Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-three
KARL
Crossing the property line back into pack territory should have felt like pure relief.
It did, but not with the strength he’d expected, because something in him had shifted.
With Leon at his side, the sense of where he belonged seemed to have stretched, as if it existed here in the heart of his pack and somewhere else too. It was strange yet not unwelcome.
An excited yipping drew his attention just before Tristan hurled himself at Karl in a blur of fur and enthusiasm. Karl let himself stagger under the weight as Tristan shoved his whole body against him, licking his face with single-minded joy.
Leon made a disgusted noise behind him, a cat equivalent of for God’s sake—or maybe, wolves. But it lacked the edge his judgments used to have.
For all his enthusiasm, Tristan had manners.
After a few moments of squirming against Karl, he turned to greet Leon with a play bow.
Karl almost choked when Leon, without the faintest hesitation, accepted.
Pouncing, he bowled Tristan over, and they tumbled in the dirt together, no claws, no dominance, just unselfconscious happiness.
It was a million miles away from the cat who used to stand on his dignity.
Charlie’s influence really had ruined him.
Karl became aware of a cougar among the trees, one paw lifted, gaze fixed on Leon. Karl still couldn’t read every nuance of cat body language, but he recognized the hesitation in the stance. Joaquim stepped forward at last, each move deliberate.
Leon broke from Tristan and met him halfway. The brief exchange—touch, breath, a flick of ears—was precise and contained. Karl could practically hear the unspoken judgment. Rolling with wolves? Really?
Cat greetings over, the cougar melted away into the trees, and Karl and Leon headed for the house. Tristan, with a shake of his coat and a new spring in his step, returned to his patrol.
Karl was straining to see if everything was secure.
He knew it was, otherwise Tristan wouldn’t have been so relaxed, but he needed to be sure.
Mentally, he ticked off whose eyes he felt on them—Colby, Tom—but no one broke discipline to come and greet them.
Evidently, Tristan was the obvious security, the one to draw attention away from those hidden in the trees or in a grassy dip, ready to pounce.
By the time they reached the house and shifted, delving into the basket of clothes on the porch to dress against the chill in the air, Matt and Luna had come out onto the porch. The tight knot in Karl’s chest loosened at the sight of Matt, solid and steady.
Luna was beside him, completely self-contained and with something almost closed-off in the way she was standing. It reminded Karl strongly of how Leon used to be. He was uncertain exactly when that had changed in him.
Leon’s gaze was flicking over her from head to toe with quick, subtle sweeps.
Karl knew that look. He’d used it himself often enough, counting breaths, checking for stiffness in the way someone stood, for tension in the shoulders, for the smallest hint of an injury.
Whatever Leon saw eased something in him.
His shoulders dropped, just slightly, as he breathed out, an almost soundless sigh of relief.
Karl had time to see Luna reach up to enfold Leon in her arms, scolding him as she did so, before Matt took his hand then pulled him in for a close hug that lingered until Matt seemed finally satisfied that Karl was solid under his hands.
“Damn,” Matt said when he let go. “Anyone else, and we’d have sent a search party after you days ago. What happened?” His eyes swept Karl in that sharp, measuring way of his, pulling in more information than Karl liked. His gaze flicked briefly to Leon before returning to Karl.
“It’s complicated,” Karl said, rubbing a hand over his face, because where to start? “We should probably sit down for it.”
Matt raised his eyebrows at Karl’s tone, then caught Luna’s gaze and looked meaningfully at her. Without another word, they proceeded inside. As he and Leon followed them, Karl wondered just how much time Matt and Luna had spent together that enabled such easy wordless communication.
The smells and sounds of the house wrapped around him—Jason’s cooking in the kitchen, the scuffed floorboards with years of claw marks, the hum of pack energy in the air. It hit hard, how close he’d come to never walking these rooms again.
If Leon hadn’t chosen to share captivity with him, he wouldn’t be here now. He’d have died that first night, and no one would have ever known.
Even with Luna and Matt only steps ahead, he reached for Leon, tugging him close for a kiss meant to say what words couldn’t. Leon kissed him back with his usual fierce enthusiasm, and when they drew apart, Luna’s eyebrows had climbed nearly to her hairline. Matt didn’t look surprised in the least.
“Seems like you have more than a few things to tell us,” he said, leading them into his den.
“If this is a Leon story,” Luna said, “we’re going to need something stronger than tea.”
LEON
Leon could feel Luna’s stare on him but kept his eyes firmly on Matt. If he looked at her, he knew what he’d see—rampaging curiosity over him getting tangled up with a wolf, mixed with amused older-sister smugness. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
“Well?” Urban asked, once the door was closed against the rest of the nosy pack and curious cats. His tone was even, but there was a faint coil of readiness in his body. Leon clocked the shift in weight, the subtle stillness. Little signs that said alert in any species.
“Jesse has the right to hear this first,” Karl said. “But I think it’d be best for him to hear it from you.”
Matt’s gaze sharpened further, his eyes narrowing at the implication this news had the potential to upset his mate.
The debrief rolled out from there. Karl’s voice was steady, his words precise and stripped of drama, but Leon still caught the tightening in Matt’s jaw as his story continued, the way he stilled completely when Karl mentioned he’d been injured.
Once Karl’s recounting reached the pack in the woods, fury burned in Matt’s face.
Luna masked hers better, under a deceptively mild tone, but the tension in her shoulders was its own tell.
Leon doubled down on his decision not to mention the crown prince charade.
No sense tossing a lit match into a room already smelling of gasoline.
What surprised him was how often he and Karl ended up defending Michael.
Not defending his choices but his reasons, pointing out he hadn’t actually crossed the line, that he’d been acting to protect his pack.
The words felt strange in Leon’s mouth. But then, Matt and Luna hadn’t seen the raw edge of desperation in the man’s eyes.
They didn’t know how close he’d been to shattering.
“He’s still a dick, though,” Leon muttered as Karl reached the part where he’d finally released them, and Karl’s laugh broke the tension in the room.
Matt’s mouth twitched, though he smoothed it out fast. His gaze slid to Karl. “Leaving aside the small matter of a pack of Argents, is there anything else you’d like to share?”
“Can’t think of anything, boss. Except we’re going to need to restock some of the caches and deal with a moldy tarp in one of them.”
“Leon?” Luna’s head tilt was so innocent that Leon was close to climbing out the window to escape.
“Nope.”
She looked about as convinced as Ruth had been by his guileless expression but evidently wasn’t going to push it in front of others.
“Actually,” Karl said, “one more thing. You might get a letter from the clowns with the camera. They threatened to sue after I broke their memory cards.”
Matt raised an eyebrow, very briefly. “Let them try. Their lawyer will tell them to forget it. If they don’t, mine will.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Karl said.
“So,” Matt said, holding Luna’s gaze, “it looks like our worst-case scenarios aren’t going to happen. Jesse’s not some mythical anomaly anymore. He’s just one of a long-lost pack.”
He glanced at Karl. “And if more Argent packs come out of hiding, even better. It’s going to be hard to believe the legends when you see Argents living the same life as everyone else, going to the store or losing it over a football game.”
“Or not knowing how to use a phone,” Leon said disdainfully. “I have no idea how Michael even knew what Google was.”
“Or that,” Matt agreed. “There’s all the difference in the world between one wolf, who could have anyone’s wants and needs projected onto him, and a whole lot of them.”
“No one’s going to want Argents in charge again,” Karl said, stretching out his leg with what looked to Leon suspiciously like a wince. He’d be checking that later. “Rulers always want tribute.”
God, Karl was good. Because in one sentence, he’d identified the reason why shifters wouldn’t want to believe the legends about Argents once they realized there were a whole load of them who might expect tribute.
“And they’re not getting their paws on my tiara,” Luna said, sounding almost giddy. Leon hadn’t fully realized the strain she’d been under until he saw her grinning, looking young and free.
“So, that takes care of the shifter side of the equation. We just need to work out how to let non-shifters know we don’t see Argents as anything more than a genetic quirk, like having red hair, say—unusual, but not particularly noteworthy,” Matt said.
“Get geneticists talking about how silver coats are due to recessive traits, and suddenly it’s boring,” Leon said. “Science kills mystique.”
Karl’s eyes on him were filled with warmth and… admiration? Leon wasn’t used to that, but he thought he could get used to it. He liked the way it felt.
“Sorry to say, Matt, but I think getting the message out to non-shifters is where you come in,” Luna said.
“Right now, your profile makes you the leading shifter in the country, in most people’s eyes.
You’ve got a level of trust that shifter politicians will never have.
What we need to do is get you out there with Michael in live interviews, and let people see you interacting as normal people, not even a hint of deference from you towards him. ”
“Like that would ever happen,” Leon murmured, earning a sharp look from his sister.
“People will see that Michael’s just another guy, with no mystique or supernatural abilities,” she continued. “The only questions left will be from people wanting the human-interest stories, and the usual anti-shifter crowd agitating about where these packs are going to live.”
Matt looked deeply frustrated at the prospect of more interviews.
“Just do it for a week or so,” Karl suggested. “By the end of the week, Jesse’ll be nothing more than another silver wolf with an allegedly hot boyfriend.”
Seemed like Karl enjoyed sailing close to the wind with his alpha, because Matt was not impressed at that.
“And then we’ll be left in peace,” Karl added, and the expression in Matt’s eyes changed, became a kind of yearning.
“We may never stop all the whispering,” Luna said. “But the far louder story will be that Argents are just like any other wolf, only a bit rarer. And definitely not magical.”
Matt breathed out, deep and low, and an almost unbearable weight seemed to drop from his shoulders. “There’ll be no threat, real or imaginary, for anyone to get worked up over,” he said, his voice low, as if he were only now feeling the truth of it. The freedom in front of him and Jesse.
“It looks that way,” Luna said. “But even if the emergency planning wasn’t needed, I’m glad we made contact.”
“Likewise,” Matt said.
The room was silent for a moment. Leon hadn’t understood what the finding of an Argent pack meant.
Not only would the potential threat to shifters be removed, but Jesse would no longer be in the spotlight.
Once they realized he wasn’t some kind of unique mystical figure, they’d pay him no more attention.
Well, except for the women’s magazines that were so keen on him and Matt as a celebrity couple.
“With your agreement, Matt, I’d like to stay a few more days,” Luna said. “I’d like to meet this Michael.”
Her voice was smooth in a way Leon knew well. He was suddenly glad he wasn’t in Michael’s place.
And then the rest of her words registered like a gut punch. They’d be leaving here. Leon would be leaving here. He’d known, of course. He just hadn’t thought what it meant.
He looked over at Karl and found those brown eyes held the same turmoil.
“You’re welcome to stay for however long you’d like,” Matt said.
Luna smiled at him before rising to her feet and glancing at Leon. “Come walk with me.”
With one last, lingering look at Karl, he did so.