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CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
     
ROWAN
I shut the bathroom door after thanking Graham for watching Brennan while I get some sleep. I notice most people are getting ready for bed and Ari is blowing kisses to Logan while Emery stares at him in disgust, but Quinn is nowhere to be seen, so I’m left to assume he’s upstairs.
I walk up the stairs to find him sitting at the desk alone, twirling a pen around while looking a little listless. “You alright?” I ask.
“Good. You?”
I nod, not sure but wanting to show him I’m fine.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, instantly seeing through me.
I shrug. “Nothing. Just… a bit unsure of what to do about Brennan. He’s so stubborn and he won’t listen to me. Thank god for your brother or I don’t know how we’d be taking care of him. No way I could manhandle him over to the toilet.”
Quinn stands up and walks over to me before wrapping me up in his arms. “I know. I’m sorry.”
I give him a smile, really wanting to cling onto him or hold him closely but knowing I shouldn’t. “Thanks. That means a lot to me. We just used to be so close, especially after my mom left.”
“That had to be tough. I’m sorry,” Quinn says.
“Thanks. Seems like we both drew the short end of the stick when it came to family.”
Quinn nods vigorously. “I know. Have you met Graham?”
I start laughing as he gives me a wink.
“Ready for bed?”
“I am,” I say.
Quinn gives me a warm smile, and even though I can’t kiss him in case someone sees, just this feels like enough.
      
Bam!
I’m startled awake as the entire room of shifters collectively go on high alert. Quinn, who’s in the cot near mine, leaps up as the noise continues.
It takes me far too long to figure out that someone is hammering on the door frantically. Quinn hurries over to it and pulls it open as the rest of the shifters, including me, fill in behind him as a pack, like we’re ready to protect him no matter what happens.
The woman on the other side isn’t someone I know but I still recognize as one of Apollo’s pride members. I notice she has her arm in a splint and question if she’s Donny’s wife, who’d gone to the hospital.
“Please help me,” she says, sounding desperate.
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asks, worry touching his voice.
“I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Trish and Donny, my husband… he’s gone. They told me he stood up against Apollo because he wanted to visit me in the hospital, and now he’s gone. He’s gone,” she says as she grabs desperately onto Quinn’s shirt. “I got back from the hospital to find him missing.”
“What do you mean? Apollo banished him?” Quinn asks.
She shakes her head as her eyes glisten, like she’s trying her hardest not to cry. “I don’t know. No one knows. They just said he didn’t come home that night, and when they asked Apollo, he said it’s not his problem. Donny wouldn’t just leave… please, you have to help me.”
Quinn looks past her, and I see a group of people walking this way.
She seems to notice them and looks back at them before turning her attention to Quinn. “They’re trying to help. They want to help, but they’re afraid of Apollo. We need you. We need your help because we can’t do it alone.”
Quinn nods before looking back and catching my eyes. “Okay. Can you give me a minute? I need to get dressed anyway.”
She nods. “Of course.”
Quinn closes the door without inviting her inside and turns to us. “I need a moment alone with Rowan,” he says before heading up the stairs.
I look around at the staring faces, equally confused, before heading up the stairs to follow Quinn. He flicks on a light before turning to face me. He looks determined, but there’s also a bit of hesitation in his expression.
“If I go out there and help that woman, it’s likely going to be the final straw with Apollo. He’s not going to take it well. That’s not to say this is a guarantee he’ll want to fight, but it’s not unlikely,” he says, voice steady, like he’s already prepared for what’s to come.
But as the idea of Quinn fighting Apollo sinks in, I realize that I’m not sure I can handle letting him risk his life, which is selfish, but he barely knows these people. “But… no, I don’t… I don’t want you to fight him. If you fight him… Quinn, he’s a fucking lion,” I say as panic fills me over the thought that Quinn could get hurt or killed.
“I know, but that’s why we need to make this decision together. Either we step back and leave them to Apollo or I step forward and try to help them. But you’re my mate and I will not make this decision alone,” he says. “I can’t imagine he’d kill me if I lost. I’ve never heard of him killing anyone, but I could get hurt.”
And the words weigh down on me. The option weighs down on me. I want to say no, I want to tell him that I want him right here, safe and by my side, but then I realize that if I feel like this is a tough decision, how does Quinn feel? He has his pack and now Apollo’s pride looking to him for guidance. They’ve been oppressed for years and ache for a better life as they hope for someone powerful enough to save them.
But is Quinn powerful enough? I know when it comes to smarts he is, but as a wolf? He’d be going against a lion.
I’m not sure if I can let him do this. “Quinn… I can’t lose you, and you don’t know what he’d do if you started helping them.”
His jaw is tight as he gives me a nod and reaches out with his hands. I willingly give him mine, which he squeezes as he says, “I know. That’s why we need to decide this together. This isn’t a guarantee that he will even stand up against me, but we have to be prepared that he might.”
“Can’t you face him with your whole pack?”
“We have to respect the pride rules, and if they state that the alpha has to win through a fair fight, then we have to do it that way. It’s an old tradition that Apollo is still clinging onto because he wants to use fear to rule them.”
“But he could hurt you?” I ask, even though I know the answer to that. I just have to think of Donny… of how fast and brutal that fight was even though Donny is twice the weight of Quinn.
I take a deep breath and set my forehead on his shoulder as I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him tightly. “What do you want to do?”
Quinn tucks his head against mine. “I want to help my pack, but I can’t seem to do anything for them, and I feel like this is something I can do. I can help these people. And maybe helping them is the answer to helping my pack. Alone, we’re a little over twenty strong but Apollo’s pride is over two hundred strong. They could keep us alive and safe.”
I nod, knowing he’s right. They would keep him safe. Emery has already said he doesn’t think Mercer would be stupid enough to take on a pack of over two hundred.
I take a deep breath, hoping I don’t regret this. “Okay… I trust you. And I will support your decision. If… if you think this is what will keep you and your pack safest… I’ll agree to it, but if it even remotely looks like Apollo could… kill you, I’m going to rush in and stop him.”
Quinn nods before lifting my chin and giving me a kiss, apparently no longer as concerned about who might see us. He cups my face in his hands as his amber eyes watch me closely. “And when all this is over with, you can woo the absolute hell out of me with your fluffy ass prancing around, and there’ll be no Apollo to say otherwise.”
I smile at him, loving that idea. “I’m going to woo you so damn hard.”
“I can’t wait,” he says before kissing me again. “Now… let’s go talk to the pack.”
Telling the pack goes easier than I thought. I guess since they’ve been interacting with the pride during the workdays, they see more of the unfairness that goes on. Or maybe they just have a better idea of how shifter and pack dynamics work. Graham is hesitant, but he pulls Quinn in close and kisses his forehead. “Be careful.”
“I will. We don’t even know that this will set Apollo off. I just want to know, if it does, whether I should walk away or stand and fight,” he says.
“I trust you. You’ve gotten us this far. I trust you’ll get us even farther.”
Ari folds his arms over his chest. “Do you trust him?” Ari asks. “What about that time he tried giving me to a crazy cat lady in exchange for the TV in her cart? Remember that?”
Quinn grins. “It was a really nice TV! And it was the last one on sale.”
“She wanted to make me her pet.” Ari’s got his huge eyes out, like that’ll help.
“You would’ve escaped.”
“She told me ‘I bet you’d be soft to cuddle naked.’”
Quinn starts laughing as the tension is broken. “I vaguely remember that. But boy were you right there when I got that TV installed.”
Ari snorts before hugging Quinn. “I love you more than your brother does and more than that weird cotton thing that follows you everywhere does.”
I narrow my eyes as I realize that not only is he mocking my fur, he’s trying to claim to love my mate more than I do?
I grab Ari in a headlock and try to drag him off Quinn but he’s like a leech and latches on to him. I press a hand against his face to smoosh him off what is all mine. Only mine. “Do you have that lady’s number and think she’d still be interested?”
Ari gasps and he’s so horrified that he lets go of Quinn. “Heathen. I was rooting for you.”
“For what?” I ask.
“I… don’t know but now I’m not, so there. Logan, hold me!” Ari says as he dramatically holds his arms out until Logan walks up and gathers him into his arms where Ari is finally quiet and content.
I step between Ari and Quinn, in case Ari gets some stupid ideas again. “You can’t lose,” I say. “If you lost, imagine not getting to see Ari’s dramatics?”
Quinn grins. “Oh, how depressing,” he says as he heads over to get dressed.
We all get ready before stepping outside where even more of the pride is waiting for us. “Trish, right?” Quinn asks the woman.
She nods. “Yes, it is. Are you… can you help me?”
“Can you help us?” someone behind her asks.
“Let me see what I can do,” Quinn says as he starts walking in the dim predawn light. We don’t get far before we find Apollo standing in the middle of the street, arms crossed over his chest, like he was just waiting for us.
“And here I was, wondering what the hell is going on outside. Having a little bash without me, eh?” he asks, voice sharp. “Little party where your alpha hasn’t been invited?”
While I haven’t been with the shifters long, I can pick up on little things, like the way Quinn stays completely relaxed as he faces Apollo, doing his best to not appear threatening but also not submissive. “Apollo, we simply want to know where Donny has gone,” Quinn says, voice casual and relaxed.
Apollo shrugs. “How the hell would I know? He probably went out to find his wife, not knowing she was coming back already. I feel like you’re panicking about nothing, aren’t you? It’s a little sad, to be honest.”
And I wonder if he could be right, but the pride doesn’t seem convinced, or maybe they just want Quinn to help them and think this is the perfect excuse for him to.
“You brought Donny into the house to speak with him yesterday and I haven’t seen him since,” Katalina says quietly from where she stands near Harper. Harper shifts uncertainly on her feet before giving Katalina’s shirt a tug, like she’s hoping to pull her back from this fight.
Apollo’s attention flicks onto Katalina as his eyes narrow. “Eh? You seem to know what happened then, do you, Katalina? What happened?” he asks as he steps toward her until Quinn intervenes.
“I saw Donny leave, so you must have forced him out,” Ari says.
“Why would you drive him out?” Quinn asks.
Apollo’s face twitches in the light of the streetlamp at Quinn daring to move toward him. Dawn is just starting to peek over the horizon, but not enough to fill the area with light. “Quinn, I think we’re done here with you. I think you need to take your fucking pack and move along, don’t you?”
“You can’t kick them out,” Harper says, and Apollo’s eyes are narrowed as they snap over to her.
“Apollo, you’re losing control over your pride. They’re tired of being oppressed and controlled like they’re animals,” Quinn says.
I can almost visually see a spike in Apollo’s anger. “You have no fucking IDEA what I deal with. All of these fucking idiots have no idea what it takes for me to keep this place running,” Apollo growls. “Then you come in and they just think everything can be roses because you’re a goddamn pushover! You have no idea what you’re getting into. No idea what you’re doing.”
“Why repress everyone, then? Why control them? You’re making yourself an enemy when you don’t have to. Just give them more freedom. When a man wants to go see his wife in the hospital, let him go. You’re treating these walls as if they aren’t to keep people out but to keep people in. You lost sight of what this pride is supposed to be. That doesn’t mean you can’t turn it around and make life better for everyone,” Quinn says, voice steady and smooth.
Apollo is shaking, he’s so angry. “They should fucking look up to me. They should listen to every goddamn thing I tell them to do, and instead… instead they just constantly want to fight against it. The only way to stop that is to keep them all locked down. Make them understand who is in charge,” he growls. “Now return to my side or I will make every last one of you pay.”
There’s unease behind Quinn but when some of the older members refuse to move, the rest stand their ground.
“You goddamn worthless pieces of shit,” Apollo growls as he rushes toward them like he’s going to fight every one of them for not listening. “I’ll throw every last one of you out on your ass and make you pay. I give you a home, and this is how you repay me?”
Quinn steps between them. “Stop assuming they owe you everything. I expect my pack to respect me, but I know I also have to respect them,” he says. “Respect is a two-way street—”
“And that’s why they just fucking walk all over you and treat you like you’re an equal. No one really respects a piece of shit like you,” he growls as he steps forward, into Quinn’s space.
I can tell Quinn is getting sick of letting Apollo bark at him as his jaw tightens. “Apollo, I would like you to choose your actions and your words carefully. I think you need to take some of my advice and implement it and make this a better community. You are their alpha, not their dictator. Now I’m going to help them find Donny. I don’t believe he should have attacked you, but I think you should have given him a chance to see his wife. If you’d like to help us look for him, I think your pride would greatly appreciate it,” Quinn says as he turns around.
Apollo is left standing alone in the middle of the road as everyone turns to follow Quinn, and I can see the anger filling his expression. He’s not going to let this stand.
He lets out a roar of frustration before tearing his clothes off and making the shift. He lands onto the ground on four large paws and it’s clear why the lion is dubbed king. He’s massive and just the sight of him is impressive. I can feel fear coursing through his pride. His mane is thick around his neck and as he lets out a roar like it’s a challenge, anxiety fills me at the thought of Quinn facing this monster.
      
QUINN
I was waiting for it, but I at least thought he’d ask for a respectable fight. I should have known better, so as he comes after me while I’m still in my human form, it’s no surprise. Thankfully, just pulling my shirt off is enough to allow me to slip free of my remaining clothes once shifted. I turn on him in my wolf form and stand my ground, refusing to back down even though that might be my last chance to get him to stop.
“You’re going to attack me when my back is turned?” I ask. “Those are the moves of a coward.”
“You deserve nothing more,” he growls as he impressively towers over me. “You’ve come into my pride and fed them bullshit to turn them against me even after I took pity on your tiny pack and allowed you into my home.”
“I’ve fed them nothing. Can you not see the unhappiness of this community? They feel like you’re trying to control their whole lives, scaring some of them.”
Apollo takes a step toward me, massive paw landing on the road as he watches me closely. “But they listen. As you should have, but now it’s too late and I’ll be forced to make you listen.”
The thing is, as a lion, he has to weigh over three hundred pounds more than me. His full mane will make it nearly impossible to get a good grip on his throat and he has claws and teeth to aid his fight. If I could talk him down, it’d be best, but at this point, it’s clear that won’t happen. I will have to use his anger against him because there’s no other way for me to win this fight.
He lunges toward me, striking out with his paw as I skirt away from him. Moving in and attacking him will be a death sentence without an idea of how I’ll take him down. I try to think back on Donny’s fight, but it happened too quickly for me to gain much knowledge from it.
It doesn’t help that I can feel Rowan’s fear. I can sense it all around me, but I don’t blame him. The outcome of this fight looks predetermined as I stare at the massive beast.
I push those thoughts from my mind because there’s absolutely no way I’ll win with the attitude that I’ve already lost the fight.
Apollo is hotheaded, he always has been, so I need to use it to my advantage and force him to ruin the fight for himself.
I take a step to the side, never letting my eyes off him, even for a moment. “You’ve lost all respect acting like a child. How can you expect them to follow you when you rush into a fight whenever something doesn’t go your way?” I ask.
“Why don’t you shut up? You should have left while you had the chance. But after I kill you, I’ll take your pack and I’ll destroy every last one of them. Especially Rowan.” He strikes at me again, but once more, I avoid his attack.
My wolf bristles at the idea of him doing anything to Rowan and I have to do everything in my power to pretend it doesn’t concern me. “I’m not too worried.”
“Clearly, all you can do is run from your problems. Is this the alpha they really want? One who just tucks his tail and runs? Fight me,” he growls as he rushes me again, but his massive paw just strikes the ground where I’d been standing, nails raking through the ground. I twist around his body and grab his tail, yanking it, just to irritate him.
And irritate him it does. He roars out as he twists, but by the time he turns his massive body, I’m far out of reach.
“It’s like a weak little puppy trying to play,” he snarls.
“Funny when you haven’t touched me yet,” I say as I slowly walk a circle to his right, forcing him to keep moving. “Even your own mates want nothing to do with you.”
His moves are becoming more erratic as he tries everything to lunge at me, but I slip out from under him before nipping his flank. It’s hard to do, but I find that even the smallest movements prove that I’m quicker on my feet and that I can do this. I’m sure he’s spent years just barking orders, causing him to not fight as much as he did when he was younger. Sometimes just looking fucking impressive is enough.
But chasing each other in circles is doing nothing. I notice he favors striking with his right paw, so I move in quickly and as he lifts that paw, I slip to the far side and bite down onto his hind leg, tearing my teeth into it in a quick bite before releasing and running.
He turns faster than I anticipate, and his claws rake over my side, but they barely cut me through my thick black fur. I can hear the crowd make a noise, but I have to stay focused. They crowd around us like a wall that I’m confined inside with Apollo.
“Finally going to fight, I see?” he asks as he rushes me again.
I move to the side, but he’s anticipating it this time and his paw slams against me, pushing me back. I shove forward and grab for him under the jugular, but there’s so much hair that my bite does little to him before he knocks me off. I don’t want to kill him, but I’m starting to question if he’d hesitate to kill me.
As minutes drag on, we continue dancing around each other, him rushing me and me constantly analyzing each step in the hopes it’ll allow me to strike him. But the fight is taking too long because I struggle to get a clear shot that won’t lead me right into the path of his swiping paws. Wolves hunt in packs and never against a lion… never like this. I’m exhausted, bleeding, but so is he. His golden fur is wet with blood, but he shows no sign of giving up as I realize that I need to find a new way to end this before exhaustion causes me to make one mistake… one mistake is all it’d take for either of us to be done.
“Apollo, just give up. Just agree that you were wrong in attacking me and I won’t take your pride from you, but you will have to change.”
He lets out a roar as he stands his ground, blood dripping from his face, his mane clumped in one area that blood is sticking to it. He doesn’t have the quickness or the vigor he had when we first started, but he’s still determined. “I will not back down.”
“I’m not asking you to back down. I’m asking you to stop this stupid fight,” I say.
“You want me to stop because you’re losing, dog.”
He rushes toward me and I know this is my only shot. I’m getting too exhausted to keep up this fight that has already gone on for too long. I duck his swipe and as he moves to the side he trips, giving me the opening I need to slide in and grab his throat. I clamp my fangs down right before the thickest part of his mane, and unlike all the other times, I don’t let go. I don’t want to crush his throat, but I want to halt his breathing until I can get him onto the ground.
The issue comes in when he has free use of his paws as I hold him down and he scratches me hard against the side, but I fight it because I’m positive this is my last chance to drive him down. Like this, he can’t bite me, but his paws flail as I push into him, forcing him off balance as I use his own weight to push him down. His feet kick out and I barely miss one before another catches me, but his movements are slowing and the kicks and scratches are becoming less brutal.
He slams the weight of his heavy body into mine, trying to get me to loosen up, but with each second his fight becomes slower and slower until he sinks onto the ground. Only then do I loosen my clamped teeth before pulling back.
I look back to find Graham holding a snow leopard back from the fight as noise erupts around me, but I’m too exhausted to deal with it. I just want Rowan and a dark corner to collect my thoughts as I pant for breath. But instead, I painfully shift back and slowly rise to my feet as Apollo comes to. He shifts as he coughs and gasps for breath, trying to find air as he rolls onto his side.
I look down at him as I try to calm my breathing and the ache in my body. “Apollo, as the alpha of this pack, anyone here is now welcome to join my pack if they so wish to be free of you. They are also welcome to decide if you are to stay or be banished.”
“I’ll… fucking… kill you,” he gasps, expression clearly showing his anger. “Kill him! Katalina, kill him!”
Katalina takes a step back as Apollo lets out a strangled sound filled full of irritation and hatred. He grabs for his throat as he kneels on the ground before me.
“Kick him out,” someone says.
And then the whole area fills with the noise of people begging him to be tossed out. They’re chanting it as he looks around at all of them in shock.
“You ungrateful… fucking…” Apollo rises to his feet before staggering. “I am your alpha! I order you to stop him! Kill him!”
When no one moves to help Apollo, he seems dumbfounded as he stands there before staggering and falling back to his knees. I hold my hand out to him to help him up, but he smacks my hand away.
“I can’t wait until they find you and kill you,” he snarls at me.
“Who? Mercer’s men?” I ask.
He smirks at me, so I assume he’s not planning on answering. I turn to the others who are all watching me. “Can some people come and help Apollo to the infirmary?”
“Fuck you,” he growls as he gets to his feet and starts backing away.
Everyone ignores Apollo, and instead, they tip their head to me, a sign of respect that I haven’t seen them willingly give to Apollo.
“Apollo, you can stay if you agree to stand down and listen,” I say, but he’s too busy cursing me out as Rowan finally escapes Graham. He hisses and strikes at Apollo as he walks by until he sees me giving him a raised eyebrow. Then he saunters over to me and starts rubbing against my bare legs. He’s anxious and upset and I don’t blame him.
He licks my leg as I slide my fingers into his white fur, coloring spots red but needing to feel him.
“It’s okay,” I say, but he doesn’t reply, making me wonder if he’s more upset than I thought.
Dr. Lambridge walks up and Rowan hisses and strikes at him until I grab Rowan in a headlock. “Ignore him.”
“Let’s go get you cleaned up. Come along,” the doctor says as he guides me and the sassy snow leopard back to the infirmary as I leave Graham and the others to deal with Apollo.
“I… didn’t think you’d pull it off,” Dr. Lambridge says, voice showing his shock. “I mean… no offense, but he’s a lion and a damn big one.”
“I wasn’t very sure I could pull it off a time or two either,” I say as I sit on the examination table the doctor waves at. As soon as I’m seated, Rowan jumps onto the table with me and leans against me, anxiously licking my shoulder. “Rowan, it’s okay,” I say as I reach back and scratch his ear.
“I’ll get you cleaned and stitched up,” Dr. Lambridge says as I lean against Rowan, thankful for the support now that the adrenaline is leaving me. I’m downright tired and starting to ache.
As the doctor starts cleaning my wounds, Rowan growls behind me, but at least he doesn’t strike at the doctor as he tries to help me.
“It’s okay, Rowan,” I say as I rub his small ears. “I promise it’s okay.”
He presses his head against mine. “I know.”
When the doctor starts stitching me up, Katalina and Graham come into the room. “You did it,” Katalina says, voice soft, like she’s unsure of her own words.
“Barely,” I say as I avoid looking at the needle Dr. Lambridge has. I mean… I know I was just flayed by a lion but needles definitely aren’t my thing.
Graham walks up to the side Lambridge isn’t working on and wraps an arm around me before pressing his forehead against mine. “I swear one of these days you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“I’m fine. I see you guys had little faith in me,” I tease.
“The only reason I was able to stay focused is because Rowan was quite the adversary. Do you know how damn wiggly a snow leopard is?” Graham asks as he pulls back and smiles at me. “I’m glad Apollo’s gone so now I can just go back to being annoyed at Rowan which is my favorite thing to do.”
I laugh as I grab Rowan’s tail that had wrapped around my midsection at some point and run my fingers through the soft fur. “I’m sure Rowan will love that,” I say as Rowan’s ears flatten against his head.
“I will not,” he grumbles.
“He just said he will,” I translate quite accurately for Graham.
Rowan growls again as the tail I’m holding on to twitches.
Katalina steps forward just to elicit more tail flicking from Rowan. “Quinn, I truly want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving us from what this place was becoming. Things were just getting more and more toxic, and we all felt like we were losing what little control we had.” She gives me a smile that feels genuine.
“Yeah, I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with a pack this size, but I’m hoping you and Harper can help out. My top priority is still keeping my original pack safe from Mercer. And now I have a whole new set of problems. But I think if you and Harper could step up and work with Graham to help the pack readjust to a new set of rules… You know what? We can go over all of this when I’m not being poked and prodded.”
“Of course,” Katalina says. “Anything you want, I’m here to help! You’ve freed us, Quinn. For now, could I have permission to allow the housing arrangements to change? Can the members now live with their significant other if they so choose?”
“Of course,” I say.
She smiles at me. “Fantastic. I think with some shifting around there will be plenty of room for your pack. Would you mind if some of your pack members stay in your new house until we find spots for them? And of course, Harper and I will try to find a place elsewhere as well.”
“My new house… that mansion? I don’t need all that. Just throw my whole pack in there if there are enough rooms until we have things figured out. And you and Harper can have it after we get things rearranged and find a new place. I really don’t want or need a mansion.”
“Okay, we’ll figure something out,” she says as she hurries off.
“Guess I better go. Keep an eye on him, Cottonfluff,” Graham says.
Rowan’s tail starts flicking again, but we both know he won’t leave my side.
When the doctor’s done with me, I’m led outside where I’m startled to find a whole group of them eagerly waiting for me beside a car. Harper ushers me into the car that she drives to the mansion.
“They’re just excited and wanting to show you support,” she says. “They’re very thankful already about the changes being made.”
“I see,” I say, honestly a little overwhelmed by this whole thing. My life just turned way more chaotic when it was already chaotic enough. I’m not sure I ever planned to have a pack this large.
Once parked in front of the mansion—that I guess is now mine—Harper guides me inside and up the stairs to a large bedroom.
“Where’s Apollo? Is he still staying here?” I ask, not really wanting to fight over that.
“No,” Harper says. “He left about half an hour ago. Sped off in a fit of rage… doesn’t mean that’ll be the last of him, though.”
I nod, knowing that we’ll likely see him again and it probably won’t be the last fight. “Okay, thank you. How many rooms are in this place?”
“Fifteen,” she says.
Fifteen bedrooms with grand beds and we’ve been forced to sleep on cots?
“Get some rest and heal up. Katalina, Graham, and I will take care of everything else,” she assures me. “If you need anything, let me know.”
She hurries off and shuts the door, leaving me alone with Rowan who is still in his snow leopard form. I head straight over to the bed and crawl into it as Rowan slinks onto it.
“You’re awful quiet,” I say as I roll into him and wrap my arms around his midsection before burying my face in his thick fur. I could just disappear here for at least a day or two.
He doesn’t respond so I squeeze him harder.
“Are you mad at me?” I ask, really hoping he isn’t.
“No, I could never be mad at you.”
Now that sounds a little far-fetched. “Never?”
“Nope.”
“Not even if I bought you a gallon bag of catnip?” I ask.
“Nope.”
“And made you play cat games?”
“Nope.”
“What if I rolled around in the catnip?”
“Are you naked in this scenario?”
I grin at him as my finger runs over his cheek. “I definitely could be.”
He rubs his face against my hand. “I thought I could handle the fight, but I was wrong. I couldn’t, and if Graham hadn’t held me back, I’d have run right into it and messed everything up for you. I could have distracted you and gotten you hurt, but… I couldn’t stand him going after you… hurting you. I was so terrified.”
I kiss his nose. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I’m sorry I put you in that position.”
He tilts his head and leans into me. “You did it for everyone and I need to stop being so selfish.”
“Caring about the life of the person you love isn’t selfish, so don’t ever think that. Now what’s selfish is the purrmaster holding out on the purrs,” I say as I scratch under his chin.
His whiskers twitch. “No. I am manly. I am your watch… leopard.”
“Aaaaand you’re purring,” I say when I hear the soft rumbling as he leans into me.
He pushes my hand away and pins me down and starts licking my face.
“Stop!” I cry.
“Then stop making me do dumb things. You’re so dirty… I… must… clean… you,” he says like he’s fighting it.
I’m almost positive he’s deskinning me, but I suppose if that’s what will bring him joy, I’ll have to let it happen. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it.
“A moment alone with you was worth all of that,” I decide as I try my best to avoid the skin-peeling licks.
“Good, now stop squirming.”
“Then stop licking me!” I say as I finally pin him down and kiss his hairy face.
He flips and flops a bit before just giving in and sinking down into my arms, head on my chest as his gaze latches on to mine.
“You mean the world to me and don’t ever ever do something dangerous again. You’re never leaving this room,” he decides.
“What if there’s a tornado?” I ask and he growls at the mere idea.
“I’ll find a bunker for you.”
“What if there’s an earthquake?”
He grumbles again and sets his paw against my mouth. “Shhh…”
I pull his paw off. “What if I have a disease now from you walking around outside on the dirty ground then coating my mouth in your dirty paw?”
He’s so annoyed he licks my face, including my eyelid, which feels like it gets torn off. But he’s happy and he’s purring again, so I let him at it. And this moment with him, finally freely pressed up against him, makes me feel like everything’s going to be alright.