Page 7 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)

When we turned into the parking lot, I eyed the cars, but I had no idea what Chad was driving these days. A rental vehicle, most likely. As far as I knew, he’d been out of the country for most, if not all, of the last couple of years.

Bolin stood on the walkway, talking to a familiar man. Minato, one of the owners of the local convenience store. After one of what had sounded like many robberies, he and his wife had beseeched me to use my werewolf powers to stop crime there and in the rest of the neighborhood.

His presence might mean the motorcycle thugs had reappeared after the last battle that Duncan and I had engaged in with them. In our wolf forms, we’d killed a couple of them. I’d thought— hoped —that would keep the rest from wanting to pick fights in this section of town.

“Is that who Bolin meant?” I wondered as Duncan parked. “It’s not Chad who showed up but Minato?”

“Are you disappointed?”

I didn’t want to see Chad ever again, but… “I was kind of looking forward to a pronging.”

Minato noticed us before we got out of the van and waved to a car parked near the front of the lot. The passenger-side window rolled down, and his wife, Mayumi, held out a manila envelope.

“A new assignment?” Duncan wondered.

“Oh, let’s hope not. There’s enough to deal with right now already.”

After parking, we headed over to join Bolin while Minato collected the envelope from his wife.

“Is this who you texted me about?” I asked Bolin.

“Actually, no.” Bolin looked at his phone in surprise. Maybe that carrier pigeon was still in flight. “Sorry, I got distracted with work stuff. The person who came looking for you was Izzy, Ivan MacGregor’s sister. You, uhm, met her at the networking event.”

“We turned into wolves and battled each other in his closet.”

“Hence, meeting .”

“I had no idea the definition of that word conveyed all that we did.”

“The word has a lot of meanings. I should think coming together for a common purpose, coping with , or entering into conference, argument, or personal dealings with would all describe your encounter.”

“There was definitely coping.”

“Did you know there’s an archaic adjectival form of the word meet that means very proper or precisely adapted to a particular situation ?”

“I don’t even know what adjectival means.”

Bolin gaped at me like I was a savage ignoramus, but Minato returned before he could educate me further.

“If you turned into a werewolf,” Duncan murmured, “one might consider that precisely adapted or very proper for the situation of facing off against another werewolf.”

“I suppose so. I wonder what Izzy wanted.”

Not to attack me again, I hoped, though it was a possibility.

Even though I’d found Ivan’s missing magical bracelet in Abrams’s now-destroyed lab, and I’d mailed it to him, Izzy had been by Sylvan Serenity to leave me a message, wolf-style.

Long ago, I’d killed her cousin, Raoul. Even though I’d loved him and it had been an accident caused by savage werewolf instincts combined with teenage hormones, she hadn’t been inclined to listen to my explanation or forgive me.

“Ms. Valens?” Minato held up the envelope. “We brought this for you.”

Though worried about other matters, I managed a smile for him. “Duncan thought that might be an assignment.”

Minato blinked. “It’s a collection of funds from those thankful for your intervention at Harold’s movie theater. And we know you helped, as well, Mr. Calderwood. The collection is for both of you.”

“Oh. You don’t have to pay me—us—for that.” I held out my hand. “We’re just trying to clean up the crime in the neighborhood. I live here too, after all.”

“She’ll take it,” Duncan said brightly and plucked the envelope from Minato’s grip.

“Yes, excellent.” He nodded and stepped back, hands at his sides, as if to say he wouldn’t take it back.

I frowned. I didn’t want to accept money from my neighbors for helping out, especially not after my deceased cousin had been exploiting them, charging them like a mafia boss for so-called protection for who knew how long.

“We’re most pleased,” Minato said, “that we haven’t since seen the brutes who were pestering our store and the establishments of other paranormal business owners in town. We believe you may have scared them away.”

“That would be nice. If you do see them again, let them know I’m still around and still…” I showed off my canines.

“Quite, quite.” Minato bowed to me and joined his wife in their car.

“Thank you,” she called before rolling the window up.

“There’s a rule in life. If people want to give you gifts, you should graciously accept them.” Duncan handed the envelope to me. “Maybe there’s enough to help you with the down payment for this apartment complex.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” I opened the envelope and peered in. “This might be enough for a down payment on a new cluster mailbox.”

Since I’d recently had to replace the ones in the parking lot, I knew how much those cost. Everything was a fortune anymore.

“Not bad for a night’s work.” Duncan winked.

“You like to look on the bright side, don’t you?”

“The world is a more welcoming place if you do.”

I lifted the envelope, moved to use the money to do something nice with him. After all, he’d helped me that night—as he’d helped me on many nights since coming into my life.

“It is enough for a fancy dinner somewhere like the Space Needle,” I said, “if you want to go on that date you mentioned.”

“Is that the revolving restaurant downtown?”

“Yeah, I hear it’s got a great view. You should be able to see a lot of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains as well as Puget Sound.”

“Should be able to? You’ve lived in the area your whole life, and you’ve never been?”

“It’s out of my price range.”

“But not tonight.” Duncan waved to the envelope. “And, after a scenic dinner in pleasant company, I imagine you’d be in the mood for a romantic encounter. Without intervention or compulsion from magical medallions.”

“I might be. Will you be bringing your bed on wheels?”

“I always bring that.”

“And will you be distracted by needing to magnet fish in nearby Puget Sound?”

Duncan hesitated. “Nearby, you say?”

“Very much so.”

My phone rang, and Chad’s name popped up. I growled at it. I’d known he would intrude on the day.

“Are you going to answer?” Duncan asked after several rings—and several seconds of me glowering at the screen.

“Absolutely not. He doesn’t put me in the mood for romantic encounters.”

“Having met him, I can agree to having similar feelings.”

I almost pointed out that Duncan’s impression of Chad hadn’t kept him from being willing to work for him, but I didn’t want to bring up the past. As I’d been thinking, Duncan had become a good friend— more than a good friend—and I trusted him.

An alert popped up. Chad had left a voicemail message.

“I’ll regret this,” I muttered but hit play. It would be better to know what he wanted than to be blindsided. After he’d reached out so many times, I knew he wanted something and wasn’t calling simply to say he was in the area. “As if.”

“Evening, Luna,” Chad said on the recording. “I hear you’ve been traumatizing our sons by getting feral and furry.”

I growled.

Duncan raised his eyebrows.

“Just one son,” I muttered, and traumatized was a strong word. Austin may have found his Christmas vacation a little disturbing, but he’d been cool and collected during the kidnapping. He could handle finding out his mother was a werewolf.

“I’m a little disappointed that you never got furry for me ,” Chad continued, “but I’ve given up on that. I do need to talk to you though. I’m in town with Cam.”

Yes, Austin had mentioned Cameron would be in the area too.

And, shoot, I did want to see my other son.

It had been almost two years since he’d left for parts unknown, angry that he hadn’t been able to attend any of the universities he’d gotten into because his college fund had been drained.

I hadn’t helped the matter when I’d told him not to go into debt to go to school.

In the throes of paying off my own debt at the time, I’d informed him that it would ruin his life.

That might have been melodramatic, but I’d never been able to rescind that advice—that lecture.

“We’d like to see you,” Chad added after whispering an aside to someone.

Had he been with Cameron when he’d called?

“Are you available for dinner tonight? Or lunch tomorrow? It won’t take long.

Cam has a few questions, and I… Well, I’m curious about how you’re getting along too.

” He lowered his voice into what was probably supposed to be a sultry tone, but the word sleazy came to my mind, and added, “I’ve missed being with you, my sexy wolf. ”

I cringed, reminded of when he’d called me that, of how, after learning about my secret, he’d often urged me to stop taking that potion.

He’d wanted to see me turn into a wolf. For all I knew, he might have known about my heritage from the beginning.

It could have been what had drawn him to me all those years ago.

All I’d known back then was that, after Raoul’s death, I hadn’t wanted to be involved with a werewolf.

I’d wanted a normal human husband and a normal human life.

It had only been recently that I’d learned to appreciate my heritage.

“Does he think you’ll jump into his arms after all the pestering he’s done?” Duncan asked. “Including the pestering he hired me to do?”

I well remembered the conversations I’d overheard between him and Chad, back when Chad had still believed Duncan might retrieve the case for him. He’d spoken crudely of me, and even though I remembered that Chad could turn on charm when he wished, I knew his true colors now.

“I doubt it.” I erased the voicemail and didn’t call back, though I was torn.

I didn’t want to see Chad , but if my son was in town, I would like to see him.

If nothing else, I wanted to apologize for that lecture two years ago.

The missing college fund wasn’t my fault, something I hoped he knew, but if he still wanted to go to school now, maybe I could find a way to help him. Somehow.

I glanced at the envelope, but sadly, college tuition was even more expensive than a cluster mailbox.

“Do you think he’s still after the case?” Duncan asked.

“I suppose that’s possible. Unlike the medallion, I don’t have any claim to it, but…

I’ve always had a feeling it would be wrong to give it to him.

” I remembered the vision I’d had, suggesting that the case had wanted to be brought up here, that it had magically engineered Chad finding it, somehow knowing that was a way for it to be taken to the Pacific Northwest.

“He doesn’t deserve it,” Duncan said firmly.

“Maybe I should take it up to Mom’s cave before he can steal it.” I could even leave it in that cave. He wouldn’t likely find it up there, and only the family knew about the place. “If she really had a vision that I’d learn something by doing so…”

“You think her vision involved more than us getting randy?”

“It might have.”

“Maybe it wasn’t about us at all.”

“She did say it was about protecting our people.”

“Why don’t we go for our date this evening, and then, tomorrow, I’ll take you back up there?”

“Okay. Remind me to stop at the ATM. I need to get some gas money for all the driving you’re doing.”

“You’re not paying me to take you on a date.”

“No, but you took me to Mom’s, and you’re offering to do so again.

” Realizing I held an envelope full of money, I pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and offered it to him.

Since Minato had given the money to us both, it didn’t seem right to pay him out of it, but it was here.

Using some of the reward for gas seemed legitimate.

Duncan glowered at the bill without reaching for it. “If we fall madly in love, get married, and have children, will you still be giving me gas money? Five years from now?”

“Married couples here usually combine their incomes, so I wouldn’t feel compelled to, no. Unless it keeps vexing you, and then I might pelt you with twenties on a regular basis.”

“You’re a dreadful woman.”

“Yup.” I kissed him on the cheek and tucked the bill into his pocket.