* * *
They left with the minimum of fuss, saying goodbye only to Ruth and Charlie. Karl’s excuse for seeing Charlie was to make sure he was safely under Jo’s eye and wouldn’t follow them, but Leon wasn’t fooled.
He’d shifted before accompanying Karl to see Jo. And if he happened to stretch and yawn in front of her, powerful muscles rippling under his velvet coat, teeth on full display, that was just coincidence. Obviously.
After a final scratch behind Charlie’s ears, Karl left his borrowed clothes in a neat pile outside what had been their prison, and shifted. And then side by side, they headed out, before Ruth discovered the defiled sheets.
Chapter Thirty-three
KARL
Crossing the property line back into pack territory should have felt like pure relief. It did, but not with the strength he’d expected, because something in him had shifted. With Leon at his side, the sense of where he belonged seemed to have stretched, as if it existed here in the heart of his pack and somewhere else too. It was strange yet not unwelcome.
An excited yipping drew his attention just before Tristan hurled himself at Karl in a blur of fur and enthusiasm. Karl let himself stagger under the weight as Tristan shoved his whole body against him, licking his face with single-minded joy.
Leon made a disgusted noise behind him, a cat equivalent offor God’s sake—or maybe,wolves.But it lacked the edge his judgments used to have.
For all his enthusiasm, Tristan had manners. After a few moments of squirming against Karl, he turned to greet Leon with a play bow. Karl almost choked when Leon, without the faintesthesitation, accepted. Pouncing, he bowled Tristan over, and they tumbled in the dirt together, no claws, no dominance, just unselfconscious happiness. It was a million miles away from the cat who used to stand on his dignity. Charlie’s influence really had ruined him.
Karl became aware of a cougar among the trees, one paw lifted, gaze fixed on Leon. Karl still couldn’t read every nuance of cat body language, but he recognized the hesitation in the stance. Joaquim stepped forward at last, each move deliberate.
Leon broke from Tristan and met him halfway. The brief exchange—touch, breath, a flick of ears—was precise and contained. Karl could practically hear the unspoken judgment.Rolling with wolves? Really?
Cat greetings over, the cougar melted away into the trees, and Karl and Leon headed for the house. Tristan, with a shake of his coat and a new spring in his step, returned to his patrol.
Karl was straining to see if everything was secure. He knew it was, otherwise Tristan wouldn’t have been so relaxed, but he needed to be sure. Mentally, he ticked off whose eyes he felt on them—Colby, Tom—but no one broke discipline to come and greet them. Evidently, Tristan was the obvious security, the one to draw attention away from those hidden in the trees or in a grassy dip, ready to pounce.
By the time they reached the house and shifted, delving into the basket of clothes on the porch to dress against the chill in the air, Matt and Luna had come out onto the porch. The tight knot in Karl’s chest loosened at the sight of Matt, solid and steady.
Luna was beside him, completely self-contained and with something almost closed-off in the way she was standing. It reminded Karl strongly of how Leon used to be. He was uncertain exactly when that had changed in him.
Leon’s gaze was flicking over her from head to toe with quick, subtle sweeps. Karl knew that look. He’d used it himself often enough, counting breaths, checking for stiffness in the way someone stood, for tension in the shoulders, for the smallest hint of an injury. Whatever Leon saw eased something in him. His shoulders dropped, just slightly, as he breathed out, an almost soundless sigh of relief.
Karl had time to see Luna reach up to enfold Leon in her arms, scolding him as she did so, before Matt took his hand then pulled him in for a close hug that lingered until Matt seemed finally satisfied that Karl was solid under his hands.
“Damn,” Matt said when he let go. “Anyone else, and we’d have sent a search party after you days ago. What happened?” His eyes swept Karl in that sharp, measuring way of his, pulling in more information than Karl liked. His gaze flicked briefly to Leon before returning to Karl.
“It’s complicated,” Karl said, rubbing a hand over his face, because where to start? “We should probably sit down for it.”
Matt raised his eyebrows at Karl’s tone, then caught Luna’s gaze and looked meaningfully at her. Without another word, they proceeded inside. As he and Leon followed them, Karl wondered just how much time Matt and Luna had spent together that enabled such easy wordless communication.
The smells and sounds of the house wrapped around him—Jason’s cooking in the kitchen, the scuffed floorboards with years of claw marks, the hum of pack energy in the air. It hit hard, how close he’d come to never walking these rooms again.
If Leon hadn’t chosen to share captivity with him, he wouldn’t be here now. He’d have died that first night, and no one would have ever known.
Even with Luna and Matt only steps ahead, he reached for Leon, tugging him close for a kiss meant to say what wordscouldn’t. Leon kissed him back with his usual fierce enthusiasm, and when they drew apart, Luna’s eyebrows had climbed nearly to her hairline. Matt didn’t look surprised in the least.
“Seems like you have more than a few things to tell us,” he said, leading them into his den.
“If this is a Leon story,” Luna said, “we’re going to need something stronger than tea.”
LEON
Leon could feel Luna’s stare on him but kept his eyes firmly on Matt. If he looked at her, he knew what he’d see—rampaging curiosity over him getting tangled up with a wolf, mixed with amused older-sister smugness. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
“Well?” Urban asked, once the door was closed against the rest of the nosy pack and curious cats. His tone was even, but there was a faint coil of readiness in his body. Leon clocked the shift in weight, the subtle stillness. Little signs that saidalertin any species.
“Jesse has the right to hear this first,” Karl said. “But I think it’d be best for him to hear it from you.”
