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His territory wards were failing, the protection they provided weakening and slipping out of his control. It’d been the better part of a month, and nothing had stopped them from deteriorating further. So here he was, bracing himself to ask for help from the shop’s new owner, one of the few mages in the Northwestern United States who could do what Victor needed.
Victor might be reluctant to work with magic; his energy was anything but.
She wasn’t a familiar; she wasn’t even magical, but there was no telling her that.
“Do I smell like dog?” Her disgruntled trill was answer enough. “I know, but he had that unfairly attractive alpha shifter energy going on. It’s mage catnip.”
God, he was turning into a cliché. A mage drooling over alpha energy. Could he get any more pathetic?
Elijah watched Kade approach. His wavy brown hair fell loose around his face, just this side of shaggy and setting off his scruff and intense stare.
Even without his appeal currently cranked to eleven, he’d be smoking hot. The type of guy who could blow your mind in the back room of a club, and he knew it too.
Fuckboys, shifter or otherwise, had never appealed to Elijah, but he could appreciate the scenery.
That’d been the most mind-blowing ritual of his life; his best orgasms hadn’t gotten him that high or left him this wrung out. Part of him was shocked he hadn’t come in his pants like a teenager experimenting with advanced magic.
No way in hell was he ending up a pack mage. No matter what some people might think.
He closed his eyes and refused to think about it. Refused to believe one additional scent made his bed and his room seem emptier. That an absence was a tangible thing.
Touching Victor had been a boneheaded move. He’d known it might make things worse but hadn’t been able to resist. And now his magic ran as wild as Victor’s energy, unpredictable and restless as it twisted through him.
How would that even work? I slipped, fell, landed on his knot during the ritual? Aran Ooh! I love that one! The mage makes the best face when he lands. You've got to watch it. Hold on, I'll find you the MateHub link.
Being trapped in a car with someone who suspected he was sabotaging their land and capable of killing five-year-olds wasn’t high on the list of activities he considered a good time.
He’d figure out what was causing the problem, fix it, fulfill his oath, and then they could both go their own way and happily not have to deal with each other again.
Aran, for all his bad-boy looks, would give the most avid horticulturist a run for their money with his plant obsession.
The ferocity with which Victor ached to give him that time left a keen longing in his chest he hadn’t been prepared for. To let him have this, family and pack, the history it represented.
Elijah was fucking perfect. His scent, his magic, his everything. No one was better for his pack, for him. He was such an idiot for trying to keep himself from this. Why deny himself? They were inevitable.
He’d never wanted to be part of a pack before, and he didn’t feel a surprisingly intense longing to be in one now. Victor didn’t stir anything deep in his chest. That would be absurd and counterproductive to his plans. It was fine. Everything was fine.
Just because a hot guy gave him a book didn’t mean he had to act like an awkward teenager.
He pulled back to look at Elijah. “How does this work?” Elijah raised an eyebrow at him. “Please tell me I don’t have to explain sex to you.” Victor pinched his side. “The tether, you ass.”
As much as he’d like to claim him then and there, he could wait until Elijah was as sure as he was. “You want dates before I make an honest mage out of you?”
“Can’t rush this. How often does a mage get the opportunity to bite an alpha wolf shifter?”
This was all he’d ever wanted. He’d just needed to let himself have it.
Victor was amazed at how the idea of four mages on his land didn’t bother him. With Elijah at his side, there was nothing he couldn’t face.
