an apogee, a turned wolf and not a born one like Bastien) and he was sexy too.
There was also a draw to Bastien I couldn't explain. Well, yes I could. Or I thought I could. I believed the draw to him was due to his venom, which he'd transferred to me in a bite during our first meeting. A little incentive for me to find his missing pack mates. We'd found them, Crwys and I delivered a cub, and I didn't turn into a wolf.
Crwys. Lady Darksome! I'd done so good not really thinking about that creep and there he was again.
Bastien had his hands shoved into the tight front pockets of his jeans as he sauntered closer. "Bonjour Kyle. Ivan. Where is the petite mère?"
"Hey Bastien," Kyle said as he and Ivan moved about. Show was over. The Boggart was gone.
"Grey's around here somewhere," I gave an exaggerated, frustrated sigh. "Call her on the group chat wolf link if you need her. I'm tired. I want something to eat. And we have a Cairn to find and close." That was something else that perplexed me. When Bastien bit me, he'd forced a mental link between the pack and I. Once the venom was gone, I assumed the link would evaporate. But it hadn't.
"A what?"
"A Cairn. Faerie portal. Door. A place where little nasties are coming in," I gestured to the kitchen. "If you want tea, help yourself, but we've got work—"
"It is the chiot, chérie," Bastien blurted out in a voice just a bit louder than normal. "She wishes to see you."
The pup? I gave him a hard look. "She's a month old. How can you know she wants me?" It wasn't a good response. I already knew how and why, because the mother died before the child could be born, and while Crwys delivered her, I had been the one to keep the little Lycan's soul grounded. There was a bond there—something delicate. Tenuous.
"You already know."
"Yes. But…she hasn't called for me."
"Because she is stubborn. Like her mother was." Bastien pulled his hands from his pockets. "She wants you to hold her. She wants you to…" he winced. "Play with her."
I knew what he meant. When I'd held onto the little pup's soul, she'd appeared to me as a tiny wolf pup, all cute and fuzzy and playful. And she'd dozed in my arms. She'd also found comfort in Crwys's arms and that's when I remembered him kneeling beside me in the garden at Ina's house, holding that baby in his arms.
"Bastien, that's all nice and warm and fuzzy, but I just can't right now. I don't think I'm…capable of being…close."
"It isn't my choice, chérie. She refuses to eat until you come."
I thought of a dozen metaphors at that moment, so forceful I got a bit of blowback from the pack link. "I can't just drop what I'm doing to go play with a baby, Bastien. Please. Tell her I will as soon as I—" As soon as I what? Get over the hurt of being dumped? Of being stood up? Of being rejected?
The fear of getting close to someone—even a baby wolf?
Pfft. I realized at that moment all my thoughts of making this a fast rebound were crap. It wasn't going to be quick at all to get over Crwys.
Sam-Sam, I think you might heal just a bit by holding her. It wouldn't hurt.
"I can't do that," I said aloud to my mom and looked around for her. I spotted her by the door to my office where she sat and watched us.
"The petite mère is right. You should listen."
I turned on Bastien and pointed at him. "Her name is Grey. Stop calling her little mother. Now if that's all you got, you can go. I'll be there when I can."
He looked crestfallen and I felt awful. I mean I really, really felt bad. Not just for him but for the child, Regine. But really…the kid was five or so weeks old. How much could she really be aware of? With a nod he reached into the left breast pocket of his denim jacket, retrieved a card and handed it to me. "That is the address. When you have the time, chérie."
I took the card, and without looking at it shoved it into my back pocket. When I looked back at him, Bastien was staring at me. "Is there something else?"
"He hurt you. I don't know what he did, mon chérie. But it has cut deep. There is