Page 76 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

“Damn right, I do.”

Then we were kissing again. Cheers erupted from all around us as our friends and allies shifted into their human forms.

It was time to go home. We were going to throw one hell of a party.

And this time, there would be no witch to interrupt it.

21

LEO

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Ricky asked, grinning like a loon as he finished setting up the bonfire.

I would have been fine doing it myself, but my second-in-command had insisted on taking care of the setup so I could concentrate on what was important.

And what was important was officially having Vanessa join our pack.

In all the rush to defeat the brothers and our surprise run-in with their mother, I had assumed Ven was a part of our pack as a matter of course. That night, after we’d defeated Katarina, as we held each other and marveled at the fact that we were all alive, Ven had asked if she could swear fealty like Jason and Miranda had. My inner wolf had rumbled with satisfaction, and my heart had swelled with joy.

Of course, Vanessa was pack, shifter or no shifter. She was mymate,after all, but the fact that she had seen Jason and Miranda become pack and wanted to go through the same process meant the world to me. It meant the world to the rest of my pack as well. Andromeda and several others had built a newcat tunnel with a full on catio so the three felines could join in the celebration. Could that effort have gone into rebuilding the house? Potentially, but it was habitable after nearly every shifter in the tri-state area had come to help out. Apparently, when you wiped out a malevolent bloodline that was responsible for the death, imprisonment, and cursing of untold shifters and magical folks, word got around.

It felt strange to have so many strangers we didn’t know roll up and ask if we were the ones who had killed the Morgana line and whether they could help out. Strange but amazing. As hard as it was to keep on top of everything, I made sure either me or Ricky got their contact information. Maybe I was being overly ambitious in the wake of our success, but I wanted all shifters and magical folk in general to be less separated. Not only because so much loss of life in stupid territory and ego battles was a waste, but also because I never wanted another evil force to take advantage of us again.

Granted, I didn’t have any idea what my long-term steps were to accomplish that goal, but being able to get in contact with different people would make a huge difference. After all, it had only taken Ven teaming up with America to start a connection that had saved my hide multiple times over.

“Are you ready?”

I looked up from the paper, where I’d jotted down a little speech. Over the past week, it had become well-worn from my reading it so much. Although the words of the pack ritual were pretty set in stone, there was more I wanted to say. This wasn’t awedding,per se, but it was a union in more ways than one, and I wanted to honor that. Even if I had no idea what I was doing.

“Hey, Chiga,” I said.

The man was dressed in a crisp blue suit with silver accents. It was a bit more dressed up than many of us were, but it suitedthe giant mercenary. I smirked at the color, and he gave me a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, the honey picked it out for me. He didn’t consider the faux paus of silver to a wolf shifter gathering.”

“Eh, that’s all right. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” I stood, tucking my speech away and clapping the large man on his shoulder. “When am I going to get to meet this special love of yours anyway?”

“Actually, he’s here now if you’d like to meet him.”

“Hell yeah, I’d like to meet him.”

I knew it was my own bias, but it was so hard to imagine the giant, muscled moose shifter as a doting boyfriend. But I’d seen a softer side of him when he and Ven had their heads together in the downtime.

“Ah, there he is,” Chiga said, pointing at a small group of people before striding across the clearing. “Benny! Benny, I’ve got someone here to meet you.”

I wasn’t sure what I expected, maybe another equally tall shifter to turn, or perhaps a petite, more-femme man, but instead it was a portly fellow of average height, and even whiter than I was. His cherubic face was basically alabaster, with a smattering of freckles to match his ginger hair. His eyes were a vivid blue, and I didn’t miss the way they crinkled at the corners the moment he saw Chiga.

“Oh? Who is this, honey?” Even his accent was Midwestern, with a longer drawl that indicated he was more south than west.

“Leo. I told you about him.” Chiga radiated a prideful energy. It was very sweet, and I hoped people could tell I felt the same way whenever I was around Ven.

“TheLeo?” Benny offered his hand, and when I took it, I wasn’t surprised that his grip was firm but not crushing. “I have indeed heard so much about you. I had to admit, I was dubious when my darling told me he needed to go off and fight in whatsounded like yet another war, but thanks to you, we’ve already been able to relocate three lost children from our area back to their tribes already. You have no idea how much this means to us.”

For some reason, the passion in the man’s voice surprised me, and I almost felt a little bashful. Everything we had done would have great significance in the shifter and magical community and was likely to spread out for quite a while, but it had only been a week since our victory with Katarina, so some of the practicalities of that were still seeping in.

“I’m happy your communities were able to recover their little ones. There’s a lot of healing in store for all of us.”

“You’ve got that right.” There was a spark in the man’s eyes as he drew closer and, goodness, the fondness on Chiga’s face seemed almosttoopersonal. Like I was intruding. “Actually, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about. You see, I’m a certified child psychologist with a specialty in trauma, and I’ve been working with a couple of therapists who are either magic folk or familiar with our world. We want to help these victims recover from this trauma, and I’d love to interview your pack sometime. Once things are more settled, I’d love to get some of you, or hell, even all of you, into our program.”

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