He devoured all of one steak before his hunger was sated enough to notice the awkward silence around the table. He glanced over each of them, noting Quinn’s disappointed pout and Caius’ pinched expression before focusing on the mage. Max had barely touched his food and smelled like anxiety and fear.
Still not wanting to stick around or be bound then, not that Lukas could blame him. If he’d recently Sparked, Max likely knew only what most people assumed about mages and shifters, which was generally skewed at best or, more often, horrendously wrong.
Max glanced up, meeting Lukas’ eyes a moment before quickly looking away again, the thread of fear spiking in his scent despite the flush in his cheeks.
Strange. And interesting. The hint of arousal, not the panic.
Lukas focused on Caius and raised an eyebrow, silently asking what he’d missed.
Caius’ tight smile wasn’t much of an answer, but Quinn, never able to sit in silence for long, cleared his throat. “Max agreed to stay for a few weeks to finish his semester, but only if he’s not bound.”
“Well that’s stupid,” he said, cutting into his second steak. “You know you can be bound by force, right?”
“Lukas,” Quinn hissed.
“What?” he snapped. “You expect him to trust you if you don’t tell him the truth?”
“You’re lying.” Max glared at him, his hand clenched around his fork like he would use it to stab someone.
“Why do you think the Order is so adamant about getting their hands on a mage as soon as they Spark? They want the first binding. All that’s needed is a bit of your blood and they own you.”
“Bonds can be broken,” Max said, but Lukas could hear the doubt in his voice.
“Sure,” he agreed. That was technically true enough. “If you know how to break them. Or by another mage. How many of those do you think would be willing to break a binding held by the Order?”
Max turned his glare on Quinn and Caius before eyeing Lukas again. “If that’s true, then the Order could break your binding on me anyway.”
Lukas nodded, glad to see Max was quick on the uptake. “Except consensual bonds can’t be broken by force.” Not if the bound mage wanted to keep them, at least. Enough pain or torment could change anyone’s mind eventually, but there was no sense in scaring Max further.
Max’s expression remained dubious, but he fell silent and looked like he was considering Lukas’ words.
Taking that as a good sign, Lukas focused on eating. He could eat cold food when he had to, but he much preferred when a hot meal was still hot when it hit his stomach.
Eventually, Max stabbed his fork into his salmon and sat back with his arms crossed. “I’m not stupid enough to think you wouldn’t bind me by force if the Order couldn’t break it,” he said, though he sounded more resigned than angry. “What’s in this for me?”
“Other than being pack?” Quinn asked, because of course he did. He thought pack was everything.
Lukas knew better.
Caius ignored that. “What do you want?”
Max straightened, looking like he hadn’t expected a negotiation. He glanced around the open floor space, at the house that was big enough for a much larger pack than the three of them.
Lukas expected Max to ask for something expensive or for money outright. He didn’t really expect an actual answer.
“Freedom.”
“I meant it when I said you weren’t a prisoner,” Caius said.
Max scoffed, flexing his fingers against his arms as he chewed on his bottom lip. His scent was a mess of emotions ranging from fear to hope to despair and resignation. “And I’m not going to be a sex slave.”
Lukas choked as he inhaled a chunk of steak. What the hell?
“Who the fuck said anything about being a sex slave?” Quinn demanded, staring at Max in shock.
Lukas drained his glass of tea and finally got the steak down properly. He eyed Max when he caught the subtle change in his scent; beneath the muddle of negative emotions, he almost smelled like mischief.
Max tilted his head, hesitating before flicking his fingers at Caius. “That’s not what he bought me for?”
