“Aw, don’t worry, big boy. I’ll invite you to come with me next time,” she says with a wink. She completely lets his irritation go right over her head. It goes over her cloud too, because it still looks fucking cotton-ball cheery as it floats around.
Igor grumbles something and rubs his fingertips over his eyebrows.
“Holy shit, she’s fucking with him,” Jetta murmurs with amusement.
Stinger shakes his head like this is a sight he never thought he’d behold. I’m at a loss myself. “Damn, she is fucking with him. This is awesome,” he whispers.
“What do you think the cloud’s about?” I ask curiously.
“If I had to guess, I’d say she pulls her power from weather,” Heath murmurs. “She probably formed her own little mini-cloud to take with her wherever she goes.”
“Conjurers are fucking weird,” Stinger mutters.
I shoot him a sardonic look. “As if you have any room to say that, considering what kind of animal you are.”
Stinger glares at me. “Fuck off.”
Heathcliff cocks his head. “What are you?”
“Not weird,” Stinger replies coolly.
“Jetta? Heathcliff?”
Alpha Hugo’s voice cuts over our discussion, and we all immediately snap our attention back to him and the conjurer.
Adele walks over and takes a look at their collars. “Hmm,” she says, brushing her fingers over one as she squints at the dark metal. “Very strong magic,” she hums.
“Can you do it?” Hugo asks.
She snorts. “Can I do it? Of course I can do it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy,” she says.
“That would be—” Hugo’s words suddenly get cut off, and he turns. His eyes scan the surroundings before settling on the bus.
“Alpha?” Igor says, sensing something amiss.
Instead of answering right away, Hugo looks over at Heath with a frown and then turns to Adele. “Who’s in there?” he asks, his tone suddenly serious and his body tense.
Skin prickling with his warning, I try to scent the air—just like I see the others do—but I can’t pick up anything out of the ordinary. That doesn’t mean anything though, Hugo is powerful, and his senses are unsurpassed.
Adele waves a dismissive hand. “Oh, nothing to concern yourself with. I just picked up a hitchhiker along the way, that’s all.”
Igor looks like his eyes are going to bug out of his head. “Woman, you can’t fucking pick up strangers!”
“Why not?” she counters, crossing her arms in front of her polka-dotted shirt. “I picked you up one time, didn’t I? Brought you to Hugo, as a matter of fact.”
His expression darkens. “That’s different.”
“Not in the slightest,” she argues. “And anyway, she’s harmless.”
“Have her come out, Adele,” Hugo says in his stern alpha voice.
All of us tense, our eyes scanning over the bus windows, but they’re all blacked out with cheery fucking hippie paintings.
“Fine, fine,” the conjurer says with a sigh, before walking back over to the bus.
As soon as she shoves the slider door open, a few birds fly out of the bus, as well as a couple of bright red balloons. Neither of these things seem to faze her. Like this is a regular occurrence. Her cloud swirls happily, reforming where one of the birds flew through it.
“Hey, Zen?” Adele calls. “Come on out and meet the alpha, would you? He’s getting twitchy.”
She backs out of the bus to stand aside, while we all come closer to Alpha Hugo, just in case. Footsteps sound from the back of the bus, and we all watch as a second figure steps out.
She has dark skin, dreadlocks pinned behind her head, and a metallic green lotus flower tattoo beside her left eye. She casts a gaze over all of us, her eyes lingering on Igor and Hugo and the tense pose of their bodies.
“Geez, relax,” she says before propping her shoulder up against the side of the bus. “Everyone is way too tense for my taste.”
I frown as I scent the air, and I don’t like that this stranger is on pack land, but then...the longer I look at her, the more I calm down. The others seem to ease up too, even Alpha.
What was I even worried about? Adele picked up a hitchhiker. There’s no need to get all riled up. Not about her or about the fact that my tailgate is bent in and has yellow paint marked all over it. It’s fine. Everything is fine. In fact, I feel damn good. Like I just got done smoking a bowl or taking a nap or having a really long fuc—
“You’re a stimulant,” Heathcliff suddenly says, his voice cutting through the haze that gathered