Karl lifted an eyebrow. “What reputation?”
“Exactly. I can’t afford another hit.”
Karl was smiling when Leon leaned in to kiss him, lazy and open-mouthed, all warmth and salt and the taste of morning. They stayed like that a while, trading kisses and heat, until a knock at the door broke the spell.
Leon hissed into the pillow. “We are never staying with wolves again.”
* * *
They drank what passed for coffee sitting out front, shoulder to shoulder while the sun finally chased away the lingering chill. The sky was blue and clean, and Leon calculated how long it would take to run back to the ranch.
Karl looked better. He moved easily now, like his body had finally caught up to his will. Leon had conducted averythorough check of his healing progress earlier. Now, he just wanted to get out of here.
Just as soon as those fact-finding wolves made it back.
He nudged Karl’s shoulder. “So what—these guys are just going to wander into the nearest town and start asking if anyone’s heard about a silver wolf?”
Karl took a sip of the bitter brew. “They won’t need to ask. They’ll walk into the gas station, look at the magazine rack, and figure it out. Jesse’s been on the cover ofeverything. The women’s magazines are obsessed with photos of him and Matt.”
Leon pulled a face. “Of course. The world’s hottest alpha.”
“Envy doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m just saying, you know it’s bad when evenBetter Homes and Gardensis running Matt on the cover in flannel.”
Karl snorted. “You readBetter Homes and Gardens?”
Leon took a sip of his coffee and, deciding he didn’t need caffeinethatbadly, dumped the rest of it out on the dirt. “You really think Michael’s going to come meet Matt?”
“Matt knows the politics, knows the right people to trust with breaking the news that there’s a whole pack of Argents no one knew about. By working with him, Michael gets to retain some control. But he’s probably going to need a few days—his whole world just got turned upside down, and he’s going to want contingency plans to protect his pack, just in case. It’ll take him a while, but he’ll come.” He glanced sideways at Leon. “If he doesn’t, Ruth’ll drag him.”
Leon huffed. Ruth was evidently desperate to see Jesse but, as she’d pointed out caustically, by staying here for now, she was obeying her alpha. She said it with a very pointed look at Leon, not seeming to buy his expression of wounded innocence.
“What’s bothering me is that if we don’t get out of here soon, Luna and Matt are going to send out people after us. Hell, they might already have done that. And if they find we’ve been held here—”
Leon stopped talking just as Karl raised his head, nostrils flaring, eyes sweeping over the camp. Something in the atmosphere had changed.
There.Wolves were rapidly congregating around two others in human form. Leon had noticed them entering the camp and had thought they were guards finishing their shift. Evidently not.
He slid a sideways glance at Karl, whose tongue flicked briefly over his lips as he watched the pack. Karl had told the truth, but what if those two hadn’t found proof? Easing to his feet, he held out a hand to help Karl stand.
And then they waited, as Michael emerged from his cabin and strode toward the new arrivals, tension in every movement.
For an instant, the world seemed to hold its breath along with Leon. Until he saw that one of the newcomers was clutching a battered magazine, its pages curled from damp. Even from this distance, he heard Ruth’s gasp as the cover caught the light.
He didn’t need to see it to know which photo it probably was—Jesse laughing, Matt leaning in, that unguarded tenderness between them that had been splashed across every gossip site and supermarket rack in the country. Proof enough that their story was true, and that Jesse was very much alive.
Michael spoke to the scouts, then crossed the clearing to Leon and Karl. He looked at them for a long, unreadable moment, and gave a single nod.
“You were telling the truth,” he said to Karl. “You and your mate are free to go.”
Karl let out a slow breath.
Leon tucked his hair behind his ear. “Anyone might think you didn’t appreciate our company.”
Michael’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “Don’t push it, cat.”
As he turned away, Leon decided it wasn’t worth the effort of putting the wolf back in his place. Not when they could finally leave. Karl’s warning elbow in his ribs was neither here nor there in his decision-making.
