Reflected (Silver Series) by Rhiannon Held Page A

assistant at all, but that was another of the inevitabilities she’d decided not to fight. They seemed to be piling up tonight.
    “As a human, you’ve never quite been in the hierarchy anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Dare said with a shrug.
    John coughed. “We could make Felicia earn her keep. She doesn’t have a job.”
    “Alternately, we could put two badgers in a sack and shake them up.” Death dropped his jaw in a canine grin. “One would be in no danger of boredom with that either.”
    Silver gave a little hiccup from swallowing her laugh. It was rude, but she wanted to be helped by Felicia about as much as she wanted to be in the bag with Death’s badgers.
    Dare snorted. “Silver’s going to have to deal with her enough as it is.”
    Silver set her hand on her mate’s elbow. “And you’ll have Alaska to deal with. You should have another with you, for safety and for status.” She looked at her cousin. “Don’t you know some of the Alaskans, from your time as alpha?”
    John shrugged. “For a given value of ‘know.’ I’ve had drinks with a couple. They come down here to stock up on gear sometimes.” He edged closer to his wife, scent turning uneasy. “But we can’t both go. That would leave you without muscle.”
    Susan punched him in the arm. “Except for all the other pack fighters, dumbass. Besides, do you really think Silver and I can’t take care of ourselves?”
    Silver laughed at Susan’s reaction, but her cousin did have a partial point. She and Susan could take care of themselves, but visible muscle made things simpler sometimes. “We’ll get Pierce to rearrange his time working so he can glower in the background for any official meetings. With him and the others, we will be fine.” Dare hadn’t voiced his thoughts on the subject, but his muscles relaxed under her fingertips at that.
    Tom bounced on his toes. “And I’ll help!” Silver had to smile, because Tom certainly had the enthusiasm and protective instinct, but not the strength and experience. There was no need to make him feel bad about it, though. He had his value as her assistant.
    “Everyone can help.” Dare smiled at Tom too, then tipped his head meaningfully away. The young man scooped up Edmond and took himself off deeper into the den.
    When he was gone, Dare allowed himself a frown, and concern crept into the undertones of his scent. “It’s not a physical attack that I’m worried about, anyway. There’s going to be no real way to hide from all the sub-packs the fact that I’m going to be out of communication range for an extended period. I know the older, more traditional sub-alphas still listen to me better than you, Silver. You might want to keep in regular contact with them, remind them that you’re watching.”
    “Watching like a hawk.” Silver grimaced. She’d definitely do it, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed dealing with those yapping purse dogs. “I’m sure they’d love the opportunity to extend their own sub-territory boundaries.”
    Dare chuckled. “Like you won’t notice because it’s far away. Exactly.” His laugh slipped back into a frown. “And then there’s my daughter. If I’d known I was going to get called away, I never would have confronted her and flushed that prey so early.” He hesitated, scent twisting with the sour taint of old emotional wounds. “Do you think she really would go back to Spain…?”
    Silver clasped her mate’s hand, firmly. “No. She made her choice to stay with you. Right now, she’s a child looking for her adult place in the pack. She’s being a little sulky, that’s all.”
    Dare jerked a nod and then his attention sharpened, apparently with a new thought. “Speaking of Spain—you’ll probably want keep track of any new Were who show up in outlying packs while we’re away. My absence would make an excellent opportunity for Madrid to slip someone in to gather information.”
    John raised his eyebrows. “It’s been three years,