Chapter 26
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I wondered how she and Annette were dealing with being the same rank. It was rare to have two Alpha couples in one household. Soon either Leo would leave with his pack and mate, or he and Arthur would have to come to some kind of agreement and join the packs officially.
I worked my way through the list, carefully managing my time. I was staggering with exhaustion by the time one of the wolves who ran the archive found me.
“You have a message,” he said, “from Alpha Ethan, of one of our neighboring packs.” The archivist tilted his head. “Why would an outside alpha want to contact you?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “May I ask what the message is?”
The archivist offered me a written note. I thanked him and found a quiet place to read it, Ethan wanted me to come work for him at his hospital. He was offering me a position as a senior healer,
I stared down at the scribbled note. Senior healer? I was untrained, and couldn’t even use my full powers yet. I wouldn’t be able to do that until the pup was born and I could shift and properly meet my wolf.
It was so tempting to accept, though. I’d be free of Eva’s abuse. But Ethan didn’t know that I was half human, and pregnant with Leo’s pup.
I could never hide all of that working as a senior healer. For the moment, I was safest where I was. So I went to the archive, and wrote out a polite refusal. I did offer to come help with any difficult or hopeless cases, though. I wanted to help and I wanted more chances to talk with
Ethan.
My hope was that if I helped heal more of his injured patients, Ethan might be willing to help me find my mother. He owned a hospital and he was an alpha. He’d have the resources to locate her.
The archivists promised to send my message on. I returned to my work, scrambling to catch up on the time I’d lost dealing with Ethan’s
message.
I was busy carrying firewood in to keep logs everywhere.
The big wood stoves in the kitchen stocked when I stumbled into as
“Oh, so sorry, let me get those for you,” the stranger said.
strange
wolf. I staggered, dropping
I recognized him when he spoke. It was Ethan, the alpha who’d just tried to recruit me. What was he doing here?
www.of course.”
“I don’t suppose you could take me to Leo, could you?” Ethan asked. “After you tell me where all this heavy firewood goes,
“I can take it,” I said.
“But then you couldn’t lead me to my friend.” Ethan grinned.
I realized that he didn’t recognize me without my mask. I didn’t think he’d l
I showed him where the wood went, and then led him to Leo’s rooms. The alpha w
Then he saw me and he frowned.
“Why are you with her?” he asked.
me about firewood if he thought I was a powerful healer.
he broke into a huge grin when he saw Ethan.
an
“I bumped into her and knocked a bunch of firewood out of her arms,” Ethan said. “What I want to know is why itty bitty maid like her is hauling heavy firewood around when you have two packs full of healthy male wolves who should be doing that.”
“What?” Leo looked at me. “Good grief, Tessa, why are you hauling firewood?”
“I was ordered to,” I answered.
“By whom?” Leg demanded.
I didn’t dare tell him. I just handed over my chore list. He read it with a frown and shook his head,
“This is ridiculous. It’s too much for one person, and I doubt you’re even strong enough to do some of these.” Leo looked from me to Ethan and back. “I don’t know who made this list but don’t worry about finishing it. Go clean my room instead.”
