Page 43 of Dante
“We’ll organize something when Cecil and Banner can hang out together,” Atticus said.
Warwick nodded. That sounded fine to me, but I wasn’t going to say it was all right with my mate until after I cleared it with him.
“That should be fine. I’m not going to say yes or no either way though. Not until I discuss it with Banner first, but I know he was excited to get to spend some time with Cecil and your twins.”
Warwick grinned.
“Wait,” Titus said. “Isn’t your mate a bear too?” he asked, pointing toward Warwick.
“Yes,” Warwick said, an edge of hesitation in his voice.
“Your mate is small. His is big.”
“What of it?” I asked.
“They’re both bears.”
Damien sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. He leaned forward a bit, and he and Azar seemed to come to some agreement before they both whacked Titus on the back of the head.
“Ouch. Dammit, that hurts, you two.”
“Stop being an idiot,” Damien said.
I could only shake my head and try to eat the rest of my breakfast.
“What about it?” Warwick asked.
Titus glanced at Damien and then at Azar before he glared down my way. I didn’t know what I did to deserve such a look, but I wasn’t going to let it bother me even a little. “Well, your mate is a bear, and so is his. Yours is tall though, so to me, it made sense that he was an alpha. That’s all I was trying to say.”
Atticus sighed. “There are short alphas,” Atticus said.
“And tall omegas,” Augustus added. “And they are two different species of bears, from two very different family lines.”
“Look, I have no experience around the different types of bear shifters, all right. I made a mistake in assuming that Dante’s mate, which is entirely new to me anyway, was an alpha. Nobody bothered to share that Banner is an omega. You have to remember, I’ve been here all of a few months, and in that time, I’ve been treated as if I was the number one suspect here.” Titus stood and left without another word.
We all looked down at Azar. “He’s not wrong. We’ve not been trusted, and still, to this day, we are constantly watched. It’s not really a welcoming pack.” Azar got up and left. I looked to the others because I’d missed everything.
“What’s been going on?” I asked. “It doesn’t sound as if things have been fun and exciting.”
Atticus shook his head. “That’s my fault. I’m the pack alpha, and yeah, I should have not only been more welcoming but fought for them to be treated better from the beginning.” Atticus stood. “Find me before you leave for the day if you can,” he said before he took off after the others.
I remembered Damien had recognized them in the Nexus. He’d also been the second hellhound to be discovered by the council, so I looked to see if he had any more information. “I missed a lot, it seems.”
“We probably should have introduced them around more,” Damien said. “They’ve kept to themselves, pretty much, but I understand why they’re feeling like they do. There’s been a lot going on, just general busyness, but for whatever reason, it took a while for them to get their powers returned. I’ve hung out with them some, but I do have a mate as well.”
“Nobody is upset that you didn’t spend every spare moment with them,” Warwick said. “I’ve not exactly spent a whole lot of time after hours with them either.”
I finished my breakfast and pushed the tray forward a bit. It finally clicked what they were talking about though. “Wait a minute. They have their magic back?”
Damien nodded. “Been a couple of weeks now, yeah. Why do you ask?”
I looked at the others. “How did that happen? Did they just suddenly feel them return? Was the goddess here and they were able to ask her questions?”
Warwick winced. “I understand your reason for asking that, but as far as I know, the goddess hasn’t responded to the list of questions. Their magic just returned to them, from what they’ve said.”
I felt my hopefulness leave.
“What’s wrong?” Augustus asked.
