CHAPTER ONE
LANDON
“Hey, August… would you still love me if I accidentally, hypothetically threw a reporter into the river?” I ask as I hold the phone against my ear so I can talk to the world’s… no, the universe’s best human alive while the world’s best cat stands at my feet watching the splashing man.
“Uh… I guess it depends. If it was truly an accident, did you help him out of the river?”
I look over at the man splashing around in the river yelling something like “Help me! I’m so goddamn annoying that even Hell doesn’t want me!”
“No… I haven’t… I mean, hypothetical me has not assisted the man at all, much like when I told him to get the camera out of my face and he refused to… I mean hypothetically,” I say.
“So… let me get this straight… when a reporter annoyed you, you used your telekinesis to chuck him into the river?” August asks.
“Hypothetically, that is correct.”
“Uh-huh… um… I guess just as long as others don’t see and he doesn’t drown, I’m sure it’s fine.”
I look over at the other reporters snapping pictures of me as well as the man in the river. They’re getting a good angle of both of us as I stand watching my victim. “So… throw the other reporters in too? Got it.”
I aim my hand at the reporters and watch just how quickly they put their cameras away. One even whistles a cheery tune as he hurries over to his vehicle.
“Maybe… we don’t throw them in,” August says as I use my telekinesis to lift the only reporter who thought that it was worth it to stay.
“You sure?” I ask. “I mean, he’s already in the air.”
“Positive. Put him down.”
I shrug. “I mean… I guess dropping him would be a good warning as well.”
“Wait, before you drop him, how high in the air is he?” August asks.
I glance up at the man. “How high do you want him to be?”
“Not high,” the reporter cries.
“He said he wants to be super high,” I say.
“I think three inches is a good threat.”
I grumble because I’m positive three inches is not a good threat atall,but I dump him anyway before I head off. “Well, that was no fun.” Zacia (officially known as Balzac), my sphynx who is currently decked out in a T-shirt with one of those green alien heads on it that says “I wanna probe you,” meows at me. I’m pretty sure when I ordered the shirt the listing said “I wanna love you,” but this is better in my opinion.
“Did you get the guy out of the river?” August asks.
I stop walking and look over my shoulder. “I totally forgot about him.”
“Landon!”
I hurry over to the edge of the bridge and see that he’s doing a perfectly fine job of removing himself from the river, and I debate tossing him back in. Eh, it’s already taken up plenty of my time, so I resume walking.
“I thought you had class today,” August says.
“Oh, that stupid thing Valerie wanted me to attend about how to properly act in public? Yeah, I skipped that. I am not interested in being a hero. I amnota hero. You can do your little hero stuff and I will guard your ass and—”
“Oh shit, I just got an alert that there’s a robbery in progress,” August says. “Can you help?”
“Angrily,” I say with a grumble as I turn back to the wet reporter who is glowering at me. “Hey, pencil dick, I need you to drive me to a robbery.”
“I’m not…” He must see the fury in my eyes because he nods and hurries over to his car. He even opens the passenger door for me like a kind gentleman.
I get into the passenger seat as I rattle off the information August is giving me before grimacing. “God, you smell like a dead fish.” Even Zacia thinks he smells nasty judging by the way she’s sniffing the air in his direction.
He shifts his narrowed eyes onto me. “And whose fault do you think that is?”
I grab his water bottle out of the cupholder and shove it into his face. “Hey! Hey! Can you tell me what Chronobender is doing? Hey! Hey! Hey!” I continue to obnoxiously ram it into his face, pretending it’s the microphone he assaulted me with, until he turns to look at me.
“I see.”
I grin, proud of myself. “Yeah? You see how annoying it is?”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Maybe.”
I feel like that was a job well done. “You know what I wanted to do today?”
“No.”
“Take a nap. Read a book. Peruse my Augustine with my eyeballs, and instead, someone decided to rob a bank.”
“Didn’t you use to rob banks?” he asks.
“Did I ask you… Mr. Reporter?”
“It’s Dave.”
“Yeah? Dave? Huh? Did I ask you?”
He grumbles something that he should probably be happy I don’t hear. I stretch and yawn. “I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when you get there.”
“It’s like two minutes away.”
“Fuck… I didn’t sign up for this shit. You know that? Not at all,” I grumble as I sink against the car door and question everything. Most of all, I question why I can’t just take a nap and read a book.
The reporter, who is more than thrilled at the opportunity to get right up in the action, pulls up near a police car as the officer starts to yell and wave at him until he sees me.
I get out and head over to where August has just arrived on scene. Everyone is thrilled about his arrival but not as thrilled as me.
“You look handsome today,” I say with a smile. “You just look delightfully sexy.”
“Um… thanks. I… you know… the robbery?”
“Oh. I forgot the moment I saw you. Is it just one guy?” I ask as Valerie, August’s manager, hurries after him. She’s a woman… an… irritating woman that I kind of like. She slowly, ever so slowly broke me down and forced me to feel feelings about her. It’s like if a demon fucked a lemon and had little lemon babies, you’d have Valerie.
Needless to say, we’re tight.
Kind of.
Only when she lets me get my way.
Of course, off to the side are some wannabe heroes who will likely accomplish nothing more than getting in August’s way. They seem to run rampant in the city like they think if they have some kind of superpower and a mask, it’s their right to run into danger for a chance of being dubbed a hero or a vigilante or something.
Valerie ignores them and turns back to us. “To my understanding there are two villains inside. A man and a woman, both with powers. The man is a sharpshooter, so—”
“Is that them right there?” I ask as I point to the man holding a woman hostage. He’s come over to the window like he thinks he’s going to make negotiations while the female robber hangs out in the background looking stupid.
“Yes, so August is going to stop time and—”
With a wave of my hand, I whip both robbers up into the air while snapping the hostage away, drive the robbers through the glass door and drop them on the ground in front of Valerie who gawks at them.
“August, that new book I want came out today. Can we go get it?” I have to talk kind of loudly over the groaning noises the robbers are making. Something about their bodies going through extremely tough glass must have been the issue.
August also seems to be gazing at the robbers in mild fascination. “Um… yeah… sure. Just… um… Valerie, are we done here?”
Valerie stares down at the robbers. “It… it took you longer to put your suit on.”
“I know,” August says as he tries to pick it out of his ass crack slyly. I would like to volunteer to help with that.
“You… ugly little bitch…” the male robber says.
“Ooh. August, this robber likes me and wants me to crush his heart,” I say as I hold my hand out, but August claps both hands over it before I can.
“Nope. No… let’s… I don’t want blood on my shoes, you know? We can’t go to the bookstore with blood on our shoes, now can we?”
I debate that then shrug because what if Zacia got blood on her shirt? Her little innocent eyes shouldn’t be subjected to such horrors. “True. Fish Reporter, drive us,” I demand as I search for him, but he’s long gone. Huh. Weird. “Valerie, we need your car.”
“You’re not leaving yet! August has to go in and make sure everyone is safe and pose for pictures,” Valerie says as she taps her foot like she’s impatient about this.
I stare at her as she glowers back, and suddenly, we’re in a death staring match with each other. Which is hilarious because I’m positive I would win yet she’s scary good at it. God, why’s she so evil?
And then she caves. How weak of her. “I suppose you both have worked very hard this week, so the police can handle it just this once,” she says.
I smile and step on the robber on the way to the car. He grunts but says little else during my travels. I even pause right when I’m on the middle of his back for a picture—see? I’m getting the hang of this hero stuff. When I reach Valerie’s car, August gets in the driver’s seat and the crowd parts for us.
“Good job,” August says.
“Thank you!”
“It was… impressive. Like… really impressive.”
“Did it make you horny?”
“Umm… I don’t know about that, but I sure was impressed,” August says while giving me the sweetest smile. How the hell I ever ended up lucky enough to be with the literal nicest man in the world is beyond me. “Okay… it made me a little horny. I just… thought it’d sound weird.”
“God, you’re hot,” I whisper.
“Thank you. You are very hot as well.”
I grin at him as we drive off, leaving the scene of the crime as we find our way over to the largest bookstore in the area. When I met August, he only read a little, so I’ve been trying to show him the wonders of books by buying him every book he even feigns interest in. At the speed he’s reading them, he’ll be done with the stack by the time he’s a hundred and fifteen.
The moment we enter, there is immediate chaos and far too much “It’s Chronobender!” and even a “He can Chronobendme over a table.”
“I’ll fuck you up, whoever said that,” I growl, mostly because I’m irritated I didn’t come up with it myself. I mean come on, I am the man with the jokes; how dare they try to one-up me?
I usher August up the escalator to the top where the fantasy books reside. “What do you think about the series you started?”
“I like it!” he declares.
My eyes snap over to his. “You do? I’m so excited I finally have someone to talk to about it. What’s your favorite part so far? Is it the sexy side character? I love how sassy he is.”
“I… like the cat,” he says.
I stare at him. “I don’t… I don’t remember there being a cat.” How could I forget a detail like this? I have a near perfect memory when it comes to every book I’ve ever read… so how could my brain deceive me like this?
“Yeah, when the main character like… walks into town and the… cat, you know… scampers off.”
“Are you on page one?” I ask in disbelief.
“I mean… maybe… page two, but you know?”
I gape at this man who I have given my heart and soul to. I have ripped my shriveled-up heart out of my chest and passed it over to him, and then he does this to me? “I donotknow. A-Augustine.”
And then he gives me a huge smile, and I forget everything heinous he’s ever said to me, and while he knows that I am putty in his hands he goes, “So there’s an interview tomorrow at the broadcasting station.”
“I thought that shit blew up,” I grumble.
“Well… yeah but they rebuilt it like four months ago.”
“Yeah, but then… I thought it blew upa secondtime,” I say.
“No, it didn’t. Please don’t blow it up.”
“What if—”
August unjustly shakes his head. “No what-ifs.”
“Accidentally—”
“Like you accidentally tossed the reporter in the river?”
I smirk. “Come on, August. You can’t expect me to change in one day.”
“It’s been six months.”
“Yeah, in hero time. Like one day in villain time.”
He grins at me as he sits down in a chair that faces me. “I have a feeling this is going to take a while, so I’ll take a seat right here.”
“You’re smart too. The whole package.”
“That’s me.” Zacia seems to think that sitting on his lap is a better idea than staring at me while I look at books, so she jumps onto him. He cocks his head when he reads her shirt, but he secretly loves it.
I head over to the shelf to begin my adventure before glancing over my shoulder to see August still watching me. He gives me a smile that just delights me because I’m an absolute sucker for his love. “Whatchu watching?”
“Just the sexiest man alive.”
“Oh? Who’s that?” I ask as I feign looking around.
“It’s a secret.”
Seeing as August is the head hero in the city—and by extension I have some weird “kind of a hero but kinda awful at it” title—people aren’t allowed within several feet of us, even out in public. After his adoring fans nearly caused some people to die, there was a strict policy put in place. It means that every time we go out, there are all these crazy fans in heat staring at us but keeping a respectable ten feet from us. I suggested we hire a man with a tape measure to verify that everywhere we go because I thought it’d be amusing, but Valerie shot it down pretty quickly.
August is shockingly used to it, and them constantly crowding around us doesn’t even faze him, while I still,occasionally,toss someone across the roomaccidentallyif I feel like they get too close or if their face irritates me, or if they say something annoying, or if they do something irritating… I really don’t need much of an excuse.
“So if I go to this broadcasting hell, what do I get in return? I need something to look forward to or I won’t be able to handle it,” I say.
“What do you want?”
“You naked.”
His small crowd of onlookers gasp. They’re little perverts like me, clearly.
“Hmm… but you already get that whenever you want,” he says, and there’s another gasp. Dear god, these are some thirsty bitches.
“True… I want to ride in one of those swan boat thingies together. You know like people do in the movies on dates? Where you like pedal it around and stuff.”
August looks surprised as he nods. “Yeah, that sounds fun.”
“Naked.”
More gasping.
“Oh! August, I had an idea the other day. You know how they make a calendar every year of you in different poses? I was thinking we should do one with you naked. We wouldn’t even have to work another day in our lives. We’d be rich.”
“I love you enough that I am more than willing to give you just about everything you want, Landon, but not that.”
There are a coupletskswith that one. Clearly, this crowd has taste.
I choose a couple of books then see one that my brother Nolan loves and grab the newest in the series before making my way over to August who proceeds to hold my books for me. Zacia doesn’t think it’s enough weight, so she jumps to the top of the pile and begins to groom her paw adorably.
I pick up my phone and snap a picture of them because I absolutely love it when my two favorite beings look cute together.
“So… Valerie wanted me to talk to you,” August starts.
“No.”
“She thought that you’d possibly listen to me even though I informed her that you are a very… independent man who will choose to do what he wants.”
This man clearly gets me.
“I will listen just because I enjoy the sound of your voice, but that’s it.”
“She’s hoping that you’ll wear the suit she made for you.”
“It’s orange. Do I look like a man who’d wear orange? She’s trying to make me look like a pumpkin. Do you want to fuck a pumpkin, August?”
“I mean… those mouth holes do look inviting,” he teases.
I grin at him. “You know someone’s recorded that and it’ll be all over the internet by tomorrow.”
He shrugs. “Don’t worry, Valerie catches all of that and goes to their homes and threatens their lives.”
“I hate it when she does things that make me like her more. Anyway. Is the suit the only thing? Tell her I will wear something if I’m all in black. I want it like a condom where it covers all of me. Wait! No, I want it so there’s a hole on the tip so my hair is spilling out and two eye holes; the rest will be all black latex.”
“Okay… if that’s what my babe wants, I guess that’s what he gets.”
I grin as I find another book before wandering over to the graphic novels. Since it’s across the store and I don’t feel like picking up my books, I just levitate August’s chair, books and all. He yelps and starts grabbing things in surprise as I take him with me to the other side of the store. Zacia is as cool as a cucumber as she digs her nails into August’s shoulder to keep from tumbling off.
“I can walk.”
“That sounds stupid,” I say as I reach the section I want and put him down. He shrugs and sinks back into the chair, telling me he’s enjoying it. “What about graphic novels? You think you’d like them?”
“Yeah, I’ve enjoyed some in the past.”
“Perfect,” I say as I gather up some more that he wears beautifully. “I love bookstores, did you know that?”
“I never would have guessed,” he says with a smile.
Thankfully, August has super strength to carry my pile of books to the counter where I check out.
“Do you want me to carry those?” the cashier asks. I’m pretty sure the books weigh more than her, so the idea of her hefting them out to the car amuses me more than it should, but August declines the offer before I can.
* * *
August moved in with me full time about two months ago. Before that we’d spent almost every night together, so it really didn’t seem to matter that we were technically living separately. The hardest part was convincing Valerie to let me move him into my home since she claimed I got it through nefarious means. I didn’t bother denying that but did explain to her that August should live in luxury, which he now does in my mini mansion. I think she also hated the idea of having to hire enough movers to move all my books so much that she just caved.
He loves it. That’s all that matters.
“So… these books go on your unread bookshelf, right? The bookshelf overflowing with books?” he asks.
“I feel like you’re being sassy but yes. These ones are shinier, obviously, so I needed more.”
“Right,” he says with a grin. “Oh man, there are so many unread books there’s actually no room for more.”
“There’s always room for more. You might just… have to double stack them. If you flip them on their side, you can fit more in,” I assure him.
“Right,” he says as he sets to work trying to find adequate room for my new hoard before watching me pick up a different book to read. “Hold on. You had to have all of these new books to read, yet… you’re going to read one you already read?”
“August… I feel like you don’t understand.”
His eyebrow arches as he watches me. “You’re probably right. I’m not quite sure I do.”
“You will learn. You are merely in a cocoon at this point, August. Soon you will bust out as a motherfucking beautiful butterfly who will fuck up anyone who disrupts our reading time.”
“Ah, I see. Makes total sense,” he says. “What if I put some of these books that don’t fit in a box?”
“Don’t you fucking dare. I have toseethem, August. I have tofeelthem. I have to stroke them.”
August slowly sets one in a cardboard box that had brought more books to me just this morning.
I gasp. “Don’t you dare.”
“They could fit right under our bed.”
I gasp again. “August… I thought youlovedme. Zacia… I know you’re used to two daddies but… but I have to murder your other father.”
“You’re not even going to break up, you’re going straight to murder?” August asks, sounding weirdly disbelieving.
“I don’t want anyone else to ever have you,obviously.”
He shakes his head as he retrieves the books and Tetrises them onto the shelf. “Do you forgive me?”
“Maybe.”
“Good.”
While I do love my family, they’ve always had a very hands-off approach. It seemed like we only ever did something together when they needed me for something ridiculous. Much of my life was spent alone in the house with my books while occasionally being dragged off to some half-price supervillain bullshit. Lost in my fictional worlds, I thought I had everything I wanted, but I realize now how incredibly lonely I was. How I did so much bullshit just for some kind of approval or attention. And with August, I don’t have to do any of that. I don’t have to feel like that.
Having him here has made me happier than I ever thought I could possibly be.
I glance over as he tries to slyly fit the remaining book that he can’t seem to find a place for on the read bookshelf.
“Don’t you dare, you sexy beast,” I shout as I grab the book before he can do such a disgusting deed.
August laughs as he hooks me with his arm and pulls me in to kiss me. “Oh no. What are you going to do now?”
“Clearly, someone needs a time out. And I will enforce that by making you clean Zacia’s litter box.”
“Such a threat!” he teases as I reach up and kiss him again as I sink into him.
How did I ever snag someone like him?
And I didn’t even have to use my telekinesis to make him stay!
Prologue
“Hey, Riv. How’re you holding up?” I asked as I walked into what we’d dubbed the family room. We’d only moved into our new home—a large villa—a week ago, and with all of us starting work soon, I was worried about River being in a new place all alone.
They smiled up at me from where they were lounging on the couch. “I’m fine, Cos.”
I highly doubted that, but I didn’t call them on it. Instead, I walked over and rested my hand on the side of their neck for a few seconds before I bent over to rub my cheek on the top of their hair, making sure my scent and the scent of our pride was strong on River’s skin and aura. It would help them feel safe, to feel at home in a place that didn’t quite feel that way yet. As alpha of our pride, it was my job to ensure everyone felt protected, safe, loved, and happy, and it was a job I took very seriously. When one of my pride was hurting, I was hurting along with them.
River might’ve said they were fine, but they latched onto my wrist and didn’t let me pull away for a long moment as they nuzzled into my forearm. To keep the connection, I sat on the couch right beside them. Running my hand over their hair, I murmured, “We’re safe here, Riv. I won’t let anything happen to you.” “I know. I’m still getting used to how big this place is. I almost walked into the wrong bedroom last night.”
I snorted. “That’s bound to happen when there’s sixteen of them.” The new place really was huge—and sat on a large piece of land that was perfect for pride runs—but it was exactly what we needed, especially if we wanted to grow our pride the way we’d talked about. The house wrapped around an open courtyard. There was a pool behind the house and a garage on the right if you were looking at it. The first floor was open with plenty of windows to let the natural light in. Basically, it was the perfect place for a pride, and I was sure it had been built with that intention in mind. Though who could’ve built it was anyone’s guess since the place was pretty old. In good condition for sure, but old.
I was still amazed that we’d been able to afford it, but between our inheritance from our parents’ death on top of the many years that all of us worked and saved every penny we could, we’d bought this, made renovations, and had enough to get by for a few months while everything settled.
River grinned, then sighed. “It really is beautiful here. The courtyard is going to be wonderful once the weather turns.”
“I saw Dare hiding under the veranda before they all left. I think he’s already planning what to plant out there.”
They chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
My HID—Holographic Implant Device that was embedded in my wrist, the same as everyone else—rang, but I didn’t pull away from River right away to swipe my finger over it. Instead, I met their eyes and said, “Let me know if you need me, okay? Don’t be shy about it, and don’t be embarrassed. It’ll take all of us a long time to get used to this place, especially because it doesn’t smell like pride yet, but it’ll get there.”
“Don’t worry about me, Cos, I’m alright. I promise.”
River didn’t make idle promises, so I nodded at them, accepting it as truth, and answered my HID. I almost groaned when I saw Dare’s name on the screen, but I swiped to accept the call. “What’s up?” If he was calling me when he was supposed to be out with Eva, Charlie, Luce, and Zara, then something had happened.
“Everyone’s okay,” Dare said first, making a low growl form in my throat.
“Is there a reason they wouldn’t be, Dare? You guys were supposed to grab a drink or two and head home.”
“Yeah, about that…” I bit back a groan as he continued speaking. “I need you to come pick us up.”
That made me jump to my feet, and I hastily switched the call to speaker so River could hear as well. “What happened? Where are you?”
He rattled off the bar’s name, then mumbled almost reluctantly, “It’s not a big deal. The car’s acting up, and Eva’s too drunk to take care of it.” Of course she was. She was the only one in their group who had any chance of fixing a car-related issue.
“Great.” I closed my eyes in frustration and relief. Why in the hell he opened with everyone’s okay, I would never know. “Maybe you should’ve led with that.”
Dare hesitated, then sighed and admitted, “Maybe I’m a little drunk, too.” It was very surprising that both of them were drunk. Eva was a lot smaller than my brother, so it wasn’t as unusual for her to drink quickly enough to actually feel it, but that was a rarity for Dare. It wouldn’t last long. Shifter metabolism wouldn’t allow it, but the bar they’d gone to was a shifter bar and therefore catered to our bodies more than a human bar would.
“You’re allowed to have a good time every once in a while, Dare. You just freaked me out.”
“Yeah, well, I needed it. These guys were being dicks to Charlie, and I thought we were going to get kicked out, but the owner kicked out the prickholes instead.”
I closed my eyes. “Is Charlie okay?”
“Yeah… I think he’s a little sad, though.”
I met River’s eyes, and we both frowned. “Don’t worry. I’m coming to you.”
“Thanks.”
After grabbing my jacket, I walked back over to River, kissed their forehead, and whispered, “Will you be okay?”
They nodded. “Yes, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Okay, call me if you need me.” I said loudly, “Kulani, I need you to come sit with Riv while I handle a situation.”
“I’m already on my way down, Cos,” Kulani’s voice said a moment before he walked into the living room. He was another member of our pride, but he was somehow a bit of a loner, too.
I walked over to him, grabbed the side of his neck, and leaned in to rub my cheek against his to scent him. “Thanks, K.” I was thanking him for more than one thing—sitting with River and for letting me scent him. Sometimes he pulled away, so I was always appreciative of the times he didn’t.
He nodded at me and subtly rubbed his body along mine as he moved to the couch. Kulani might’ve been a loner, but he had a soft spot for River, so I wasn’t surprised when he pulled them into his lap. River leaned in to nuzzle against his neck, and I sighed in relief that they’d be alright without me here for a little while.
Kulani waved me away and said, “Go help the others before they cause mayhem. I promise we’re okay.” It didn’t surprise me that he’d tuned into my HID call from the second floor. As a cheetah, his hearing was phenomenal.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded at them. “Call if you need me. Be home soon.” As I walked out the door, I said to Dare, “I’m on my way.”
I hopped into my van—the only thing big enough to fit all eight of us huge shifters in since cars were made for humans—and started it. My HID automatically switched over to the van’s speakers, so I swiped the display over my wrist away and put the van in Drive.
When I walked into the bar, I found Charlie first, and as soon as he saw me, he tilted his head to the side, showing his throat in a sign of submission. I walked up to him and rubbed my hand over his throat, scent-marking him, then kept my thumb over his pulse point as I tilted his chin up with my other hand. When his eyes met mine, I asked, “You okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He sent me a shaky smile. “I’m really sorry, Cos.”
I jerked my head back. “What? Why? You have nothing to be sorry for.”
He swallowed hard and met my eyes for a second before looking away again. “Everyone got upset because of me, and—”
“They didn’t get upset because of you, Char,” I growled out. “They got upset because other people were being dicks to you. That isn’t your fault. That’s on those assholes, not on you.”
He swallowed again, and I took in his appearance as I stepped back a little. He was wearing a black skirt that came down just past his knees, black heels, and a long-sleeved black crop top. His tawny yellow hair was shaved on the sides and long up top, and he had it kind of puffed up and styled. And the makeup he wore brought out the green in his eyes. My little brother looked absolutely gorgeous and adorable—but I’d keep the adorable part to myself so he didn’t murder me in my sleep.
“This isn’t on you, Charlie,” I said again, squeezing the back of his neck. “Tell me you understand that.”
He took a deep breath and met my eyes. “Yeah, I understand.”
“Good.” I leaned in to rub my cheek against his, scenting him again, and he seemed to lose some of his tension. “You sure you’re okay?”
He leaned back and smiled. “Yeah. We were having fun before all that happened. This place is going to be good for Luce and Eva, I think.”
“What do you mean?”
His smile became a little more genuine. “The owner saw everything go down, and after he kicked those guys out, Luce asked if he was hiring.” He shrugged. “The guy was, so he gave Luce and Eva each an application. Luce’s bartending skills should come in handy, and Eva applied for a waitressing position. The guy was really nice, so I think they’ll get the jobs.”
I snorted. “Only Luce would see someone kicking people out as a potential job opportunity.”
As if summoned, Luce walked over with a grin. “Well, since the guy has his morals straight, I figured this would be a good place to work.”
I sent her a smile, then pulled her into a hug. I hadn’t seen her—or the rest of this group—much today because they’d been running errands for hours before deciding to stop for drinks.
Eva was right behind her, and she gave me a hug and said, “I should be able to fix the car soon. Why don’t we stay for a bit so we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow? I told Dare to wait to call you.”
My older brother, Dare, joined us and scowled at his mate. “You were a total disaster.”
Eva grinned at him, and I couldn’t help but snort.
Zara came over, too, and said, “I didn’t know you were coming.”
I hugged and scented her, saying, “I wasn’t. Dare thought you guys needed a ride.”
She lifted a brow in Dare’s direction, and our brother shrugged, looking embarrassed. Zara shook her head with a laugh. “Well, I guess that’s one way to get you to come out with us.”
I rolled my eyes. “You could’ve tried asking.”
“We did. You were too busy at home.”
That was… fair. And I supposed I didn’t go out much in general, anyway, so I shrugged.
She chuckled. “Stay for a while, Cos. Please?”
I was here now, so it wouldn’t hurt to hang out with them for a bit, but… “Char,” I said, getting his attention. “Are you okay to stay for a little while?”
He smiled and leaned forward to headbutt my shoulder twice—it was easy to read and understand another cat’s body language, and this was a little affectionate headbutt—before he straightened. “Yeah, I’m good.”
I eyed him for a long moment to make sure he was telling the truth, then nodded. “Alright, we can stay for an hour, but no later than that. We have work in the morning.” Our first day in the Fairview City NHSO headquarters where we would be meeting our captain and our mage. I’d been nervous about it all day, so a drink would be a welcome distraction.
Dare moved in and threw his arm over my shoulders. “Sorry I called you out.”
“It’s no problem.” I leaned in to scent him, and then the group of us made our way to the bar, my pride making me laugh the whole way there.
It took a lot longer to go through processing than I could’ve imagined. Getting new clearance, IDs, keycards sent to our HIDs, and signing about a million papers had been a nightmare. But it was done.
And my pride members that worked with me—Dare, Charlie, Kulani, and Zara—and I were finally on our way to meet our new Taragorian Response Department team. A human captain would lead us, and we’d be teamed up with a mage.
“I hear you’re getting partnered up with Madman,” our human escort said as she led us to our new shared office space where we were meeting our new team.
I paused my steps and turned to look at her. “Come again?”
She grimaced. “Sorry, I figured you knew. I heard Madman was being assigned to your team… kinda crazy that they picked him for you.”
“There’s a mage called Madman?”
“Uh, yeah… hopefully it’s just a weird nickname.” Before I could question her further, she gestured to our office door and said, “Here you are.” Then she turned on her heel and practically ran away from me.
I turned to Dare and asked, “Did we know about this? No one told us who we were assigned to, did they?”
He shook his head. “No. As far as I’ve seen in the memos, we were only told that they had a mage available for us, but not specifically who it is. Which I find odd. Hopefully, they weren’t trying to keep us from looking into this Madman person, but who knows? Maybe they’re just slow with memos, or maybe they only assigned him to us this morning.” Dare shrugged, and it wasn’t like it mattered anymore anyway because we were already here, ready to meet Madman.
With a sigh, I nodded and put my hand on the conference room door handle. We’d spent all morning in paperwork hell. How much worse could the day get?
Before I opened the door, I got a whiff of the most delicious scent I’d ever smelled—sandalwood and the clean, fresh scent leftover from a lightning storm—and holy shit did that smell delicious. Better than delicious. That was probably the best scent I’d ever smelled in my entire life. It made me want to roll around in it. To live in that scent. What was that? Jesus, I needed to find where it was coming from and keep whatever it was with me at all times. I’d never before needed to bathe in a scent so desperately.
I froze at that. Shit. I really did feel a desperate need to keep whatever it was that smelled so good.
I swallowed thickly and took another whiff, then almost groaned because that scent wasn’t coming from a what… it was coming from a who.
A lot worse… this day could get so much worse.
I recognized that scent for what it was—a possible match—and I resented it. I did not need this complication in my life right now. When I opened the door, I purposefully didn’t look at anyone inside and simply held the door open for my pride. I still needed a minute to gather myself before I could face whoever smelled so good.
Finally, I turned to the room, and my eyes automatically went to the source of that smell—a mage. He was a little tiny thing with the biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen. He stared right back at me, and it was like a punch to the gut. He was beautiful. His brown hair was a little messy on top, like maybe he’d been running his fingers through it, and his strong jaw and plump bottom lip fit perfectly with the slight scowl he was wearing on that handsome face.
I had no doubt that my pride mates could smell just how attractive I found this tiny mage, which would’ve been embarrassing if I could’ve focused on anything other than him.
I felt trapped in his gaze, but I was pretty sure he was trapped in mine as well.
But then he opened his mouth and shattered the connection.
“Well, hello there, kitty cats. Nice of you to join us,” the tiny mage said.
I growled low in my throat but cut it off almost immediately. I was not that kind of shifter. I didn’t go throwing my weight around and trying to scare others like that.
Charlie muttered, “Fucking wonderful.”
A second mage sat beside the one who smelled like a dream, and he sighed and whispered to his friend, “Do you have to be a prick on day one?” He probably thought we couldn’t hear him since magi had bad hearing, just like humans.
The next thing I knew, I was having a little spat with the tiny mage, and even while I was arguing with him, I felt like an ass. But I couldn’t help it. That scent, that delicious fucking scent that I couldn’t get enough of, had thrown me off my game, and apparently, I dealt with that by being an ass.
At least I’d calmed down some by the time I learned his name was Madeo, and his friend, who was actually his dyad, was Jude. Our new captain, Harriet, seemed fond of the duo, which was odd for a human, but not unwelcome.
When Harriet announced that I would be the team leader, I thought Madeo was going to explode. Jude seemed upset, but he was trying to hide it, although I could smell his discontent from here. I wasn’t even surprised when Madeo stormed out of the room, nor when Jude followed after him.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, I sighed and rubbed at my eyes with one hand. “Well, that went well.”
“What a bunch of jerkholes,” Charlie said.
Before I could respond, Zara said, “Well, I’d be pissed if I were them, too. You know there’s never been a mage team leader, right? They get overlooked every single time a spot opens up.”
“What?” Charlie asked.
Zara shrugged, but Kulani opened his mouth for the first time since we’d gotten here, saying, “Magi have an even harder time finding jobs and getting promotions than shifters do, but no one seems to care about reporting about it.”
Chapter 1
Matt
I… did not think this through.
And damn it, I knew better. You don’t spend fifteen years representing fae, sorcerers, and the odd alchemist in the courtroom without learning to be very careful about every word you say. Otherwise you ended up like that district attorney—his name escapes me right now—whose political aspirations went up in smoke because he got careless and gave his name to a trickster who was now a U.S. senator running for reelection.
So. Yeah. I knew better.
In my admittedly weak defense, I was desperate. Everyone thinks they’re so smart and would never fall for trickster magic, but let’s see how rational and responsible you are when your love life is so pathetic that Spirit Halloween wants to rent out one side of your bed.
Staring into my bathroom mirror now, I rewound the events of the last few days, trying to figure out how exactly I’d ended up here.
Or rather, how they’d ended up here—“they” being the two tiny beings perched on my shoulders.
On the left, a demon. On the right, an angel. I supposed I should be thankful the angel wasn’t one of the Old Testament angels with the dozens of eyes and however many wings. I’d had a little too much to drink last night to process that. Not that I was doing such a hot job of getting all this into my head.
I wiped a hand over my unshaven face, then glared at my two passengers. “Okay, now that I’m… Maybe ‘awake’ is being generous, but…” I gestured dismissively. “Just… run it all by me again?”
In an instant, they were talking over each other, both sounding entirely too conscious and—at least in the angel’s case—perky for 7:43 on a Saturday morning.
“One at a time,” I growled.
They quieted and leaned forward to look past me at each other. I watched in the mirror as they gestured and shrugged in a pantomime of “You want to? No, you do it.”
I rolled my eyes. Then I pointed sharply at the angel. “You.”
He jumped and stammered, “Oh. Uh. I…” After a second, he recovered, pushed his shoulders back, and spoke, his accent British and his voice a little too loud, given the night I’d spent with Jack Daniels. “We’ve been sent here to assist you in finding a companion.”
I blinked. They’d both said as much when I’d first discovered them, but I’d been so freaked the hell out because hello—a tiny angel and demon? What the fuck? Now that I’d calmed down… no, it didn’t make any more sense than it had during my initial panic.
“Assist me. In finding a companion.” I shook my head. “What the fuck does that even—”
The demon huffed, and he sounded Scottish and bored: “What my feather-brained colleague means is that we’re here to get you laid.”
I eyed him as much as my throbbing head would allow. “So you’re my divine wingmen?”
The angel made an indignant sound. “I am not a winged man. I am an angel.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” The demon rubbed his hand over his face much like I had a moment ago. “He didn’t mean—mortals call someone a wingman if they help them get laid. Do you even read the briefings?”
“I do read them!”
“Do you, though?” The demon’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Because on our last assignment, you thought Grindr was a power tool.”
Annnd just like that, they were bickering again, flailing arms, wings, and—I thought—a tail at the edges of my peripheral vision as they shouted past me.
I rubbed my eyes. This was a dream, right? I’d had a little too much to drink last night, and I was still sound asleep in my bed, hallucinating vividly about two mosquitoes buzzing around my head.
This was absolutely not reality. It definitely wasn’t a consequence of visiting a former client from the Fae District and asking if her whole matchmaking thing actually worked. Or of her smiling sweetly and asking, face and voice full of innocence, if I needed help finding a companion.
I stared at the angel. At the demon.
At my loud, obnoxious, bickering wingmen.
Oh, fuck my life.
That loud, obnoxious bickering wasn’t helping my throbbing head, so I barked, “Hey!”
That also didn’t help, but it did have the desired effect: they both fell silent. I was pretty sure the demon almost fell off, too, but he recovered his dignity, if one could call it that, and perched on my shoulder with his feet resting on my collarbone like he owned the place.
“I don’t suppose I can say, ‘no thanks’ and send you guys back to… uh… wherever?”
In the mirror, two tiny heads shook. The angel looked vaguely sympathetic. The demon looked highly amused.
Goddammit. You knew you were fucked when you were a lawyer and didn’t know a single argument or loophole to help you weasel out of a situation. I was way too well-versed in fae law to think I could technicality my way out of this.
I pressed my hands onto the cool edges of the sink and gave a resigned sigh. “Okay. Fine. What are the rules, then? How does this work?” I paused. “And are you guys just… always here until this is over?”
They both looked at me stupidly in the mirror.
“Where else would we be?” the angel asked.
“Um.” Okay, that was a fair question. “I don’t know? Somewhere other than…” I motioned at my shoulders. “Like do you take breaks? Do I get privacy?” I inclined my head. “Are you guys going to stick around until I finish getting laid? Because that might, uh… not help the situation.”
The angel rubbed his chin.
The demon groaned and seemed to roll his eyes—he was pretty small and my own eyes ached too much to focus—and then reached into the inside pocket of his black jacket. From there, he produced what I thought was a piece of parchment, and he peered at it as gingerly as if he were as hungover as I was. “Right. Right. Something, something, legalese…” He huffed and rolled his free hand as he apparently skimmed to the pertinent clause. “Ah! ‘Upon signee’s request, or no less than twice per day at assistants’ requests, the assistants will depart aforementioned signee’s presence for periods not to exceed fifteen minutes…’ blah, blah, blah…” He tilted his head from side to side as he kept reading, mumbling to himself, “Christ, can’t they ever write this shite in English?”
The angel huffed. “Says the Scot.”
“Hey! Sod off!”
“I beg your pardon?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Would someone just answer my damn question? Can you guys wait to argue until …” For fuck’s sake. Did this contract really include state-mandated fifteen-minute breaks for them? Then again, that gave me fifteen minutes of privacy, so I probably shouldn’t bitch. “Argue on your own time,” I growled. “And that’s it? Just… fifteen-minute increments a few times a day?”
The demon kept reading. He flipped to a second page and muttered to himself. Something about more legalese and just getting to the bloody point already.
The angel cupped his elbow and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Doesn’t it say we’ll depart if he makes a connection with someone?”
I lifted my eyebrows. That sounded promising.
“Aye, it does.” The demon nodded. “The assistants and—” He waved a hand and lowered the agreement. “The English version is that when it looks like you’re about to get laid, we’re gone.”
The angel made an indignant sound. “It most certainly does not say something so crass.”
The demon waved the parchment pages. “Says the birdbrain who obviously doesn’t read the contracts or the briefings.”
The angel’s indignation intensified to the point I swore it made that ear ring, but I spoke before he could.
“Okay, okay, but how exactly am I supposed to connect with someone if I’ve got…” I gestured at each of them.
More confusion. More poring over the tiny parchment.
I swore under my breath and rubbed my eyes again. How the hell was I supposed to connect with someone like this? Because nothing said “look how stable and put together I am” like unavoidable evidence you’d resorted to magic. For anything. It was unattractive, undesirable, and un—
“Oh shit!” I straightened suddenly, barely noticing the way that made my head throb. “Can other people see you?”
The angel looked contemplative. The demon looked confused.
“Let me guess,” I grumbled. “You don’t know that either?”
They both shook their heads. The demon kept looking though the parchment, still shaking his head.
Oh no. Oh fuck.
“I can’t go to work like this!” My voice came out shrill and panicked. Which… I mean… the shoe fit. “Do you know what this will do to my reputation? I have two depositions this week! And I have to be in court on—I can’t just… Oh, Jesus Christ.”
“No, no.” The angel shook his head again. “He’s not involved in any of this.”
The demon facepalmed. I concurred.
And I still didn’t have an answer. I mean, what did I have to do? Just… venture out and see if anyone saw my ridiculous companions? Ugh. God help me if they did. The last thing I needed was to advertise to the whole world—and all my colleagues and clientele—that I’d stupidly asked a fae for help, and that was exactly what everyone would assume when they saw this shitshow. What other explanation could there be?
If someone did see me—if they saw this angel and demon on my shoulders—that would be a disaster. A professional and personal one that I couldn’t afford and was way worse than being depressingly single. I couldn’t have the stigma that came with using magic to get what I wanted. I’d worked hard for my professional reputation, and if it got out that I’d used magic for literally anything, then everything I’d ever done or achieved would be called into question. My law degree, my partnership at one of those most prestigious firms in the state, the athletic medals and trophies I’d won over the years—everyone would wonder if I’d used magic to get those, too.
God, what a mess.
And even without the stigma, these two were allegedly going to help me find a man? But how was that supposed to work? How was I even supposed to leave the house? And how the hell did I connect with someone when I had these two morons flitting around above my shoulders? Wait until their fifteen-minute breaks to make my move?
Over and over, I kept landing on the same unanswered and panic-filled question: what was I supposed to do now?
Fortunately, I had someone nearby who I could go to in a crisis, even if it was a stupid crisis of my own stupid making.
Chapter 1
Wings & Broken Things
The new professor was chirpy.
It was the only word he could think of to describe the way she fluttered around the office like a lost bird, pacing and reading at the same time, letting out little noises of surprise or happiness at random intervals. He couldn’t imagine what she found so fascinating in the term papers of freshman history of magic students, but lucky him, she occasionally decided they were worth sharing.
It wasn’t like he was also busy grading papers.
“Oh, isn’t this adorable?” she crooned, holding one up. “He wants to study the practical application of spiritus magic in a medical setting. Isn’t that clever?”
Wilder quirked a brow at her. “Is he going to tell the patients their fortunes?”
Okay, fine, he knew that spiritus did more than that. A little more, anyway. Enough for Dean Woods to give a spiritus mage the full-time teaching position Wilder had wanted.
It wasn’t that Wilder disliked Theo Ward, or begrudged him the position. He’d been a damn sight better as an office mate than chirpy Helen—that was for sure. They had mostly sat in silence, grading papers together. He hadn’t realized how nice it was until Ward had moved into a huge private office and been replaced by the bird woman who wouldn’t let him grade in peace.
Might as well go home and do his grading there. At least it was quiet at his place since David had moved out. That was the benefit of one’s long-term boyfriend leaving, saying they had “grown apart.” Grown apart, meaning Wilder hadn’t gotten the promotion they had expected, and David wasn’t willing to date a failure.
Wilder didn’t blame him too much. He was a failure. He was almost thirty years old, teaching classes part time, and sharing an office with a woman he was sure had been a sparrow in another life.
“Would you listen to this—”
He stood and dropped his pen onto his desk, and she startled, turning to stare at him. “I just remembered I have to feed my cat,” he told her. “She gets annoyed if I’m late.”
He shoved the papers into a loose pile and stuffed them into his satchel. It wasn’t as though the students put much effort into them; he didn’t see why he should either. Okay, fine, maybe one or two of them had actually put thought into their work.
What?
He would give them the grades they deserved.
Chirpy Helen was staring at him like he’d grown another head. “I didn’t know you had a cat.”
He blinked. “Oh?” He didn’t know what difference that made to her. It was the kind of thing Ward hadn’t bothered him about. The reason that, though he’d never admit it, he missed the tweedy stick-in-the-mud.
“What’s her name?”
Was this some kind of test? Did she doubt that he had a cat? “Melisandre.”
She tittered like a schoolchild. “That’s an odd name for a cat.”
First she didn’t believe he had a cat, and now she was making fun of her name. Incredible. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and counted to three. His therapist said it was always a good idea to do that before saying what he was thinking, on the presumption it gave him time to consider whether he should say it at all.
His therapist was right. Nothing good would come of telling Helen that Melisandre had a better name than she did, so she should learn to shut up before insulting the beloved pets of her peers. He’d chosen that name, dammit, and he liked it.
He snapped the latch on his satchel closed and turned to the door. Halfway there, he realized he’d left his jacket, but he didn’t go back. It was late April—plenty warm—and he’d be fine.
Hell, the cherry trees in DC were finally blossoming, almost a month late though it was. It had been a strange kind of spring: cold and wet, nothing growing anywhere until, suddenly, it was, almost overnight.
That had been the day David left: the day things had started to grow. And it didn’t even feel ironic, in the proper or improper usage of the term. Maybe David leaving meant that David was growing as a person, leaving stagnant Wilder behind.
He felt a thousand times better out in the hall, away from Helen and her pacing and her constant chatter. He’d tried to ask her to stop once, when she’d first moved into the office. She’d given him a wounded look, like he’d questioned her cat’s name, and he’d never tried again.
He turned the corner into the main hall, only to find two men directly in his way.
Not only that, but one of them looked quite pale, lying on the floor on his back and not . . . breathing. He was one of the seniors, Wilder thought, about to graduate and leave Banneker College of Magic once and for all.
But maybe he wasn’t going to leave in the way anyone had expected.
The second man—a short, slight man with golden hair and features that could only be described as cute—was leaning over him, pulling one eyelid up and then the other. He shook his head sadly. “Doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
“Is . . . is he dead?” Wilder demanded, even though his breath was trying to freeze in his chest.
The man looked up at him. “What?” He glanced back down at the student and blinked like it was a surprise to find a corpse there. “Oh, you mean him. Wait, are you talking to me?” His eyes widened even more as he looked back up at Wilder, as if the body had been shock enough, but someone speaking to him was beyond comprehension.
Wilder glanced all around and back at the man, holding out his hands to indicate the empty hallway. “Who else would I be talking to?”
The guy gave a lazy shrug and grinned, far too casually to be keeping company with a dead body. “Dunno, you professorial types are always talking to yourselves, aren’t you? I think all those books make you funny in the head.”
“Maybe if you read a book or two, you would realize that ‘dunno’ isn’t a word,” Wilder pointed out. He didn’t have a problem with the slang, really, but he was surprised and bothered and feeling wrong-footed, and when he felt uncomfortable, he tended to ignore his therapist’s advice.
He hopped to his feet, grinning at Wilder like a man who belonged in a madhouse. “S’pose so, huh? Dunno what I’d do with all them fancy words, though. My head might explode if I filled it too full.”
Wilder opened his mouth and closed it once, and then twice. “Matthew,” he said, unintelligently.
“Huh?”
“His name is Matthew. I just remembered. One of his term papers is in my bag.”
The man looked once again down at the body between them, then gave Matthew a little nudge with his toe. Matthew didn’t rouse. “I guess you don’t gotta worry about grading that one.”
Even for Wilder, that was a little flippant. He looked at the man, expecting to find the same inappropriate grin in place, even as he joked about the death of a student. He was frowning, though, looking at the body like a puzzle, and one he wasn’t enjoying.
“Disappointed?” Wilder asked.
He looked up at Wilder and shook his head. “No. Just can’t figure it out. He’s the second one like this. Can’t see what killed him—he’s just gone.” He looked around the hallway. He seemed to think he’d find the young man standing somewhere else and no longer lying on the floor. Then he shook his head. “Gone.”
He was right. There was no sign of what had killed Matthew. He was just pale and cold, eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
“Uncle H is gonna be pissed,” the guy muttered. “Nothing to be done now, though. I gotta get back to work. Later, Prof!”
“Hey! You can’t just leave. We need to call—” Wilder’s head snapped up to stare at the man, but he found himself alone in the hallway with his student’s corpse.
