“Just lost in thought,” he said, giving Hensen a sad smile.
Hensen nodded. “I’ve been doing that a lot, too, lately. I know you asked me to give you time, but the past few days have been…difficult. I’m no longer sure…” His words trailed away as Gavin stepped out of the stream and reached for his towel. Hensen dropped his head forward, apparently refusing the chance to look at Gavin’s body, and instead rubbed his eyes tiredly. “I think I need time as well.”
Gavin could feel Kade’s concern, perhaps even sense the words that he was sharing with Hensen, but in the end this was about Gavin and Hensen’s relationship. It affected only the two of them. He felt Kade back off as those thoughts filtered directly into his mate’s head.
Hensen smiled sadly again, apparently understanding what Gavin had said to Kade even if they didn’t share an actual link.
“It’s okay,” Gavin said, placing his hand on Hensen’s shoulder in a show of camaraderie. “We don’t need to rush into anything.” Hensen nodded as they both turned toward the cabin and headed back to their mates. “We should probably consider heading home, though. If somebody is deliberately mutating werewolf genetics, we need to fix the mess they’re creating.”
“I’d suggest that it’s too dangerous for Maggie and Kade to come back with us, but I’m pretty sure they’d skin us alive if we tried to leave them here.”
“Of course we wouldn’t skin you,”
Kade said in a falsely sweet telepathic voice to them both.
“I’m certain Maggie and I could come up with far more pleasurable ways to torture you for trying to leave us behind.”
Hensen quirked an eyebrow at the sugar-coated threat but smiled nonetheless.
“Now get your asses back in here so that Maggie can claim Gavin.”
“Yes, sir,”
Gavin sent with a soft laugh.
The hike back to civilization—well, the werewolf version of civilization—seemed far easier. Maggie wasn’t certain if that was because they were essentially going downhill or if it had something to do with the malaise that had affected her before Gavin’s cure. Thanks to their link she now had detailed memories of the stories Gavin’s grandfather had told him and his brothers when they’d been youngsters.
It was understandable that they’d considered them only stories. Not only were they kind of fantastical for humans with no knowledge of the paranormal world, but Gavin’s mother’s unwavering insistence that her father was a kook had been a strong influence. Maggie had been glad to realize that even though they’d relegated the man’s stories to fictional tales, Gavin and his brothers had adored their grandpa.
“Do you think your brothers will come home also?” she asked out loud as the four of them walked a fairly easy trail.
“I’m not sure,” Gavin said with a slight shrug. “I’d wondered why I was so quick to give up a career I loved. I probably had a few more years in me as a SEAL, and I’d always intended to move into training and other related areas when my days as a SEAL were over. It was a big shock to everyone when I accepted the medical discharge without a fight.” He shook his head and laughed softly. “I thought I was coming back to find my sister, not act as a guardian like in my grandpa’s stories.”
“So they didn’t force you out of the Navy?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head as he remembered some of the good times. She’d tried not to pry into his mind, very aware that they all had to keep some thoughts just for themselves, but when the memory of his final mission popped into her head, she couldn’t ignore it.
“A few broken bones in a training mission? Why did you lie?” She shook her head. “Scratch that question. I know why you lied. Navy stuff. I get it, but hell, I can’t imagine things going much worse.”
“It was a risk we took as Navy SEALs,” Gavin said, no longer trying to hide the details of that particular mission from her. “Roo and Worms knew it was a possibility. We all did.” He reached for Maggie and pulled her into his embrace for a moment before continuing to walk, this time with his arm over her shoulders. “But they died doing what they knew was right. A lot of innocent people are alive because my teammates did the job they were trained for. We weren’t even there for that reason, but they identified and stopped a suicide bomber before he could get into a position to take many innocent lives. It wasn’t an ideal outcome, but it was far better than the alternative. Roo and Worms knew that and I know they wouldn’t change what happened that day if it meant losing innocent lives.”
“You could have died, too,” she said even though Gavin was trying to gloss over his part in everything. As the first bomber exploded, Gavin had identified another. With the chaos around them he’d been unable to ensure a single deadly headshot—the most effective way to take out a suicide bomber before they had a chance to detonate their explosives—so he’d literally leapt off the roof of a two story building, landing on the man and knocking him unconscious. That’s how Gavin had broken the bones in his feet. Not during some random training exercise.
“I got lucky,” Gavin said quietly. “But even if I hadn’t it wouldn’t have mattered. My job was to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves. I did that. I have no regrets.”
“Wow,” Maggie said quietly as she tried not to fall into a type of hero worship. She’d known ever since her second glimpse of his blue eyes as he’d tried to stop the bleeding from her injuries that the man was special. She just hadn’t realized he was a true-life superhero.
He laughed quietly apparently picking up on that thought. “If your next thought is me in a cape with my underwear on the outside of my pants, you are
so
getting that spanking.”
* * * *
Hensen couldn’t ignore the emotions and thoughts passing through Maggie’s mind. When he realized the actual story of Gavin’s last mission—he’d only known the part about his teammates, not the full story—he felt a bit of that hero worship himself. Hensen had spent most of his life protecting his pack, people he knew and cared for. Gavin had done the same for total strangers, some of whom would still hate his guts simply because he was born in a country they detested. Hell, the very fact that he was embarrassed by Maggie’s pride in him and apparently needed to stall the conversation with a joke simply spoke volumes of the man’s humility.
Gavin was a true hero, and he was humble enough not to realize it.
Hensen sensed Kade’s intention a moment before he felt the man move closer and wrap an arm around his waist.
“That’s a lot of heavy thinking to be doing this early in the morning.”
“Just leave it alone,”
Hensen said, letting perhaps a little more irritation leak through his telepathic voice than he’d intended.
“I can’t leave it alone,”
Kade said with a tiny squeeze of his arm.
“I want all of my mates to be happy.”
“This is not something you can fix.”
“Why not?”
he asked in a tone that urged Hensen to answer.
“Kade, he’s a hero. How can I even ask him to let me claim him?”
“How can you not?”
Kade certainly had a point. Hensen had no intention of walking away from his family, but the relationship he’d assumed he would have with Gavin no longer seemed to fit the two of them. He couldn’t imagine asking Gavin to submit to his stronger wolf. The guy was alpha through and through, and that was all before taking into account that he was a forest guardian as well.
Just like the identity issues Gavin had suffered on their way up the mountain, Hensen was facing the same thoughts now himself. He’d never imagined being anything but the dominant partner in any relationship. Very literally, he’d always envisioned himself as the one on top.
Kade must have interpreted more to that thought than what Hensen did because the man stopped walking, released his grip from around Hensen’s waist, and stared hard at him.
Hensen glanced up to realize that Maggie was watching him with an annoyed expression as well. Unnerved by the emotions coming from both his mates, Hensen didn’t even realize Gavin had moved close enough to wrap an arm around him.
“Stop it, both of you,” Gavin said, surprising Hensen when his annoyance seemed directed at Kade and Maggie and not at him. He wasn’t certain what he’d done to piss Kade and Maggie off, but he was definitely on their shit-list.
“None of us expected a relationship as complicated as this one. We can’t be held accountable for random thoughts.”
“But if that’s really how he—” Kade began to say, yet Gavin cut him off with a look.
“That isn’t how he really thinks. Hell, even without a telepathic link I know that. We all have random thoughts. They don’t mean a goddam thing other than we’re thinking things through.” Gavin gave Kade a sad look. “Maybe you should consider following Hensen’s lead and do some of your own introspection. If you’re going to react that drastically to a random thought, then maybe the problem isn’t Hensen’s at all.”
Gavin then looked over at Maggie, stared at her for a moment, perhaps communicating telepathically before laughing softly. “You are definitely getting that spanking,” he said out loud. Maggie grinned, clearly unafraid of Gavin’s threat, and moved to give Hensen a brief hug.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her tone turning rather serious. “We’re all still getting used to the mating links. Kade and I shouldn’t have been so quick to react.”
Hensen nodded, still uncertain which thought they’d reacted to. Maggie stepped back to give Kade some room. Kade’s arms were shaking as he stepped into Hensen’s embrace. It took a few moments of holding him close to realize the man was on the verge of crying.
“Baby?” Hensen asked, trying not to incorrectly interpret the whirlpool of confused thoughts spinning through Kade’s mind.
“Don’t blame Maggie. She’s only reacting to my”—he blushed furiously—“distress.”
“I don’t understand what ‘thought’ I had that could hurt you so much.” Hensen turned to Gavin hoping the man could help. It was completely weird, but right at this moment he felt more connected to the mate he
didn’t
have a mating link with than he did to Kade or even Maggie.
“Gavin was right when he said it was my problem, not yours.” Kade swallowed hard and glanced around their small group before turning his gaze back to Hensen. “I’ve never been a strong wolf. I…um…I’ve never felt like I really belonged anywhere, but when I heard you think that letting Gavin fuck you would be a show of weakness, I just…”
Hensen pulled his mate into his arms and damn near crushed him as emotions he’d never expected to feel rolled over him. “Baby, that was my own insecurities getting the better of me. That’s my problem to deal with, but I have never thought of you as weak. Holy fuck, you’ve been the anchor that kept me steady since that very first meeting. You forgave me for not wanting a mate when I first scented you.” He knew Kade had found the reason for that in his memories. Hensen sure as hell wasn’t proud of his behavior back then, but he’d been relieved to know Kade knew the circumstances and forgave him anyway. “Kade, you held me together when Maggie and Gavin were sick. Baby, you’ve been my rock through all of this. That doesn’t make you weak. That makes you the strongest wolf I know.”
Kade nodded against his chest and held on tight. Hensen was glad to realize that Maggie had stepped into Gavin’s embrace. Just like Kade, her emotions were all over the place, but it was obvious that she was relieved that Kade and Hensen were sorting things out.
How the hell could things be so complicated when they could literally see into each other’s minds?
“Come on,” Gavin said, turning back to the trail they’d been following. “We should reach Shy River by nightfall. We’ve got a lot of things we need to do before I can spank Maggie’s ass.”
Maggie laughed, cuddled the man closer for a moment, and then started walking once more. Hensen held on to Kade, unwilling to break their contact just yet, loving the man even more when he realized Kade needed the tactile contact just as much as he did.
* * * *
Maggie wasn’t certain what to think or feel as they crept closer to Shy River pack lands without actually announcing their presence. She knew the alpha of Dry Creek was probably still looking for her, but surely Hensen’s best friend had some say in what happened at Shy River.
“Stay here,” Hensen ordered a moment before sort of melting into his wolf shape and then bounding across the clearing. They were at least three miles away from the houses she could see in the distance. Surely that was far enough away to keep them safe.
“Move one muscle, Maggie, and I will make sure you won’t sit down for a week.”
“Promises, promises,”
she sent to Gavin with a telepathic laugh. She truly had no plan to do anything other than what Hensen ordered, but it was nice to know Gavin was still monitoring her thoughts. Kade had withdrawn for a little while—apparently trying to sort through his own confusion privately—so she and Gavin and Hensen had given him some space. It was actually kind of nice to realize that they could vary how much they shared. Even when Kade was completely closed off in a telepathic sense, she’d retained enough awareness of him to know he was okay.
Distantly she realized that Hensen had changed into his human form and stepped onto the back veranda of a house. The woman who greeted him with enthusiastic familiarity had Maggie’s hackles rising even though Hensen barely returned the greeting before turning to address the man beside her. Maggie almost giggled when she realized that Kade
and
Gavin had the same reaction when Hensen greeted the man.