Page 14 of War Games

“I know.” I chuckled. While I had never taken her to the gun range, I knew she had some experience. This was Carey Everson,the human daughter of a werewolf Alpha. “Started with BB guns, yeah?”

“Yup. Landon taught her to shoot one when she was eight,” Heath explained.

“Yeah, well, I need a lot more practice. It’s been a while. I know it’s because I can’t legally carry, but Dirk is really good, and I asked him to take me, so if something happens at home, I should be able to defend myself.”

For a minute, I was slammed by the maturity and realism of her words. She was sixteen. Only sixteen. It always took me off guard that she was a step ahead of what I was thinking about where she should be. Then the guilt would hit, knowing it was because of what we were that she was so mature.

“What time were you going to go?” Heath asked, glancing at me, a different question in his eyes than the one he had for his daughter.

I leaned back and made it clear I was focused on something else as I considered where Landon and Dirk were, something I could have done earlier. Dirk was on his way already, while Landon was still at home.

“We were planning on spending the whole morning there. He was going to give me experience with all the firearms you have in the safe. Well, one of each.”

“So you can get a good feel for all of them. Smart young man,” Heath seemed proud. “I wish he mentioned it yesterday when he was over.”

“Oh, well, we talked about it last night,” Carey admitted. “Since he doesn’t start training with Niko until tomorrow, he asked if there was anything I wanted to do today without classes. You’re both busy; so is Landon. He didn’t want me to be too bored. This is what we ended on.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. Dirk was notoriously uncomfortable with Carey, the younger sister of his partner.When she was younger, it was due to that. He didn’t have experience with children or young teens. He was always getting better, but offering to spend the day with her was a bold step.

“Well… he’s on his way,” I finally said as Carey looked between Heath and me.

“Good! I’ll get ready then. Dirk knows the people who own the gun range and said we could get in before anyone else, so if we felt uncomfortable with people around, we wouldn’t have wasted the entire trip.” She popped out of her seat like a firecracker and went to her room, leaving me with a better-masked but equally stunned Heath.

“That’s certainly a way to start the day. Dirk and Carey are going to hang out… with guns.” I clicked my tongue, thinking about it. With a clear vision of the event, I remembered how Carey punched an older girl and broke her nose once, and I had to get her from the high school that day. “I love her more than life, but you’re certain she won’t shoot someone if she gets temperamental, right? Like people know who she is. If anyone makes any sort of offensive comment, she…”

“I’m… nearly positive she won’t shoot anyone,” Heath said, not nearly as confident as I hoped. “I’ll trust that Dirk will be able to stop her. He’s a werewolf, and he knows her. She also knows all the gun safety rules. She’s not a true beginner, so she won’t be able to use that excuse to try shooting anyone and getting away with it.”

“It’s not that she’s violent, but…” I didn’t feel guilty for bringing it up. Carey could really snap sometimes when someone crossed a line with her.

“She’s protective,” Heath finished for me. He shook off his complicated emotions visibly, like shaking water out of his coat, before focusing his stormy blue eyes on me. “Dirk is on his way… but you didn’t mention Landon.”

“He’s still at his home,” I answered simply. “Dirk is nearly here, so perhaps we shelve the next part of this talk until he and Carey have gone.”

“Interesting that they didn’t leave at the same time,” Heath murmured, frowning. He was lost in his thoughts for a moment before nodding. “We’ll shelve it for the moment.”

We ate breakfast, giving our best smiles to Dirk as he walked in looking too tired for his own good. It wasn’t unsafely tired, but the darkness under his eyes with a distinct lack of morning pleasantness was a sign of something troubling I knew shouldn’t be my problem but would be. However, when Carey walked out of her room, ready to go, I was impressed by the effort Dirk put into presenting himself, hiding the darkness of his mood and smiling brightly at her.

“Ready to go already? You’re quick.”

“I grew up with brothers! And Jacky. She doesn’t need an hour to get ready for the day.”

I blinked a couple of times, knowing it didn’t take me much time because I didn’t wear much makeup, if any, nor did I try to dress myself in any way to impress. I was a notable mess, if I listened to either of my sisters. Carey looked neatly put together, though, like she was taking lessons from Zuri or Mischa. She always did. She was Heath’s daughter. He was all about presentation in that aspect. He was the best dressed on any given day, and while it could seem effortless, it wasn’t. Carey was raised to clean up every day she would leave the house because anything else would draw unwanted attention to their family. Her speed to do so wasn’t because of me or her brothers. It was practice.

“Let’s go then! Heath, I’ll check everything out of the gun safe properly, and don’t worry, she’s in good hands.” Dirk held the door for her, his smile not fading as he matched stares with Heath.

“I know she is,” Heath said with a warm smile.

Once the door closed and the truck was gone twenty minutes later, I watched the warm smile fall off Heath’s face. How he managed to hold it that long was beyond me, a truly impressive feat.

“Has Landon left his home yet?” Heath asked, a subtle growl in his words.

“No. Don’t do anything. Let him stew if he has to stew,” I said carefully, not wanting to see a rift begin to form between them. “He’ll come around, right?”

“Did you see that boy? It seems like he was up most of the night, and it wasn’t for a fun reason.” Heath’s growl at the end exposed the depth of his anger at Landon. I leaned back, studying Heath, recognizing that my fiancé’s reaction to this was harsher than I would have expected, which meant I needed to figure that out first.

“We don’t know what happened,” I said carefully, judging Heath’s every twitch. “He could have been up all night working on an idea. He could have had too much to think about.”

“Or he and Landon argued all night,” Heath grumbled, his stormy eyes narrowing as he kept looking away from me. Heath was staring at my front door like he was trying to manifest his son there.

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