“You don’t,” Max said. “You’ve done plenty. I can feel the power in this thing. It should be more than enough by itself.”
Rían frowned at him. “If you were a trained mage, maybe. But you pissed off the Order, and you’ve got the attention of the entire city now, too, if not the state. That charm is only going to protect you a handful of times before it goes out, and any mage worth anything will know how to override it fast. Once I leave here, I won’t be able to getanother one to you for a few weeks, at least. I already have another two assignments.” He muttered a familiar curse in Irish under his breath.
“Do they not give you time to recover?” Lukas asked with a soft growl.
Rían shrugged. “I only have two months left. They’re determined to work me to the very end.”
“Get some rest,” Max said. “Then maybe show me how to recharge this thing without blowing it up?”
Rían looked like he wanted to argue, but he must have been more exhausted than he was letting on, because he nodded. “Only need a few hours.”
“Yeah right.” Lukas suspected he needed more like a solid ten and had no intention of waking him before then.
“And name your familiar!” Rían added over his shoulder.
“I already named her Aradia!” Max called back with a roll of his eyes.
Once Rían was out of earshot, he turned his attention to Max, who was holding the amulet up and flicking it so it spun. The magic infused in it was visible, making it look like a tiny ball of molten silver. The small smile on his lips wasn’t something Lukas had seen except when Caius or Quinn was fawning over him.
“Can you tell me why you don’t like me?” The words escaped before he could think better of it, but Max was supposed to be pack now. A bigger pack might have members who didn’t get along, but it was just the four of them. Any issue with one was an issue for them all.
Max sighed and dropped the necklace. “It’s not that…. You remind me of one of my father’s men. He was quiet and would always watch me, laugh when he would sneak up and scare the shit out of me. I know it’s stupid—”
“It’s not stupid,” he said firmly. “I’ll try not to sneak up on you, but I can’t help being quiet.”
“That’s okay.” Max bit his lip, glancing at Lukas before standing and carefully stepping around Rían’s mess of supplies to sit on the other end of the couch, drawing a leg up so he could face Lukas. “Can I ask something?”
“Sure.” Lukas shifted to mirror him so they faced each other, his curiosity piqued.
“You all can really turn into wolves?”
“Yes.”
Max narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t laugh at me.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were on the inside.”
Lukas snorted but didn’t try to deny it. “Is that really what you wanted to ask?”
“No….” He squirmed, and his scent shifted with an interesting mix of embarrassment and arousal. “Wolves, when they have sex, they… you know….”
Lukas raised an eyebrow as he certainly did not know. Maybe he had an idea, but he definitely wanted to hear Max say it. “They what?”
Max glared even as his ears turned red. “They pop a knot!”
“Yeah, and?” Lukas tilted his head and nearly choked holding back a laugh. He lost it when Max flung a pillow at his face, using it to smother his laughter.
“You’re a dick.”
“So I’ve been told.” Lukas dropped the pillow to his lap. “What are you trying to ask?”
Max shrugged, picking at a piece of lint on his sleeve. “The movies always imply that happens in your human form too.”
“And by movies you mean porn?” He snickered as the other pillow hit him and tossed it back. “That’s a Hollywood myth. We’re not a hybrid.” He tilted his head with a smirk. “Why? Disappointed you didn’t get some hot alpha knot?”
“Don’t make me set you on fire.”
