Page 10 of War Games

“I don’t care about what you said earlier. I care about what you’ve done to your feet!” I snarled, pointing at the bleeding feet. “You said it. It’s done. I know you’re being an overprotective bully about Dirk’s safety and were trying to one-up your father about why he can let me train but you can’t let Dirk. That’s not the point. Look at what you did to yourself!”

He sank lower, but I saw him look at his feet as I demanded.

“We’ll worry about the bullshit you pulled at the house in a minute.” I hefted the bag off my shoulder and dropped it by his thigh. “Clean them up. There’s saline and water. Drink the water. Use the saline to rinse off sweat and dirt.”

“I know how?—”

“I trust adults to take care of themselves?—”

“I am an adult,” he snarled as I hit a nerve. “I’m over a century older than you!”

“And yet, here we are,” I growled, making him rock back.

I said nothing more. I waited as he opened the bag and did as I asked. He drank some water first, which was room temperature, even a bit warm, but it was water. He cleaned off his feet with the saline, then used an almost excessive amount of anti-bacterial on the sores before beginning to wrap his feet.

“I’ll do that.” I moved in front of him again and patted my thigh until he put his foot there. I wrapped the right one first,then just grabbed the left. I was gentle with my touch, but I made sure the bandages were going to stay on until he decided to Change.

“Now… about what you said.” I sighed, holding his left foot, not letting him take it back. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter. It was a mean thing to say.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye, but that wasn’t the problem.

“It was the truth. You used it in a mean way,” I correctly softly. “And it’s already forgiven. We don’t need to talk about it beyond that.”

“Did you really come all the way out here to say that? To tell me all is well and forgiven?”

“Yeah, and stop you from continuing to run yourself into the ground. Niko stayed for lunch, and after he left, Heath started talking to Dirk. I decided to come out here looking for you. Told them I was going for a walk.”

“I still don’t want Dirk training with Niko. I don’t want him getting hurt.” Landon’s jaw locked, the muscles twitching from the frustration and stubbornness of the man who was in a very vulnerable position, me still holding his injured foot.

“You want to talk about that?”

“There’s nothing to talk about. He won’t be fighting; he doesn’t need to risk another werewolf or, worse, a werecat taking a chunk out of him,” Landon growled.

“He might be fighting?—”

“He won’t be fighting!” Landon snarled, leaning closer, trying to pull his foot from my hands at the same time. I squeezed, my grip firm and unbreakable. He growled louder.

The hardest part about knowing Landon for a long time was learning how to deal with him in certain situations. I hated how I held his foot. I knew it was the only thing that kept him from storming off. It was the curse and how it changed his temperament from what might be normal for a werewolf. Therewas something inherently aggressive about all the Moon Cursed. We werecursed, not blessed. Landon’s was magnified thanks to what happened to him when he was young, things I knew his father regretted every time Landon’s rougher edges were too raw to work around. Landon hated himself some days, and I had a feeling he was going to regret this one. Maybe not anytime soon, but one day.

The struggle lasted a solid minute, and I knew I was going to have to replace the bandage on his foot if he didn’t want to Change. It took werewolves more time, so they didn’t do it as frequently as werecats.

He didn’t try to kick me off or anything. He just yanked, and I refused to budge. His tired legs couldn’t put up the fight he wanted, and I was too stubborn to lose to a werewolf about this.

When he finally settled, growling as he glared at me, I sighed again.

“Let’s not play these games, Landon,” I said softly. “There’s no reason for them.”

“He won’t be fighting,” he repeated, ignoring what I had said entirely.

“You’ve seen him fight before?—”

“One time, a werewolf tried to tear him to pieces in my Pa’s house because they wanted to kill you and Pa. The other, his uncle nearly murdered four of us in some fucking fae magical woods bullshit!” Landon said harshly. “I won’t let Pa risk him. I won’t let it happen. He’s too important. He’s mine, damn it, and I won’t see him get hurt when it could be avoided. I’m done indulging bullshit. The witches will have to kill me first to get to him. I’ll keep him safe.”

“Landon—”

“My mind is made up on it, and I’m going to do everything in my fucking power to keep Dirk safe. He’s my mate. He’smyforever.”

I released his foot, and he jumped to his feet quickly.

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