Gio and Max were hustled to chairs, and soon Gio found himself with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and some sort of meat-and-potato-filled bun in the other. Max was safe beside him, the only thing he really cared about at the moment.
"You were there in the cultists' hideout, weren't you?" Max asked her mother, accepting a pastry that the older woman insisted on pressing into her hand.
"We were. A lot of us were. After we routed them here, we took the fight to them and taught them a lesson they won't soon forget." There was fierce satisfaction in her tone, and Gio considered that this was a formidable mother-in-law he had acquired. "Then we saw the mountain begin to crumble and then we came home through that—that hole in the air. We thought everyone was back, but we couldn't find you."
"We were there too," Max said. "I'll tell you all about it later. Where are Javic and Sofia?"
"Javic? That boy who ..." Her mother's mouth worked.
From what Gio had gathered, shifters finding their mates was a very big deal for them. Max and Sofia's mother hadn't seemed to have too much of an issue withhim, but she was clearly having some difficulty adapting to the revelation of who her other son-in-law was going to be. Finally she said, "I don't know, honestly. They were here a minute ago ..."
"Max!" The cry came from the top of the stairs, and a moment later Sofia flung herself on her sister, hugging her. Sofia recovered her alpha dignity a moment later, but her eyes were bright. "We couldn't find you anywhere."
"Mom was just telling me. But I was with Gio." Max took her sister's hands with one of her own, and Gio's in the other, squeezing tight. "He brought me home." She looked at him with eyes shining like stars, and he could have fallen forever into that look.
He didn't have a chance to bask for too long, because Javic came up the stairs to the roof with Elina. He looked freshly scrubbed from a shower and was wearing clothes evidently borrowed from Max's male relatives, a loose wool shirt and heavy pants similar to the ones Gio was wearing.
"Good to see you," he said somewhat formally to Gio and Max. He held out a hand, and Gio rose to clasp it. "Thank you for taking care of my sister. I'm sorry about the—well, all of it, honestly."
"I didn't get the impression you had a choice." Gio looked at the young man critically. Javic looked tired and worn down, but he seemed healthier, somehow, than when they had spoken to him in the hotel room. "You look like you're doing well."
"I can't really explain it." Javic's gaze followed Sofia, who was now circulating among her relatives on the rooftop, checking in with the injured and conscientiously performing her leader duties as the alpha of the clan. But she was clearly aware of him too; every once in a while she glanced over at him as if her eyes were magnetically drawn to him. "I've barely been in control of my phoenix ever since I've had it. And when they got hold of me and took me over completely—I didn't know they could do that. It was like I was a passenger in my body. And then I sawherand ... I can't really explain it. I've kind of vaguely heard of shifter mates, but I didn't know what it was like."
"I know what you mean," Gio said softly. He snugged an arm around Max, who leaned against him.
Javic was still talking in a quiet, wondering voice, to himself as much as to them. "It was like a gentle wind blew through my soul. My phoenix and I had been struggling against each other as usual, but suddenly we were in full alignment. It no longer hurt me, and I didn't have to fight it. All we both wanted was to keep this woman safe." His wondering gaze returned to Gio and Max. "Is that what it was like for you two?"
"Well," Gio said, smiling, "you got your head screwed on straight a lot faster than I did."
"Speak for yourself," Max said, snuggling against him. "I wanted you from the moment I saw you."
Javic grinned. It changed his face, making him look suddenly bright and carefree. He looked toward Sofia again, and his face glowed with wonder and affection.
It wouldn't be love quite yet, Gio thought; even the infatuation of the mate bond and the perils they had been through couldn't do its work that quickly. But it was coming. Sofia had suffered a lot of tragedy in her life, but it was very clear that Javic was devoted to her, and it was evident from his devotion to his sister that he would be a good father to her daughters.
"Where's Nacio?" Max asked abruptly. She was scanning her assembled clan with a wary gaze.
Gio's arm tightened around her. "Isn't he in some sort of dungeon?"
"Not anymore," Max said. "They let him out to fight. I just don't know where he is now."
"Gone," her mother said. Max looked at her in surprise. "He left after the fight."
"I thought we weren't exiling people anymore," Max said sharply.
"We didn't." Sofia, overhearing, returned to her sister's side. "He chose to go. We spoke briefly. He said there's no place for him here, and he'll find his destiny out there in the world somewhere." A trace of a smile touched her face, so much like Max's but so different. "I was worried for a moment that he was going to challenge me right then and there, but he chose otherwise."
"Even Nacio is not that much of a fool," her mother said in a tart voice. "After you led us into battle and won, he knew the entire clan would have turned on him."
Sofia went back to her rounds, and Max leaned on Gio. "He saved my life, you know," she said in a thoughtful tone. "During the fight. I don't feel like it sets us to rights; I don't think anything could have done that. But I hope he does find a place he belongs better than he does here."
Gio wasn't ready to let the man off the hook that easily. Nacio had thrown Max out of her family and told her she would never find anyone to love her. But at the very least, it seemed the hatchet had been buried. One less enemy to worry about was no bad thing.
The gathering was beginning to break up, tired jaguar shifters drifting off to various parts of the estate. Max squeezed Gio's hand and gave him a little come-with-me tug. He came willingly. He would always come.
They wandered away down the stairs. At first it seemed to be an aimless walk, and Gio, with his arm around Max's waist, had no problem with that. But eventually he recognized the stone staircase she had taken him up earlier this same day, pursued by a ravaging stoneskin, leading to a terrace.
In fact, there were some very obvious clues scattered about in the form of bits and pieces of shattered stoneskin. Max kicked at one of them. "I forgot about this," she said ruefully. "I just thought this would be a quiet place to get some alone time."
