“I’ll take the back side then,” Cal said, hoping it would prevent him from keeping an eye on everything that was happening outside all night. He would already be listening, so having to get up once he settled down would be a bitch.
“Okay, I’ll take the yard side,” Kit said, and Cal nodded to show that he was okay.
He could do this. He could act normal for these people until he was left alone in the house on the other side of some woods.
Kit crossed the hall to him and gave him a warm hug. “Love you, Dad.”
“Love you too,” Cal whispered, because that was the one thing he knew with absolute certainty.
“Let me know if you need me. If not, see you in the morning, okay?” Kit smiled at him.
“Yeah. You as well, okay?” Cal waited until Kit nodded, because Kit still had nightmares from his childhood. Things that he couldn’t remember happening and always showed up as vague blurry things instead of clear images, but were horrible to relive nonetheless.
“I’ll bring you the dinner in a bit. If you’re in the bathroom, I’ll leave the tray outside,” Anton promised, and Cal forced out another smile and a nod. He was genuinely grateful, but also getting more and more twitchy by the minute.
Cal waited for the boys to go into the room Kit chose before opening the door to his. The room was nice, homey and on the small side, like a little den. It was clear shifters lived in this house. Most people went for large, airy rooms, but many shifters preferred smaller spaces that felt safer.
Sighing, Cal took off his boots—he had a vague recollection that the pack members had all been either barefoot or in socks with a large amount of shoes neatly by the front door, both inside and on the porch—and wiggled his toes. He needed a shower, and now that he’d stopped moving, he realized he needed to take a leak, too.
He grabbed his toiletry kit and a towel that had been left for him on the bed and went to find the second bathroom.
He’d trained his body over the last decades. It was a perfectly honed weapon, capable of taking a lot of punishment in human form. He’d been stabbed twice and he hadn’t shifted even when he’d been close to bleeding out. That had always been one of his strengths.
Most shifters, when hurt, changed involuntarily into their animal forms for protection. For Cal it was different; he was small enough that his cat side knew he was stronger in his human body. It didn’t mean that he shouldn’t shift, though. He still needed it as much as every other shifter, but he just… couldn’t, right then.
While being an enforcer for the shifter council, he’d gone all over the world, solving their problems. He’d done horrible things, things he didn’t want to think about, all in the name of keeping his own kind a secret.
But they had saved him, the Council. When he’d been a teenager and his parents had kicked him out for being gay, they’d scooped him up and trained him to be their perfect soldier.
The shower felt amazing, and for a moment he almost felt like purring. He felt startled at the thought of his cat being so close to the surface, but it wasn’t. Relieved beyond belief, Cal finished his shower. He’d eat and then go to bed, and maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to get some rest.
