something wrong.

But when I looked up at that handsome face, I saw the faintest hint of a genuine smile there. “No moon puns, though.”

“I promise nothing.”

And there it was, that genuine hearty laugh from him that reminded me so much of our date the night before. I loved that sound. It was filled with joy and just enough surprise to make me feel accomplished for getting it. “Fair enough.”

“You really thought I was a—what did you call it? A Wild Hunter?” I asked as the houses came back into view.

I hadn’t expected our walk to last three hours, nor had I expected Cas’s incredible patience in answering everything I asked.

He’d started haltingly at first, as if he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but after a half-hour or so, he’d relaxed to normal.

Well, almost normal. We were both in entirely new territory, but at least that put us on equal footing.

“You’ve got to understand, I’ve never had a human figure out what I was.”

“No offense, but I find that pretty doubtful considering how blatant your family was about it. They weren’t exactly subtle.”

He flushed ever so slightly, and I loved it. God, him being a shifter really didn’t affect my feelings at all, did it? I wouldn’t say I was in love yet, but I couldn’t deny that I was rapidly developing feelings for the man.

“Yeah, I’ll need to talk to them about that. I didn’t realize what a trainwreck the reunion was.”

“Hey, I had fun! Besides, I can’t exactly complain about how things turned out.”

“Really?” He sounded so shocked that I had to re-evaluate everything I’d communicated so far. I thought the walk had been rather romantic—two people from different worlds figuring things out together. But I was beginning to wonder if Cas thought I was only here for my own curiosity.

I certainly needed to clear that up. Before I could, a familiar dog came trotting up, tongue lolling out of her mouth.

“Hello, Arietty,” I said, wondering what human was hidden in that adorable, oversized shape.

However, I got my answer when steam suddenly filled the air around her, then dissipated to reveal a preteen girl with dark hair and a cheeky smile on her cherubic features.

“Wow,” I breathed. I had just seen my first transformation in person. While most of it had been obscured by the steam, I’d seen the rush of fur moving backward and a joint cracking in a different direction. It was a strange combination of body horror and ballet, which fascinated me.

I wondered if there was a way I could see it more clearly. Maybe the older wolves who had more control over their shifts produced less of the obscuring mist? Questions I would have to ask later, because the young woman was speaking.

“Auntie Siobhan says to hurry up and come to dinner because everyone is waiting.”

“Uh, I need to drive Felicia here home.”

Arietty gave him a look. “Don’t be silly, Uncle Cas. She’s invited.”