“Hey, Madoc, your brother just came in. And his is the last order for the night.” The skinny human waiter clipped the order onto the order wheel in the restaurant kitchen. He grinned at Madoc. “You sure don’t look like brothers.”
“We had different fathers.” Plus, Niall was a cahir. The God endowed his warriors with extra height and muscle, so Niall was a good six-four. But the waiter probably meant Niall’s white-blonde hair, fair skin, and green eyes—so not like Madoc.
Madoc had hazel eyes and light brown skin, and… Well, any shifter looking at him would know his animal was a bear. He was big-boned and burly, with shoulder-length brown hair and a short beard.
Giving the order a glance, Madoc realized Niall must be ordering for André too. Good, they’d have a meal together. “I’ll take the food out.”
He slapped more burgers onto the grill. The lack of variety here made for a boring job, but small shifter towns didn’t tend to have big restaurants. A cook went where he could work.
A few minutes later, he headed out with three platters of burgers and fries.
This late at night, the dining area had thinned down to only a few couples and his brother.
As Madoc approached, Niall looked up. “André just got off duty. Should be here in—” The restaurant door opened, and their brother walked in. Niall grinned. “—about now.”
Although visibly tired, André still moved like a werecat, silent and graceful, something Madoc would never achieve.
“Yo, bro. Over here,” Madoc called.
André started across the room.
Seeing him, a toddler in a highchair squealed, waved a spoon at him, and dropped it.
Chuckling, André caught it, handed it to the mother, then greeted the father and an older child at the table. Smiling, he listened as the girl chattered away.
After a couple of minutes, he bumped fists with the girl, then ruffled the toddler’s hair, getting another happy squeal.
Niall chuckled. “Our own Pied Piper, eh?”
“Yep.” Madoc liked people and got along with just about everybody. However, children adored André, and he always found time for them.
Madoc pushed a chair out for him.
André clapped a hand on his shoulder and took the seat. “My brothers. Thank you for arranging the food.”
“No problem.” Niall frowned. “Are you all right?”
André was an even six feet tall. Streamlined muscles and chiseled features made him popular with the females. Not in uniform, he’d left his dark collar-length hair loose. His skin looked grayer than the usual dark tan, and his brown eyes were haunted.
Haunted. André’s job as an sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police could be gut-wrenching at times.
Madoc narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”
André rubbed the back of his neck as if it ached. “A logging truck hit a passenger car on a mountain road. The car went through the guard rail. The man and woman…didn’t survive.”
By the Gods.
Madoc set a hand on André’s shoulder. “I’m guessing the accident was too close to how our parents died?”
André felt the warmth of his brother’s touch, and it was a comfort. “It was.” He drew in a breath.
A decade ago, the police had notified him of how their parents’ car and trailer had slid off an ice-covered road. Their wooden travel trailer had smashed to bits like kindling. “You know, I’d always hoped they’d mellow with age, and we could have a normal relationship. But they died, instead.”
Niall shook his head. “Brawd, they didn’t want cubs. Their feelings were never going to change, even though we’d reached adulthood.”
“I know.” André sighed. Their two sires and mother had never abused them—just emotionally neglected them. He and his brothers were fed and clothed but always knew they were inconvenient. In the way. Annoyances.
If nothing else, the lack of parental love had strengthened the bonds between the brothers to unbreakable.
“I hear you, brawd. Me too.” Madoc patted his shoulder. “I thought once we were out from under their paws, we might manage a friendly relationship, at least.”
Niall’s jaw tightened. “Can’t be friendly with human-hating technophobes.”
“If we’d chosen other careers, it might have happened,” André said mildly.
“Maybe.” Madoc’s brown eyes were sad. “It hurts that Mama’s rant about my working in a human-owned restaurant was the last thing she said to me.”
“I had the same.” André’s heart ached. “How Daonain shouldn’t be in a human police force.”
Niall snorted. “Being called by the God to be a cahir gave me a few extra points…until they saw my laptop.”
It’d been nearly fifteen years ago when the three of them visited their parents, hoping to reconnect. Shifters needed family. Instead, the reunion had ended badly. A few years later, their parents were gone.
André managed to smile at his brothers. “The seasons have turned; it’s in the past.” He took a long drink of his beer, the cold, smooth lager grounding him in the present. “Anything interesting with you two?”
Madoc ran a finger along his short, boxed beard. “My life is boring.” He picked up a fry and made a circle indicating the restaurant. “I hope our next town has a restaurant with a more varied menu.”
André flinched. “Sorry, brawd.”
“Not your fault.”
But it was. André’s job with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police made for frequent moves—something they all enjoyed. But he tried to be stationed in remote, human-shifter towns, which meant small restaurants.
“I’m not bored.” Niall smirked at Madoc.
André grinned. Unlike most shifters, the cahir loved human technology, especially computers. To look at him, a person would think Viking marauder, but a few minutes of talk dumped him into the nerd category.
“As it happens, I wouldn’t mind a little excitement here and there,” Niall added.
“A cahir wants an interesting life?” Madoc huffed. “Let’s hope the God isn’t listening, or we’re doomed.”
André agreed. As a warrior of the Daonain, a cahir’s idea of interesting would qualify as a horror movie to anyone else.
“Aside from the accident, how’s work going for you?” Madoc pointed a french fry at André.
“I thought it was fine, but…” André frowned. “You know I have a law enforcement conference in Vancouver next week?”
“Right. I’d forgotten.” Niall made a choking sound. “You’ll be stuck in a city.”
“The location isn’t the problem.” André took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “Moving from town to town keeps other constables from noticing how long I’ve been a Mountie.”
Madoc looked up from doctoring his burger with ketchup. “I’ve lost track of time. How long’s it been since the academy?”
“Would you believe a couple of decades?” The knot of worry in André’s gut tightened. “The conference will have people who were in the same troop at the Depot with me, and some I worked with years ago. They’ll look their age.”
“Exactly.” Like all Daonain, André wouldn’t appear to age much until he’d passed a hundred or so.
“Fuck. You still look like you’re in your thirties.” Niall rubbed his chin. “I guess you can’t do like me and switch companies every seven or eight years.”
“There’s only one RCMP.” André shook his head. “For now, I’ll apply some makeup and add some gray to my hair. But it’s time to rethink my career.”
The statement tasted like grief, and André turned his gaze away.
André had the same protective instinct as Niall, but it went a step further. He didn’t want to just step between people and danger, he wanted to…help…as well. Working as a Mountie had mostly satisfied that need.
Now it would be gone.
Maybe he’d see about the Sûreté du Québec. It’d be nice to return to Québec where he’d spent his fostering years after First Shift.
“When are you leaving?” Niall asked.
“Friday morning.”
“I have to head back to Calgary tomorrow to babysit the new hires”—Niall rubbed his cheek—“but I’ll see you two at the full moon on Thursday.”
Madoc made a grumbling sound under his breath. He didn’t like associating with shifter females, and full moons were a trial for him.
André bumped his shoulder. “Since Gatherings are getting a bit boring, why don’t we see if any female would want a more…energetic…mating. We haven’t shared a female in a while.”
“And littermates share.” Madoc brightened.
Niall nodded in agreement. “That would make the night more interesting, eh? There should be at least one female who’d enjoy being the center of our attention.”
“It’s a plan.” André returned to his neglected food and realized he, too, was looking forward to the full moon. He’d missed being with his brothers.