Aurora gave Austin a sideways glance as she passed. Her gaze was calm but with a little sparkle, like back when she was a kid. Inviting, not hostile. The animosity from the other night was entirely absent.
His heart swelled, hopeful. He hadn’t had a chance to seek her out, what with everything that had been going on. He also didn’t know if she wanted him to. But this gave him hope that maybe he hadn’t messed up so badly that he’d lost his buddy forever. He badly wanted to make things right between them. With all of his family.
“Before we get into the other stuff…” Kingsley pulled his ankle from his knee and leaned forward a little. “I want to apologize. I’ve had my current hierarchy in place for some time, as you remember.
They have their issues, but for the most part, they are loyal and they do their jobs.”
“I know.”
“I knew there was still animosity between them and you. I’m ashamed to say I turned a blind eye to it. But your mate said something that…hit home.”
Austin wondered what Jess had said, and when. She hadn’t mentioned it.
“I should’ve cleared this up with them before you came here,” Kingsley went on. “Given I didn’t, I should’ve stepped in after your arrival. And I never, ever should’ve given them enough room to attack your mate. Please believe I had no idea they planned to go to such extremes. I thought they might challenge you, but I wasn’t worried because I knew you’d be fine. I didn’t…”
“I know,” Austin told him again. “We talked about this, remember? You gave me leave to handle it.”
Kingsley shook his head, leaning back again. “Handle it by answering their challenge.”
“I did answer their challenge. Jess and I both did.”
Kingsley ran his fingers through his hair, more expressive than he usually was, even with family.
Something had really been troubling him.
“I haven’t been much of a big brother,” he finally said. “After…our challenge way back when, I shouldn’t have left you to find your own way. I didn’t shield you from the other members of the pack or from Mom’s fears about your becoming like Dad. You were forced to learn how to survive long before you left this pack. I understand why you had to leave like you did. I apologize for the part that I played.”
Austin stared at his brother, no idea what to say. Heaviness lodged in his chest, and it felt like he was trying to swallow a golf ball.
“Kingsley, I—”
Kingsley held up his hand. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
“No,” Austin replied. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’ll let you take blame. You should’ve thrown me out on my ass after our challenge. Your patience and willingness to teach and guide me even after what I did to you and your family… You went above and beyond. I take full responsibility
for everything that happened in the past. You were there for me more than you can possibly comprehend.” Now it was his turn to run his fingers through his hair. “You’ve made me the alpha I am today. I owe you everything.”
Kingsley stared at his knees for a while. “I appreciate your saying that.”
“Now we can leave it at that, because I’m not fond of gushing.”
Kingsley smiled a little but sobered quickly. “Mom, though… She—”
“Nah. It’s fine. Leave it, seriously.” Austin leaned back and got comfortable. “We talked, she and I. She’s got her reasons for questioning me, and I understand that. I found my balance, though. I found a mate who pulls me back from the brink.”
“Bullshit,” Kingsley said softly, shaking his head. “I saw the camera footage from that bar. She didn’t pull you anywhere—she just cleaned up after you.”
“Well…in that instance…yeah. I would’ve stayed a little more in control if she hadn’t been there, honestly, but she insisted on coming. I felt like I could go a little crazy as long as I didn’t outright kill anyone.”
“It was your right to kill them, though I’m glad you didn’t. Mostly didn’t, anyway.”
“I know. They are your top people. I gave Brochan license to deal with Bruce as he saw fit, because that waste of a shifter had earned his punishment a couple of times over.”
“Yeah.” Kingsley leaned forward again. “This is the part where the student outdoes the teacher.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my pack over the last few days. I’ve been measuring my people against yours in training. I need to make some changes.”
“They are loyal to you.”
“And that’s what blinded me, I think. That and…we aren’t usually tested. The pack, I mean. My people. Either we are helping lesser packs by taking down bad leadership, which they handle to the letter, or we’re meeting with packs at a similar power level and everyone is on their best behavior because we each need something. I haven’t seen much of their true colors.”
“Maybe it’s just their reaction to me and our history.”
“Maybe. But Jessie won’t let you skulk away in the middle of the night again, so unless my family falls out with her, we’re going to be in each other’s lives. I need my people to understand that and be okay with it.”
Austin stayed very still, feeling something hard and painful finally releasing inside of him after all these years. Gratitude filled that ragged hole, and a shiver ran through him. He nodded quietly, his emotions nearly overflowing.
“You’ve lost your grip on hiding your emotions, brother,” Kingsley said, shaking his head with a grin. “It’s making me a little uncomfortable.”
“Your timing, as always, is perfect. I was just realizing on the ride back that I don’t fit in with this pack. I haven’t for a long time. I’m too wild for this place. Too volatile. I make people nervous. It’s…
a shock to hear you say all this. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“You’ve always made the people here nervous. Always. This is Mimi’s pack, after all, and she’s mostly levelheaded. Mom too. I’m like them. This is the way it always should’ve ended up, I think. I hold down the fort here, and you rise to create some crazy freaking situation with all manner of strange creatures. Strong creatures, obviously. Incredibly competent creatures. But…they take some getting used to. And what is the deal with that big gargoyle, anyway? None of the others have absolutely massive monster forms. He’s as big as a basajaun.”
“I honestly don’t know. Jess doesn’t want to pry.”
“Huh. Creatures and plant life. That senile vampire’s flowers caught two more of those enemy
doglike things, one of them in the middle of town. It was running after a mom and her teen, so they ducked into the grove of flowers. Planting them was good thinking. The flowers handled it. I had to hear the story twice to believe it.”
“Those dog-things are chasing people now?”
“That one did.”
“The flowers didn’t capture any mages?”
Kingsley’s eyes turned sharp. “No. We should’ve had an attack by now. Even a mild one. Even a couple of mages showing up to scout. Something. Let’s go see the others. We need to talk business.”
“Yeah, we have some news of an ambush we handled that you’ll want to hear.”
Mimi and the kids sat on the bench as Jess leaned against the island.