“As did Aaron last week, and nothing was done to him.”
“I don’t think I care for this Matthew,” Valen said loudly.
Aaron snorted. “He’s my oldest brother, and he’s bossy, but he’s generally not a bad person.”
“Generally?” Matthew called back. “Aaron, I’m not the one who’s standing there with a a shifter wrapped around me!”
Valen slowly unwound his arm from where he had it around Aaron’s hips. “Rivvie, make sure Aaron doesn’t fall or otherwise get hurt.”
“Got it.” Rivvie stepped to Aaron’s other side.
Walter held up his hands, palms up, one toward Matthew, the other facing Valen. “Hold up. There will be no fighting. Matthew, I have no reason to punish Aaron when it was my lack of observation that led him to leave. He and I have discussed what occurred, and our resolution is no one else’s business. You, however, have no reason to disobey me.”
Matthew rolled his eyes. “Yes, I do. You’re my father, whether I have to call you Walter or not. I don’t want you harmed, and I saw the shifters.”
“You see me now, too,” Valen ground out as he strode around Walter toward Matthew. “You think you can take me on, go for it.”
“You will not harm any of my children,” Anita snapped, running up to Valen and grabbing his ear.
“Hey!” Valen winced, torn between slapping her hand aside and not offending Aaron or his parents.
Anita let go of him. “Sorry. I can’t let you fight Matthew. You’re at least a foot taller and a good seventy pounds heavier than him.”
Valen smiled toothily at her. “And I’m a predator.”
“There is that,” she agreed. “Matthew’s heart was in the right place.”
“Just his foot was in his mouth,” Walter added. “Matthew, go home. No one here is in any danger.”
Except Matthew. Valen wasn’t going to point that out.
“He was touching Aaron like…like…” Matthew expelled a breath that sent his bangs fluttering. “Like they’re lovers!”
Walter cleared his throat.
Anita propped a hand on her left hip. “That’s because they are, or will be.”
Aaron groaned and whimpered at the same time. “I haven’t even— I don’t understand. I thought I would be in trouble for being different and I’m not. You came back, Valen, but you aren’t staying. Humans and shifters are interacting.”
Valen glared at Matthew, though he intended his words to be for Aaron. “Things change, honey. Maybe it’s not necessary for humans and shifters to remain separate. Are you going to attack me because I’m different, Matthew? Do I seem less of a human in this moment? Less deserving of life or respect? Is there a reason it’s wrong for me to be with your brother?”
Matthew opened and closed his mouth several times. “That’s not how it’s done,” he finally came out with. “He hasn’t reproduced with anyone and he can’t do that with you! Uh, can he?”
Valen ignored Rivvie’s snickering behind him. “Nope. You and I and every man I know of have the same junk when it comes to reproductive parts.”
“And I’m going to call a meeting to discuss changes in the village rules,” Walter said as he walked to stand by Valen. “I’ve gone along with the way things were just because it was easier and familiar to everyone here. That doesn’t mean it’s the right way, not when there are some who will be harmed by those rules.”
“I don’t understand,” Matthew said. “But I’ll listen.”
“That’s all that I ask for now.” Walter nodded to Valen. “This is Valen. Valen, meet Matthew, my oldest, as I believe I’ve said.”
Valen took Matthew’s proffered hand, noting that it was shaking. He still had a good grip. They shook briefly. “My brother Rivvie.” Valen gestured to him. Niceties aside, Valen asked Walter, “Have you seen anyone else around here?”
Walter pursed his lips before answering, “No, there’s no other village nearby. It’s a good week’s ride by horse to the closest one.”
Valen pointed to the east, then the west, followed by the north. “I found multiple scents about two miles away from here, almost all the way around the village. The reason I don’t believe it’s from any of your people is because none of the scents ever came any closer. I couldn’t find a point of origin, but they did disappear at the stream. I suspect they traveled up it.” Or down it, to Varex’s land.
“How many?” Walter asked.
“A lot, over twenty-five. It was hard to get an accurate number because they aren’t fresh. The latest I found was probably left a few days ago, which were the ones by the stream.” Valen rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know if there’s a lot of fighting between humans anymore.”
Walter appeared to be concerned, with deep lines bracketing his mouth as he frowned. “There can be. What about for shifters?”
Valen had only smelled humans. “Not that I know of, and all the scents I found were Human, or at least, not shifters, that’s for certain. I couldn’t smell another wolf amongst them, and I would be able to. No horses, either. They’re on foot, or possibly canoes, I suppose.”
With Matthew hovering, Valen felt a little like he was being ganged up on. There was no reason for him to feel that way at all now, except that it was clear to him that Aaron loved his parents, and their opinion would matter to him.
To that end, standing butt naked around them probably wasn’t going to impress them. Unless it was Rivvie near Anita.
“I want to go with them,” Aaron said stubbornly. “We’ll come back, won’t we, Valen?”
“If anyone should go with them, it should be me,” Matthew protested.
“No,” Valen told him firmly. As to Aaron, what was the right answer? Valen only had to look into Aaron’s blue eyes to know. “Yes, we will.” He strode over to nudge Rivvie from Aaron’s side. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” Then he looked at Walter and Anita. “You have my word.”
Matthew showed impressive restraint by not arguing. He didn’t appear to be happy about it, though—his lips, plump like Aaron’s, were thinned down in displeasure.
“We aren’t going far anyway,” Rivvie added. “Less than a day’s run as wolves, and we can go slower if necessary. It’s not the distance to our father’s pack lands that takes a while. It’s the fact that he has so many miles of property we have to cross before we reach the pack homestead.”
Walter put an arm around Anita’s shoulders. “I would offer to send more of our riders with you if I thought you’d accept. You already know Matthew is more than willing to accompany you.”
“You may need them here. I can’t explain it, but something is off about the humans lurking around here.” Valen couldn’t say what it was at all, except that it gave him a chill inside when he thought of them. “There is no reason for them to have been spying on your village, which is what I suspect they were doing. Keep alert, and armed.”
“Come back to the village before you leave. I need to pack Aaron a few things.” Matthew shrugged when everyone looked at him. “What? He’ll need food and a canteen.”
Valen didn’t care to go to the village. He imagined people hiding behind doors and peering out behind curtains, gawping fearfully at the big, bad shifter. “We’ll wait here for you.”
Aaron blinked at him and leaned against Valen’s side. “Please?”
It was going to set a bad standard. Aaron would think he had Valen wrapped around his little finger.
The thing was, he did.
“For a few minutes,” Valen muttered. “Rivvie, grab the bag.”
“Sure.” Rivvie jogged into the forest.
Anita pointed to Valen’s groin. “There are children about in the village.”
Valen arched an eyebrow at her. “And they haven’t any genitals themselves?”
Anita’s cheeks turned pink. “Er, I think we’re a bit more prudish than shifters. We keep our genitalia covered except when we’re, hmm, with the person we are copulating with.”
Valen’s other eyebrow winged up with the first. “You just took every bit of fun out of sex saying it that way. It looks like I’ll be waiting here after all, Aaron. Clothes aren’t something we shifters bother with unless it’s cold and we’re not wearing our fur. Our children aren’t traumatized, either. We’re all quite well adjusted.” And they hadn’t almost killed each other off. Shifters tended to be a pretty accepting bunch.
“I’ll bring you something,” Matthew offered. “The problem is, we’re all smaller than you and Rivvie. I’m not sure we have anything that will fit.”
“We’ll wait here,” Valen repeated.
“So will I.” Aaron clutched Valen’s hand. “If you’d bring me what you were going to pack, please.”
Matthew’s lips thinned even more.
Valen suspected he’d wanted to either grill Aaron, lecture him, or possibly bully him into including Matthew on the short trip.
“We’ll do that. Matthew, ride with your sister Anya. Your mother and I will take your mount, and I’ll bring Aaron’s favorite back here.” Walter held his hand out.
Matthew placed what looked like ropes in Walter’s hand. The ropes appeared to be tied to something in the horse’s mouth.
Walter and Anita hugged Aaron. “You’re coming back,” Anita said.
Aaron bobbed his head. “Of course.”
Walter gave Valen a look he interpreted to mean ‘take care of my son or I will take care of you, permanently’. It raised Valen’s respect for the man. He tipped his chin in acknowledgment of the responsibility.
Valen stood with Aaron and watched them ride away. There were so many things Valen wanted to ask Aaron, like why he’d decided to go with Valen, had he thought of Valen often—what Aaron was thinking of when he’d sunk down into the stream that day.
Valen said none of those things. Instead he turned Aaron to face him, then he kissed Aaron, losing himself in the taste of the man.
Chapter Nine
When the kiss ended, Aaron’s head was spinning.
Everything he had thought and feared had suddenly been altered. He wasn’t being sneered at or punished because he wasn’t like everyone else he knew. He wasn’t going to be forced to fake an interest in a woman, or to help make children. His father and mother seemed to believe he’d been running away despite what he said otherwise, and they’d worried they were going to lose him. Now they were doing everything they could to make sure he knew he was loved.
Maybe they’d all needed a shake-up. At some point, Aaron had forgotten that his parents loved him, and wanted him to be happy. With all the work required day in and day out to survive, happy had always been an unrealistic dream when combined with Aaron’s hidden desires.
“How do shifters live?” Aaron asked of Valen.
Valen’s thick eyebrows drew together over his nose. “What do you mean?”
Aaron shrugged. “I mean, like for us, there are so many chores to do day to day just to survive. Hunting has been scarce, and all the chickens we had were killed by a fox months ago. Father sent someone to the next village over to try and trade for more, but they never returned here. The last three people who’ve been sent out haven’t come back. The gardens are dying no matter what we do. Food is becoming a true source of concern. I just look at us, at my people, and wonder how much longer we’ll be able to make it.”
“It sounds like you have had a few rough years,” Valen observed. “We aren’t that far from your village, and we’ve plenty to hunt. Gardening… Well, we’re shifters, more of a carnivore than not. Our shaman has some greens she grows. Potatoes, too. She also has several fruit trees, apples and oranges, lemons. Our homes have been around for many, many years. They are well built. We don’t seem to have the problems your village is having.”
Aaron poked at the ground with his cane. “I think about death a lot, I guess because it happens so often. We just lost one of the babies last month, and Arial Jutto, she caught some kind of coughing sickness and passed, too. There’s no reason for who death takes sometimes. It scares me, but it also…” Aaron inhaled shakily, then exhaled slowly. “It also seemed like an answer to the turmoil in here.” He touched his temple. “No one in our village is like me, Valen. I thought something was wrong with me, to want what I want.”
“Like you how?” Valen asked. “Because I can tell you, no one else is like you. Aaron, you are fascinating, and I want you. Not just for a night, either. I want to see if we’re as compatible as I suspect we are. What did you mean, though?”
Aaron’s heartbeat sped up. “If we are compatible, then what?”
Valen raised Aaron’s hand to his lips and kissed his palm. “Then we discuss what it means for me and you to be mates. Wolf shifters mate for life, Aaron. Sometimes with multiple partners, but that isn’t for me. I’ve always known there would be only one man for me.”
“And you think I’m him?” Aaron’s voice squeaked, breaking on the last word.
“Maybe,” Valen replied. “I hope so.”
Aaron hung his head, his chin resting on his chest. “I don’t know that I’m a good match. I told you, I’ve thought of dying as a relief. The day we parted, I kept thinking, I could just sink down to the bottom of the stream and stay there. Then I wouldn’t have to go back to the village and be forced to do things I just couldn’t imagine doing. I wouldn’t disappoint anyone that way. It’s a selfish way to think, I know. It’s just, I hurt so bad inside, and didn’t know how to handle it.”
Valen pulled Aaron into a tight embrace and rubbed his cheek against the top of Aaron’s head. “If the village is that bad a place for you, going back shouldn’t be an option.”
“That’s just it,” Aaron mumbled, his cock rising as he enjoyed the press of all those hard muscles against him. “I don’t think it was them. I think it was me. My father and mother both talked to me today. Well, it was my father that really got through to me. He said he’d had a brother who was—um—”
“Gay,” Valen supplied. “It means to be attracted to one’s own gender. There are other definitions. To me, to the pack I was raised in, that’s what it means and no one gave a damn who fucked whom, as long as it was consensual and everyone was of adult age.”
Aaron nodded, the crinkly hairs on Valen’s chest scraping his cheek. “That, then. Gay. No one else is in our village. I had an uncle who was, though, so Father understands. He said where he came from, they were like your pack. No one cared. He said he’s been wrong to just keep blindly following rules when the rules aren’t for everyone. It… Hearing him say that, it took a lot of the darkness out of my head. I don’t feel like I’ll be all alone because of who I am.”