Page 6 of War Games

Niko, his hearing just as keen as mine, chuckled at his son as he opened my office door and stepped out.

2

CHAPTER TWO

Iwatched the werewolves train until it was lunchtime, listening to Dirk and Niko discuss other things quietly in my living room. I didn’t follow with my full attention as they reviewed the security system Dirk was installing on the home Niko purchased. I liked his home but it was too close to my territory for him to make his own, much to my chagrin. Finally, Heath looked at my office, a sign that they were about to wrap up. He quickly dismissed the werewolves from the day’s training, and they scattered. As I watched him walk out of view, I heard cars and trucks turn on and begin leaving. In my head, through my magical connection with my territory, I felt all of them move away from my home except Heath and Landon.

I didn’t bother Heath immediately. I heard him say hello to Niko and Dirk, then head upstairs. Landon went into the downstairs bathroom after seeing Niko and Dirk and claimed that shower while Heath went to our bathroom.

With both showers running, I stepped out of my office and went into the living room.

“Niko, you need a territory. We’ve talked about this.”

“Well, with things going on, it’s good we’re so close to each other. If something happens, I’m here in twenty or thirty minutes instead of a few hours.” Niko was relaxing on my couch like he lived there.

I thought we came to an agreement about this. Damn it, the moment he found an excuse to stay right outside my territory, he took it.

I swallowed anything I could think of saying to him. I only stared at him, making my displeasure clear.

“Well…” Dirk started standing up, cleaning up some folders and documents he’d spread all over my coffee table. “I’ll let the two of you talk about this…”

“I know you heard us earlier, but you should probably stay to tell Landon and Heath that you want to train with Niko,” I said quickly, causing him to freeze for a moment. He gave up on organizing his stuff to leave and fell back onto my couch.

“It would be a lie to say Iwantto,” he said, sighing. “But it’s something I have to do. I need to be good at fighting as a werewolf. It’s really unlikely Heath would ask me to do any sort of fight in werewolf form because of my other responsibilities and expertise, but it would be stupid not to prepare as much as I can.”

“Perfect. You can say that to them,” I said with a smile. Sitting in the armchair, I turned my eyes back to my brother. “You want to be a rogue, don’t you?”

“I would prefer if you left me alone about it.” Niko relaxed further, spreading his legs out.

Wow. I really thought we had this settled…

“Fine,” I said, shaking my head in frustration. I kicked one of his feet. “This is still my house. Don’t take up all the space.”

He moved his foot out of my range.

Landon came out first, showering and dressing fast since he didn’t live with Heath and me. Landon bought a house sometime ago as Carey was getting older, and Dirk moved in with him when they got together. Dirk had been living with Oliver, who was now living alone, happily staying away from all the supernatural parts of the world he worked in. I had a monthly meeting with Oliver about Kick Shot, but I tried not to talk to him about the more dangerous things happening. The bar was monitored through the security system and the werewolves on guard duty also knew if a problem happened there, they could get involved to help.

“Unofficial meeting?” Landon asked, looking between us as he continued to rub his head with a towel.

“Somewhat,” I said as he went to Dirk, leaning over to kiss him.

“All right. Can I throw my stuff in your laundry and just stay through dinner?” Landon looked back at me to ask.

I heard the upstairs shower turn off as he asked.

“Wait for Heath’s before you run it. He’ll be down soon.” It was just their workout gear, so it would all fit together.

“And make sure you do a good smell test before it goes in the drier. Recently, Heath and I have found we have to run his twice.”

“Understood,” Landon said as he went into the laundry room.

“Yeah, we do the same at home,” Dirk said, groaning. “The heat and the sweat. Humans probably wouldn’t catch it, but it’s still there.”

“Yeah, the worst part about the sensitive nose. We do more laundry,” Niko said with a chuckle. “You and Jacky need to be grateful for the machines. I’m sure Heath and Landon remember the days when we had to do it all by hand.”

“Those were bad days,” Heath said as he came down the stairs. I smiled at him and like Landon and Dirk, my werewolf came to give me a kiss before he went to throw his workoutclothes into the washing machine. He came back out with Landon and looked over the room.

“There’s obviously something that needs a discussion, but first, I need to fix this.” He waved a hand at the room. “Dirk and Landon, loveseat.”

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