Page 8 of The Alpha and the Baker

Castiel

A Good Host

Despite the utter chaos when I got home, I couldn’t get my mind off the baker.

I couldn’t tell if it was my own preconceived notions, or if she was an exception, but when I’d run into the quaint little shop, I’d expected an older man or woman.

Someone with plenty of wrinkles, who had been baking traditionally longer than I had been alive.

Instead, I’d been greeted by a woman around my age—perhaps a little younger—with a dazzling smile, a heart-shaped face, kind eyes, and a rear end that even her relatively formless uniform couldn’t obscure.

I like to think that I didn’t make a habit of objectifying women on sight, but the moment she’d opened her mouth and that honeyed voice had slipped out, I’d been gobsmacked.

I was surprised I could even remember the reason I was there because my olfactory senses were overwhelmed with the incredible scent drifting off her.

The pomegranate of her shampoo. The grapefruit of her lotion.

The vanilla that seemed baked into the very fabric of her white uniform, and the Maillard reaction wafting from so many of the delicious treats from the front of her shop.

It was an assault on my nose, all right, but a most pleasant one.

I hadn’t wanted to leave, and perhaps if I didn’t have the reunion to rush to, I would have found an excuse to stick around longer. Then again, if I didn’t have the reunion, I wouldn’t have been at her bakery in the first place. Funny how life worked out that way.

So, yeah, perhaps I posted myself at the road leading up to the meadow, doing plenty of tasks while keeping it within eyeshot.

For a bit, it really seemed like I would be there to take the cakes from her and perhaps eke out a little bit more of an interaction, but then I was called away to help set up the bonfire.

Part of me wanted to refuse, but considering it was fire safety, I just couldn’t.

Besides, it wasn’t like anything could happen between me and the beautiful baker.

She was a human, and although I looked like one, I very much wasn’t.

Besides, part of our contract with the fairies was that we had to keep the existence of all Wild Folk secret.

Our existence depended on humans not knowing about us.

Heaven knew they found enough excuses to kill each other over silly differences like religion and skin color.

I hated to think what they would do to an entirely different species.

Especially a species they might see as a threat.

By the time I was sure everything was ship-shape for the bonfire, I rushed back toward the main drive only to see three cakes already sitting on top of cooling mats on the dessert table.

Damn it. I had missed her. I’d figured she’d want to secure final payment through me, but putting down the deposit gave her permission to automatically charge me. It looked like I had missed the chance to see her again.

Probably for the better. The flirting had been fun, and her scent had been divine, but it wasn’t like I could even carry on a relationship with all of my duties as an alpha.

After all, my one serious relationship hadn’t exactly gone all that well, and since then I’d only dated casually.

Nothing that lasted for more than a few months.

Maybe I simply wasn’t meant to have a relationship.

And speaking of relationships, I didn’t even know if she was single.

Sure, there had been no ring on her finger, but that didn’t really mean anything.

She was a baker, after all. I was almost certain that even if she was married, she’d likely have to take that off while handling food all day, lest the ring ended up in some sort of baked good.

Still, I had been looking forward to it, so I was a tad disappointed.

Not enough to ruin the day in any capacity, but it definitely gave me pause.

Enough pause to realize that I hadn’t sat down since I got home, and I really wanted to dive into the appetizers.

It was almost time to eat, with all of the main courses being brought out, but we likely still had fifteen or twenty minutes left, and no one would object to me stuffing my face a little.

So, I headed to the tent, figuring I could check on some of the elders like Gammy McCallister and Uncle Jeb.

But I was almost all the way there when Penny came marching up to me.

She looked so fiercely determined that for a moment I was worried I had done something wrong, but her face broke into a grin once she reached me.

“There you are! I’ve been running all over trying to find you. That baker lady says she needs you to sign something so she can head out.”

I hadn’t missed her? Well, wasn’t that a lovely surprise?

“She did? Where is she?”

“She wasn’t by the dessert table?” At forty-two years old, Penny was only twelve years older than me, but she had been one of my babysitters when I was younger.

I never really needed one, as I was fairly well-behaved—or too well-behaved, as Chris put it—but my mother liked that Penny got me out of the house to play instead of training or studying to take over from my father.

“No, I just came from there.”

“Huh. Maybe she’s at her van? Here, I’ll walk you to it. Getting my steps in today, that’s for sure.”

I grinned at that and followed her to the parking area where the pack members who didn’t live locally parked their cars.

Truthfully, almost everyone in our pack lived on the ancestral lands we had left, but almost didn’t mean all by any means.

There were some who chose to live in the city, a few who chose to live a county or two over, and several who had married into other packs but still liked to visit a couple of times a year. Hence the whole reunion .

“Ah, there’s her van. Oh, but I don’t see her.”

I followed Penny’s finger where she was pointing to the lot, and sure enough, there was indeed a modest delivery van there. “I’ll go see if she’s inside it,” I offered. “Thanks for showing me where she parked.”

“No problem. For what it’s worth, she was a real sweetheart. It’s not often we have humans here, but she’s really lovely. And if the cakes taste as good as they look, maybe we’ll just have to hire her again.”

“If Auntie Letitia would allow it,” I joked. “Don’t want to interfere with her territory.”

“Are you kidding me? I bet that poor woman wants a break. Goodness knows she’s been doing the baking for ages.”

“You think so?” I’d never thought about that.

Auntie Letitia was so adamant about carrying on tradition and passing down her knowledge that I’d assumed she loved baking for all of our events, especially now that she had her own growing crew.

But maybe, just like Beverly and Jeb had handed the responsibility to her, she wanted to step down, too.

Huh, I suddenly had a lot more to think about.

But that could wait until after I paid the baker, maybe flirted a little, then got back to the festivities. I was sure there was less than ten minutes until it was time to start digging in, and if I lollygagged much longer, all the deviled eggs would be gone.

I loved deviled eggs. Not as much as smoked meat, but it was pretty high up there. As long as they didn’t have relish in them, of course. I’d been made fun of plenty in my life for being a picky eater, but I absolutely hated relish. Loved pickles, though, so go figure on that one.

“Felicia?” I called, rounding the back of the van as Penny hurried off, no doubt to wrangle her husband and twin teens to get in line for their first plates. But there was no answer, and frankly, her scent had faded just enough to tell me that she hadn’t been around in the past few minutes.

Huh, perhaps she’d gone to the bathroom? After all, it was a bit of a drive to my place. Would it be creepy for me to just wander over to the porta potties we’d rented and plopped at the far end of the field for those who didn’t want to haul ass all the way inside?

Maybe, but I was going to do it anyway.

Except she wasn’t there, which was probably a good thing, but it did leave me confused.

Where on earth could she be? I knew she hadn’t left because her van was here, but if she wasn’t by the cakes or bathrooms, where else would she go?

And more importantly, considering that my pack didn’t know we had a human walking among us, what had she seen?

That thought had me turning on my heel and heading back toward the tent. Maybe someone had seen where she’d gone. Hopefully, she was chatting to people who knew she was human.

The thing was, I was pretty sure that most of the adults would be able to tell that she was a human and not a part of the pack. But there were so many kids around that I was truly concerned one of them might accidentally let something slip. Or even worse, shift right in front of her.

I was about halfway to the tent when a familiar voice called out to me.

“ Caaaaas , can I have help tying my shoes?”

I paused and took a breath to see none other than little Bobby himself standing maybe a dozen or so feet away from me. “Not right now, Bobby.”

“But I can’t remember what I do once I gots the bunny ears! That’s all.”

“Just five minutes and I’ll be right back.”

“Okies. I’ll wait!”

I was relieved and thought for a fleeting moment that was that, but I should have known better because Bobby took off at breakneck speed only to trip over his untied shoes and fell flat on his face.

Shit.

“You okay there, little man?” I asked calmly as I quickly strode over to him. If there was one thing I’d learned about kids, it was that they were fairly indestructible, and often they only cried after tumbles as a reaction to adults freaking out.

Bobby slowly righted himself and sniffed, his chin quivering as he very clearly tried to pretend he was all right. Oh dear, that wasn’t good. “I’m okie.”