Page 18 of Fastlander Fealty

“You are trying to frazzle me.”

“Frazzle? Nice vocab word, are you a nerd?”

“A nerd?”

“You got straight A’s in school, didn’t you?”

“Oh, definitely not,” she assured him with a laugh. “I was homeschooled with my brother, Jaren, and I had focus problems.”

“Like what kind of focus problems?” he asked curiously.

“Like I wanted to fight Jaren all the time. He was freaking annoying.”

Owen snorted and kicked his legs, turned them in a slow circle, dragging the other attached floats with them. “I used to want to fight my brothers too. All fourteen of them.”

She giggled trying to imagine how wild his upbringing must’ve been. “Did you live in a big house?”

“Hell no. My parents didn’t have two dimes to rub together. Numbers give power though, and they were all right with the support of their Sounder.”

“Sounder?”

“It’s like a Crew for my people. For my old people,” he corrected.

“You don’t consider your family your people anymore?”

He shrugged. “Those are complicated feelings. I don’t think I ever considered them my people. I was different.”

She leaned back and dragged her fingertips through the water again as he spun them slowly in the current. “Black sheep of the family?” she guessed.

“Something like that. They all wanted to fight for power in the Sounder, and worshipped the leaders there, and I looked up to someone different.”

“Damon Daye?”

“Nope. His right-hand man, Mason. The Boarlander Beast Boar. He was making a name for himself with the Blue Dragon back in the early days shifters went public.”

Well this was interesting. She sat up straighter. “How did you hear about him?”

“Do you remember the lumberjack wars when we were kids?”

She shook her head no.

“Well, the Crews of Damon’s Mountains would compete against each other in these lumberjack wars. There were a bunch of games in the competitions, and Mason was competing for the Boarlanders the year my Sounder made a big trip up to watch.”

“You all went?”

“Yeah, and it was a shit-show. Almost every adult male was drunk out of their minds and fighting everyone by noon on the first day of the games. Two of my uncles got arrested for stealing. My dad got in a fight with Matt Barns.”

“Wait, Matt Barns, the mate of Willa? Did your dad live?”

Owen huffed a chuckle. “Barely. Anyway, that was all a mess, but I remember I was bickering with my siblings and I went off on my own just to get away from the chaos, and I saw them—the Boarlanders. It was Kirk, and Clinton, and Harrison and their mates, and then there was Mason, hanging off to the side, and he just looked bigger than life. My animal recognized another boar, and when he looked over at me, I thought he would go after me. He’s the Beast Boar after all. But he didn’t. I’ll never forget it. He got this little smile and he nodded his head in a greeting. Took me an hour to build up the courage to ask for his autograph, and he felt heavy as hell. I knew he could take any one of the males in my Sounder, but he stayed away from it all. He just seemed to be good where he was, on the outskirts. He was throwing jabs with the other males of the Boarlanders, but I was listening. They were…friends. He signed this napkin for me, and then gave me a fist bump, and then I secretly cheered him on at the next three events he was entered in. He was so cool. Just chill. Big and dominant and could maim anyone he wanted to, but he didn’t need to showboat like other dominant boars usually do. He was just secure with his place in the world.” Owen’s eyes had taken a faraway look while he’d been talking about that memory. “Anyway, my siblings were squabbling over rank in the Sounder, while I was counting down the days until I could leave. No boars leave a Sounder. No boars even want to. Black sheep of the family is accurate.”

“Clearly Mason wanted to leave his Sounder,” she pointed out.

“I don’t really know his story. Couldn’t ever figure it out. Maybe his Sounder all died or something. War is pretty normal for us.”

“You haven’t talked to him since you came here?”

“Chhh, no. He’s quiet and sticks to the Blue Dragon, his family, and the Boarlanders. I rarely even see him.”

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