Derek
Derek got to his feet, but Maxim moved quicker than any man his size should’ve been able to block his way.
“Dad?!” Kit’s voice was closer now, and he whirled around the corner like a dervish, looking around wildly.
When he spotted Cal’s clothes on the ground, he wailed. And then his gaze hit Derek.
“W-what? Derek?” Kit frowned with obvious confusion. “What happened?”
“Well, I don’t know, but somehow Cal got upset enough that his cat took over and took off,” Mikael said in a tone that was full of blame in Derek’s ears, even though he wasn’t sure if that was actually it.
“We got to find him!”
The other teenagers came to the porch then. Derek didn’t know what they were, just that they moved like a pack, so he made an educated guess that they might’ve been wolves.
“What’s wrong?” The one with reddish hair asked.
“Yeah, what happened?” The blond one with shaggy hair and a cast on his arm seemed worried and a little bit confrontational in the way teenage boys could be.
“Cal saw me and his cat took over,” Derek said quietly. “Two years ago, we had been working together for a while, in Italy. They were trying to keep Cal safe, out of more… dangerous situations.” Derek didn’t need to elaborate, not for the adults and didn’t want to because of the teens.
Mikael winced. Then he looked at the boys. “Anton, Jude, Nico, go get dressed and find something to do. If we need you, we’ll call you. Anton, get Noah and Dallas here from the house.” He turned to Kit. “Do you need clothes?”
“No, I….” Kit seemed to realize he was only wearing swimming shorts and leaned to pick up Cal’s T-shirt from the pile on the floor. “This’ll be enough for now.”
It would be a scent thing, too.
The other boys left and everyone else sat down. Derek sensed that he should wait for the ones being summoned to come in before continuing.
“Should we wait for Sean and Rider, too?” Maxim asked Mikael.
“No, I’ll text them that we have a situation but not to rush in. They have the pups in the car.”
Soon, two men joined them and were introduced as Noah—lethal, yet something familiar to Derek—and Dallas—definitely something big and scary.
“So what’s going on? Anton said something’s wrong?”
“Derek was about to explain, but Kit, since you were here first with Cal, how do you know Derek?” Mikael asked calmly.
Kit, who had sat on the same side with Derek sighed. “I guess I don’t know the whole story.” He moved to sit so his feet were on the bench too, and then pulled the front of the T-shirt over his knees and to his ankles, cocooning himself with it like a child.
“Tell us what you do know,” Mikael sounded gentle. Derek appreciated that.
“Like Derek said, he and Dad worked together for the Council. I guess the Council was starting to see what their actions were doing to Dad. Like how he, and sometimes me too, were sent all over the world to different places where they’d need enforcers. Dad… he compartmentalizes things a lot. That’s how he could… you know… do his job.”
“Cal is a gentle soul, or once was at least. I fully believe that. He’s not—” Derek stopped talking and licked his lips. “—He’s not a cold-blooded killer. Or maybe he is, but that’s not all he is and they turned him into one.”
“Right, what Derek said. Dad took me in when I had nobody. He’d tried to save my family, but he couldn’t, so he avenged them and took me in.”
“Okay, but what about Italy?” Noah prompted when both Kit and Derek went quiet.
“I knew Derek through Dad. They hung out together. I thought they were maybe going to get together at some point, I don’t know… Dad seemed… lighter. Happier.” Kit glanced at Derek. “That’s all I know.”
“Yeah, so, when we met I was working as the security detail for the Council. At their main location.”
Mikael nodded. “I know you’re not allowed to tell us where that is exactly. Go on.”
“When they called Cal and Kit back to Italy that last time, we were roommates at this villa because they had no other place. I guess Cal and I bonded and well… the rest is history I suppose. It didn’t get very far. And then they sent Cal to a final emergency job.”
