Max let out a watery laugh and slumped into his side. Quinn seemed nice. Nice enough that Max wouldn’t mind getting to know him better. Of all the people his father could have sold him to, Max could certainly have ended up somewhere far worse. Like in a lab being experimented on.
“I could use access to a computer,” he murmured. If he was going to be stuck here for more than a few weeks, he should at least finish his semester. “I have online courses to finish for my graphic design degree.” He’d scheduled all his finals on the same day, which would suck, but he hadn’t been planning on taking them. He’d been ready to walk away from it all in order to get free.
Fat chance of that now.
When Quinn squeezed his shoulders, he sank further into the couch and Quinn’s side. “And some fruit would be nice.”
Chapter 4
FAR, FARtoo tired to deal with whatever the fuck was going on, Lukas reached his room and dumped his bag in the corner, then sank into his chair to pull his boots off. He’d been gone over two weeks, which was common enough that he was used to things changing when he returned, but finding a mage in his home was something he deserved a heads-up about.
He glanced up when Caius stopped in his doorway and knocked, bracing his elbows on his thighs and narrowing his eyes at his alpha. “Is the mage what you wanted to talk about?”
“Yes.” Caius glanced down the hall before stepping into Lukas’ room and closing the door. “He’s Savino’s son.”
“The mafia boss?” Oh, things just kept getting better and better. “And you took him why?”
“His father was going to execute him for trying to run away. He Sparked, I bought him, got him healed, and brought him home.”
“And now you’re going to bind him,” Lukas guessed, turning back to his boots. He could see the logic in that and might have even agreed it was a good idea. Denver might be a big city, but they were shifters, and they were the first ones to try to claim territory here since the shifter massacre over fifty years ago.
He didn’t care about having a large pack, he was fine with it being the three of them, but he knew Quinn would prefer at least a few more members. And if Caius truly intended to hold territory here, they’d need more than a few. A mage would certainly help, depending on how good Max was in a fight.
“We all are.”
“Come again?” Lukas looked up at Caius, sure he was joking.
“What’s mine is yours,” Caius replied, echoing the words he’d sworn when he first accepted Lukas and Quinn as pack.
He squinted at Caius as his exhausted brain tried to pinpoint why that sounded wrong. “That doesn’t include people.”
Caius sighed and leaned back against Lukas’ dresser, resting his hands on the edge. “We need him. Maybe as much as he needs us. He’sa fire mage, or at least has a strong affinity for fire. You know the Order will want him for his sheer destructive power alone.”
“Fuck the Order,” he muttered. Of all the corrupt organizations, he was convinced they were at the top. “He didn’t look too keen on sticking around, much less letting you bind him,” he said, finally getting his boots off and slumping in his chair with a yawn. He’d napped on the plane, but he’d been running on catnaps, fumes, and caffeine for over a week. He needed a shower, a hot meal that didn’t come out of a tiny pouch, and sleep, and he didn’t care about the order of the last two.
“He’ll come around,” Caius said with the air of someone used to getting his way.
Lukas didn’t even have the energy to roll his eyes.
“How’d the mission go?”
“Other than a new boot nearly getting us all killed, it was a success.” Lukas forced himself to sit up before he fell asleep where he was. He pulled his shirt off and threw it in the general direction of the hamper. “I need a shower and sleep.”
Caius nodded and pushed off the dresser. “I’ll wake you for dinner. Steak?”
“Gods yes. Two. And all the sides.” With a groan, he pushed to his feet. Just a few more minutes and he could pass out.
He locked his gun in the safe and stripped the rest of his clothes off on the way into his en suite, lingering a few minutes longer than he usually would to ensure he got all the grime and sweat off. Then he pulled on a pair of clean boxers and face-planted into his bed, sinking into sweet oblivion a moment later.
LUKAS WOKEto the scent of food. Not the permeating scent of someone cooking, since that would be hoping for too much in this house, but hot food that wasn’t dehydrated or freeze-dried nonetheless. Stomach growling, he rolled out of bed and found a clean shirt in the dark before following his nose to the kitchen.
It was nice having familiar walls around him again, even if the scent of a strange mage tickled his nose.
Caius, Quinn, and Max were at the dining table, setting out the last containers of food.
Quinn glanced at him, his gaze dropping with a quirk of his eyebrows. “Too good for pants now?”
“You like the view,” he quipped without thinking, sinking into his seat and popping the lids off his containers. He inhaled deeply, mouth watering as he cut into the rare steak and shoved a large bite into his mouth. Fucking heaven. Two weeks without a decent meal was far too long.
