Chapter 19
Simon woke up wrapped in the warmth of Gray’s body beneath him.
He was sprawled half over Gray’s chest, their legs tangled together and Gray’s arms firm around him.
He pried open one eye and glared at the alarm clock.
Six thirty. His internal clock never failed him, no matter how much he wanted it to.
His bladder also insisted it was time to get up, so he tried to untangle himself from Gray’s hold. Gray grumbled and pulled him back. Simon poked him in the side, and Gray opened his eyes with a scowl. “What?”
“I have to pee. Let me get up.”
Gray grunted his disapproval but moved his arms and let Simon climb out of bed.
His ass ached, but in that good, well-fucked way that reminded him how good Gray had felt inside him the night before.
He did his business and caught a whiff of himself.
A shower was the first thing on his to-do list for the day.
He went back to the bedroom and found Gray curled up around a pillow, so he slipped into his jeans and went into the guest room. After gathering up a change of clothes and his herbal soap, Simon retreated to the hall bathroom for a nice, long shower.
When he came out, he could smell breakfast cooking downstairs and made his way to the kitchen. Aunt Maggie was at the stove, making a big pot of something that smelled spectacular. “Well, good morning! You’re up early.”
“The early bird gets first dibs on breakfast,” Simon said with a grin.
“That he does. Here, try this.” She held out her wooden spoon, which was covered in a thick, white sauce. Simon blew on it to cool it down, then took a small taste.
“Mmm. That’s good. What is it?”
“Goldenrod eggs.”
“Never had that.”
“Oh, it’s just boiled eggs chopped up in a white sauce. Sounds fancy, but it’s not. Garon likes them because he can crumble the yolk over the top.”
“Doesn’t he sleep in on the weekends?”
“That boy doesn’t know the meaning of the word. I’m surprised he isn’t down here already. The sun comes up, and he’s out of bed.” About that time, they heard a door open upstairs and then the bathroom door in the hall close. “And there he is,” Aunt Maggie said with a little chuckle.
“I’m like that as well. Up at six thirty, whether I want to be or not. It’s annoying sometimes.”
Garon came into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes, as Simon finished speaking.
His hair was sticking up all over the place, and his shirt was half-tucked into his pajama pants.
He walked over to Simon and leaned against him, blinking sleepily.
“Morning,” Simon said, wrapping an arm over Garon’s shoulders for a brief hug.
Aunt Maggie grinned over her shoulder at them. “He might get up early, but he doesn’t talk for a few. He’s like his daddy that way. And speaking of, I’d better get the coffee on. Pre-coffee Gray is not pleasant.”
Garon giggled into Simon’s side. “Dad says coffee is his go-juice.”
Simon laughed, thinking of how talkative Gray liked to be at other times. It was good to know he was grumbly sometimes too. “Well, my go-juice is a morning meditation, which I’d better get to if I want to eat breakfast while it’s still hot. Do I have time?”
“Oh, sure. The sauce needs to thicken up a bit more. Will ten minutes or so do you?”
“Yep, that’ll work. Just holler out the back door if I’m not in when it’s ready.”
“Will do.”
“Hey, Simon, can I come with you?”
Simon stared over at him in surprise. “Well, sure, if you want to. You’ll have to be quiet though, okay?”
Garon grinned. “I can be quiet. Sometimes.”
Aunt Maggie snorted, and they all laughed as Simon and Garon went out the back door. Once they reached the grass, Simon sat down and crossed his legs. Garon mirrored his movements, and they sat facing each other in the early morning light.
“Now, what I do is just sit quietly for a minute and concentrate on settling my magic for the day. Just a little pick-me-up to make sure everything is how I want it. You want to try?”
“Sure!” Garon closed his eyes and put his hands on his knees. Simon smiled and did the same. He focused his energy and was amazed at how quickly he became centered. It was effortless—which it hadn’t been for a very long time.
After a few minutes of meditation, Simon peeked through one eye to see what Garon was doing. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Garon was sitting in the same position, but his head was bobbing as he kept falling asleep and jerking awake, only to fall asleep again.
Simon took pity on him, still chuckling to himself, and gently shook Garon’s shoulder. His eyes darted open, and he yawned widely. “Sorry, Simon.”
Simon stood up and pulled Garon up as well.
“No problem. Sometimes that happens.” They went back into the kitchen to find Aunt Maggie plating up breakfast and Gray blinking and scowling over a cup of coffee at the table.
Garon went over and leaned against him, and they rubbed their heads together for a moment before Garon sat down beside him.
“Where were you guys?” Gray’s voice was still low and scratchy from sleep, and he seemed especially grumpy.
“We meditated, Dad! Well, Simon meditated. I kinda fell asleep.” Garon’s little nap in the yard seemed to have energized him. Gray looked back and forth at them, then glared back down at his coffee. He took a small sip and leaned back in his chair with a quiet sigh.
Aunt Maggie placed plates in front of Garon and Simon.
Garon took the little ball of yolk from the side and crumbled it over his food with glee.
Simon attempted to copy him, but he ended up with a mess of yolk all over his fingers.
After cleaning himself off on his napkin, Simon gave the mysterious-looking egg concoction a taste. “Wow. This is really good.”
Garon grinned around his mouthful. “I know,” he said, and dug back in.
Gray arched a brow at him. “Manners,” he said.
Garon chewed and swallowed before answering. “Sorry. But it is really good.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” Aunt Maggie said.
“What are we going to do today, Dad?”
Gray shrugged and took another drink of his coffee.
“I think we should show Simon around. Wouldn’t that be cool? He hasn’t seen anything here yet. We could show him the meeting hall, and maybe go see the other kids, oh, and we could go swimming at the pond!”
Gray looked at Simon, who was busily eating his breakfast. “That sounds like fun to me. Simon?”
Simon hadn’t really thought about what he wanted to do. He should probably pack up and head back to his place, but the idea of spending the day with them was too tempting to resist. “I think that sounds awesome.”
“Yes!” Garon yelled. Gray winced and drank more coffee. Simon just grinned and enjoyed a morning that wasn’t him eating a piece of toast by himself.
It took about an hour for them to finish breakfast, do the morning cleanup, and head out for their tour.
Garon guided them, knowing the history of the property very well.
The pack was founded in the early 1900s, the result of a division of a larger pack over the mountains around Asheville.
The earliest High Moon Pack members had pooled their money and purchased the property that the pack still held today.
Garon took them to an old cabin set away from the rest. “Simon, you have to be respectful here. This is our first Alpha’s cabin.” Garon was very serious, and Gray had to turn his head to keep his son from seeing his smile.
Simon looked into the small, one-room cabin as Garon watched to make sure he appreciated it. After making appropriate comments on its coolness, Garon led Simon back to the largest structure on the property. “This is really great. It was built in… Um, I don’t remember, Dad?”
“1928,” Gray supplied.
“Yeah, in 1928,” Garon agreed. “The pack wanted a big meeting hall like the one they had in the other pack, so they started building one. But they were smart, weren’t they, Dad?”
Gray nodded his agreement.
“They made it really big, big enough for a pack three times their size, because they knew we’d be a bigger, stronger pack one day.”
“And they were right, weren’t they?” Simon added.
“Yep. We’re really big and strong now. Come on, Simon. I want to show you the cool part.”
There were about twenty steps leading up to a large covered porch.
Rocking chairs and benches were scattered around the planked floor, and a couple of ceiling fans whirled slowly, keeping the porch cool.
Garon didn’t stop to let Simon admire the sweeping view.
Instead, he dragged Simon inside and over to a wall of photos displayed on the main wall.
Most were black and white and set on the porch of the meeting hall. Simon could see the distinctive gray hair in the patriarch of each picture, tracing down the line until they reached the end, where a color photo of Gray and a much younger Garon hung.
“Check it out, Simon. That’s me and Dad. And in twenty years, I’ll have my own picture to put right here beside it.”
“Twenty years?” Simon asked.
“Yep. I get to be alpha when I turn thirty, just like Dad.”
The history and tradition amazed Simon. He had nothing like this to pass down to the children he probably wouldn’t have anyway.
His legacy consisted of his cabin and his grandfather’s journals.
He couldn’t trace his family back several generations, and now that he’d met Cormac and read about the death of his werewolf mate, Simon suddenly realized he might know why.
Gray put his arm discreetly around Simon’s waist. “You okay?”
“Yeah. This is amazing, Gray.”
Gray glanced around the room with quiet pride.
“I think so. I used to think of all the things I’d change when I became alpha, all the things I’d make bigger and better.
” His gaze landed on the photo of him and Garon.
“Now I think of all the ways I can keep it the same. What I can pass on to my son.”
Simon stared up at him, suddenly longing to be part of those traditions, that history.
He wondered if it would ever be possible for his photo to be there on the wall, right alongside Gray and Garon.
The three of them, together as a family.
His heart sped up, the quick rush of happiness at the idea surprising him.
SIMON was pleasantly exhausted after an afternoon of swimming and playing at the pond with Gray, Garon, and several other members of the pack.
The three of them walked back to Gray’s house to prepare for the impromptu cookout they had planned for the evening.
Gray asked Aunt Maggie to defrost some hamburger meat so he could make his “famous” burgers on the grill.
The other pack members they’d invited were bringing chips, potato salad, and baked beans.
Gray spoke to Liam midafternoon and learned Cormac hadn’t made very much progress on the demon’s corpse. Since its magic was completely drained, there wasn’t much to work with. They were all frustrated but hoped the demon’s death would mean the end of their troubles.
In the mood to celebrate, Gray told Liam to head back to the compound and join them for dinner. He invited Cormac as well, and Simon knew Gray hoped spending time with the vampire would ease Simon’s worries a bit.
Simon did want to get to know the vampire more, but he wasn’t quite as hopeful about the rest of his worries.
He didn’t remind Gray, not wanting to ruin their wonderful day, but he knew he still had to face the Conclave of Mages.
It weighed heavily on him, even though Cormac didn’t seem to believe he would get more than a slap on the wrist.
While doing his job of filling a cooler with ice, soda, and water, he kept one ear on the conversation going on in the kitchen between Gray and Garon. He didn’t really want to eavesdrop, but Garon was grilling Gray about their relationship, and Simon found it incredibly amusing.
“So, do you kiss him and stuff?” Garon asked.
“Well, yeah,” Gray answered.
“Hmm. I guess that’s okay. He is pretty cool.
Did you see him when we were playing chicken at the pond?
We didn’t even get dunked once!” Garon and Simon had been teamed up for the challenge.
Garon, on Simon’s shoulders, had tried to knock the other kids off their parents’ shoulders and into the water.
They were drenched multiple times but managed to stay on their feet.
“I saw him. You guys did great.”
“Yeah. So, is he gonna stay here now and, I don’t know, be your mate?”
“Kiddo, it’s a little soon for us to be thinking about that, don’t you think? Let’s just hang out with Simon and be his friend, and we’ll see what happens. The rest is grown-up stuff between me and Simon.”
Garon sighed. “Well, I want him to stay, and I don’t care if you kiss him or anything. It would be cool for you to have a mate like Mom and my friends’ parents.”
“Yeah, buddy, that would be cool.”
Simon decided it was time to rescue Gray and went back into the kitchen. “My work here is done,” he announced. “Can we eat yet?”
Garon snickered and held up a handful of raw hamburger. “Sure,” he said with a giggle, “here you go.”
“Blech. That looks gross.”
“Yeah, it has anchovies.”
“What?”
Gray laughed and pointed to the bottle of Worcestershire sauce. “It has anchovies in it.”
“Oh, well, that’s not so bad then.” Simon took the bottle from Gray and read the ingredients. “You know, Garon, we could probably come up with some sort of secret recipe of our own using my herbs. What do you think?”
“Cool! Can Dad help?”
“Sure, if he wants to.”
Gray met Simon’s eyes, and they shared a secret smile.
“Yeah, he wants to,” Gray murmured, and Simon knew he wasn’t talking about herbs.
“Ugh,” Garon complained. “You guys are acting like girls. Are you gonna kiss now?”
“Yes,” Gray said and ran around the counter to grab Simon. He dipped him backward and placed a loud, smacking kiss on his forehead. When he stood Simon upright, he turned to Garon and wiggled his eyebrows. “You’re next.”
Simon and Gray both rounded the counter slowly, stalking Garon as he squealed and tried to get away without making a mess of the hamburger patties. “That’s not fair! If I make a mess, Aunt Maggie will make me clean it up!”
“You should have thought of that,” Gray said as he scooped Garon up in his arms. “You’re mine now.
Mwa-ha-ha!” He placed kisses all over Garon’s head as Garon laughed and struggled to get away.
Simon grabbed him from the other side, making a Garon sandwich, and they both kissed and tickled him until he was breathless.
After they put him down, Garon made faces at them and washed his hands. Simon cleaned up the little bit of mess on the floor. He felt a tingle of magic and looked up at Gray, who seemed to be listening to someone through his mind-link.