A Little Help From My Friends

a little help from my friends

“ O h, this tea is hot and spicy like a good masala chai and I love it!”

It’s hard not to chuckle as Jackson and the disembodied voice he introduced as his boyfriend, Eli, chatter about my current problem. “I don’t have much time. He’s not stupid; he’ll know I’m not taking this long to change, Jackson.”

“How ‘bout this, sweet cheeks? I’ll have Eli do some surreptitious digging—he’s got a lot to do for a bold, brassy supe woman at the moment—and we’ll confirm everything you and the hottie hockey boy toy discussed. If your nerds are telling the truth, then you can make better decisions.”

That eases my worry a little, and I stop chewing on my thumbnail. “Okay. Can he investigate potential threats against Lucas? I can’t find the first mate that called me in three hundred years and let some dipshit, half-assed assassin take him out on my watch.”

The higher pitch voice of his lover echoes as he calls, “Oh, oh! But if you need a better one, I know one. Expensive as hell and based in Europe at the moment, but I can help broker it.”

Alrighty then. Chaotic good Jackson’s boyfriend is neutral evil—good to know.

“Thanks… I think,” I say to Eli as I shake my head. “I don’t need to hire a killer. If you guys can continue working on that for Lucas and add my minor dilemma to the plate, it’d be amazing.”

“Aces, Morgana. We’re on it.” Jackson pauses and I almost hear the hesitation in his voice. “You’ve been around a long time, right? It seems odd you’d never felt the whole ‘mating’ thing in all your exploits. You aren’t feeling that pull to anyone else, right? I’m testing a theory.”

I blink. How did he know? “No, I hadn’t felt it, even with Magnus. I’d given up, truthfully. Dad always said it arrived young. Three hundred isn’t old for us, but it felt like time to be realistic.”

“She didn’t say yes or no,” Eli sings in the background. “You got another one of those , Jax.”

“Another what?” I demand. I don’t even know this kid; what the hell is he talking about?

Jackson chuckles. “He means I’m working for another shifter gal who’s still picking her team. The other woman I mentioned is doing the same, though she’s working on a starting line for football, it feels like. I don’t know about you yet because you’re only giving up the chilly bear.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t even looking for one, and I’m not trying to build a clash, Jackson. Keep your starry-eyed romantic on a leash.”

Of course, there’s no need to say anything about Slade or Iggy; I have done nothing with them and I’m not going to.

“Gotcha, Boss Lady,” Eli calls over the line. “One delusional gargoyle task list in progress.”

Jackson sighs heavily and I realize he’s so fond of this playful hacker that he’s not even worried about him pissing off his clients. That also tells me just how good they are—people put up with their eccentricity because the results are worth the annoyance. I’d probably enjoy meeting this other chick they keep referring to; I bet we’d get along.

“I’ll call you if we have anything to add.”

“No, no,” Jackson interrupts. “Eli will send you links to an encrypted website where you can pass information unless it’s benign. He monitors our phones for all the bad stuff, but until I can shake loose and have him go through your office and home, we shouldn’t discuss this over the air anymore.”

Merciful Aine. He really believes one of us is being hunted by a paid killer, not a random psycho.

“Okay. Do we need to take precautions tonight when I have visitors?” I ask, suddenly concerned.

“Yes. Go outside, put music on in the background, and have your magic user cast a silence circle. Don’t take any chances, Morgana. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

My chest tightens and I feel both of my inner beasts stirring, angry and protective over the people they consider mine—even Channing. “Understood. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

I think we’re covered there, buddy.

Once I hang up, I pad downstairs to find Lucas still sprawled out on the couch but looking a lot less like he’s going to burst. He gives me a brilliant smile and my heart thumps in my chest like it’s going to escape if I’m not careful. I walk over and sit on the edge of the couch, brushing a lock of blond hair off his forehead.

“Do you think I’ll need to intervene with the Coach? I don’t know if everything will be fixed tonight, and I bet you have practice tomorrow.”

His eyes soften, and he shakes his head. “We do, but I can text him. I haven’t had an attendance problem and with the need to talk to the team without me, he might welcome one skipped practice.”

Nodding, I think about that. If what he told me about having issues with the other players at the morning practice is true, then the coach definitely needs to have a conversation with the team. Lucas shouldn’t be there, either, because he needs to get those guys to understand that they should support their team member until there is a reason not to. I’ll shoot him an email if Lucas ends up not being able to go. A word from me reminding him of how generous a donor the Wolfenberg matriarch is might grease the wheels, too.

Not that I’m going to tell Lucas that, of course.

His eyes flutter and I can tell he’s tired. We should definitely get some rest before the crowd arrives. Whatever this is, it’s draining the hell out of the big guy and he refuses to admit it. “Hey. How about we leave some of this until later? We’ll watch a movie and if we take a nap, well, then it happens.”

“I highly doubt a woman like you naps, especially during the day,” he grumbles.

I shrug and give him a bright smile. “There’s a first time for everything, Lucas, and you seem eager to claim some of them.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Lucas was mistaken… I definitely fell asleep.

I look around, squinting at the waning light in the living room as I take in my surroundings. My phone is on the table in front of the couch, buzzing with some notification. I pause, waiting to see if it’s followed up by a phone call and when it’s not, I close my eyes and soak in the warmth. Lucas, warmer than expected, wraps around me from behind. I’m worried about him—hell, even my beasts are worried. They’re seldom of the same mind as me, but I haven’t lived this long without learning control.

However, Des has popped out from under my curls to put her head near his ear, and that’s never happened before.

If I hadn’t accepted Zuzanne’s theory before, waking up with my most cantankerous snake snuggling this man tells me everything I need to know. She hated Magnus, and her feelings about past lovers ranged from dislike to indifference. There’s no going back from the swirling magic of mating, it seems, even if you didn’t intentionally allow it to happen. At least Lucas is sweet, smart, and has a biteable booty—it could be so much worse, I suppose.

“I can feel you overthinking from here,” the polar grumbles under his breath. His arms tighten on me and he shifts his hips, rubbing against me in a way that gives me very inappropriate thoughts as someone taking care of a poisoned person.

Turning my head a little, I look across the arm I’m pillowed on. “Stop that. You are definitely not well enough for anything that vigorous, buddy.”

His lips form an adorable pout, and I laugh. That only gets him to bat his lashes like an ingenue as he sticks his lip out. “But I’m being a good boy. I took a nap and everything.”

Oh, that revved my engine. I enjoy a very good boy and it’s been a long ass time since I’ve been able to play with one.

I give him a stern look, leaning back a little to help neutralize the lip I want to bite. “Seems more like you’re being a brat to me. You know you’re too weak to play this game.”

Lucas huffs, still looking put out. “ Fine . But I’m owed spankings if I wait this bullshit out. I get the feeling you really enjoy the thought of being in charge.”

“How do you know that?” I frown as I finally give in, dragging my teeth over the delectable lower lip, then tugging on it before I let go.

His eyes dance, and he lifts his free hand, tapping his nose with a smirk. “You smell delicious. It’s impossible to ignore.”

My face reddens despite my lack of shame. I have no problem admitting I’m a very sexual being and taking what I need is normal for me. But something about him lying here, being so damned cute and soft, is making my body act like an idiot. I haven’t felt this ridiculously girly since I was a teenager—and people rode in carriages back then, for fuck’s sake.

“I suppose that can be part of your punishment for being saucy, then. Ignatius isn’t a shifter and I don’t know about Slade, but I don’t get shifter from him. Only you’ll know and you can suffer because you can’t do anything about it.” My lips curve up in an evil grin as I look at the pale bear. “That will teach you a lesson, I think.”

“Mmmmm,” he replies, leaning in to nuzzle the shell of my ear. “I suppose it will.”

That was too easy.

I give him a suspicious look, but he just smiles innocently. Finally, I tilt my cheek into his face, enjoying the casual intimacy. “Why do you look so happy to get a punishment? Am I wrong about Slade?”

“Nope. He’s a siren or something, I think. I heard someone talking about the grad student who lives with a professor and plays so beautifully it will make you bawl.”

I’m not focused on departments other than sports right now, so I hadn’t heard that.

“I’d like to hear it. I’ve always enjoyed music and London was full of amazing experiences in that arena, both human and supernatural. There was always somewhere to find musicians and singers making melodies that even calmed the beasts inside me.” I frown, turning my head away for a moment as I mutter. “I had to go alone, though. I’ve never been able to share that love with anyone.”

He raises his hand and pulls my face towards him. “I’ll go with you. Musicals, symphonies, ballet, jazz bands… anything you want. I grew up attending everything from state dinners to private celebrity concerts. The arts may not be my gift, but I love them. Though, you’ll have to help me with visual art—unless it’s well known, recognizable shit, I don’t always catch the meaning.”

My heart damn near stops as I gaze into his eyes, gauging the sincerity of his words. He’s not lying; he really will go to any damn artsy fartsy thing I want without a word of complaint. Holy shit. Ducking my head, I whisper, “Thank you. Maybe you can… show me why you love hockey? I’m not very sporty, but I can learn. And I’d want to see you play, of course.”

Lucas beams. “Sure. I’ll teach you if you’d like. Hell, you might even enjoy some of it. It gets rough and you’re a scrapper, I can tell.”

“I killed a dragon, Lucas. I can hold my own if need be.”

Shit. Why did you bring that up, Morgana?

The silence hangs in the air for a moment, then he shrugs. “You must have had a good reason, and I hope someday you’ll tell me. I sense it’s more than what has made it out of the trial transcripts and maybe even more than you told them. I don’t think you’d kill without a reason; it doesn’t feel like you.”

“You just met me,” I point out, not meeting his eyes.

He snorts. “Yeah. But I watched you take in that body at the rink. You weren’t studying it like it was a thing ; your face was sad because it was a person. Stone cold killers can’t mimic empathy, Morgana.”

Frowning, I shrug. “Everyone has a dark side, Lucas. We’re all capable of very bad things when pushed and sometimes, it’s easier to hide what you’re feeling than allow others to use your emotions against you.”

I can’t go any farther until I’m ready to talk about Magnus and the past. He might not feel as kindly towards me when he hears the actual story.

But that’s for another time.