“What joy it is to be needed. I just hope she doesn’t ask about the stray gnome I saw peeking out of the ferns on the way here. If I was a guessing man, I would say it has murderous tendencies. But I’m not a man, so I shouldn’t guess.” One of his eyes closed. It didn’t seem like a wink, but might’ve been? John wasn’t sure.
He very nearly moved his rock this time.
The vampire loped off.
“Don’t mind him,” the shifter said. “He’s part of the Ivy House crew. They’re all a little eccentric. He’s very old. Vampires tend to get a little unbalanced when they are that old, I guess.”
That wasn’t a good enough explanation for that creature.
The shifter put out his hand for a handshake, and John rose to take it.
“Sue,” the shifter said.
“That’s actually your name?” John blurted. He wasn’t usually so frank, but that vampire had rattled him somehow. “Sorry. John. You probably know me as Yazanth Golden Fang. It’s not a name I use, anymore. That I really want to hear, anymore.”
Sue shook John’s hand. “Did you choose a new surname to go with it?”
“Smith. John Smith. About as boring as you can get.”
Sue grunted before taking a seat on the ground next to the rock. “Yes, I’ve heard of you. I’ve had a few names, as well. Lately, it was Brochan. Then Broken Sue because of a magemeeting and a changed identity. Now…Sue, I suppose. Not sure where the vampire got ‘suspicious’ from, but I’ve found it’s better not to ask. He might tell you.”
John smirked. Across the fire, the Jane—Jessie—laughed in delight. She touched Austin’s knee, who smiled along with her, his arm around her shoulders possessively. He’d found a much different woman than the one in his youth, it seemed. This one, or maybe age and experience and wisdom, had smoothed out all his rough edges.
“I thought you might want to know how I came to be in this convocation,” Sue said. “We share similarities though we aren’t the same.”
He described how he came to be alpha, taking the pack by force from the shifter who’d taken the pack from his biological father, a father who hadn’t raised him. How he’d leaned on those around him for training, and how he’d gotten on his feet, then lost it all at the hands of mages.
“And you willingly work alongside mages?” John asked.
Sue didn’t answer for a time. “Not all mages are the same, just like not all shifters are. Not all alphas are. Truth be told, I don’t much like the underhanded culture, but I’ve made peace with the people themselves. We have an opportunity to effect change and stop what happened to my pack, at least partially. It’s worth pushing past the knee-jerk reaction relating to my past.”
John nodded at that. It would be hard to follow the example, but he saw the merit in doing it.
“I was a rogue for a while,” Sue went on. “I’m sure you can guess how that went.”
“I don’t have to guess. I can tell you from experience.”
“Exactly. I’d heard about Austin Steele, someone who was supposed to have power in spades. Someone who might not fear me as much as other alphas. I was done wandering. I was atthe end of my journey and didn’t much care what came next. I declared myself to him when I arrived at his territory and then went my own way. I hung around, adrift. Purposeless.”
John looked over at Sue, noticing the small details of the other man as he spoke and reacted. His pack had trained him well, but he also had natural talent, like John. Like Austin. “And he let you?”
“Yes. He didn’t have people watching me. He didn’t check in. He didn’t try to intimidate me. He had zero fear I’d take his pack from him, just like he has zero fear you will try. You have more power than me, and obviously much more experience than both of us, if all the stories I’ve heard are true, but that doesn’t matter to him. He killed a phoenix to keep Jessie safe. He’ll tear you down, too, if he must.”
It was hard to believe he’d killed a phoenix, but John had heard it from the phoenix’s own mouth.
You already know the outcome.Of a fight between Austin and John, Austin had meant.
Yes, he did. John nearly had as much power. He did have more experience. He had the same level of ruthlessness and the same access to his beast, if he had to guess, but John’s first instinct when he’d looked at Austin had been correct: he’d been looking death right in the eye. That alpha would not lose. He was fighting for more than himself, a cause greater than his worth, and because of that, he would not allow John to best him. His assurance was so ironclad, it was fact.
John had never run into someone like him. Not ever. John had never met someone he couldn’t take down. And he realized that he liked it. It took a load off, honestly. He didn’t have the weight of being the biggest and toughest in the room resting on his shoulders. He wasn’t the target for once. He could justbe.
Instead of saying all that, he grunted.
“Did you know him when he was in his brother’s pack?” John asked.
“No. I did go back with him recently. He was apparently a terror, but even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have fit in there. He doesn’t fit in now.”
Like John didn’t fit in with the pack he’d helped protect. That he’d saved. Not anymore. His past had changed him, and not for the better. He’d been right to leave like he did. Austin must’ve been the same, though for different reasons.
