Page 40 of The Wolfing Hour

“No can do. You invoked the ‘you abandoned us, who will protect us’side of my personality. There’s no turning back now.”

Ida stood, loosened the sash of the neon green robe she wore over her pink and green polka dot pajamas before sitting down again. “I only said that to snap you out of whatever dark spell had come over you. I know you didn’t abandon me.”

“Eat.” I dropped into the chair across from her with a mug of coffee and picked up a triangle of toast. Bit into it. Smiled.

“Aren’t best friends supposed to listen to each other?” She picked up her fork and dug into her food.

“Are you saying I’m not enough of a friend to you? Do I need toprovemy loyalty and love?” I set my toast on a napkin andmade like I was getting up. “Guess I’m going to have to work harder. What do you want? A cake? Some muffins? Pancakes?”

She appeared to think it over. “I wouldn’t say no to a lavender scone from the Desert Rose Café.”

I relaxed back in my seat. “I’ll bring you one later. Cecil and I are collecting blood samples from the fae twins today. He’s also working on a fresh charm for you and one for Trini. I’ll get the Brittons and Señora Cervantes’s samples, the latter of which should be a rip-roaring good time.”

“Trini and I can help with Maria. Let us get hers. We’ll take Fennel with us. She seems to like that cat as much as she likes anyone.”

“Hey.” I shook my finger at her. “You’re supposed to be resting today.”

“The charm healed the scratches on my face and chest hours ago, and the bruises on my back, too. I told you. They were after Gladys, not me.” She took a moment to mutter and complain about not getting to her friend sooner.

I let her vent. There was no point correcting her. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t her fault.

“My best guess is they’re going after all wolves they suspect are loyal to Ronan.”

“Yep,” she said.

“You understand that you’re still a potential target, right? Even though the wolves didn’t attack you at the senior center?”

“So are you.”

“Yeah, but he was always going to come after me. After I put down one of his beta wolves because Floyd was too much of a bastard to bother with him, he painted a bullseye on my back. Without the blackmail on my phone, I’d already be dead.”

“What you did for that beta was a mercy. The pack knows it.”

“Some do.” It had been one of the worst days of my life, and I had a few to choose from. I reached for a lighter subject. “You heard Cecil firebombed his bar?”

“You bet I did.” Ida cracked a grin. “Nobody hurt, and he added a Mardi Gras flourish, to boot. I’ve been meaning to ask you why.”

“Why he firebombed the bar?”

“Heavens, no. That’s obvious. It’s Cecil. Why the purple, green, and gold display?”

“I was curious about that, too. Apparently, he wanted it to look pretty. At least, that’s how I was made to understand it.” I spread some jam on the other half of my toast triangle. “Cecil isn’t only an ecological anarchist with a penchant for fire, he’s highly attuned to incendiary esthetics.”

She grinned. “So, he believes he’s creating acombustible composition?”

“He considers himself to be a sort of explosives Whistler,” I said with a laugh. “That’s the only esthetic artist I can recall off the top of my head.”

Conversation was more relaxed after that. I told her about Rory’s call, and how she’d expressed how excited she was to be my cuñada, or sister-in-law, which seemed like jumping the gun to me but made perfect sense to Ida.

She ate the rest of her eggs, we polished off the toast, and I refilled our coffee mugs. One of Ida’s favorite K-pop idols, RM, sang “moonchild” on an app on her phone.

When the song was over, I said, “I’m going to have to use that Floyd blackmail soon.”

Ida reached across the table and patted my hand. “But it’s the only thing keeping you safe from him.”

“It only protects me if Floyd is Alpha. Once Ronan takes him down, it won’t matter. Might as well use it to weaken him while it’s still worth something.”

“I suppose that’s true.” She withdrew her hand, settled it back on her mug. “It’s about to get dangerous, isn’t it?”