“Oh, feisty,” he purred, enjoying the way Max flushed. “Do you want to see?”
“Your knot? No thanks.”
Lukas laughed. “My wolf, you little shit.”
Max shivered, hugging the pillow to his chest. “Yeah, okay.”
“Sure you won’t freak out?”
“Can’t be any worse than in the movies, right?”
“The movies never get anything right,” Lukas muttered. He considered dropping it, but he hadn’t shifted in a while. He’d been away on missions the last couple of months, and Caius hadn’t shifted since his injury, so they never had a proper pack run.
He stood and moved to the far side of the room, pretending not to notice the sudden spike in Max’s heartbeat. He ran his fingersthrough his hair as he took a slow, deep breath, before pulling his shirt off and shoving his jeans and boxers down as he unleashed his wolf.
Maybe there used to be a time when the movies were right, with the shift being an agonizing tearing of flesh and reshaping of bones as a human body bent and twisted into a shape it shouldn’t be able to take. But mages had mingled with wolves for centuries, and their legends said a powerful mage had gifted wolves with a painless shift centuries ago.
Between one breath and the next, Lukas shed his human skin and the world tilted as he landed on four large paws. He gave a vigorous shake of his body, settling his thick black fur into place before promptly sitting on his hind legs and focusing on Max.
The mage sat frozen on the couch, hardly breathing as he stared. “Holy fuck,” he whispered. “Oh my fucking God. The movies aresowrong.” He leaned forward as if to stand and ended up on his knees on the floor, though he didn’t seem to notice. “You’re really a wolf. Holy crap.”
Lukas tilted his head as he watched, his tail tip thumping against the floor in amusement. It’d been a while since he’d seen someone’s first reaction to a shift. Watching a human’s brain break in real time was never a disappointment.
“Can I pet you?”
He lowered his head and stood, then took a step forward when Max didn’t flinch. He slowly crossed the room and pressed his nose into Max’s cheek, breathing in the smoke-and-citrus mixed with Caius’ winter storm scent. The fingers burrowing into his fur felt amazing, and he closed his eyes, leaning into the scritches and squirming to guide them to the back of his neck, then to his chest.
“You’re really just an overgrown puppy, aren’t you?”
Lukas growled, cracking his eyes open when Max froze, wariness curling through his scent. If he could have rolled his eyes he would have. Instead, he settled for licking Max’s face, his tongue hanging out when Max spluttered and wiped his mouth.
“Augh, gross. Dog breath. In my mouth,” he whined, gagging.
Lukas jumped forward, ignoring Max’s indignant squawk as he sprawled his considerable weight over the mage and pinnedhim to the floor.
“Fuck, you’re heavy,” Max groaned, squirming beneath him. His arms flopped like a beached whale before giving up. “I take it back. You’re not a puppy, you’re a big, scary wolf, now get offff.”
Lukas ignored him and licked his face again, pleased when the lingering fear in Max’s scent cleared, though the smell of burning fur was far more concerning.
Chapter 13
RÍAN LEFTthat evening, after showing Max how to channel magic into his amulet and the wards, though the wards should last far longer than the amulet despite both being hastily put together. Max was absolutely certain he would cause the amulet to explode if he tried to pour magic into it without Rían there to help, but that was a problem for Future Max.
Rían left the training device and promised to send some tutorials when he had the chance, but for now, Max locked himself in his room to work on his assignments. Now that he wasn’t constantly focused on not burning everything to ashes, he could get caught up. With finals in less than two weeks, he needed to cram in some serious study time.
Days passed without incident, though Max fell into old habits and didn’t leave the house unless he had to. Lukas was called away on another mission, which was disappointing when Max had just started to feel comfortable around him. He spent his days studying or exploring his magic and his nights with Caius. He’d expected Quinn to make a move, but he seemed content to let Caius have priority.
Max was putting the finishing touches on his last assignment when Caius called him for dinner. Before he could say he’d be down in a few minutes, his body was already halfway to the door, tablet and pen still in hand. He tried to stop, to turn around and at least put the tablet down, but he had zero control over his own body.
Aradia landed on his shoulder with a soft bark, rubbing against his cheek, but it was a small comfort.
Magic coiled in his hands, responding to the fear and anger thumping in his chest, but thanks to Rían’s spells, he didn’t feel on the verge of losing control of the flames.
Caius and Quinn both froze when he stepped into the room, turning to look at him.
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked, glancing past Max as if expecting a threat behind him.
“What’swrong?” he spat, stalking past Quinn on his way to Caius to shove him hard in the chest. “You used the bond on me! I couldn’t even fight it before I was up and walking down here!”
