my head. “You’re gonna have to make this up to me, Jet Plane. Multiple times,” I tell her.
She crosses her arms. “You shouldn’t have made me drive!”
I raise a finger. “I will bend you over and fuck you right here if you keep mouthing off.”
She opens her mouth like she wants to do just that—probably because my naughty female wants to get fucked, but we hear voices, and the door to the school bus pops open.
I shove the truck into park and grab the keys while Heath and Jetta open their doors, and we all climb out at the same time that a couple of enforcers make it over to us, along with Igor and Hugo. They all must have been in the guard tower and saw it happen.
The enforcers on duty—Stinger and Toby—walk up to the bus first in defensive positions, while Alpha Hugo and Igor come up next. Enforcer training takes over, and I’m suddenly alert, wondering who the fuck just showed up at our gate.
A second later, a female steps out of the bus. I immediately scent the air, trying to determine what she is, but she’s definitely no shifter.
She can’t be more than five feet tall, and she has shiny silver hair poofed out around her head even though she looks like she’s still in her twenties. She has apple cheeks and freckles along her nose, and a small eyebrow piercing on the left side. She’s wearing wide-legged striped pants and a polka-dotted shirt, and, oh yeah, she has a cloud over her head.
An actual cloud. Like she’s Eeyore or some shit.
The thing is just...hovering. All white and fluffy, it churns slightly in the breeze, and whenever the female moves, it moves with her. It’s fucking weird.
“Adele?” Igor rumbles in surprise.
She looks over at him and beams before her eyes skim over to Alpha. “Igor! Hugo! So nice to see you both again!”
Hugo smiles. “Damn, it’s been a long time.”
“It has,” she agrees, hurrying over. She stands on her tiptoes to give him a hug, but her arms can’t even go all the way around him.
When she moves away and goes to Igor, the glare on his face makes her lips spread out in a Cheshire grin. Grasping his collar, she yanks him down until she can reach to peck a kiss on his cheek.
Igor gets all flustered, his cheeks turning slightly red. She doesn’t seem to notice as she steps back. “Sorry about the little crash. My fault,” she says to us.
Jetta spears me with a look. “See!” she hisses at me with indignation. I just shrug, because given she nearly hit a tree five minutes prior, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.
Heath leans in. “Who’s Miss Frizzle and her pet cloud?” he whispers.
I snort at the nickname, shaking my head, at a loss. “No idea. Never seen her before.”
Now, I’m not an expert on conjurers by any means. In fact, Kaazu was the first one I ever met. But I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting...her.
“Anyway, I got your messages, and I came as soon as I could,” Adele explains to Hugo.
“We’ve been trying to contact you for months,” Igor tells her with a wicked frown on his face. It’s the kind of frown that enforcers know to steer clear of. If you meet Igor in the training ring with him wearing that frown, you’re gonna get your ass handed to you. I take a step back, behind Jetta. Just in case.
“I know,” Adele says, coming forward. Her cloud starts to lower around her frizzy silver hair, but she waves a hand at it, flicking it away like you’d brush hair out of your face. “I’m sorry. I was following a storm system over to the east. You know how I like to chase tornadoes.”
Igor’s expression tightens, and his face turns an even darker shade of red.
Hugo just chuckles. “Well, we appreciate you coming, Adele.”
“You know I’ll do anything to help Pack Aberrant,” she says sweetly.
“Anything?” Igor snaps, apparently finding his voice again. “Then how about you carry a phone on you the next time you’re chasing goddamn tornadoes so that we don’t assume something happened to you? That would help, Adele.”
Goddamn, Igor’s fists are clenching and everything. I take another step behind Jetta.
But the five-foot-nothing conjurer? She just grins at him. Grins. I don’t know whether to be impressed or feel pity