Page 50 of Feral Werewolves

I let Paladin take me out of the kitchen and back to his room, where he went down on me until I came and then we had sex, chests pressed together, both gasping, looking directly into each other’s eyes. He told me he loved me, and I said it back. Afterwards, we dozed in the afternoon light in each other’s arms.

I awoke later to the sound of the kitchen door slamming closed.

“What the fuck, Kestrel?” came Lazarus’s booming voice.

Lazarus moved through the house loudly.

I sat up and started getting dressed.

Paladin shook his head at me. “If he’s like that, it’s better to stay out of it.”

I didn’t feel like that was right, though. I shrugged and continued to get dressed.

Lazarus pounded on Kestrel’s bedroom door. “Open the fuck up.”

By the time Kestrel was opening the door, I was out there in the hallway, dressed in baggy sweats that belonged to Paladin, surveying the two men. Paladin was inside his doorway, peering out. He looked nervous.

“Oh, this is predictable,” said Kestrel. “You’reannoyed becauseIfixed the tractor, that it?”

“No,” said Lazarus in a very defensive voice which let me know that was, um, exactly why he was annoyed and now he felt stupid about it.

“It was the fuel filter,” Kestrel said.

“Oh, shit, it was clogged,” said Lazarus, rubbing his forehead. “Of course. I thought about that, but then I got distracted with trying to troubleshoot some other shit, and I never went back to it.”

“Look, your shit, I’ve had it with it,” said Kestrel. “You have this thing where you can’t let anyone help you, where you gotta figure it out and be the big man, and usually I let you, but this is ridiculous. If we aren’t working together out here, what’s the point of even being a pack? If you want to be on your own so much, Lazarus, just fucking go.”

Lazarus straightened up, shocked. “You kicking me out?”

“No, I’m saying, you know, stop getting all uptight when someone tries to help you, that’s all.”

Lazarus folded his arms over his chest, surveying Kestrel. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well, today, did you even come to talk to me, or did youjust decide to go out there and do my chores for the day without one iota of communication?”

“I mean, it needed done.”

“It needed done, and now you will resent me forever and you’ll keep it in a special little place to pull out every time we have an argument, to prove whatever point you want to prove about me. You’ll be all, ‘I did you a favor when I did your chores,’ and I will pay through the nose for that favor, for the rest of all time. Domea favor and don’t do me anymore favors, Kestrel. I don’t like being in your debt.”

Kestrel threw up his hands. “Are you serious?”

“You have a lot of nerve anyway,” said Lazarus. “First, you bring up the worst night of my entire life, and you know how I feel about that shit, and then you act like I should be fine to go out and troubleshoot a goddamned plow while I’m stuck back in that emotional hellscape that is the night of the Change. You fuckwad, man.”

Kestrel flinched, bowing his head. “Okay, okay, point taken, Lazarus. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Lazarus’s shoulders sagged. “You really shouldn’t have.”

“I guess I was angry, too,” said Kestrel. “I wanted to show you up. You’ve been messing with that damned tractor for days now, and if you would have just let me help you—”

“And if you would have just given me time to get to it, maybe I would have figured it out on my own today.”

“Maybe,” said Kestrel. “Or maybe not. Anyway, all of this is a distraction from the actual problem, which is her.” He pointed at me.

I lifted my chin. “Hey. The actual problem, reporting for duty.”

Paladin snickered from behind the doorway.