Chapter 23
Jessie
An enormous lion burst out of the trees straight at Austin. Standing to one side, I flinched in surprise, and then I was running at him, magic at the ready.
“Crap, Jessie wait!” Sebastian ran after me.
Austin shifted into his huge polar bear form, tearing his clothes. Broken Sue ran toward him, having stayed back. I was already closer.
I created a blistering wall of magic between the two large shifters as the lion leapt, front paws out and claws gleaming in the sunlight. His mouth was open in a snarl, his long canines protruding from his gums.
Austin didn’t advance. He held his ground, braced and ready for defense only.
The lion slammed against a magically electrified wall, like the one I’d used in Drex’s territory, only stronger. Flares of magical light and sparks spit into the sky. The lion’s fur singed and blackened, and he crashed to the ground.
In a moment he was up again, scratching at the wall, handling the pain. He shoved the wall forward, eroding my magical spell. This dude was powerful. Only Austin had ever been able to make this much headway.
Realizing he wouldn’t get through, the lion stepped back and prepared to go around.
“Should I help block him in?” Sebastian yelled.
“Yes, hurry.” I threw out another spell, this one not as painful but just as strong. Sebastian helped, strengthening my spells and closing in around the lion.
The lion rammed into the side and then clawed at the pink sheen in front of him. He turned the other way and found the same thing. At the back, he stopped and let out a frustrated, mighty roar.
Gargoyles flew in above us, having clearly felt our emotions through the connections and coming to help. They stopped above the clearing in an organized pattern, looking down.
The lion slowed before walking in a circle around his magical cage. Austin shifted back into his human form and Broken Sue pushed back to give him space, keeping his gorilla form.
Those golden feline eyes fastened upon Austin as the beast halted in front of my mate. He didn’t shift back. Just waited patiently, likely for an opening to get out and lay waste to everyone around him or die trying. His posturing was very easy to read.
Austin put up his hands as I walked to his side. Sebastian fell in behind us with Broken Sue.
“I’m not here to challenge you,” Austin said calmly. “I’m not here to harm you. The magic around you is to give us a chance to talk. I want to offer you a place to stay in our territory, no strings attached.”
The lion lunged against the magical wall in front of him, then tried another spot and another. Pacing the magical cage, he took in everyone around him. That fierce golden gaze met mine, and it felt like my skin was flayed away while I was dropped onto a giant scale.
Again, the lion roared, a deep sound that reverberated through the trees. His tail flicked, possibly in annoyance, before he once again honed in on Austin.
“Take the magic down, Jess,” Austin told me.
I looked at him incredulously. “Are you serious? He’s still pissed off.”
“It’s okay. Take it down.”
I shook my head at the lion, my mouth turned down in frustrated unease.
I lifted my eyebrows, still incredulous, and debated not listening to Austin.
I could take this one down and then put up an invisible one instead, just in case.
It wouldn’t be as strong, but it would give us a little buffer if this beast lunged, which he very much looked like he wanted to do.
“We can read your every thought, Jessie,” Broken Sue said. He’d clearly changed back into his human form. The shifters around us were doing the same.
“Bring down the gargoyles and have them shift,” Austin told me.
“I think this is madness,” I muttered, hesitating there, too.
My worry got the better of me, and I addressed the lion.
“This is my world”—I pointed at Austin— “and I will not tolerate a threat to him. If you try to harm him, I will kill you before you can reach him. Gruesomely, I might add. It’ll be gross.
We’re here to help you. We don’t want trouble. Don’t make me hurt you.”
Now the lion was staring at me, the force of his gaze incredibly unsettling. It was hard to keep looking him in the eye. My instincts said to apologize and lower my gaze.
Threat delivered but unsure if it was properly received, I took a deep breath and sent a pulse to the gargoyles to bring them to the ground.
That done, after another pause, I tore down the spells containing the lion.
I was happy we were going to a cairn next because I was getting tired of all this shifter hostility and posturing.
“There,” I said, releasing a breath. I debated whether to keep my hands raised in case I needed to quickly fire a spell.
The lion didn’t move. His gaze was rooted on me now. Austin kept silent, apparently letting the lion assess. The ball was in his court.
Feet hit the ground as the gargoyles landed, and I heard the sound of boulders, which meant they’d shifted.
The lion backed up. There was a bright flare of light and a wave of heat, and a man stood where the lion had been.
He straightened from a crouch. He was about ten years older than Austin and me, pushing fifty, with salt and pepper black hair.
Scars marked his chiseled body. He was slightly leaner than Austin, probably from a lack of food, but just as in-shape.
He was probably six feet tall, maybe a smidge taller.
Hard hazel eyes assessed us from an incredibly striking face.
Age had not stolen any of this man’s beauty.
He didn’t speak for a minute, and everyone in the clearing silently waited for someone to speak first. I glanced at Austin, figuring it wasn’t me but making sure just in case.
“Since when do shifters work with mages?” the man finally said.
“Since I mated a female gargoyle and she pulled mages into our territory,” Austin answered.
“That would explain the gargoyles, then. There’s a cairn not terribly far away.”
“Yes, we’re on the way there. We heard about a powerful rogue that couldn’t find a place to settle, as is often the case with people like you. Like me. I was one myself, once. I finally settled in a Dick town.”
“I tried that,” the man said ruefully. “I got tired of fighting for the privilege.”
“I didn’t,” Austin stated simply. “Your sisters said you were dead.”
I looked at Austin in confusion. I didn’t realize he knew who this guy was.
“Exiled,” the man said without emotion. “What do you want?”
“Nothing.” Austin lifted his hands. “I came to offer you a place to settle, if you’d like. A community where you won’t be bothered. If you didn’t take anything from your former pack, we can help you get started.”
“I have no interest in challenging into a pack.”
“We don’t run a pack, firstly, and second, you don’t need to.
We still have some Dicks and Janes in the territory, as well as all manner of creatures.
Gargoyles and shifters, as you see here, a couple mages and hopefully more, some legendary creatures, and anything that shows up besides.
We are a mix of magical types, and only those interested in joining the convocation challenge in.
Everyone else lives and works and minds their own business.
I’d ask only that you follow the territory rules and keep things peaceful.
Other than that, your life is your own.”
“Convocation?”
Austin briefly and simply described what that was and why. He went over why he took the alpha title and how we ended up here. When he was done, he said, “Our territory is dangerous, I won’t say it isn’t. It’ll probably get worse. But you’d be among those our convocation would protect.”
“And if I decide I want to join the pack down the road and help do the protecting?”
“Then you would challenge in, like everyone else. You’d work your way up the shifter portion of the convocation.”
“And if I decide I want to be an alpha again?” The man’s face was emotionless. “If I decide I want to take over?”
A warning shiver trickled down my back, but I tried to keep my wariness from showing on my face or through my body.
Austin matched his tone. “You couldn’t get out of the magical box my mate devised. Do you really want to try a forceful takeover and test her magic?” He paused for a moment. “But I’d be happy to take that challenge. Now or down the road, doesn’t matter to me. You already know the outcome.”
For the first time, the man reacted. He slightly narrowed his eyes, as though thinking that through.
“But you don’t need that challenge to define where I sit in your hierarchy?” he asked.
“No.”
Before I’d met Drex, I wouldn’t have understood what that meant.
Now, though, I realized Drex could never have a powerful shifter like this in his pack.
He’d need to challenge, even if the guy just wanted to live amongst them and not officially join the pack.
If Drex didn’t win, he wouldn’t be able to stomach the shifter hanging around.
He’d always worry the shifter would forcibly take the pack.
The other alphas had probably had the same reservations. They’d wanted to help him but didn’t want to risk it. They worried he would do exactly what he just said, not really believing he had no interest. Worried he might change his mind.
I believed him, though. If he’d wanted to take over a pack, he would’ve, rather than living out here by himself. He’d chosen this solitary life to try and find some peace in a world that couldn’t believe he wanted it. I didn’t know him or anything about his past, but that seemed obvious.
Compassion finally broke down my wariness.
“We’re not like shifter packs.” I took Austin’s hand.
“Or gargoyle cairns. Or anything else, really. We only have this convocation to try and help magical people.” I let my tension bleed away.
“Austin created a safe haven before he ever planned to be an alpha. I’m helping him extend that to the rest of the shifters, and hopefully, down the line, mages.
Come on, let’s get a fire or something and some food, and sit down and have a chat. ”
His gaze shifted to me, and he was once again silent. “I’ve never heard of a female gargoyle,” he said finally.
“I got the magic from a house. Seriously, a fire and some food. It’s chilly here. I’m not used to it after being in suffocating humidity for the past week. Or at least a sweatshirt.”
His eyebrow ticked up. He hadn’t been expecting that.
“Who are you?” he asked Austin, clearly not ready to trust us and let down his guard.
“Austin Steele. Formally Austin Barazza of the Gossamer Falls generational pack line.”
The man’s eyes widened in evident surprise. “The youngest Barazza boy?”
“Yes.”
The man’s eyebrows lifted. “That explains the power. I heard you had a very healthy dose. The wildness, too. The rumors didn’t do you justice.”
“I’m hearing that a lot lately.”
The man grunted. “You made something of yourself, huh? No one thought you would amount to anything after you…left the pack.”
“Slunk away in disgrace, you mean?” Austin replied sardonically.
I leaned into Austin comfortingly. Also, he was warm.
He let go of my hand and put it around my shoulders.
“I wouldn’t have, not in any real way. The gossiping alphas would’ve been right.
But then I met my mate and…” He shrugged.
“Things change. We have food we can grill up. We can tell you the whole story, if you want.”
The man assessed me for a while longer. “Fine. There’s just one thing. I’m not the only danger in these woods. You’re trespassing, and the watchers have shown up to check it out. They don’t have a strong compulsion towards forgiveness.”