Max nodded, more than willing to do anything to keep his magic under control.
“And you need to name your familiar. You’ll need a pouch like mine to keep her in when you’re not at home, and always keep her by your side. I’ll give you a list of supplies. You can set up a cage if you want, but don’t lock her in. She might be an animal, but she’s a familiar. Their sense of danger is far more acute than ours, so listen to her.”
“Got it,” Max said, even though he most certainly did not. He didn’t know the first thing about animals or familiars. He was one step away from a meltdown, though thankfully it would only be the mental kind. If anyone gave him a new piece of information to process, like that vampires were real, he was going to lose it.
“Eat up,” Quinn said, bumping their shoulders together. “Don’t you need to get back to practicing?”
“And I need to finish your wards,” Rían said, annoyed. “How you survived here this long is beyond me,” he muttered, getting to his feetbefore pointing at Max. “Practice with the trainer or bond with your familiar. Either of those will help you the most right now. I’m going to finish the property line and work my way back in.”
Max resisted the urge to salute and snagged his sandwich, feeding more to his sugar glider before tearing off pieces for himself. “What should I name you, hmm?”
“How about Stripes?” Quinn suggested.
The sugar glider stopped eating and barked at him in clear disapproval.
Max laughed. “That’s a no. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone else name you,” he cooed, rubbing a finger against the top of her head. That earned a soft purring sound before she climbed up his arm and tucked in against his neck.
“Cute,” Quinn said, gathering up the empty plates. “You want company or quiet while you practice?”
Max snorted. “Why don’t you go flirt with Rían?” he suggested, finishing his sandwich and sliding his plate over.
Quinn gasped. “I was not flirting.”
“Uh-huh. Your accent naturally exploded all over us by itself, then?”
He glared and pinched Max’s leg. “You’re a little shite.”
“Thank you. And point made. Now get lost.”
Quinn grumbled as he stood. “You are not nearly as scared of us as you should be.”
That wasn’t entirely true, but Max bit his tongue before he could say he was still plenty wary, especially of Lukas. Not that it was the shifter’s fault that he was too quiet and intense.
He headed back upstairs and stretched out on the sofa again, resigning himself to an afternoon of staring at a little ball and willing it to hover between the lines.
Chapter 11
“SO HERE’SRían, sitting up in the tent in the middle of the night, dead asleep, and he goes, ‘Wolf. You don’t have magical powers.I’mthe mage. I’ll turn you into a neeeewt.’”
Caius chuckled as Lukas and Rían regaled them with stories from their missions, Quinn even adding a few of his own. He was content to sip his tea and listen, glad to see Max relaxing enough to laugh.
Dinner wasn’t nearly as rowdy as a mess hall, but it had the same kind of comfort, being surrounded by people who belonged to him. For a moment, he was keenly aware of what his uncle had stolen from him.
His father had been alpha of a large pack and expected Caius to take over. Instead, Caius had joined the Marines when he turned eighteen, needing to get away from the empty wilderness of Wyoming. His father had been disappointed, but they’d kept in contact, up until his death four years ago. It wasn’t until he finally returned home for the first time in nearly twenty years that he realized how deep his uncle had sunk his teeth into the pack.
In their eyes, Caius had abandoned them all for humans and their wars. The pack named Kostas their new alpha, and Caius was exiled.
A pack of four could hardly be considered a pack by most standards, but it was his. And thanks to his father’s refusal to become obsolete in the modern age, and his expectation of Caius taking over the pack, the majority of his wealth was legally transferred to Caius, despite his uncle’s betrayal.
When the war stories turned to talk of gaming, Caius grabbed a beer and slipped outside to the patio. The temperature had dropped again, and more snow was in the forecast, but the cold didn’t bother him. As much as he’d resented growing up away from a proper city, he preferred the deep snows found in the wilderness. His wolf shifted restlessly inside him as he sat on the swing bench, staring out at the edge of the national park on the other side of their backyard.
He hadn’t shifted since he’d been shot with aconite. The doctors might have assured him it was safe enough, but his arm had limited range as a human. He wouldn’t be able to run as a wolf.
The door slid open, and Quinn sprawled with boneless grace in the chair next to him. “So, you gonna make a move or what?”
“Excuse me?”
Quinn snorted, running his fingers through his hair as he scanned what little they could see of the neighborhood. “C’mon, Cap. The way you two have been pining over each other is painful to watch.”
