Chapter 24 #2
“Exactly. I’d heard about Austin Steele, someone who was supposed to have power in spades.
Someone who might not fear me as much as other alphas.
I was done wandering. I was at the end of my journey and didn’t much care what came next.
I declared myself to him when I arrived at his territory and then went my own way. I hung around, adrift. Purposeless.”
John looked over at Sue, noticing the small details of the other man as he spoke and reacted. His pack had trained him well, but he also had natural talent, like John. Like Austin. “And he let you?”
“Yes. He didn’t have people watching me.
He didn’t check in. He didn’t try to intimidate me.
He had zero fear I’d take his pack from him, just like he has zero fear you will try.
You have more power than me, and obviously much more experience than both of us, if all the stories I’ve heard are true, but that doesn’t matter to him.
He killed a phoenix to keep Jessie safe. He’ll tear you down, too, if he must.”
It was hard to believe he’d killed a phoenix, but John had heard it from the phoenix’s own mouth.
You already know the outcome. Of a fight between Austin and John, Austin had meant.
Yes, he did. John nearly had as much power.
He did have more experience. He had the same level of ruthlessness and the same access to his beast, if he had to guess, but John’s first instinct when he’d looked at Austin had been correct: he’d been looking death right in the eye.
That alpha would not lose. He was fighting for more than himself, a cause greater than his worth, and because of that, he would not allow John to best him.
His assurance was so ironclad, it was fact.
John had never run into someone like him.
Not ever. John had never met someone he couldn’t take down.
And he realized that he liked it. It took a load off, honestly.
He didn’t have the weight of being the biggest and toughest in the room resting on his shoulders.
He wasn’t the target for once. He could just be.
Instead of saying all that, he grunted.
“Did you know him when he was in his brother’s pack?” John asked.
“No. I did go back with him recently. He was apparently a terror, but even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have fit in there. He doesn’t fit in now.”
Like John didn’t fit in with the pack he’d helped protect. That he’d saved. Not anymore. His past had changed him, and not for the better. He’d been right to leave like he did. Austin must’ve been the same, though for different reasons.
There were a lot of parallels between his and Austin’s paths. Even his and Sue’s.
“What about the Jane? Jessie.”
“If you keep calling her a Jane, her people are going to take offense, and you’ll find yourself with a knife in your ribs when you least expect it. Take the warning.”
It wasn’t delivered as a threat, just more facts. More assurances.
“Her people are loyal, then,” he surmised.
“All of us are loyal, yes. The entire convocation is. She’s a giver. She’s a protector. And she’s up against some tough odds.”
She sacrificed herself for them. There wasn’t much more to say, really. She also seemed very lovely and open. Smart, as well. Pliant but stern. He could see her being a good leader and a great balance for Austin.
“What’s the pack like?” he asked. “Austin seemed confident that I wouldn’t be bothered, but alphas only tend to know a fraction of what goes on in their territories.”
“It’s a new territory that has a lot of might within it.
Normally, sure, people would want to see what you were made of, but we are under constant threat and we’re always training.
We always have new people challenging in.
We’re always changing and perfecting because we’re growing at an insane rate.
No one has time to bicker and fight. No one bothered me, and I was there early, when it was still chaos.
Now it’s a machine. Not to mention, Jessie will vouch for you.
She’ll probably take you under her wing, and that’s a big back off sign to the others.
If you want a place to live your life, that is it.
It’s a nice community if you can stand all the various creatures. ”
John let out his breath silently. The troubled Barazza boy, who hadn’t even been able to help himself, was now here to help out a notorious alpha that no one wanted darkening their doorsteps.
It was poetic, in a way. They’d both been heavily featured in the rumors, John for being the meanest, baddest of them all, the king of the hill, and Austin for being a downward spiral.
They’d been on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Still were, except now Austin was climbing up onto the throne while John had tumbled from grace. Was apparently rumored to be dead.
He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. These people seemed expressive, and John had gotten used to being more open to almost fit in with Dicks and Janes.
“This sounds too good to be true,” he finally said.
Sue pushed up to standing. “That’s just because you’ve been living a half-life for the last handful of years.
On the surface, it’s a town, like any other.
Dig a little deeper and you realize it’s a harbor for strays.
An outcast put it on the map, and a magical house and its Jane stands in the middle.
The strength of the territory is in its ability to bring all the misfits together. I recommend visiting, if nothing else.”
He walked off without waiting for a reply. He was trying to help, like the alphas. He’d gotten a hand, and he was reaching back to help someone else.
Being in a pack again, even a weird one by a different name, made him nervous.
Memories of his trials as an alpha, of his hardships, of all the bloodshed rose to the surface.
Then all the rejections he’d gotten as he tried to start over.
The suspicion about his motives, the teams of people trying to bring him down or chase him out.
He didn’t know if he had it in him to try again. He didn’t want to clutch hope and have it dissolve in his hands.
Then again, he was living a half-life. He didn’t mind solitude, but it would be nice to have friends that didn’t want something from him.
People around him that weren’t trying to get something.
These people seemed to genuinely like being together, and they even got along well with the basajaunak.
It was a community, even if a small one.
He wanted that. He’d always wanted it. The chance to have it was ripped away early.
“Hey.” A woman with spiky hair that almost looked green in the low light bobbed her upper body as she walked over. “Hi.” She offered a wave, stopping in front of him. “You’re the guy we came here to find, right?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, I thought so. They said you know your way around this wood.”
“Yes.”
“Cool. Are you into practical jokes?”
He paused, not having expected anything from the conversation, but still thrown for a loop. “What?”
“Practical jokes. Do you do them on people? Do you like that sort of thing?”
He frowned at her. He had no idea where this was going. “No?”
“Oh, good.” She drew her hand across her forehead. “Phew.” She pointed at the ground next to him. “Do you mind if I sit there?”
He looked at the spot as his mind tried to catch up. “No, go ahead.”
“Thanks.” She plopped down. “Woods freak me out. I always seem to get lost in them, and the basajunk like practical jokes. Did you know they can literally go invisible in the trees?”
She looked up at him, her eyebrows high and her eyes exaggeratedly rounded.
“Yes,” he responded.
“Well, I didn’t! I’ve never seen ours do that.
” She made a frustrated gesture with her hand.
“Not ours, but the ones in our crew. You know what I mean. Anyway, one of them came to get me out of the car and lead me here. This was when you were talking to Austin and Jessie. I thought it was one from our crew, so I didn’t think anything of it. Halfway here it disappeared!”
She looked up at him with that expression again. She seemed scandalized.
“For a moment I thought I was hallucinating, you know?” she went on.
“Did I accidentally take some ‘shrooms and not know it? That sort of thing.” She pushed out a breath as she shook her head. “But no, I was there, in the woods, suddenly by myself. Worse, I’d turned around in confusion and didn’t know which direction I’d come from.
I didn’t know where the car was! So, then I started running and calling for Jessie or Ulric or anyone to come save me. ”
“Why?” he asked in confusion.
“I don’t know. I get a little crazy in the woods. They mess with my head. That’s why I wanted to stay in the car. Well, finally one of the basajunk—“
“Are you saying basajunk?”
“Yeah. Basajunk. Isn’t that what they’re called?”
He wasn’t into practical jokes, no, but that was too funny to correct. He nodded sagely.
“Well, one turned visible, and then a whole bunch of them did, and they were all laughing.” She pulled up her knees and hugged her arms around them.
“I gave a chuckle. You don’t want practical jokers to know you hate practical jokes because then they do them to you all the time.
So, I gave a chuckle, thought about telling Niamh to claim vengeance on my behalf, and they finally led me here.
I’m hoping, since you don’t like practical jokes, that maybe you can lead me to the next destination and not get lost until I can get out of this Godforsaken place. ”
Laughter bubbled up out of nowhere. He hadn’t laughed in years. It overflowed until it consumed him, coming out in big body-shaking guffaws.
She chuckled without humor, and it was probably the same sort of laughter she’d given the basajunk.
He laughed harder. Everyone looked their way. Jessie had a lopsided grin on her face, probably wondering what the joke was.
Why was it so damn funny?
After some time when he was able to finally calm down, he wiped his eyes and resumed staring off at the camp.
“So will you do it?” the woman asked, utterly serious.
That set him off again.
“Yes,” he finally managed, re-wiping his eyes. “I will, yes. I’ll make sure you don’t get lost.”
“You don’t go invisible, right?”
“Ha-ha-ha, no,” he wheezed. “I don’t go invisible, no.”
“Okay, good. I’m Fred, by the way.”
“Fred?”
“Yeah. I’m a Dick.”
That sobered him somewhat, trying to understand again. “Do you mean a Jane? A non-magical woman?”
“A non-magical woman, yes, but not a Jane, and I’ll tell you why.
While my pronouns are she, her and they, I have recently learned that there is a limit to my tolerance of a person’s niceness.
If they are too nice, I stop liking them.
Like, I don’t enjoy very sweet people who only want to do the best for me and wish me well.
Which is not great. I know this. I’ve had to really look inward, and I’ve realized that I cannot call myself a Jane when I am so very obviously a dick. ”
That set him off again, and he still didn’t know why. It really shouldn’t be this funny. First that vampire and now her, two very different walks of life, and here they were. Misfits indeed.
“Hello, Fred-the-dick,” he said. “I’m John.”
“John? You don’t look like a John.”
“No? And what do I look like? A dick?”
She thought for a moment, ignoring the joke, looking up at him with squinted eyes. “Steve.”
“Why Steve?”
She shrugged. “Steve just seems like a lion’s name. You’re the lion, right?”
“Yes. My uncle’s name was Steve. He was a real asshole.”
“Well, see? Steve. That goes with lion. Hmm.” She squinted at him again. “Soren is nice. What about that? I think it means introspective. Or maybe it means stern.” She rubbed her chin. “Either way, it would work.”
“I’ll think about it.”
She didn’t just bob her head, she bobbed her whole body, letting it go.
The night moved on, with several people coming over to chat with him or see if he needed anything. They’d be staying for the night, put up by the basajaunak, and for the first time, John was invited to stay with them, as well.
As the night was wrapping up, Jessie and Austin stopped by.
They were unmistakably the alphas, but they didn’t act like it.
Not traditionally, anyway. Austin had a quiet authority about him, expecting the most of everyone because he expected the most of himself, but not pushing his power or status around.
He didn’t act like the biggest player in the room.
Didn’t seem to care if he wasn’t, actually.
He certainly didn’t care about John’s power, past status, or think him a rival in any way.
For Austin, the title of alpha didn’t seem to hold any weight, it was the man that carried the mantle.
Then there was Jessie, who didn’t act like she had any authority at all.
She was kindness itself, asking if he needed anything because she was ready to provide it.
Hoping John joined them, said with a genuine desire to help.
She was in charge of the most power John had ever seen assembled and didn’t give one shred of evidence that she knew it.
Neither of them had any ego. They weren’t out to prove anything, not if they didn’t have to. It was so damn refreshing.
They bid him goodnight. He walked Fred to her sleeping mat, chuckling most of the way, and then he sat by the fire, staring at the stars for a long time, thinking. Wondering if he’d take the risk. Wondering if he dared to hope in a life that so often let him down.