* * *
When he woke, Leon was gone.
Karl tensed, then smelled him, faint on the wind, and relaxed. He wasn’t far away.
By the time he’d got the little spirit stove going and the coffee brewing, the sky was graying, slowly revealing the landscape. He heard the whisper of paws on the dirt.
“There’s some for you if you want it,” he said evenly.
There was a brief silence, followed by the soft crunch of approaching steps. Human, not feline.
Karl didn’t look up. “You weren’t as quiet as you thought.”
“You weren’t as asleep as I hoped,” Leon replied, voice light.
The cat settled beside him, a blanket draped across his shoulders. His hair was a mess of snarls, which he instantly attacked with his fingers. “Don’t suppose you’ve got a comb in that magic box of yours?” he asked.
“Nope.” Karl poured coffee into the spare mug and handed it over.
“Of course not.” It came out with a sigh, and even when he was holding his coffee, one hand was still working through his hair. For the first time, Karl wondered what his own hair was doing after a night on the dirt, but damned if he was removing his hands from where they were cupped around the warmth of a mug to find out.
They sat for a while, sipping coffee in silence. Leon finally gave a little satisfied sigh and swung his hair back over his shoulder. And somehow, impossibly, it was lying flat and sleek again. Must be a cat thing, having grooming superpowers. Or a Leon thing. He’d probably look put together after a hurricane.
After a bit, Leon said, “I was thinking. Your pack’s all male. No women, and no pups.”
Karl shot him a glance. “Yeah?”
“It’s not exactly a normal setup, is it?”
Karl was too tired to bristle at the question. “No. We’re not a normal pack.” Which was understating it, just slightly. A bunch of loners, rejects and people the system had chewed up and spat out, in need of a home and an alpha. And an alpha who hadn’t wanted a pack but who was too decent a man to turn them away.
“Matt took us in as we turned up one at a time on his doorstep, poor bastard. He opened his door and let us stay.” His voice softened, unbidden.
Leon was quiet, sipping his coffee.
“I’m sure that if a woman had shown up needing help, she’d have been welcome too,” Karl added. “But I doubt any would have felt safe, coming to a pack full of strange men.”
“That actually makes sense,” Leon said.
Karl gave him a sidelong look. “You sound surprised.”
“Just didn’t think you’d have thought of that. I’m a cat,” Leon said, eyes narrowing faintly. “We assume wolves run on testosterone and brain damage.”
Karl snorted. “And we assume cats run on ego and expensive hair products.”
“Fair,” Leon allowed. “My hair routine has a playlist.”
Karl didn’t smile. But he didn’t scowl, either, and that was starting to happen more often around Leon than he liked to admit.
They finished the last of the coffee in almost-companionable silence.
Afterward, they packed up quickly. The sun was hidden behind thick, dark clouds, the air clinging, cold and damp, but Karl felt sharper. A few hours of sleep—maybe not enough, but it had taken the edge off. Adrenaline would do the rest once they found their quarry.
“We need to talk tactics before we catch up with them,” he said.
Leon cocked his head, like he was weighing the request. “You mean come up with a plan.”
Karl nodded. “We don’t have the same instincts. We’re not pack. Or pride. So yeah, we need to talk first.”
