Chapter 4
Chapter Four
KARL
Matt didn’t say anything when Karl walked away from the grill, just gave him a sideways glance that said play nice. Leon followed him without needing to be told. Of course he did. Damn cat wouldn’t let this lie until he’d gotten what he wanted.
Karl led him up the track that cut behind the barn and rose steadily up the low ridge overlooking the ranch house.
The fall sun slanted through the trees, the light wind sending golden leaves swirling on their way to the ground.
Somewhere below, Tristan’s voice carried faintly, bright and curious.
Once he’d gotten the goats corralled, he’d been busy talking to the cats, evidently fascinated by them.
Yet another thing for Karl to keep his eye on, make sure Tristan didn’t end up deceived and hurt.
Tristan would only see what they wanted him to see, not what they really were.
He couldn’t say that outright without sounding paranoid or giving away that he’d once been as na?ve as Tristan.
He’d trusted a cat, and others had paid the price.
He clenched his jaw. Another reason he hated having these cats here—they stirred up things better left buried.
Though he supposed the cats weren’t the only ones to blame.
Jax, that damn head of Council security had started it all.
But whoever had started it, Karl was ending it now, shoving all memories away, back where they belonged.
Once they reached the ridge, he stopped, pivoting to look back over the house, yard, and outbuildings.
Matt was talking to Luna once more, heads bent close and earnest. Perhaps all the playing nice hadn’t just been hot air but a chance for them to weigh one another.
And now they had, they were getting down to business.
Leon stepped up beside him, tucking his hair behind his ear. Some kind of tell, from a man who seemed to have very few, but Karl didn’t yet know what that little tic told him.
“You’ll want to know where the perimeter lies,” Karl said.
“Satellite imagery only gets me so far.” Leon pulled out his phone. “Can you mark it?”
Karl reached for it, and Leon held on a beat longer than necessary. Not a challenge, but long enough to underline he didn’t think Karl was in charge here. He’d learn.
Leon eventually let him have the phone, being very careful not to touch him. That cat superiority complex again. He’d probably spend a day grooming himself if he so much as brushed against a wolf. As for Karl, he’d rather be catapulted into the sun than touch a cat.
The screen showed a satellite image of the ranch.
He started to trace the lines. “Northern boundary runs along the ridge crest. Nothing breaches it up there—too steep, and we’ve got sensors on the only viable access trail.
Eastern border’s this line here—natural creek bed.
Cats don’t cross it without checking in first.”
Leon nodded once. “Noted.”
“South’s the weak point.” Karl tapped the wide, open slope. “We’ve got thermal cams and pressure sensors here, set back from the fence. And the driveway’s covered, too.”
Leon’s brows lifted slightly. “You planning to walk me through that setup?”
“No.”
Leon’s lips parted like he might push it, then just said, “Fair enough.” It looked like it had cost him, though, which Karl didn’t hate. At least he was accepting the restrictions Karl was putting in place.
Karl handed back the phone. “So long as you give me your schedule in advance, you can patrol up to the perimeter. But in cat form, you stay downwind from the horses and don’t get too close to them. We’ve got foals, and I’m not having them put at risk if you panic the herd.”
Leon took that instruction without argument, but he narrowed his eyes. “You think I’m careless?”
“I think you’re used to being top dog.”
Leon’s mouth curved, not quite a smile. “I could find that phrase insulting, you know.”
Karl didn’t miss the glint in his eye. Leon might’ve said it lightly, but the warning was there. He wasn’t just pretty and sharp-tongued—there was steel under all that silk.
“You want your people out at night?” Karl asked.
“Yeah. We’ll rotate shifts. Two out at a time, never the same path twice. And there’ll always be one of us on the house when Luna’s inside.”
Sounded like they’d be stretched thin, with little rest and recovery baked in, but that was nothing new. And hopefully it wouldn’t be much longer than a day, then they’d be gone.
Leon moved closer to the edge of the ridge, gazing down over the house. “This is a good spot to keep an eye on things.”
“Which is why I brought you here.” He wasn’t giving guided tours for fun.
Leon was silent a moment longer, then he spoke without looking at Karl. “You don’t like cats.”
Karl didn’t answer. Didn’t see the need to, not when Leon had pegged it in one sentence.
“You don’t trust us,” Leon added. “Which is reasonable. I can’t say it’s not reciprocated. But you’re not just cautious, you’re angry.”
Karl stared out across the land, trying not to let his reaction to Leon’s words show.
He was used to being unreadable, but apparently not to cats.
Or not to this cat, anyway. He didn’t want anyone to know the parts of him he kept hidden, and it angered him that this cat thought he could go poking around in Karl’s head to amuse himself.
“You really want to start nosing into people, rather than keep Luna safe?” He knew it was deflection, he knew Leon would know he was deflecting, but as Matt wouldn’t like it if he snarled at the cat, he had no other option.
Though a snarl may have sounded in his voice anyway.
He took a breath, fighting for calm. “You’ll get access to the patrol log whenever you want.
If one of your teams wants to tag in with ours, that’ll be your call, but I want notice. ”
“You’ll get it.”
“Any shifts in your routes or coverage—”
“—go through you.” Leon’s voice was quiet now. No edge. “I understand.”
Karl nodded once. They stood there another moment, watching the same land, with, Karl thought, the same aim in mind. Protecting those they cared for.
“I meant what I said earlier,” Leon said, soft enough the wind almost stole it. “You hate not being able to control everything.”
Karl didn’t look at him. No way was he letting Leon see how true that was. “No one likes that.”
He turned and headed back down the trail.
After a second’s pause, Leon followed.
LEON
Leon had shared the perimeter map with the other cats, then stayed behind to guard Luna through the afternoon while they took off to familiarize themselves with the layout of the place. He’d made sure to inform Karl first, of course.
God, this was going to grind his gears, having to report to someone rather than simply doing what was necessary. But he understood the reasons for it—it wouldn’t help anything if the wolves and cats got into a stand-off because someone was somewhere they weren’t expected.
Although he wanted to explore the territory himself, it was more important to get patrols out there.
The others were competent, he knew that, and there was no way he was going with them and leaving Luna unguarded.
Not that he thought the wolves harbored bad intentions toward her but he couldn’t trust them to protect her the way he would if someone got through the wolves’ security.
And now Antoni was back—apparently the security was startlingly good given the size of the pack and the area their territory covered—and had taken over close protection for Luna while Leon headed for the house in the dusk.
Like he said, he didn’t think Matt had anything nefarious in mind, but he wasn’t going to let his queen, let alone his sister, stay overnight in a house full of wolves without scoping the place out first.
Luna and Matt had gone inside as the afternoon darkened into evening, but some of the wolves were still sitting around the table, despite the growing chill in the air.
Somewhere behind him, Tristan’s laugh rang out—bright and open and so fucking young it made Leon clench his jaw.
Tristan couldn’t be more than five years younger than him, but the difference in the optimistic anticipation with which he viewed the world made it feel like decades.
Of course he was fascinated by the cats.
They were new and different, dangerous in all the ways someone like Tristan would find exciting and harmless at once.
Leon had watched him bouncing questions off Antoni like a sugar-high terrier.
Every answer delighted him, because Tristan didn’t know what it meant to be different and have it cost.
He paused on the porch, letting the shadows claim him, watching the soft spill of yellow light through the kitchen windows. Dishes clattered inside, as if someone was loading the dishwasher. The kind of domestic quiet that made something in his chest fold in on itself.
He didn’t belong here. Where people touched easily and talked freely and just were, without needing to prove themselves.
He drew in a deep breath and caught the faintest trace of horses from the barn.
Karl’s scent was buried in there somewhere, too.
He didn’t know what to make of Karl. He’d expected the hostility and territorial stubbornness.
But as well as those, he’d found perceptiveness, restraint, and something heavier underneath. Something he almost recognized. Almost.
He still didn’t trust Karl, but he respected his abilities.
So far, anyway. That was both unexpected and more than a little inconvenient.
Not least because the more he watched Karl, saw his effortless prowl, the way his jeans fit just right, the more he was thinking things that he shouldn’t be thinking. Not when on the job.
Leon eased down to sit on the porch steps, taking a moment before he had to go inside and deal with yet more wolves.
He found himself twisting the ring on the chain around his neck.
The ring had been a gift from Luna years ago—all she could find to give him in the scramble before he’d been sent away—and he’d threaded it onto a chain when it no longer fit his finger.
A promise, with all the weight that went with that, and even now, it grounded him.
Reminded him he was loved and wanted, at least by someone.
Tilting his head back, he watched the sky.
Stars shone like pinpricks of light in the darkness, distant and perfect.
So much space. So much silence. And yet the wolves made this place feel full.
Conversation drifted up from the far end of the yard, and someone howled with laughter—almost literally, he suspected.
They weren’t bad, so far as wolves went, but they were a pack. And Leon didn’t trust groups. Groups, by definition, excluded people.
Matt was different from all his expectations—measured, smart, somehow inhabiting his authority without needing to wield it.
Tom had the stillness Leon recognized in people who knew how to wait for the right moment to strike.
And the more he’d seen of Bryce, the more he suspected that, annoying as he was, there were teeth under the sunshine.
But the rest of those he’d met? They were too open, too welcoming. Too confident in their safety.
It made Leon itch, because confidence like that only lasted until the moment it didn’t, when everything was turned upside down and nothing was ever the same again. Relaxing made people soft, and softness got them hurt.
And Karl—Karl should have known better. Should watch his people more closely. Should correct Tristan’s reckless enthusiasm, not let it go as if it was endearing rather than dangerous.
Leon tucked his hair behind his ear, taking a moment to ensure it was sleek, with no tangles, no flyaway ends.
Maybe he was overreacting. But tomorrow, if Tristan wasn’t concentrating, if one of the pack turned their back without checking shadows, if one more wolf acted like their casual unity was enough to keep Luna safe…
Well. Leon might have to teach them otherwise.
He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the night settle around him like a cloak. It felt right. Better to be the thing who couldn’t be seen coming than to be taken by surprise. Never again.