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I WALKED THE PROPERTY, and it wasn’t long before I found Gage sitting on a retaining wall in the gardens, staring at the sky. He seemed lost in the stars above him. I sat down next to him and he leaned into me. The wolves have this thing about touching. They need physical contact, crave it like the Vampires crave blood. It’s part of the pack mentality, for one, like Gage, who was essentially without a pack it was even more prevalent. I put my arm around the guy and his tension settled into me.
“What’s the matter big guy?” I asked as he sighed.
“Moon’s coming soon. I’m not looking forward to the cage.”
I nodded. I understood. I’d spent half a lifetime in confinement at the hands of a master. For some it breaks them, others learn to take solace in the solitude. I’m a solitary creature, if not by nature, then by circumstance.
“We don’t have the property or the means to restrain the land to just let you run, Gage. I’m sorry.”
“I know. It’s just in Wyoming... The open spaces... The sky stretching for miles. My wolf loved that.”
“Yes, I’m sure he did, but he’s also dangerous on the moon. You have no control over him yet and he wants to hunt. We cannot risk you hurting or turning others.”
He wrapped his hand into my bicep with a gentle squeeze, rubbing his head against my shoulder. If he’d been anyone else I’d have thought he was hitting on me, but this was just a pup missing his family. His mother was now dead, he had no siblings worth speaking of and his father controlled him from afar. It wasn’t much of a life for a wolf, and he was only half. I patted him on the head.
“I should have been on Greisen’s detail this afternoon, if I hadn’t been added here he never would have been hurt.”
“Or you would have flipped out and someone would have really gotten hurt. It was a blessing really. Why weren’t you replaced though?” I was curious, with Greisen’s father’s position in the Senate, he was, like Keegan, a potential political target. He should have Guardians. Or at least a Guardian.
“I thought that’s what that Dragon girl, Aella, was doing with them, but apparently she’s a friend, not a Guardian. I don’ know, he’s never had much of a detail. Usually just me and Collette. I mean, that girl can usually stop a ruckus before it happens. Girl’s got serious skills in the seduction and influence departments.”
“Maybe on most of you, but a sworn born is impervious to Fey magic.” I smiled, thinking of how many times Collette had tried her sway with me. It never worked, but it was fun to watch her try.
He chuckled and sighed. “Keegan’s got this place set up like the White House, security wise. Once we go in for the night and set the alarms, nothing weighing over one hundred pounds gets through without it all going off.”
“Do you blame him, after what happened?”
“Not at all, I just wished I’d stuck around that night. I knew he was in a bad way, but when he ordered me gone, I went.” Gage sat up with a sniff.
“What?”
“It’s just the flowers, he planted wolfs bane out here somewhere and it’s making my eyes tear.”
“Why don’t you go to bed, I’ll set the alarms when I come in.” I patted him on the back, giving him his hand back as he hadn’t let go of me upon standing.
With a nod, he headed for the main house, leaving me with my thoughts which drifted to the afternoon, to the silhouette that had towered over me. The woman who had actually, quite viciously, attacked me. I should have been pissed and I was, but in the same instant the whole thing gave me a raging hardon. I groaned and leaned forward, trying to calm the twitching boy down. Greisen had said something about her, that she had been going on about a cup of coffee and a phone call. So she had been thinking about me over the summer. It wasn’t just me getting callouses on both of my hands. Being ambidextrous can be useful in many situations. Oh, I was not helping my cause here. She had given me more than a passing thought, though, had to, in order to be that angry over my not calling. That was something I could work with, I mean, I’d have called her if the cup hadn’t been destroyed. Hell, I did go looking for her. I just had to get a chance to tell her that.
Besides, Keegan had made her my mission, it was my duty to make sure she was doing well, to help her in any way I could, and if that way happened to be out of those skin tight pants, then so be it.