His words were both truthful and annoying at the same time. “I don’t need a cultural sensitivity lecture, Rafael. I want to know why you’ve partnered up with a mage and a shifter. If shifters and vampires never join forces, why are you two best friends?”
Aric balked. “Best friends?”
Rafael looked absolutely horrified at the prospect. “That is the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard.”
I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead and reminded myself to remain calm. “I get that you guys are ... whatever it is that you are. There’s some dire need to keep up appearances I don’t particularly understand, but it’s there. We don’t have time for that. You’re friends. In fact, you’re extremely close friends, enough so that you trusted him to protect your daughter when you thought you might die to cover their escape.”
Aric worked his jaw, obviously annoyed. “He’s not my best friend. Zoe is my best friend.”
I didn’t bother to hide my eye roll. “Whatever. The point is, you’re friends. I want to know how that happened.”
Aric hesitated, holding Rafael’s gaze, and then shrugged. “We had common interests. We agreed to work together long before there was any hint of friendship.”
“The friendship, and I don’t know that I would call it that, occurred long after the fact,” Rafael added. “It was a gradual thing. Even now, we fight all the time.”
“That’s a guy thing.” I waved it off. “You insult each other and play around because you enjoy it. That doesn’t mean you’re not friends.”
Zoe snorted while the men uncomfortably eyed one another. “Oh, look, they’re speechless.” She was genuinely amused. “As for vampires and shifters hanging out, Rafael told you the reason. Common interests. It’s probably these particular shifters and werewolves are working together because they have a common goal. We have to find out what that is.”
“How do you suggest we do that?” I was genuinely curious. “We’re going to have to track them down, right?”
“We are, but we need to come up with a plan first. That means we have to put our heads together.”
Sami’s hand shot in the air. “I want to be in charge of the planning session. I’m good at it. My first decree as leader of the planning session is that we need potato chips to brainstorm. And some cupcakes.”
Aric made a growling sound deep in his throat. “She definitely gets that from you.”
Zoe merely shrugged. “Cupcakes sound good.”
Fifteen
We didn’t immediately leave the area as I expected. Gunner and Aric made a big show of circling the vehicle and putting their sniffers to use. It was the first time I’d witnessed Gunner actually utilizing his shifter abilities for something other than Spells Angels business, and it was enlightening to watch.
“It’s a wolf thing,” Zoe remarked from her spot in the shade, her eyes obscured by sunglasses. She’d been silent for so long I thought she might have drifted off.
“What’s a wolf thing?” I asked, shifting my attention from my phone. I’d been trying to message a friend in the Detroit area, a police officer, to see if he could run the license plate for me. He hadn’t yet responded.
“What they’re doing over there.” Zoe inclined her head. “They get alpha when they’re around one another.”
I found her response amusing. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s not alpha. I’ve hung around enough shifters to say, unequivocally, that things can get much worse.”
“Oh, I have no doubt.” Zoe crossed her feet at the ankles and focused her attention to the other side of the clearing, to where Rafael instructed Sami on ... something. It looked as if he was trying to teach her how to follow footprints, but I couldn’t be certain.
“They’re tight.” I gestured toward them. “They’re kind of cute.”
“They are,” she agreed. “He’d die for her.”
“That’s not all that cute.”
“It’s reassuring,” said Zoe. “If something happens to Aric and me, she’ll have somewhere to go. My parents would also die for her, but they no longer have magic. Er, well, very much magic. Aric’s parents are shifters, but they don’t have standing in the pack like they used to.”
That was interesting. I’d always been curious about pack politics. “Are you guys pack?”
She shook her head. “There was a time, about two years ago, when we were under attack. We were willing to consider it for Sami but ultimately it wasn’t necessary.”
The way she wrinkled her nose told me exactly what she thought about the prospect. “You must have been desperate.”
“A parent will do anything to protect a child, even something that feels wrong.”
“I’m glad things worked out.”
“Me, too.” Her smile was back. “Although it’s difficult for Aric’s parents. I don’t want to paint them as bad people. They’re not. They were wonderful parents to Aric and they dote on Sami.”
“Are you saying they don’t like you?”
She shrugged. “I’m saying that they would’ve preferred Aric marry a wolf. They love me, although sometimes it’s a test, but they had grand plans for him. All that went away when we were in college.”
A memory of something she’d said before niggled at the back of my brain. “You were separated for a time. You mentioned pack politics.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded in acknowledgement. “We separated because he was loyal to his pack. We reunited because I realized that by trying to be loyal to his pack and me, he was tearing himself apart. In the end, he chose me, and there’s been a small bit of guilt associated with that choice ever since.”
“Guilt for you?”
“I’ve always worried that he felt as if he somehow lost something.”
“I don’t think he believes that.”
“No.” She exhaled heavily and rubbed her forehead. “Tell me about Gunner’s pack. Do you think they’ll cause problems for you?”
The conversational shift threw me. “He’s not part of a pack. He was at one time, but something happened
