Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
KARL
He managed to avoid Leon for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Although he kept an eye out while patrolling, he chose not to watch for him specifically.
He wasn’t sure he could answer for the consequences if he did.
That smug, superior feline got under his skin like no one else, and ultimately, cooperation with the cats was important.
He kept telling himself that. Didn’t much help.
Karl wasn’t surprised when Matt came to find him after supper. Matt looked out for every member of his pack, and Karl knew his behavior recently had been out of whack. No way would Matt have missed it.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Matt had found him sitting in his favorite spot, just inside the trees, looking down the hillside toward the house. He’d sat beside Karl and said nothing for ten minutes or so. It had been too good to last.
“Meaning?” Karl knew he was being obstructive and skirting disrespect toward his alpha, but all he could think was how damn tired he was of everything.
All the strangers on their territory, the fact that the safety of this pack lay on his shoulders, and the old anger, guilt, and remembered helplessness that Jax’s visit had stirred up.
Jax had known about Karl’s service, had heard the rumors of things going bad at the end, and his prying questions had brought memories roaring back that Karl had thought long buried.
“Meaning, you always keep calm and stay in control, no matter what shit’s been going down. That wasn’t the case today. It’s been building for a while, from what I see. I was wondering why.”
Karl’s shrug was jerky. “I’m tired,” he admitted at last. “So fucking tired. And I can’t stop, because I need to keep you all safe.”
It was a measure of how tired he was that those last words spilled out of him. He closed his mouth firmly and stared through the gathering dusk to where warm light glowed through the windows of the house.
Matt moved as if to touch him but swiftly stilled, seeming to realize that wouldn’t be welcome at the moment.
“Okay then,” he said. “First thing, we take some of that load off your shoulders. We’ve got Tom here now, Colby too. They can take more responsibility for security. You know they’re both good enough.”
Well, they were good. Good enough that he could entrust the safety of the pack to them? That was another matter.
“I’m wondering what it is that’s changed,” Matt said. “Even when there were only seven of us trying to fight Cale’s entire pack, it didn’t get to you like this. What’s happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Karl pushed to his feet, brushed off his jeans, then looked at Matt.
If he was tired, he didn’t even want to think about the burden Matt was laboring under.
And like everything else Matt had picked up, he’d simply done it.
No complaints, no swerving from something he saw as the right thing to do.
He hadn’t wanted a pack, but he’d taken in a whole bunch of people who were lost in their own ways and given them a home.
“Thanks, boss,” Karl said softly. “I didn’t mean to lose it about that cat today, but something about him… He pushes buttons I didn’t even know I had. He’s so damn smug all the time.”
“I don’t disagree,” Matt said, climbing to his feet. “Unfortunately, diplomatic immunity applies even to insufferable cats in tight jeans, so you can’t take him out into the wilderness and quietly dispose of him without anyone noticing.”
Karl’s lips lifted slightly. “Shame.”
It said something that Leon’s jeans were skinny enough for Matt to comment.
They looked more like Leon was about to go clubbing than act as a professional bodyguard.
Didn’t seem to impede him though, and as Karl thought of the slinking grace with which he moved, he felt that annoyance rise in him all over again. Damn cat was so infuriating.
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Matt said. “Once the cats are gone, both Bryce and I can step up more, but till then—let the others take more responsibility. Tom, definitely, and Colby if he’s ready. It’ll be good for them.”
Tom was good. Colby could be even better than Tom, in time, but Karl couldn’t just stand down. Not after all these years, all the threats that had come their way.
“Is that an order, boss?”
“Call it a firm recommendation,” Matt said, his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. “Want to see if Jesse’s left us any of Jason’s muffins?”
Karl snorted. “I don’t believe in miracles.”
Matt’s quiet company steadied him as they walked back to the house, but the calm didn’t settle like it usually did. That cat had shaken something loose, and Karl didn’t like not knowing what it was.
LEON
Leon was amused but unsurprised when all the other cats—except Luna—asked him to arrange their duties so that they missed wolf mealtimes. Sucked to be queen, he guessed.
But even supper with wolves didn’t distract her from seeking him out later that evening.
He’d been waiting for it, and obediently followed her over to the big tree in the middle of the yard, which had a table and benches underneath.
No one could approach without being seen, so it was probably as private a place as they could get, unless they were willing to stand in a field full of horses or cattle.
Leon was glad they weren’t going to go and stand out in any fields. He wasn’t a country boy and didn’t much like the horses he’d seen so far, which were big and smelled. They’d seemed to have the same opinion of him, unless horses always snorted and turned their backs when someone walked past.
He sat on the bench opposite Luna, his elbows on the table. She’d had to chew him out in front of the wolves, but now was his chance to get her to understand why he’d done it.
He didn’t have a chance to speak before she started. “You really thought it was a good idea to jump on top of a wolf? On the youngest one at that, the one they’re most protective of?”
“I didn’t hurt him,” Leon protested. “And he’s an adult.”
Luna gave him a look, one that reminded him uncomfortably of Grandpa, seeing right to the heart of him and not buying his bullshit. “That’s not the point.”
“He wasn’t paying attention.” Leon sighed, built-up frustration shifting to the sort of weariness that came from banging his head against a brick wall too long.
He looked at Luna, willing her to understand.
“That’s what got me. That whole pack—they act like they’re safe here.
Like they’re untouchable. They don’t understand. ”
Well, Karl did, but it made it all the more frustrating that he wasn’t pulling the rest of them into line.
She raised a hand to her forehead, massaging her skin in a move he’d seen several times from Matt Urban. Seemed like spending time with him was rubbing off. Either that, or she was exhausted. Probably with Leon, from the way she looked at him.
“I get it, I do,” she said at last. “But you’re not giving them enough credit.”
Somehow, he stopped himself snorting.
“They’ve been through several kinds of hell these last few months.
I’m willing to bet my imaginary tiara that they’ve learned to snatch bits of normality whenever they can.
But only when they know they’re safe, that their perimeter’s secure.
” Her eyes rested on him for a moment, searching for something, and he didn’t know what.
“You’ve spent time with Karl,” she said. “You can’t tell me he’d let them get sloppy?”
For fuck’s sake—why did everything have to come back to that annoying, bossy wolf? The one who filled his jeans in a way that almost distracted Leon every time he saw him.
“He’s okay, I guess,” Leon said, and instantly froze. What the fuck? “What I mean is,” he clarified, “he’s capable. The kind of guy who could rip someone in half and still not get blood on his shirt. I kind of respect that. Which is infuriating, by the way.”
Luna’s resulting smile was sly. “Maybe we should pair you two up.”
Leon stared at her, wondering if he’d somehow wandered into a nightmare. “What?”
“You and Karl, patrol or recon together. You both want to protect people? Let’s put that energy somewhere productive.”
He was shaking his head before she’d finished speaking. “That is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“I don’t need to. I’d rather lick a porcupine.”
Luna just smirked, and Leon realized what she was doing. Tormenting him, yeah, because they were siblings. But her teasing was trying to get him to think differently. To wonder how he’d work with Karl—he wouldn’t—and to get him thinking like a member of a team.
Despite her teasing, her face was strained. It must be a hell of a burden, being responsible for the safety of every cat in the country. Even if half of them would probably ignore her and do their own thing if it came to it, she had to do what was best for them all.
“Sorry about this morning,” he said, meaning the stress he’d caused her more than what he’d done. “I’ll do better.”
She rose to her feet and came around to his side of the table.
To his shock, she leaned down and pressed a kiss onto his hair.
“I know,” she said. “I know how much you hate all the politics and diplomacy, but you do it anyway because you’re looking out for me.
After this is over, it’s time we talk about what you want, rather than always doing what I need you to. ”
He blinked, unable to process her words.
He didn’t want to leave her protection to anyone else.
Ever since their parents had been wiped out by a drunk driver, he’d taken responsibility for her, no matter that she was older and smarter than him.
And he knew, deep inside, that part of it was him clinging onto her because he had no one else.
But maybe, at the grand old age of twenty-six, it was time he thought about living his life.
Maybe. First, they had to get through whatever might be coming at them. If it was as Luna and Matt suspected, there might not be an afterward for him to worry about.