I smiled at both of them. It was my mission, my charge, to watch over him, but they had fully adopted it as our pack mission. And both were all in.
The door to the range opened and Declan walked in, earmuffs and eye protection already on.
“Hey, Omega said you all were already at it,” he said, his eyes going to mine first and longest before taking in the others.
“You look exhausted. Why are you here?” I asked, taking in his scent, his features, the sound of his voice. Having a second nature, a wolfen nature, changes how you see everything, how you feel about everything. The bonds of pack are strong; the bonds of mates are even stronger.
I could smell his exhaustion, see the tiny trembles in his limbs, hear the fatigue in his voice, and most importantly, feel it through our bond. He’d been up all night, communing with elementals, using his connection to Robbie to work on reaching out for greater and greater distances.
“Gotta master this cannon,” he said, pulling his pistol from its case. “Then I can take a nap.”
“Hmpff. You’ll damn well take a nap,” I said, “and eat something first.”
“You shake more than I do,” Kristin said as he held the big 10mm out two-handed.
I whipped around and glared at her, not caring that her face immediately reflected embarrassment for speaking out loud.
She’d learned to be somewhat comfortable around me but had yet to relax around Declan. I suspect that my other two wolves had added stories of his powers to what public rumor and supposition had taught her. But now she had spoken out at the worst possible moment.
“Oh?” he asked, deceptively casual. Declan is super sensitive to his position in our little pack. I was the only Alpha wolf, but as my mate, he had to hold authority and strength. Being the most powerful witch in the world should have been enough… it certainly was for Holly and Devany. But to him, any suggestion that he was weak was instantly met with a demonstration of why he wasn’t.
“Stop,” I said. “This isn’t the time.”
“But it is,” he said. “As you’ve told me yourself, Kristin sees me as weak. Right, Kristin?”
She was mortified, her pale face now actually ashen. She froze up solid, unmoving.
“Now you’re scaring her,” I said.
“I can’t be scary if I shake, can I?”
Holly snorted, catching his attention. He raised his eyebrows at her. Damn, he was stubborn sometimes… most of the time.
“You’re not scary at all most of the time,” she said, staring right back at him. “Up until you decide to alter the world around you.”
He pulled back, astonished. “I don’t go around altering things,” he protested. “I only act when I absolutely have to.”
“Sure, but you just spent most of the night talking to elementals all over the world, right?” Holly asked. “Like, say a giant volcano under Hawaii or the thing that lives in Mount Everest. That’s pretty frigging scary.”
“I didn’t speak to either of those. Too far away, at least for now. Just Mount St. Helens and a couple of Earth elementals in the Adirondack mountains.”
“Like that’s better,” she said.
He waved a hand. “The point is, our newest recruit sees me as a weak link. I need to show her I’m not,” he said, and the glyphs on his neck and arms went black and visible.
He racked the action, lifted the pistol, and emptied the magazine into Kristin’s target, clustering his shots into the chest and head.
“See?” he asked the young girl who, if he had half the sense of smell the rest of us had, he would have known was scared out of her mind.
“I didn’t mean any… anything like that,” she said, a tiny shake in her voice.
He was tired, but he finally picked up on her fear. And took in my hands-on-hips glare. He looked at Devany, who was studiously checking his pistol’s action, and Holly, who was frowning at him.
“Ah, Kristin, I didn’t mean to get all serious on you,” he backpedaled. “I’m not a were; you could beat me arm wrestling any day of the week. But I just wanted you to know that I have ways of compensating.”
“Don’t all men?” Holly asked, turning to reload a magazine.
He didn’t know how to respond to that, but the comment made Kristin smirk for a split second. Yup, the girl had a definite spark, for sure.
“You know, Warlock, if you’re done browbeating my new recruit, perhaps you should get the cafeteria to send a breakfast sandwich to our suite while you get ready to sack out?” I suggested, my tone light.
He hates it when I call him warlock, so I save it for special occasions, like when he’s being an ass, so I was telling him that he was doing just that, but keeping my voice pleasant lessened any blow to his feelings—or at least I hoped it did. If he were a were, our mate bond would have told him all that, but he’s not, so the bond is not perhaps all that it would be with another were. Which meant I had to add imperfect communication to Stacia’s Big List of Worries. The bond did tell me that he was feeling really bad that he had scared Kristin. He hates that people are afraid of him, a phenomenon that has been with him his whole life.
He looked down at his gun resting on its case, but I don’t think he was even seeing it. He was really tired.
“Did the communication work well?” I asked.
He brightened a bit. “Yes, it did. And I think I’m getting better at understanding them.”
“Why do you just think it’s getting better? Don’t you know?”
“Well, I really believe it, but if it’s true, then what they are telling me is kind of wild.”
“Wild how?” I asked. Our pack was openly paying attention, clearly fascinated, even Kristin.
“Well, I’m pretty sure that I was just told
