Chapter Gideon #2
It’s a common, recurring complaint before he leaves each day and when he comes home. To make sure the Guild leaves the pack alone, Grayson must expend extra energy keeping his power on a tight leash.
Despite the new freedom he has in embracing it, the process is almost enough to have Grayson’s shoulders perpetually hunched and him back to his pre-Nix quietude whenever he thinks about his practice at the Guild. That pisses Gideon off to no end.
He slows the SUV down incrementally, finally making the turn toward the compound.
He’s undecided about whether he’ll need to turn around and speak to this Professor himself, before he has to get approval from his Pack Alpha.
Better to ask for forgiveness—and a lawyer—than ask for permission, has always been Gideon’s motto for protecting his pack.
“I thought it used to be first in the day?”
“It was, and it was so much easier for me then, you know? Fresh from being with all of you. Fills me up. But by the end of the day, I’m already running on empty. The Plain just bowls me over.”
It reminds Gideon, and he pulls a slightly squished chocolate bar from his apron pocket just as they round the last corner to their street.
“Here. Sorry, it’s warm—forgot it was in there.”
Grayson grins, peeling back the wrapper. “Aww, you are so sw—”
“Do not finish that sentence, or I will—”
Grayson cuts him off with a kiss to the cheek, tucking a stray lock of hair behind his pink-tipped ear.
Gideon bats the hand away, hiding a smirk when Grayson chuckles.
“Something happened, then? With Professor Enthusiastic McBadittude?” (And yes, Gideon can thank Luca for that moniker.) Professor Kirwan was strangely enthusiastic to the extreme, but also rigid and condescending at the same time.
Grayson says it leaves you feeling as if you should like her, but you can’t.
“Quit that, or one day I’m going to call her that out loud.”
Grayson doesn’t answer the question, though—not really. Just a faint flush creeping high on his cheeks.
The gate slides open the second they reach the end of the drive, right on cue.
“I am so glad to be home. Are the girls still up?”
Before Gideon can answer, Nix appears beside the car. Running alongside the vehicle, he flings himself through the open window headfirst, right across Grayson’s lap.
“Nix!” Grayson gasps, grasping him around the waist as Gideon hits the brakes.
His head lands in Gideon’s lap, bare ass in the air, feet still hanging out the window.
Flipping over like a pancake, he grins, as if he hadn’t stopped Gideon’s heart for the second time that day. “Hi.”
“Kitten,” Gideon bites out, as visions of Nix being dragged under the car cause his stomach to drop and almost come back up again. “This. Vehicle. Was. In. Motion.”
“I couldn’t wait. This is serious. Gray, something is messing with our bon—”
“We are talking about this later,” Gideon puts the car back into motion as Nix rights himself on his knees over Grayson’s thighs so he can press his nose under Grayson’s collar. “Where is your keeper?”
“I don’t need a keeper, Gideon. I decide where I go and what I do.”
Nix glares and sticks his tongue out like a petulant child caught staying up too late by the babysitter. He follows it up by sticking his nose back inside Grayson’s collar, this time licking and sucking a mark where everyone can see.
“Angel, you could have been hurt.”
“Gideon wasn’t driving that fast. Besides, I’ve done it loads of times.”
There is silence as both he and Grayson let the words sink in. They imply practice. Jumping into moving vehicles. Through the window.
Before he knows it, Gideon is speaking, “Car, call Logan Frost. Sentinel Security.”
Nix scrambles for the disconnect button on the steering wheel, causing the SUV to swerve up the drive. “No! Don’t call Logan! You’re not the boss of me, Gideon Carnell.”
All the ways that statements is true do nothing to make Gideon any less angry…
…nor, by the looks of it, do they pacify Jay.
Standing in front of the garage is their red-faced and 100% livid Pack Alpha.
Jay must have seen Nix’s stunt—maybe Gideon won’t have to make his point later, after all. Damn.
“Uh-oh,” Nix whispers.
Grayson groans. “Angel, did you sneak past Jay, too?”
Nix has the wisdom to look chastened before he sits back on Grayson’s knees. He takes his soulmate’s cheeks in his hands and looks him dead in the eye.
“Something is really wrong, Gray. Really, really. I’ll take my licks, but I won’t say I’m sorry.”
Jay pulls open the door, and relief at seeing Grayson in one piece flashes over his features before he checks Gideon over, too.
“I didn’t have to go in after him,” Gideon says, and it sounds like the greatest disappointment of his life. Unfastening his seatbelt, he slams the door. It doesn’t help dissipate the dread, the anger, or his wanting to put Nix over his knee to remind him his ass is precious.
“Good,” Jay says. He turns his attention to Nix, who has taken his alpha’s distraction for an opportunity to slip by him, Grayson’s wrist in his hand.
“Phoenix Rhodes, we are going to have words—”
“So no one died?” Rowan interrupts, sounding just as disappointed as Gideon feels.
“Unfortunately,” Gideon growls under his breath.
“Nobody died,” Grayson confirms. “Are they here yet?”
Jay pulls Grayson’s bag and jacket from the back before giving in to the urge and slamming the door himself. “Not yet. They wanted a rest after the flight. Artem is picking them up in the Kodiaq from their hotel. They should be here any minute.”
Finn appears on the step, handsome in his sweater vest and light blue shirt. His new black glasses firmly in place, he looks more like someone’s English teacher than the successful omega-wrangler-power-top he is.
“Let’s not be standing on the driveway when they arrive, if we can help it. Nix, you need pants. Shoo.”
“Good idea. Come on, Gray—you can help me with my pants,” Nix murmurs, his scent sweet with invitation. “You’ve been gone all day, and I still feel weird.”
The gates ease open at the far end of the drive, and the red Kodiaq crawls forward. Gideon’s shoulders tighten. Artem’s presence is welcome enough—the girls adore him, and Skye does, too—but Gideon’s wolf is less sure about the others in the SUV.
“Where are the kids?”
Without speaking, Grayson, Jay, and Rowan shift closer, matching Gideon’s stance until they’ve formed a quiet wall between their den and the approaching strangers.
Allies or not, they’re still strangers near their most vulnerable.
And nothing hardens their guard like the memory of Nix’s earlier outburst—their sensitive, but never wrong, omega.
Then Nix’s posture changes. His smile curves as if the earlier tension had never touched him. “What is with you guys?” he chuckles. “We asked them to come.”
He hooks Grayson and Rowan by the wrists, tugging them inside without looking back.
The SUV slows twenty yards away, as if Artem is waiting for Jay’s signal that all is well, but Nix’s voice carries from inside—bright with mischief.
“Jay, when did you say the food was coming? I’m starving.”
Gideon exhales through his nose.