Chapter 28 Attack With Balls
ATTACK WITH BALLS
Titan watched as Mathlin grew stock-still, the blood draining from his face. He glanced sharply at Everdin. “When was the last time you saw this man? The truth, please.”
Everdin had puffed out her chest, about to tell one of her exaggerated tales. But maybe Titan’s growl changed her mind. “Two days ago. He was in Washerville, at the general store.”
Washerville was just the next town over. Too fucking close. Titan clenched his fists. “Did they tell him about Mathlin?”
“Possibly,” Everdin said slowly. “I did tell everyone you had a new employee.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
“Thanks, Mrs. Everdin,” Titan said, trying to stay calm. “You should tell people to stay away from him. He’s not a good person.”
She looked worried then. “Are you in danger?”
“We’ll try not to be.” Titan glanced out of the windows and strained his ears. “I’ll let you know if the situation changes.”
She gave him a long look. “I shouldn’t have spread that news about Mathlin.”
“It’s fine,” Mathlin said shakily. “We had fun with the gossip. But that man, Valberdon, he isn’t someone you want hanging around. He’s a cruel, powerful wizard. You should go home and put out a warning.”
“I’ll do that. Stay safe, both of you.” Everdin frowned and hurried out of the bakery.
Titan wrapped his arm around Mathlin’s shoulders, grabbing his phone off the counter. “Well, fuck.”
“Oh gods,” Mathlin whispered. “I jinxed myself. What are we gonna do? I wasn’t strong enough to take him out before. And I haven’t gotten much stronger over the years. I thought I had run far enough. I didn’t think I had to get stronger.”
His scent turned sour; he trembled against Titan.
“No one should have to,” Titan growled. “No one should threaten you so much that your only way of feeling safe is to grow stronger. Here, I’ll talk to my friends.”
He opened up the chat with his pack, then the one with his friends.
Titan
We just received some bad news
Mathlin’s ex-captor is v likely in the area
He’s known our location for 2 days
It’s a wizard, so some magical help will be very appreciated
Uriel
Fuck. I’m on my way, but it’ll take me a while to get there.
Need someone to watch my kid too
Telos
I’ll pick you up
Pterodactyl Express is the best mode of transport
Big and fast
Mav
Not a combination anyone wants to hear in bed
Telos
I don’t hear YOU complaining
You big fire breathing lizard
Bruiser
Ugh. Do you have to do this in front of all of us?
Uriel
At least they’re helping. Unlike you
Ace
I can just HEAR Bruiser’s teeth gnashing
Bruiser
Fuck off. Give us your location. I’ll help
Uriel
Are you crazy? Do you want to be hexed?
Telos
(fire emoji) Oh the burn
Bruiser
Fine. I’ll sit out.
Uriel
I’m looking for emergency childcare, hang on
Duke
Uriel, drop off your baby at my office. We’ll be on the roof. It’s on your way.
Uriel
Thanks
Crush
Have you told the pack?
Gav
Didn’t you see the pack chat? The fucker told us to stay away
Vigil
It doesn’t make any sense.
Titan
We aren’t great with magic stuff. I don’t want to risk all of you getting caught up in it
Titan set down his phone. Mathlin had gone pale, his fingers curled into Titan’s shirt. Fuck. Titan wanted to roar; he wanted to shred something with his claws, but he didn’t want to draw attention to them. “Sweetheart, I’ll protect you.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt!” Mathlin scrunched up his face. He hugged Jannie and pressed his hand against his belly. “Fuck.”
Protectiveness snarled through Titan. His most important people—they were right here, and he needed to keep them safe.
“We have some spells that Ham got from Uriel,” he said. “Uriel sent them over the other day. I don’t know how helpful they’ll be, but it’s something.”
Mathlin looked up. “Where are they?”
Titan hurried to the office and grabbed the small envelope on his desk. His bicep still hurt—it wasn’t fully healed, but now wasn’t the time to be gentle with it. “Do any of these look useful?”
Mathlin slid out the stack of spell sheets and flipped through them. His eyes widened. “I think I can use some of these.”
“Any for protection? ‘Cuz that’s my biggest concern. Your safety.”
Mathlin frowned. “I want you to be safe too.”
Titan narrowed his eyes. “My omega. I’m protecting you.”
He hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, but... There it was.
Mathlin’s eyes widened. Then he grabbed the front of Titan’s shirt and yanked him down, kissing him fiercely.
Titan’s heart could’ve burst; it was so full.
“Mine,” Mathlin growled.
I’ll do everything in my power to protect you, Titan thought.
He grasped Mathlin by his arms and began herding him to the office, the safest part of the building.
Mathlin wriggled free. “I need to secure the building.”
Titan’s first instinct was to protest. But Mathlin was right. They needed to keep the pups safe, too.
When Titan didn’t respond quickly enough, Mathlin hissed, “I want an alpha to come back to, which means I’m keeping you safe!”
“Marry me,” Titan blurted.
Mathlin stared incredulously at him. “Now? Of all the times you could’ve asked, you choose now?”
“Well, if we want to get pedantic about it, this isn’t the first time I’ve asked.” Titan touched the stainless steel ring that Mathlin was wearing, in place of the twisted foil ring from their fake proposal.
“That doesn’t count!” Mathlin spluttered. He unclipped Jannie from his chest and shoved her at Titan. It was such an unexpected move that Titan almost fumbled, cradling Jannie protectively.
“Hold her,” Mathlin said. “I’m securing the bakery.”
Titan held Jannie. He wanted to shift and get out there; he wanted to snarl at whoever dared to threaten his mate and their pups. But that was crazy. He needed to find the least risky solution to this mess. Making himself a target was not that.
Mathlin hurried through the bakery, pressing spell sheets to the external walls and smearing his bloody thumb across them. The runes glowed and sank through the paper, disappearing into the walls.
Ever so faintly, the building began to hum.
Jannie felt the magic somehow. She scrunched up her face and whimpered.
“Shh. It’s going to be okay,” Titan murmured, rocking her against his chest.
Mathlin glanced over. For a second, his frown softened.
“Tell me how I can help,” Titan said.
Mathlin pulled out some spell sheets from the stack and quickly read them. “These are attack spells. Hang on, I’ll translate them for you.”
He hurried to the checkout stand and grabbed a pencil, scribbling painstakingly on the back of a spell sheet. “This is a shield-piercing spell, and it shoots a jet of flame at the target.”
He wrote a long string of words on the back of the spell sheet.
“Math, I don’t have time to read whole sentences in the middle of dodging attacks,” Titan said. “As much as I appreciate you doing this.”
“Oh.” Mathlin thought for a bit. “I’ll draw. A picture speaks a thousand words, right?”
“I don’t know about that. Whenever I see the Alpha Lisa painting, I think to myself, ‘That’s a picture of a smiling alpha. She’s wearing some drab clothing. Why did some famous artist want to paint her?’ Not even a hundred words.”
Mathlin snickered. “Here.” He drew a picture of a flaming cock piercing a bubble. “This gets the point across.”
Titan snorted. “Trust you to turn an attack into a sex joke, Math.”
“It’s clear and to the point! You know right away what attack it is.”
“That I do. You’re amazing.”
Mathlin brightened. He set aside that spell and squinted at the next one. “This one is balls. Big fucking balls.”
“Oh gods,” Titan muttered. “How are you going to draw that?”
“How do you think?” Mathlin said airily. He was already drawing a pair of hairy balls on the back of the spell sheet. “These are fireballs, so they’re flaming.”
The drawing took up the entire sheet. Mathlin barely had space to add flames licking around the balls.
“This is how you know they’re big,” he said solemnly.
Titan stifled his laugh.
The next spell sheet had three cocks drawn on it.
The one after that had a flurry of flaming ball sacks.
Mathlin made sure the drawings had thick lines so Titan wouldn’t have to squint to see them, but this meant that precious seconds were ticking away with every stroke of his pencil.
He still had a stack of spells to translate, and others that he hadn’t used on himself or the bakery.
As useful as his translations were, this was taking too long. Valberdon had found out about Mathlin two days ago. That was too many hours. Hours in which Titan could’ve been taken out by a surprise attack, leaving Mathlin to his ex-captor’s mercy.
Fuck, he couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t stand the thought of... of losing Mathlin, of Mathlin being tortured.
He pushed aside those thoughts, his chest tight.
Why hadn’t Valberdon shown up? If Titan were the one hunting his prey, he would have already struck.
Unless the wizard had a better plan up his sleeve.
A cold chill slid down Titan’s spine. His instincts snarled, threatened and aggressive.
“Math, I can’t just sit around. I need to do something,” he seethed, his fangs growing longer.
Mathlin’s gaze sharpened. “Here,” he said, stabbing his claw into his thumb. “Let me write you a spell—”
Something exploded outside the bakery, too close for comfort.
“Fuck,” Titan hissed, his shift bristling beneath his skin.
“Fuck,” Mathlin whispered. He grabbed the front of Titan’s shirt and yanked him down. “I need more time!”
“We don’t have any left,” Titan growled.
“There’s time for this.” Mathlin’s eyes glowed bright orange. He squeezed blood out of his fingertip and traced a rune onto Titan’s forehead. Then he pushed a warm pulse of energy into Titan. “It’s not much, but it’s something.”
Titan’s skin tingled; he narrowed his eyes. “What does it do?”
“It’s a defense spell to hold off magical attacks for a short time.” Mathlin looked a little pale. Had he overtaxed himself?
Titan tried to suppress his worry. “Put that on yourself, sweetheart.”
“You’re the one about to charge out there.” Mathlin’s gaze burned. “Ti, he’s fucking dangerous.”
“I know. Use Uriel’s spells, protect the pups. I’m not going out there unless I have to.”
When Wildcart rolled up to them, a soft, colorful blanket at the bottom of its cargo basket, Titan transferred Jannie to the cart. “Hold her for a moment.”
The cart squeaked its wheels and rocked Jannie back and forth.
Titan grabbed the gun he’d stashed under the service counter for emergencies.
Years ago, he used to skulk around Cartfalls with his brothers, haunting the back alleys to clear out muggers and other shady characters.
They had learned to fight by sparring with each other, and every so often, someone in the pack would pounce on him for a surprise tussle.
A little too late, Titan realized that they should’ve learned ways to hold their own against magical attacks.
Mathlin raised his bloody finger to Titan again.
Titan leaned back. “Math. I’m serious. Use that on yourself.”
“But—”
Another explosion went off. Then a grating voice filled the air.
“Mathlin. It’s taken me too long to find you. You were so sneaky about hiding yourself.”
Titan growled, his hackles rising.
Mathlin shuddered with revulsion. “He used to poke at my bed while I was sleeping. He didn’t do much more than that, but it creeped me out so much, I had to sleep under the bed.”
“What the fuck,” Titan said, his fingernails shifting into claws. “I’m not going to let him creep on you again.”
“Wait.” Mathlin grabbed Titan and traced another rune onto his forehead.
“Math!” Titan growled when another pulse of magic filled him. The pain in his bicep faded.
“Accelerated healing,” Mathlin panted. He was sweating a little. “I feel like it’s just a matter of time before you’re charging out there.”
Titan growled and grabbed the stack of spell sheets, shoving it at Mathlin. “No more of your magic. Use these.”
Mathlin began to flip through the spells. Before he could get far, movement caught their eye.
A cloaked figure approached Twin Buns, holding a long, gnarled staff like Everdin had described.
Mathlin clutched the spells and breathed out shakily. Titan ground his teeth together. He wanted so badly to get out there and destroy the threat. Make his mate feel safe.
But he also knew that he only had one chance. If he fucked this up, Valberdon would grab Mathlin, and they would be gone before help arrived.
Mathlin picked out a spell and smeared blood across it, pressing it against the counter. “Maybe this will be enough,” he whispered. “Layered spells work better.”
The runes glowed and disappeared into the wood.
For a second, Titan thought maybe Uriel’s defense spells would be enough to tide them through, until help arrived.
Something squeaked. Wheels clattered.
When Titan looked up, he realized he could not see Wildcart anywhere.
“Wildcart?” he called, trying not to raise his voice.
He tracked the sound of Wildcart’s wheels. Only to realize that the cart had gotten out of Twin Buns somehow, and was now in the parking lot.
Outside of their protective bubble.
Titan’s stomach dropped. He ran to the nearest window, only to find the cart doing loops behind the bakery. Jannie was clutching its basket and squealing with delight.
“Holy fuck!” Titan lunged for the back door.
Mathlin appeared behind him, squawking in horror. Titan had to grab his omega around the waist to stop him from running straight out. “Jannie! Let me go, Titan! How did Wildcart get out there?!”
The back door had been shut. Titan remembered closing it, so the cart’s escape didn’t make sense. But there wasn’t time to worry about it. Could he reach Wildcart and steer it back into the bakery without catching Valberdon’s attention?
“I don’t fucking know, but you’re staying in here.” Titan squeezed Mathlin’s waist and released him just inside the open back door. “Cover me.”
Mathlin stuffed some spells into Titan’s hand. Titan dashed out of the bakery.
Before he could take more than a few steps, Wildcart noticed him. It squeaked its wheels excitedly and rolled away, like it thought they were playing a game of Catch.
“Wildcart! Get back here!” Titan hissed, lunging for it.
To his horror, the cart wheeled in a large arc, heading for the front of the bakery.
Where Valberdon was.