Page 58 of The Alpha and the Baker

Felicia

One Hell of a Throw Down

I was terrified on the inside, but I refused to let any of that come to the surface as I stared down the strange group of Wild Folk in front of me.

It was hard to believe that the lawyer-coded individuals in front of me were the malevolent, magical beings that had caused so many issues for the shifters.

Ever since Aiyana’s quinceanera, I’d either been preparing for the bake-off, searching everything I could about fairies online, or casually asking what questions I could about them from elders without arousing suspicion.

I’d learned a whole lot, but there was always the risk that something I’d picked up online was actually incorrect and my entire scheme would come tumbling down.

“Fine,” the man in the sharp, black suit said. His dark hair was slicked back like some sort of Wall Street shark from the eighties. “You’ve issued your challenge, now declare your prize.”

Now this was actually one of the hardest parts. What I was about to ask was big , and it was perfectly possible for them to turn me down. Then we’d be at square zero.

No, I had to make the challenge appealing enough for them to have to accept it.

Which meant I had to make it look like I was going to lose.

“My prize is that I want you to release the restrictions on the Ramirez and McCallister packs that keeps them from being able to interact with each other. I also want you to release them from the bonds to their land and allow them to negotiate their own border.”

“That’s quite the tall?—”

“ And I want you to make reparations to the Ramirez pack with regard to the land you’ve stolen from them and the injustices upon their people. Those will require you to directly negotiate with them, but an agreement must be reached within the next five years.”

Silence. Dead silence. The fairies stared at me like I was insane, and who knew, perhaps I was.

After all, I was challenging extremely powerful being based on things I’d learned after scrolling through message boards and the like.

I was well acquainted with the phrase “ don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” but I had chosen to ignore it.

“What could you possibly offer that we would possibly agree to such a preposterous request?”

That was the thing about fairies. They could all just say no, and that would be that.

I’d have to pick a different prize. Except they were intensely curious by nature and no doubt wanted to know what the insane human thought she had that could be worth uniting the packs that they had purposely kept separate for centuries.

“I offer you two things. The first, is my name.”

The man scoffed, and a couple of the fairies with him chuckled in a way that would have them perfectly cast for a Mean Girls revival. “A human name is hardly worth?—”

Apparently, I was throwing caution to the wind, because I interrupted him yet again.

“No, you misunderstand. Not just my given name. If I lose, I will give you my full name. And as the last daughter of my family line, you will have the entire legacy of every single person born in my bloodline. A vast history of memories and time, all yours.”

“You can’t!” Cas said as he touched my arm.

I looked away from the fairies for the first time since I’d made my presence known and patted his hand twice. “It’s okay,” I murmured, gazing into those beautiful green eyes of his and patting his arm. “Trust me.”

He wanted to argue with me, I could tell it as easily as blinking, but after the internal struggle had played across his face, he nodded and took a step back.

I wasn’t going to forget that. If we managed to get out of the situation, I would always cherish that he’d gone out on a limb for me both times I’d asked him to. That wasn’t something every couple could say.

Then again, I didn’t know how many couples had to deal with generational pack rivalries and megalomaniacal fairies cosplaying as the Wolf on Wall Street.

“Intriguing…” the fairy murmured, rubbing his chin like an old-timey villain. I figured that some habits die hard. “You mentioned a second offer?”

“Yes, my second offer is that my challenge is one that you surely can’t lose.”

That had yet another look of shock crossing their elfin, pointy features, and I took satisfaction in that.

“We ask that you clarify.”

“I may not know much about your world, but I have heard and read many times that your people are renowned for sweets. That even the entire art of baking can be contributed to knowledge you shared with humans over the millennia.”

“That is true.”

“Right. Then let’s stick with the theme of the day then, shall we? I challenge you to a bake-off.”

“A… bake-off?”

“Yup, one round, winner takes all. I bake one thing, and every single one of you that wants to enter bakes something. If a single one of you wins, I lose. The only way I succeed in this challenge is if I beat every single one of you.”

“And who will judge this? Surely not these… wolves . We cannot trust them to be unbiased.”

“That’s simple, we, the contestants will judge. I’m sure that I can trust your word to be completely impartial.”

“Of course. We fairies do not need to rely on trickery to win.” Historically, that was very false, but I wasn’t about to call them out to their face. “We accept your terms.”

“Fantastic,” I said, grinning wide even though it felt like my heart was about to beat right out of my chest and ricochet itself all the way to space. “Write up the contract, and then we’ll get down to business.”

“We will need a few minutes to hammer out the… finer terms.”

“Take as long as you need,” I said somewhat flippantly. “I’m going to reconvene with my friends.”

“Do as you wish.”

“I plan to.”

If the fairies thought anything of my snark, they didn’t say so, but that didn’t stop me from trembling as I stepped into Cas’s arms.

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” he whispered, one arm wrapping firmly around my back while his other hand cupped my cheek.

God, the touch was affirming and anchoring in ways I didn’t know I needed, pulling me back from the ledge of anxiety I’d been sliding toward.

So far, everything was going exactly according to plan, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified.

I was playing with fire times about a billion and was acutely aware of it.

“Saving all our skins,” I said firmly.

He held me like that for a while, until I felt my heartbeat calm down. It was only once my breathing returned to normal that I felt another, much smaller hand on my back.

“What are you planning, child?”

I recognized the voice of Abuelita Ramirez before I even turned fully around, and it was hard not to smile at her words. They were full of concern, but I was pretty sure I picked up some pride in there too.

“Hopefully something to fix all of this.” I didn’t like to be purposefully vague, but I had to. I didn’t want the fairies to overhear anything too juicy or useful.

“I knew I had a feeling about you. You’re really something else, aren’t you, mija? ”

“I certainly hope I am.”

Sal arrived a beat later and escorted his grandmother back to her seat, only for him to return almost immediately. “You know that fairies don’t play fair, right?”

“Of course they don’t,” I hissed. I wished I knew whether the fae could hear just as sharply as shifters did, but try as I might to find that information online, I’d come up empty. And now it felt like it was too late to ask with them present.

“And yet you’re going to sign a contract anyway?” I nodded, and Sal let out a frustrated sound. “You have to understand that this is insane.”

“Yeah. It is. But I think it’s worth it.”

“Please, let us all read the contract with you,” Cas asked, the first thing he’d spoken since we’d embraced.

“Of course. We have to make sure they don’t slip anything unscrupulous in.”

He heaved the softest sigh of relief, and I rested my head against his chest. The secrecy and pressure had built up inside me over two weeks, so I was glad the cat was out of the bag now. No more hiding.

Only baking.

“The contract is complete.”

The same woman as before turned her phone toward us, and sure enough, another ridiculously long scroll of paper unrolled from the bottom.

“You, the human…” she trailed off, looking at me expectantly.

“Nice try, I’ll give you my name if you win.”

The fairy gave me a slight smirk. Yeah, they were just as tricky as I’d been warned.

“Of course. You, the human baker, have challenged each of us fairies to your custom of a bake-off. One round, which shall be judged by the participants. Should you win, both packs will be released from the stipulations of their own contracts but still afforded protection from the modern age with our magic. When you lose, you shall willingly offer up your entire name, swearing over the last of your family line and all that came before it. There will no longer be a you, be a history of you, or anyone you’d ever loved. ”

“ Should I lose.”

“Pardon?”

“You said when I lose. But you don’t know that yet,” I corrected. “The proper verbiage is ‘should’ I lose.”

“I see. We will correct that.”

She made another movement with her phone, but I reacted quickly enough to stomp down on the paper before it could retreat.

“Just one moment. We’d like to double-check the verbiage to make sure there are no other errors.”

The woman’s smirk fell, and I was beginning to wonder if they were finally thinking of me as a threat or just a human who was in way over her head. Either was fine with me, but the second one would certainly serve me better.

“Very well. Read all you please as we begin preparations.”

“Will do.”

And in a turn of events that I was sure nobody expected, several members of the Ramirez pack, including Sal, joined up with several members of the McCallister pack, including Cas, and we all read over the contract together while the fairies took over several of the competition kitchenettes and began summoning things from thin air.